What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about making music when you started?

[patternoverlap]

don't buy loads of gear and not use it. get something and get good on it!

 

This ^ and I'll add: pay more attention to the overall sound rather than individual sounds.

[mcbpete]

don't buy loads of gear and not use it. get something and get good on it!

Abso-bloody-lutely: did that last year, spent a fortune, made fuck-all music, and was more confused at the end of the year than I was at the start ! This year is a learning year ...

[sergeantk]

don't keep making the same song over and over again

[kcinsu]

Always enjoyed this quote.

 

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, its just not that good. Its trying to be good, it has potential, but its not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesnt have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone Ive ever met. Its gonna take awhile. Its normal to take awhile. Youve just gotta fight your way through." - Ira Glass

[LimpyLoo]

 

don't buy loads of gear and not use it. get something and get good on it!

Abso-bloody-lutely: did that last year, spent a fortune, made fuck-all music, and was more confused at the end of the year than I was at the start ! This year is a learning year ...

 

 

AKA 'gearslutz syndrome'

[Guest skibby]

masturbation is better than sex

[logakght]

Share your tracks everywhere with anyone. Even the one that you think sucks... People tend to be amazed about everything they ignore.

[awepittance]

masturbation is better than sex

a fleshlight is a lot less expensive in the long term than buying drinks for fans you are sexually attracted to after a laptop set in a bar

[chassis]

Always enjoyed this quote.

 

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, its just not that good. Its trying to be good, it has potential, but its not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesnt have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone Ive ever met. Its gonna take awhile. Its normal to take awhile. Youve just gotta fight your way through." - Ira Glass

 

Why read it when you look at a picture, still go though

[Adieu]

pitching drums to get the rolls to sound decent. (still don't know how to do this well)

[Audioblysk]

Learn music better

[Guest]

 

best is the enemy of good

Voltaire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good).

 

 

 

The Pareto principle or 80–20 rule explains this numerically. For example, it commonly takes 20% of the full time to complete 80% of a task while to complete the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the effort.

[foresense]

do the work, that's when the good stuff comes.. little drops of inspiration are just the icing.

[foresense]

^ lol I still don't really do that, but it sounds rugged

 

think it has something to do with the schizm of having a dayjob creates

[LimpyLoo]

Oh, and also: learn all the academic bullshit (e.g. functional harmony, voice-leading, reharmonization techniques, etc).

 

The only time this really goes awry is when the person learning the stuff doesn't have focus (a "vision") to start with, and so their music just sounds like clever exercises.

 

I think Hello Everything is a good proof of concept for how this classical learnedness can be used for good not evil.

 

And I know alot of musicians are skeptical about traditional music theory (and for good reason, hearing some of its practitioners) but again if someone knows what they want to do musically then it can only serve to help them.

[Audioblysk]

And I know alot of musicians are skeptical about traditional music theory (and for good reason, hearing some of its practitioners) but again if someone knows what they want to do musically then it can only serve to help them.

 

I have always kicked myself in the ass for not learning more music theory. I can read notes and sightread rhythms/classic percussion theory (thanks, high school band), but that's about it. Never too late to learn, I know, but still, I think it's huge weapon you have in your sonic arsenal to be able to pick apart songs/arrange in a certain way that's solid with classical theory.

[LimpyLoo]

 

And I know alot of musicians are skeptical about traditional music theory (and for good reason, hearing some of its practitioners) but again if someone knows what they want to do musically then it can only serve to help them.

 

I have always kicked myself in the ass for not learning more music theory. I can read notes and sightread rhythms/classic percussion theory (thanks, high school band), but that's about it. Never too late to learn, I know, but still, I think it's huge weapon you have in your sonic arsenal to be able to pick apart songs/arrange in a certain way that's solid with classical theory.

 

 

Well hey lemme know if you ever wanna talk about that shit. It's literally like one of the two or three things I'm good at in life lol.

 

Actually I might necro the LimpyLoo's Tip Du Jour thread to bounce around some more concepts that I think are universally useful.

[DerWaschbar]

I wish someone had told me to buy as much gear as possible while it was still relatively cheap.

[YEK]

too not take hiatus' after "releasing" albums. work more...

[foresense]

 

 

And I know alot of musicians are skeptical about traditional music theory (and for good reason, hearing some of its practitioners) but again if someone knows what they want to do musically then it can only serve to help them.

 

I have always kicked myself in the ass for not learning more music theory. I can read notes and sightread rhythms/classic percussion theory (thanks, high school band), but that's about it. Never too late to learn, I know, but still, I think it's huge weapon you have in your sonic arsenal to be able to pick apart songs/arrange in a certain way that's solid with classical theory.

 

 

Well hey lemme know if you ever wanna talk about that shit. It's literally like one of the two or three things I'm good at in life lol.

 

Actually I might necro the LimpyLoo's Tip Du Jour thread to bounce around some more concepts that I think are universally useful.

 

 

the thing that has always held me back is that all the texts about traditional music theory require you to read scores. I'm not saying I want to have a pianoroll, but I just want to know the math behind it. The numbers, the charts, the reasoning and the lore.

 

For me it's like learning how to program C by reading LISP texts.

[LimpyLoo]

Honestly you don't even need to learn how to read, you can just keep a reference in front of you when you're deciphering a score.

 

 

 

But I don't even think reading is terribly difficult. I think any intermediate musician could learn how to do it in an afternoon. And really unless you're studying rhythm you don't even need to learn note values (e.g. quarter-note, dotted-eighth-note).

[LimpyLoo]

Oh also I'm probably gonna start giving guitar lessons again...

 

So I would like to extend the offer to all WATMMers that I will give anyone here--be you guitarists or non-guitarists--unlimited free Skype lessons on any subject that I know anything about, whether it be guitar-specific stuff or conceptual stuff. This community is great so I would like to give back to it with whatever humble skills I might possess.

 

Anyway, just throwing it out there. Hit me up if interested.

 

Cheers

[weakmassive]

 

Actually I might necro the LimpyLoo's Tip Du Jour thread to bounce around some more concepts that I think are universally useful.

 

 

Please do

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

Actually I might necro the LimpyLoo's Tip Du Jour thread to bounce around some more concepts that I think are universally useful.

 

 

Please do

 

 

I'll try to think something up tonight.

[foresense]

 

 

Actually I might necro the LimpyLoo's Tip Du Jour thread to bounce around some more concepts that I think are universally useful.

 

 

Please do

 

 

yes, you the man

 

Intervals & modulation of chords is what interests me mostly. The arcane magic behind classical music.