

Ask HN: How can I start making my own music? - dsc

Every time I ask my friends about learning music they hammer me with lots of steps and ambiguity. So I did my own googling and found great instruments and lots of texts (either for the instruments or music theory).<p>It's a big mess. What's a good approach?<p>P.S. The accordion is awesome, but they also told me that it's "hard" too.
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villageidiot222
Get a keyboard with USB connection to your computer, this will allow you to
use it as a controller (a piece of hardware that can send input to software).
Download some software like Logic Studio or FL Studio (John Boswell uses FL
Studio, <http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/>, he's the one who did the Symphony
of Science videos). Begin playing. You can easily create patterns to repeat,
record yourself playing, record audio, compose visually and use any
instruments and effects that you want. Even just Garage Band would be enough
to get you started :)

You don't need a lot more than that. If you need any help setting it up, let
me know.

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delano
Don't listen to people telling you something is hard or that you need to study
some amount of theory before getting started. Find an instrument you like the
sound of and play it.

Focus less on the tools and more on enjoying yourself.

~~~
vitovito
What if I don't want to learn an instrument?

I'm interested in composition, not traditional performance. Is there a route
to learning and making music without learning to play a physical, analog
instrument?

~~~
delano
Absolutely! The basic element is the same: you just need to figure out what
part of the process you enjoy doing. The writing is one part, but there's also
arranging, mixing, mastering, etc.

And it can help to have a basic understanding of an instrument but it's not
specifically a requirement. For example you could download a software synth
and start messing around with that. If you're sufficiently motivated, you
could pick up an M-Audio USB keyboard for cheap.

