Starting out music?

partyatmygaff

Ok so im 15, always been interested in music but never got the chance to learn properly or express myself through music.
Recently I got my hands on FL Studio 8 and I've gotten the hang of it reasonably well but I just am clueless about piano/guitar/synthesizers etc etc(I know what everything is and what it sounds like its just I have no idea what to do with them).

Im not entirely sure what I need to do start making music and learn. Would learning piano on a keyboard (With a midi output for later on) be good enough to learn music theory(Like sheet music, counting bars etc).
I used to do acoustic guitar but quit as my fingers are just way too big to play any difficult chords.

How did everyone else start?

BTW Im mainly interested in making pop/rock/electronic/r&b style music if thats relevant.

Hows fl studio 8 as a production program? Always keep thinking its too easy to learn and too cheap to be something used by the pros.

Savman

Dude, you're 15. Go out and experiment with as many instruments as you can, it'll be nothing but good for you in the long term. Time is very much on your side.

PaulBrewer

Best of Luck Brother!
The great thing about music is that you can never actually learn about it all, there'll always be much more to absorb.

Just dive in to whatever takes your fancy and take it from there.

partyatmygaff

True but I personally would love to be able to play every instrument available to man but obviously thats not possible :pac:

What would be the most versatile instruments to learn(doesnt necessiraly have to be easy to learn).
Im thinking along the lines of Piano, Synthesizer and drums? Guitar is out of the question, my fingers are too chunky for that :P

Can synthesizer actually be learned i.e. programming filters and the oscillators or is it just keep changing settings until you get a nice unique sound.

I can kind of sing too but anytime I do a recording it ends up sounding off-note and off-tone, not to mention that crappy crackling sound from my mic(its a vocal mic strangely enough )

Savman

Defo try your hand at keys. You don't have to be a whizz on guitar or drums but if you ever stick a mic on front of something it's helpful if you are down with the lingo

"Yo, nice rack."

madtheory

You're only 15, so there's plenty of time Get piano lessons, but make sure you find a nice teacher. Don't stick with the first teacher you find, if they're not doing the business for you. Keyboard is by far the best instrument to learn as a basis for the others, because it's the easiest one to practice theory on. You can teach yourself synth. If you can drum, fantastic, you're a real musician- get lessons there too.

PaulBrewer

madtheory wrote: »

Keyboard is by far the best instrument to learn as a basis for the others, because it's the easiest one to practice theory on.

Very Good Point.

ZV Yoda

madtheory wrote: »

You're only 15, so there's plenty of time Get piano lessons, but make sure you find a nice teacher. Don't stick with the first teacher you find, if they're not doing the business for you. Keyboard is by far the best instrument to learn as a basis for the others, because it's the easiest one to practice theory on. You can teach yourself synth. If you can drum, fantastic, you're a real musician- get lessons there too.

I'd second the comment about piano. Having been self taught for yonks as an average drummer and basic guitarist, it was a revelation when I got a few piano lessons a while back. Definitely helped me understand the theory of music/scales etc.

I was able to use the piano theory to better understand the guitar & find alternate way of playing chords. And as for the possibilities with midi/virtual instrument via the keyboard – the sky’s the limit!

Don't discount guitar though... chubby fingers or not - it takes practice.

Not that I’m really qualified to offer advice relative to some of the pros here, but I find that being able to play even basic drums, guitar & piano/keyboard means that you have all the basic blocks to give you endless options – both as a one man band/producer/artist – or to get a feel for what type of instrument you might like to “specialise” in.

Either way, at 15, the world’s your oyster. Good luck

BuddhaJoe

If you want to play guitar dont give up. Check out the size of the fingers of the guy in the video below. Its also worth noting he's legally blind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9imuLRcCEI

partyatmygaff

BuddhaJoe wrote: »

If you want to play guitar dont give up. Check out the size of the fingers of the guy in the video below. Its also worth noting he's legally blind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9imuLRcCEI

You could say the same about stevie wonder, blind but he can play bass,drums,synth and piano but he began when he was 6 or something so learning from a young age like that (15 is young but 6 is infancy) would mean it would be a near natural ability at age 15 with consistent practice.

Dravokivich

hey man,

As mentioned before above, Keys are definately a recommendation and good spot on the Midi, didnt get to learn about alot of this stuff myself until i was in college.

there's a couple of reasons for possibly checking out the keys as a way to start building up, once you get to know where the notes are on it, its not a gloomy to look at, basically its the same 12 keys repeated up along the board in increasingly higher octaves. Once you get used to it, you'll get to easly pick up on harmonies where you can play similar sounding notes / chords that are either higher / lower in pitch but can help add more depth / awareness.

I've got a couple of guitars also, but to be honest i have no idea where the notes are on it, I'll know if something sounds off, but i'd have no idea how far i'd be. What i do is make up midi tracks through the keyboard and then convert them into Tabs. an odd way of writing guitar lines i'd admit, but again its easier visualy to see where the notes are on keys then on a guitar if you were just picking up the both of them the first few times.

I'd highly recommend the drums also, not enough drummers out there :P. Anyhow, if ya wanna work further into this, possibly college or something, indepth knowledge of drums would be priceless. Not only for being more confident, but also more natural awareness in whats needed. Picked up a few things about them through doing work myself, but while in college doing sound engineering, found it shocking when drummers didnt know how to tune the skins... also on a side note, worth getting a drum key to hold spare... even if ya dont pick up the drums... drummers aways forget those. There's little things like that you'd need to be able to take into account. Sure you'll pick up on it if you go to get some work exp or something. but alot of timing emphasise comes with production and noticed engineers / producers are alot more in tune with that if they are drummers.

andyhow, keys are easy enough to pick up / store, and by using headphones you dont bother the neighbours much. As mentioned once ya know yer way around 1, there are methods to teach yerself basics of other instruments such as Guitar and Bass. so you can have a rough line on how they flow before taking lessons on them too ya know.

with FL, you'll mainly be doing electronic / bass / synth heavy music. havent really used it to be honest so not too sure about Audio processing in it, if you can find a Polish guy into production ask them, they go crazy for FL.

In regards to yer singing... trust me, its not unusual what you noticed. What you hear while speaking is different to what other people would hear. Not claiming yer over endowed with ego :P (Kidding) but the reason why you could be a bit off or inconsistent would be cos yer not used to hearing yerself and you need to train up yer vocal chords.

Easiest way to sort that out if ya cant fork out for vocal training after learning every other instrument may be actually singing to tracks you know, but while singing into a mic and hearing yerself next to'em. Then prolly see if yoy can get hold of Midi tracks for the songs and see how you fit in with that, without vocals and such.

BumbleB

Savman wrote: »

Dude, you're 15. Go out and experiment with as many instruments as you can, it'll be nothing but good for you in the long term. Time is very much on your side.

Definetely, Timbaland started when he was 15 .Jimi hendrix had massive hands and he adapted his playing style to his so called handicap . Having big hands isn't an issue unless you make it an issue . You can play chords with notes missing for example a C bar chord with the 3rd note missing ie , the 5th string note and so forth thats the way hendrix played his barre chords.Playing guiitar is probably the best option though because by playing guitar you will get a strong backround in harmony.

Keys is good too .I avoided them for years because I thought they would be difficult but thats really not the case. Learn a few chords and be on your way.

frobisher

If I had to advise what instruments I would defintely say piano/keyboard and Bass guitar. Piano/keyboard playing is a great basis to build any self recording aspirations on as so many things are played through a midi keyboard. Bass guitar will teach you about time and groove and those strong fingers will be a blessing :-)

dav nagle

partyatmygaff wrote: »

You could say the same about stevie wonder, blind but he can play bass,drums,synth and piano but he began when he was 6 or something so learning from a young age like that (15 is young but 6 is infancy) would mean it would be a near natural ability at age 15 with consistent practice.

So is this the first guitar with over 150 tones built in?

Mars Bar

I third the piano comment. I have been playing drums for almost 5 years, playing guitar on and off for 4 years, the guitar being self taught, and now I am learning the keyboard at college as a basis for learning theory. It's amazing how the keyboard makes everything that small bit easier to understand. Learn a little bit of everything if you can. The sax shall be my next venture if I get my way.

We use Reason and Pro - Tools in college. Reason 4 is a great synth software. So many things you can do with it. You can even "turn it around" by using the tab button, this allows you to hook up different synths into the mixer and automate different stuff to aux and the eq. You can learn to use the hardware, only on software. Nothing like touching the real thing though, but sometimes you have got to make do.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

Ive played drums for over 28 years , then took up guitar , then bass and now keys .

I can 100% recomend at least learning some keyboards / piano , I wish i had done it as a kid - the whole thing just makes sense - and it is a complete sounding instrument - its well kool - if you want to make music

and i would also learn to sing along with piano.

you open up all possiblitlies of using synths and MIDI to create full compostions .

some say it doesnt look kool though
( im taking your age into account here ;-) )
( note - i dont agree with this tho - i think a singing piano player is really fcuking kool )


if you want to make music and also look kool, then its guitar

if you just want to assist in making music and be really really kool , be a drummer ( aimed at drummers who cant play anything else )

note - if you want to create music alone as a composer - it is very advisable to learn at least

piano
bass/ or drums ( to get a feel for composing rythm tracks )
guitar.

and of course singing to a basic level .


so id go with piano .

then drums

ZV Yoda

DaDumTish wrote: »

if you want to make music and also look kool, then its guitar

if you just want to assist in making music and be really really kool , be a drummer ( aimed at drummers who cant play anything else )

he he he... but where that leave the bass players?

... and if you can play drums, bass, guitar, keyboard AND sing all at once, then you'll be sub zero... in fact, you'll turn into this guy...

i57dwun4yb1pt8

thats not a good look ...

Savman

DaDumTish wrote: »

thats not a good look for me ...

FINALLY! An admission :pac:

BumbleB

frobisher wrote: »

If I had to advise what instruments I would defintely say piano/keyboard and Bass guitar. Piano/keyboard playing is a great basis to build any self recording aspirations on as so many things are played through a midi keyboard. Bass guitar will teach you about time and groove and those strong fingers will be a blessing :-)

you cant play smoke on the water on keys , man .Fender strat a tubescreamer and marshall stack the way to go.

Savman

BumbleB wrote: »

you cant play smoke on the water on keys , man .Fender strat a tubescreamer and marshall stack the way to go.

Can't play Imagine on Guitar, so.....?

BumbleB

Imagine is ****e hippy bull**** !. I want to play mR crowley !

flyswatter

I would be in a similar position to the OP. I also have FL8. It's a great DAW but I just haven't really got round to using it properly yet. I have a stab at something on it every now and again but never end up with a finished product. But I will get round to using it properly someday.......I have been playing drums for 3 years and have reached a reasonable standard at that. I'd like to learn keys and synth, but I'll be learning guitar next, so hopefully that will get the creative juices flowing as regards creating music.

BumbleB

Savman wrote: »

Can't play Imagine on Guitar, so.....?

you can't play a piano on a beach or on a train with drunken student friends like i have done to many times to remember ha ! beat that !

jtsuited

good to see someone with the enthusiasm we sometimes forget about as we get older.


I'd implore the OP to get started on whatever instrument allows him to understand theory best - in 99% of cases this is the keyboard.

I play most instruments to a fairly high standard and as far as production goes, knowledge of drums and piano are the most important.

I started playing piano when I was 4, guitar when I was 11, drums when I was 13, everything else as time went on.
Learning music theory at such a young age meant that I could self teach myself everything else as I went along (as well as getting the odd lesson from whatever virtuoso I could get my hands on, really only to see if my technique was up to scratch).

Also since you're banging away a few ideas on FL, you're well on your way.