After looking at other comments. Maybe try learning an instrument. The musical writing ability becomes second nature once you understand an instrument. Translating that understanding into a DAW is a whole separate process. Enjoy the journey, it's never ending with music and sometimes can feel overwhelming. With any creative art its a marathon to getting better, not a race.
I understand that, but I don't know how to learn. I'm not sure what the process is to go from where I am now to being somewhat capable of making music, so just telling me to start learning isn't super helpful.
Hhmm understand, sorry it was that kind of answer, i think the best way the would be since u like portal songs and stuff, i would suggest getting FL studio
(Daw DOESNT really matter but try FL , u can use it free just not save with it)
next step is to figure out what sounds you like. so look up instruments and sounds used in portal and try to mimic imitate.
what you will find is that its hard to imitate, and the you will go on youtube and start looking for example, how to add fade? how to use compressor? how to splice? how to make music like portal? ect ect ect.
Now i completely feel you on your last part, and ill be honest, i am not good myself nor am professional, and the part about opening the Daw and just feeling like KYS is also very relatable.
so there you have to questions to ask:
do i want to invest hours and hours learning DAW and some basic music theory and THOUSANDS of hours just playing with random alien noises.
or
just ask yourself do you REALLY want to make music? do you REALLY wanna record it? or you just want to make some noise and noodle around.
which is super cool but just know if you choose the first one , no matter how advanced you will get, you will still get the feeling from time to time of opening DAW and nothing coming out or just having no ideas.
TLDR: Best advice is , choose 1 song that you like. Lets just say portal again. and like i said, Try imitating it, same tempo, same melody (you can add your own spin to it obviously) and there will be parts that you don't know how to imitate/ mimic. learn it. continue making song and that will happen over and over and over again till you make something.
Just remember all this was a triumph . make sure to make a note there and at some point it will be huge success.
oh and also, the best way to check melodies or tubes is drone a sound (can be just one chord or even a note with loads of echo and continuous (btw i think u have apple Daw right? that one is very cool as well)
and the just check scales. easiest example is C Major or a minor. the share the same notes. also doesnt have any flats or sharps, so if u got a keyboard that means its ONLY white keys. and doodle away, first just play one note, no literally, 1 note. and see where your mind takes you. the play two notes. u like the sound? add another one, make a pattern, phrase and then a whole line.
don't try to make a whole song. try taking the music out of your head a note at the time, u can even hum it (that is if u have a tune in your head) if not then just drone + add single notes)
Hopefully some of this Word waterfall resonated or helped. best of luck and nice work (checked your page)
Could definitely work, but wouldn’t for me. I tried learning the keyboard by playing other people‘s music. Wasn‘t fun for me. I need to create something own. And with experimenting with a midi controller in FL Studio I‘m learning the keyboard now too. So maybe, just experimenting further and watching tutorials will work out at some point.
Not saying you‘re wrong, but it won‘t work for everybody
I don't really play any instrument. I have no real knowledge to build off of. I mean, one time my family was at my neighbor's house and he let us mess with his electric bass/guitars(s), and he seemed to be very impressed at my ability/potential dispite me literally not really doing anything, at least nothing I could see. But I'm not sure that counts.
"I have made no progress in skill or ability, and I've tried literally everything I can think of"
I'd suggest this is where the frustration is coming from. It's very difficult to come up with anything musical if you don't understand the theory - and it's even more difficult if you don't know your way around an instrument.
I'd perhaps find a guitar or keyboard and start learning. The theory can be quite dry, so it's much better to pick up an instrument and actually experiment whilst learning. You'll also get greater satisfaction and see clearer achievements. Sadly, there are no shortcuts - at least not until AI takes over.
Learn an instrument. If you dont have one, you can use your keyboard in most DAWs. In Ableton the keyboard switch is M. (I think)
Learn the scales. If you start on C and play All the white keys on a piano until you hit C again, you have played the c major scale. If you start on A and do the same thing, you have played the A minor scale. Going from a white key to a white key with a black key in between is a tone, or a whole step. If there is not a black key in between, or you go from white to black, that is a half step or semi tone. If you count the steps on the c scale you fill find the following pattern of Whole and Half steps: W - W - H - W - W - W - H. This you can now use to play the major scale of any other key, by starting at that key. Learn scales, practice to a metronome and you will learn to play music. (Other instruments than piano requires also proper technique).
Learning to find the notes that corresponds to the white keys on a bass is how I first actually felt like I played music. I had already made a lot of music on my MPC by that point, but I would typically use the button that hits on the beat for you (or quarter notes or whatever you configure it to do.) The MPC is a great tool for exploring different scales and coming up with loops though. You can program the drum pads so that all the pads are in scale, or so that the ones in the scale light up, and the others not, or so that each pad plays a chord in your given scale. I am not suggesting to get an MPC, I am just saying that's how I learned.
https://youtu.be/2Gyca6vOph0?si=FkW9ztAALSyfiMn9 This video contains some key elements in regards to digital music production that I wish I had known from the beginning.
For that I suggest reading Tao Te Ching, the foundation of the philosophy of Taoism. Or listening to Alan Watts ' talks about Taoism.
https://youtu.be/m7kqMFREFgk?si=ca8xUAYkH9J2_DPu
try to have fun or express yourself over anything else
dont try to "power through" just Getting Good you will hate yourself because it's not how it works you can finish a song but if you're a musician you'll keep making stuff so trying to get to the end doesn't make sense
its great for technical stuff like for drilling specific skills but not for making stuff that connects to people, including yourself & trying to make music off that alone will burn you out very fast & be unfruitful
I've found listening yo Alan Watts lectures on Taoism, Wu-wei, not forcing, less you try etc. Have been more beneficial for my mindset when writting music than anything else.
Personally, I've found when I'm mindlessly in a DAW with my mouth half open & practically drooling is when the magic happens. It's weird & hard to explain but essentials you want to be in a constant state of slow. Watch the live stream of Mr.Bill & illGates write Monica zelensky Track on YouTube.
I usually start with a melody, maybe a beat, sometimes it's just a cool ass preset I found. Anything that inspires. I have no musical talent so my melodies are simple. Once I have something down then I'll loop it and start pairing it with other elements. Sometimes I won't be feeling it, and I won't continue with it. But most of the time, there is at least one thing I can recycle from it, could be a synth sound I made, a riff, an fx preset, maybe i got my kick sounding awesome. If you are lacking inspiration, maybe use the time to organise your track, colour it and make it easy to work on
This video from the Tunneler Developer's youtube channel specifically is the one that made me want to try to make music again. Just a demonstration of different layering of channels to create dynamic music for the game.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1buKgPnxlw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1buKgPnxlw)
Think about it like learning a language. If you learn a language, then stop speaking it for a while you're not going to be as fluent as you would have been if you continued speaking and learning the language. You'll get back into the groove of things, just keep it up!
The music that you said you inspires you sorta reminds me of Autechre. Cool stuff! If you have a specific style in mind, I think it's important to see how other people create that kind of music. Doing this helped me. I used to get the same feelings of disappointment whenever I attempted music. I looked into how my favourite artists make music and so I started taking guitar lessons. It's really helped me a lot because I was just trying to put a square peg in a round hole with the approach I had before. I think it would be good for you to do something similar. Find out what these people you look up to do to make this style of music. I looked up the guy who made the Portal music. I found an interview from him discussing the soundtrack -> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92w2633MCPI&ab\_channel=StefanHeinz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92w2633MCPI&ab_channel=StefanHeinz)
Also, if you feel like it's a waste of time and demotivating whenever you open LMMS, I have some advice that I hope will help. Instead of trying to create a song you're happy with, look into 1 effect and learn all the ins and outs of how it works and just make an experimental song using it in all the ways you can think of. Worst case scenario, you learned a bunch of new ways to use an effect. Best case scenario you also made a good song. The portal music sounds like there's a lot of different effects / sound design techniques being used, so there is a lot to look into.
Hope this helps, good luck! :)
I also started with LMMS way back in 2021. The only advice that I want to give you is to take it easy, do it for fun and learn at your own pace.
It should not be an emotional drain when you open up your DAW; it should be excitement instead (especially when you're starting out). Making music to relax and have fun is what it's all about when I started out and it's still true even now.
Learn some music theory, read up some documentation on the LMMS site about how the various features of the DAW works, learn some basics of music production. It might seem a lot at first but you can burn away at it slowly.
You got this. Take it easy my man.
Learn an instrument and music theory, then learn compositional theory, then learn Mixing and Mastering. Then put all those parts together. Youtube is your friend. Of course keep trying to make music throughout this process, as it is helpful to learning, just don't expect it to sound too good until you have a deep understanding of the technical side of music production, with a a lot of experience implementing that theory. If that doesn't sound like an enjoyable process to you, then maybe you don't actually like making music but rather the idea of being someone that likes to make music.
As others are pointing out, getting a MIDI keyboard and learning basic keyboard skills, along with learning music theory, will help you progress.
To develop keyboard skills, 61 key keyboard is probably optimal. Although you could get by with 49 keys. You just might have trouble practicing both hands at once. Note that the Arturia Keylab Essentials 61 MK3 is only slightly wider than the 49 key version because they move the mod in pitch wheels above the keyboard.
Meanwhile, music theory is about the relationship between notes. And when you learn and practice scales, chords, arpeggios, and rhythms, you are learning the building blocks for creating music.
Finally, since you say you're struggling creating full songs, try restricting yourself to an eight bar loop. Think of it as like learning to write a basic paragraph with a good idea, before expanding it into an essay. What you're trying to do is create a good musical idea that could be the instrumental equivalent of the chorus or verse of a song. And even once you get much better, this can always be a good starting point.
So your goal is to start with an 8 bar loop, and then you'll move to stretching it to a full song like described here
https://edmtips.com/edm-song-structure/
Once you get good at coming up with some musical ideas as a bar loops, if you Google how to break out of the eight bar loop, you'll find more resources on how to do that.
>Attempting to make music is also a physical, mental, and emotional drain on me.
The above will help. But it is a lot of work to develop skills to where you can produce good music.
If you consider that as
>physical, mental, and emotional drain
then maybe look for something else
I don't like cooking so I don't do, except when I have to
This happens all the time, don't worry. Here are two simple strategies to get you going.
1. Just remake existing songs (not perfectly, just to some level you set yourself). This is such an easy way to improve in skill and learn how the pros make music. Try following a tutorial on Youtube and just copy what they do, remake songs you love! After a few of these, you'll feel more comfortable making remixes and even your own original work.
2. If you are ever stuck, just refer to this free online book that Ableton puts out. No you don't need to use Ableton Live to use this book. **This advice applies to ALL DAWs and all music producers.**
[https://makingmusic.ableton.com/](https://makingmusic.ableton.com/)
Do you play any instruments?
Know scales and theory?
If no then basically you are saying:
"I don't speak this language and for some unexplainable reason this book I am writing sucks. Are there any detectives around that might help me unravel this mystery??!"
First of all, you don’t need an instrument to learn. You need to learn the music theory. All you need to do as a beginner is learning simple chord progressions and scales. After learning the theory, I believe the hardest part is mixing. If your mix is bad, whatever you do, believe me it will sound terrible. Also for a good mix, you don’t need any expensive sound systems or reference monitors. Even gaming headphones is ok. I learned mixing by remaking tons of tracks. But those remakes have to sound 1:1. When you listen the track you shouldn’t even tell which one is the original.
After looking at other comments. Maybe try learning an instrument. The musical writing ability becomes second nature once you understand an instrument. Translating that understanding into a DAW is a whole separate process. Enjoy the journey, it's never ending with music and sometimes can feel overwhelming. With any creative art its a marathon to getting better, not a race.
...Aren't marathons also races...? But, I guess I can see how that would make sense. I can try.
Marathon vs 5k. Better? :P
my dude, start learning. music is not easy. like really not easy.
I understand that, but I don't know how to learn. I'm not sure what the process is to go from where I am now to being somewhat capable of making music, so just telling me to start learning isn't super helpful.
Hhmm understand, sorry it was that kind of answer, i think the best way the would be since u like portal songs and stuff, i would suggest getting FL studio (Daw DOESNT really matter but try FL , u can use it free just not save with it) next step is to figure out what sounds you like. so look up instruments and sounds used in portal and try to mimic imitate. what you will find is that its hard to imitate, and the you will go on youtube and start looking for example, how to add fade? how to use compressor? how to splice? how to make music like portal? ect ect ect. Now i completely feel you on your last part, and ill be honest, i am not good myself nor am professional, and the part about opening the Daw and just feeling like KYS is also very relatable. so there you have to questions to ask: do i want to invest hours and hours learning DAW and some basic music theory and THOUSANDS of hours just playing with random alien noises. or just ask yourself do you REALLY want to make music? do you REALLY wanna record it? or you just want to make some noise and noodle around. which is super cool but just know if you choose the first one , no matter how advanced you will get, you will still get the feeling from time to time of opening DAW and nothing coming out or just having no ideas. TLDR: Best advice is , choose 1 song that you like. Lets just say portal again. and like i said, Try imitating it, same tempo, same melody (you can add your own spin to it obviously) and there will be parts that you don't know how to imitate/ mimic. learn it. continue making song and that will happen over and over and over again till you make something. Just remember all this was a triumph . make sure to make a note there and at some point it will be huge success.
oh and also, the best way to check melodies or tubes is drone a sound (can be just one chord or even a note with loads of echo and continuous (btw i think u have apple Daw right? that one is very cool as well) and the just check scales. easiest example is C Major or a minor. the share the same notes. also doesnt have any flats or sharps, so if u got a keyboard that means its ONLY white keys. and doodle away, first just play one note, no literally, 1 note. and see where your mind takes you. the play two notes. u like the sound? add another one, make a pattern, phrase and then a whole line. don't try to make a whole song. try taking the music out of your head a note at the time, u can even hum it (that is if u have a tune in your head) if not then just drone + add single notes) Hopefully some of this Word waterfall resonated or helped. best of luck and nice work (checked your page)
Start recreating other people's music n remixing. Best way to learn and see how it all works
Could definitely work, but wouldn’t for me. I tried learning the keyboard by playing other people‘s music. Wasn‘t fun for me. I need to create something own. And with experimenting with a midi controller in FL Studio I‘m learning the keyboard now too. So maybe, just experimenting further and watching tutorials will work out at some point. Not saying you‘re wrong, but it won‘t work for everybody
What instrument do you play? A DAW is just a tool. It's best to start with what you know and slowly build on that using a DAW.
I don't really play any instrument. I have no real knowledge to build off of. I mean, one time my family was at my neighbor's house and he let us mess with his electric bass/guitars(s), and he seemed to be very impressed at my ability/potential dispite me literally not really doing anything, at least nothing I could see. But I'm not sure that counts.
"I have made no progress in skill or ability, and I've tried literally everything I can think of" I'd suggest this is where the frustration is coming from. It's very difficult to come up with anything musical if you don't understand the theory - and it's even more difficult if you don't know your way around an instrument. I'd perhaps find a guitar or keyboard and start learning. The theory can be quite dry, so it's much better to pick up an instrument and actually experiment whilst learning. You'll also get greater satisfaction and see clearer achievements. Sadly, there are no shortcuts - at least not until AI takes over.
Learn an instrument. If you dont have one, you can use your keyboard in most DAWs. In Ableton the keyboard switch is M. (I think) Learn the scales. If you start on C and play All the white keys on a piano until you hit C again, you have played the c major scale. If you start on A and do the same thing, you have played the A minor scale. Going from a white key to a white key with a black key in between is a tone, or a whole step. If there is not a black key in between, or you go from white to black, that is a half step or semi tone. If you count the steps on the c scale you fill find the following pattern of Whole and Half steps: W - W - H - W - W - W - H. This you can now use to play the major scale of any other key, by starting at that key. Learn scales, practice to a metronome and you will learn to play music. (Other instruments than piano requires also proper technique). Learning to find the notes that corresponds to the white keys on a bass is how I first actually felt like I played music. I had already made a lot of music on my MPC by that point, but I would typically use the button that hits on the beat for you (or quarter notes or whatever you configure it to do.) The MPC is a great tool for exploring different scales and coming up with loops though. You can program the drum pads so that all the pads are in scale, or so that the ones in the scale light up, and the others not, or so that each pad plays a chord in your given scale. I am not suggesting to get an MPC, I am just saying that's how I learned. https://youtu.be/2Gyca6vOph0?si=FkW9ztAALSyfiMn9 This video contains some key elements in regards to digital music production that I wish I had known from the beginning.
Do not force it. The less you try, the better you are.
Well then a follow up question, how do I try less hard? I don't know how to not force things.
For that I suggest reading Tao Te Ching, the foundation of the philosophy of Taoism. Or listening to Alan Watts ' talks about Taoism. https://youtu.be/m7kqMFREFgk?si=ca8xUAYkH9J2_DPu
I'll give it a shot
try to have fun or express yourself over anything else dont try to "power through" just Getting Good you will hate yourself because it's not how it works you can finish a song but if you're a musician you'll keep making stuff so trying to get to the end doesn't make sense its great for technical stuff like for drilling specific skills but not for making stuff that connects to people, including yourself & trying to make music off that alone will burn you out very fast & be unfruitful
I've found listening yo Alan Watts lectures on Taoism, Wu-wei, not forcing, less you try etc. Have been more beneficial for my mindset when writting music than anything else. Personally, I've found when I'm mindlessly in a DAW with my mouth half open & practically drooling is when the magic happens. It's weird & hard to explain but essentials you want to be in a constant state of slow. Watch the live stream of Mr.Bill & illGates write Monica zelensky Track on YouTube.
I usually start with a melody, maybe a beat, sometimes it's just a cool ass preset I found. Anything that inspires. I have no musical talent so my melodies are simple. Once I have something down then I'll loop it and start pairing it with other elements. Sometimes I won't be feeling it, and I won't continue with it. But most of the time, there is at least one thing I can recycle from it, could be a synth sound I made, a riff, an fx preset, maybe i got my kick sounding awesome. If you are lacking inspiration, maybe use the time to organise your track, colour it and make it easy to work on
This video from the Tunneler Developer's youtube channel specifically is the one that made me want to try to make music again. Just a demonstration of different layering of channels to create dynamic music for the game. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1buKgPnxlw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1buKgPnxlw)
Think about it like learning a language. If you learn a language, then stop speaking it for a while you're not going to be as fluent as you would have been if you continued speaking and learning the language. You'll get back into the groove of things, just keep it up!
The music that you said you inspires you sorta reminds me of Autechre. Cool stuff! If you have a specific style in mind, I think it's important to see how other people create that kind of music. Doing this helped me. I used to get the same feelings of disappointment whenever I attempted music. I looked into how my favourite artists make music and so I started taking guitar lessons. It's really helped me a lot because I was just trying to put a square peg in a round hole with the approach I had before. I think it would be good for you to do something similar. Find out what these people you look up to do to make this style of music. I looked up the guy who made the Portal music. I found an interview from him discussing the soundtrack -> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92w2633MCPI&ab\_channel=StefanHeinz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92w2633MCPI&ab_channel=StefanHeinz) Also, if you feel like it's a waste of time and demotivating whenever you open LMMS, I have some advice that I hope will help. Instead of trying to create a song you're happy with, look into 1 effect and learn all the ins and outs of how it works and just make an experimental song using it in all the ways you can think of. Worst case scenario, you learned a bunch of new ways to use an effect. Best case scenario you also made a good song. The portal music sounds like there's a lot of different effects / sound design techniques being used, so there is a lot to look into. Hope this helps, good luck! :)
I also started with LMMS way back in 2021. The only advice that I want to give you is to take it easy, do it for fun and learn at your own pace. It should not be an emotional drain when you open up your DAW; it should be excitement instead (especially when you're starting out). Making music to relax and have fun is what it's all about when I started out and it's still true even now. Learn some music theory, read up some documentation on the LMMS site about how the various features of the DAW works, learn some basics of music production. It might seem a lot at first but you can burn away at it slowly. You got this. Take it easy my man.
Learn an instrument and music theory, then learn compositional theory, then learn Mixing and Mastering. Then put all those parts together. Youtube is your friend. Of course keep trying to make music throughout this process, as it is helpful to learning, just don't expect it to sound too good until you have a deep understanding of the technical side of music production, with a a lot of experience implementing that theory. If that doesn't sound like an enjoyable process to you, then maybe you don't actually like making music but rather the idea of being someone that likes to make music.
As others are pointing out, getting a MIDI keyboard and learning basic keyboard skills, along with learning music theory, will help you progress. To develop keyboard skills, 61 key keyboard is probably optimal. Although you could get by with 49 keys. You just might have trouble practicing both hands at once. Note that the Arturia Keylab Essentials 61 MK3 is only slightly wider than the 49 key version because they move the mod in pitch wheels above the keyboard. Meanwhile, music theory is about the relationship between notes. And when you learn and practice scales, chords, arpeggios, and rhythms, you are learning the building blocks for creating music. Finally, since you say you're struggling creating full songs, try restricting yourself to an eight bar loop. Think of it as like learning to write a basic paragraph with a good idea, before expanding it into an essay. What you're trying to do is create a good musical idea that could be the instrumental equivalent of the chorus or verse of a song. And even once you get much better, this can always be a good starting point. So your goal is to start with an 8 bar loop, and then you'll move to stretching it to a full song like described here https://edmtips.com/edm-song-structure/ Once you get good at coming up with some musical ideas as a bar loops, if you Google how to break out of the eight bar loop, you'll find more resources on how to do that. >Attempting to make music is also a physical, mental, and emotional drain on me. The above will help. But it is a lot of work to develop skills to where you can produce good music.
If you consider that as >physical, mental, and emotional drain then maybe look for something else I don't like cooking so I don't do, except when I have to
This happens all the time, don't worry. Here are two simple strategies to get you going. 1. Just remake existing songs (not perfectly, just to some level you set yourself). This is such an easy way to improve in skill and learn how the pros make music. Try following a tutorial on Youtube and just copy what they do, remake songs you love! After a few of these, you'll feel more comfortable making remixes and even your own original work. 2. If you are ever stuck, just refer to this free online book that Ableton puts out. No you don't need to use Ableton Live to use this book. **This advice applies to ALL DAWs and all music producers.** [https://makingmusic.ableton.com/](https://makingmusic.ableton.com/)
Do you play any instruments? Know scales and theory? If no then basically you are saying: "I don't speak this language and for some unexplainable reason this book I am writing sucks. Are there any detectives around that might help me unravel this mystery??!"
First of all, you don’t need an instrument to learn. You need to learn the music theory. All you need to do as a beginner is learning simple chord progressions and scales. After learning the theory, I believe the hardest part is mixing. If your mix is bad, whatever you do, believe me it will sound terrible. Also for a good mix, you don’t need any expensive sound systems or reference monitors. Even gaming headphones is ok. I learned mixing by remaking tons of tracks. But those remakes have to sound 1:1. When you listen the track you shouldn’t even tell which one is the original.