beginner to music

>>74034185
make parodies of songs you already like

>>74034185
Hi mate! Congrats on getting started on your music production journey. Here are a few thoughts I have regarding your situation and music production in general:

1. Ditch FL studio. Far as I know, it's really underpowered compared to most other DAWs. I use Studio One personally, but definitely experiment with other software before settling into FL Studio too much - you may be very pleasantly surprised. I'd definitely recommend Studio One; I've tried all the major DAWs and it seems to have the most fluid workflow by far. I guess it comes down to taste to a degree.

2. What I've found to be the biggest challenge BY FAR when producing (or music in general) is thinking in the larger musical forms that you are working with; 'zooming out', so to speak. Anyone (well, not exactly) can come up with a 4 bar loop of music which is decent, but a real composer understands that every single part of the music is contextually dependent on every OTHER part. It's a delightful balancing act, and understanding this is crucial to writing mature music. If you want to improve in this regard, there's a few things you can do.

First of all, KNOW YOUR THEORY. If you want to paint an incredible painting, you obviously need the paints. You don't need to go all the way through Laitz's Complete Musician do be a proficient producer, but I'd say it's crucial to have at least an intermediate understanding of chord progressions (harmonic movement) and rhythm. The painting allegory continues to be handy here when we move onto APPLYING this knowledge - it's all about practice. The more familiar you become with your scales and keys the more natural it'll be to move between them and relate them to each other. Never stop experimenting - it can get dry if you get caught up on all the technical theory bullshit. Just know your shit, and you'll have much more fun playing around.

Secondly, give yourself opportunities to refine your sense of 'form.' For example, say you've produced a

>>74034328
(cont)
4 bar thing which you think is decent, and you call it a night (or day, or whatever.) Next time you sit down to produce, DON'T start a new file. Instead, try to write something which LEADS INTO the 4 bar section you've already written. I think you'll get the gist of why this exercise is beneficial, so you can mix it up however you want to. Make it interesting, and most importantly make it FUN! That's why you're doing this - for fun, and fulfillment. This ability to link things together and conceptualize music from a more macroscopic perspective is a skill unto itself, quite separate from the 'zoomed in' process of writing. However, the former will improve very quickly if you focus on it. It's very empowering from a creative perspective to be able to preconceive where you want the music to go.

3. Fucking great that you're a piano player! We pianists are very lucky as we have a tactile AND visual basis for our theory knowledge, and an easy way to experiment and play around with what we've learned. I'd definitely check out Mark Levine's Jazz Theory and Jazz Piano books. Not only do these books grant much theoretical insight, they'll also make you feel much more familiar with your instrument. WORTHWHILE, I GUARANTEE IT.

4. Learn a synth(s)! When I say learn, I mean LEARN THAT SHIT GOOD. Fuck manuals, just play around enough and you'll get a feel for what works and what does what. I'd recommend Serum with 2 thumbs up - it's extremely powerful and versatile. I'd be more than happy to produce a whole track just using serum for the tonal parts (excluding percussion and SFX.) Nothing is more empowering than being able to hear a sound in your head and whip it up in a few minutes with your synth of choice. Serum and Massive are considered some of the strongest on the market, but again I recommend Serum.

Hopefully what I've written is somewhat useful to you! + If you've got any questions, shoot! I'll be around for another hour or something. Cheers.

>>74034407
thanks so much for the huge write up! I'll be gone for like the next 19 hours after this post so I'm not sure if this thread will still be up by then but if you've got an email or discord or IRC I'd be extremely happy to talk about it more.

>>74034551
sure!
Discord is jackbell#3815

>>74034617

request sent, i'm going to go offline now but ill be sure to msg you if i have any questions!

>>74034185

Songs usually begin with a chord progression, a melody or lyrics.

Get a rough tempo, get a key, go from there.