I am a music buff. i got into music at the age of 15 when i was in college when dance music caught my attention. I loved a state of trance and global dj broadcast in my younger days. i thought of becoming a DJ, not knowing the full percs and what the whole package included. it was a year later that i was diagnosed with schizophrenia, my life took a turn for the worst then, i dropped out of college and was in a state of confusion. i wasnt able to pursue my DJ career. Now at age 25 im recovering, i still do a few shows here and there, but the late night’s add on to my fatigue and cant cope with it. Im an artist and a writer by profession, though at times i always picture myself to be a successful DJ. Im thinking of just sticking to music production for the time being, but theres a problem im facing here as i have no former music training, i dont know to play an instrument and am learning piano and music production on my own through trial and experimentation. Im struggling a lot though and wanted to know whether to make music is it necessary to know to play an instrument or having music theory knowledge. Any help and suggestions regarding how i should go about this problem would be much appreciated.
Hoping to make good music and get back into Djing…
There are a lot of tools out there (Push, among many others) that help those that don’t know how to play an instrument as well as a lot of DAW add-ons that help those who don’t have much or any theory knowledge.
So, do you need those things to make music? Not necessarily. Would they be hugely beneficial? Yes.
In my personal opinion, you don’t need to be able to play an instrument but I can see it would be helpful.
I’m considering learning to play myself, but I’m a little short on time. So I’m focusing on understanding some basic concepts of music theory and experimenting.
Here are some things that I found helpful:
Books:
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
Composition for Computer Musicians
Harmony for Computer Musicians (haven’t finished that one yet)
Vst:
Witch is like a chord player/arpeggiator thing on steroids. Very powerful once you get your head around what it actually does.
If you have it, there is also plenty of free devices for max for live that help with chords, etc
This lady on youTube is also pretty good too:
Anyhow as far I’ve learned it’s more about learning to trust your self (i.e. your ears) and experimenting
than knowing what diminished 7th is.
Anyone just getting into production with no electronic music background should read this book IMO:
It goes into basics of music theory, has a pretty exhaustive section on the creation of many typical dance music sounds via subtractive synthesis as well as detailed explanations of effects, busses, etc.
