Until now, ive enjoyed messing about with chord structures, making pads, and sending others through arpeggiators etc to make “leads” but i have today, hopefully, sealed an incredible deal on an access virus for a price that i will never see again, so im making sure to snap it up since i know that this synth is one that i want to own… but the problem is … i do just mess about, kicks and percussion with sawtooth basslines at 175bpm, chords playing epic pad sounds and the same pad structure playing through an arp on a different synth is as far as i usually venture… where do i learn the honest way… to play my own riffs or chords on a keyboard… im a newbie and i want to make hardcore, messing about has been ok up until now but if im going to have a virus, i feel this is the time to wise up and learn it properly…
Honestly? I think one of the best things I have done, is seek out personal instruction, aka piano lessons. If music is what you want to do in your life, then why the hesitation is what I asked myself. It has helped out immensely, and I haven’t even really started applying it hardcore yet.
The one negative with it from what I found is that I tend to focus on improving my playing and saying, I’m not going to write a song until I reach “x” playing level. And I just keep raising that level higher and higher. I think anyone should seek out piano instruction until they are at least comfortable with theory, playing, and even reading. Basically until the point where getting better just means practicing harder things, harder as in pure difficulty not as in harder where you don’t understand it, if that makes sense.
Also learning to read music and music theory isn’t as scary as it can sound. They teach this stuff to first graders, seriously.
Granted music theory can get very complex but most dance music doesn’t call for the musically complex. A basic to intermediate understanding will elevate anyones production to the next level.