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Anybody here have any real musical talent?

I was wondering this because just about everyone wants to produce...and most people that do have no musical talent. I'm not really a producer yet. But I do play piano. I have been taking lessons on and off since i was 8...now im 16. So does anybody else have any musical talent? Not producing talent. That's a whole different story.

Good question. The fact is that a lot of Trance artists out there have no real musical talent.

I think the artists who have undisputable talent are Sunscreem and Delirium. On the other hand, Paul van Dyk and Armin van Buuren do not, in my opinion, measure up to this level. They produced some tunes that define their career ("For an Angel" and "Communication," respectively), but the question of talent is very debatable. AvB still can't play keyboards (he uses software); PvD, while able to play chords on a piano, taught himself only recently, and he certainly had no idea that he wanted to tie his life to music until very late in his life. You could say that M.I.K.E./Push has real musical talent, just by the sheer volume and fame of his works, but I doubt that also.

What is relevant here is that these people have experience, which is extremely important in this business. They know how to make a club sound, how to master the track and make it professional, and this experience helps them turn a lackluster tune into a spectacular one. And in Trance, experience/professionalism sometimes overshadows real musical talent.

yea...umm...i play the bass guitar...guitar...a little bit of piano...errr...the drums...etc.. my dad is a musician..so it stuck with me

i think i should have put this thread in the music section..not the DJ section...oh well

agreed



ask a mod to move it....you might have better luck in that forum

or maybe the production lounge is where it should be

i play a bit of the guitar and the piano... and i play a kind of drum.

anyways, i think to be a successful producer, you have to be both a musician and an engineer of sound... its one thing to be able to write the music, but its another to make it sound right. You can only make the piano sound a couple of different ways, but a synthesizer's range is endless..

playing keyboard for about 4 years now..

the only thing is that my keyboard isn`t made for trance, so i don`t get any help from it with my producing

good question and good answer eugene!

quote:

Originally posted by mantisnl playing keyboard for about 4 years now.. the only thing is that my keyboard isn`t made for trance, so i don`t get any help from it with my producing

Buy a MIDI keyboard and hook it up to your comp. Then use a prog like Reason or FruityLoops. Of course a nice hardware synth would be even better...

---

I've been playing guitar professionally on and off for about 10 years. I'm still playing in a band, but recently I've picked up DJ'ing as a hobby. Having experience on guitar has helped me (as a DJ) to identify song composition and rhythm, but unfortunately not in beatmatching.

With my current musical knowledge I think I could compose songs. But as people have said in this thread, the emphasis in trance is more on how the sounds are engineered than how the song is composed. The engineering part takes a lot of time and money. Having the proper equipment helps tremendously. To equate to the guitar world: Once I got a pro guitar rig, I finally understood why the equipment was so important: sound quality. Just my $.02

quote:

Originally posted by DJ LIQUID yea...umm...i play the bass guitar...guitar...a little bit of piano...errr...the drums...etc.. my dad is a musician..so it stuck with me

lol yea dude
my father's a music teacher in a high school i know wot ya mean

play the drums and guitar....and some lousy keyboard

i played the piano for about 6 years and ive been playing the classical guitar for about 10 years.

I definately think it helps having a musical background in regards to composing, however there is no substitution for innovation and imagination... knowing chord structure, harmonies and so forth will only get you so far...

I think it's really quite sad, especially when you think of the size and complexity of the Trance scene, that so many famous DJ's can get so far without having a lot of real musical talent...

I guess Trance songs that didn't seem very musical always never got me going, which I think might be why I am only 'halfway-sorta-kinda' into this scene...

I don't know if this is particularly true, but to me it just doesn't really seem to matter. As a matter of fact, I tend to appreciate musicians who has had no formal background prior to making it big. I think they retain a certain level of humility even after they get famous because of that which I respect.

quote:

Originally posted by Gluegun I think it's really quite sad, especially when you think of the size and complexity of the Trance scene, that so many famous DJ's can get so far without having a lot of real musical talent... I guess Trance songs that didn't seem very musical always never got me going, which I think might be why I am only 'halfway-sorta-kinda' into this scene...

Yeah...it is kinda sad that trance isn't that musically talented...but it's so addictive. 99% of trance is just repetitive synth sounds over and over again...that..at times...can get old.

what kind of BS story is that

You either have a feel for music or you don't

You can teach a musical dimwit to play the guitar. That doesn't mean he will ever be able to compose music.

Some people are very musically talented and don't play an instrument. Why shouldn't this be possible? If you don't have any feeling for it, you can't make AvB tracks.

Even if AvB doesn't play the piano, or guitar, or the digeridoo, his tunes tell me that he has a feel for music (he damn well better have, it's his living!)

i play guitar.. all i can say is yes.. it does help.. to a certain extent.. with music, you either got it or you dont, it all comes down to talent.

[EDIT] LOL Pjotr i just saw your post above mine after i posted it and i found it funny how similar they are [/EDIT]

i think the ability to compose music requires 2 things:

1.A musical talent or ability
2. Creativity.

I just personally would like to see a trance artist come out and be able to play an instrument very well...because that's what music is all about.

I've also thought what if there could be a whole new breed of emotive dance music that isn't quite as monotonous as trance, but has ever-changing notes and chordes that don't repeat so frequently. The follow a more jazz musician style or a classical music style, but still stands emotive and artistic.

I don't know...it's just a thought..and it's probably possible.

quote:

Originally posted by Great Outdoors I don't know if this is particularly true, but to me it just doesn't really seem to matter. As a matter of fact, I tend to appreciate musicians who has had no formal background prior to making it big. I think they retain a certain level of humility even after they get famous because of that which I respect.

I appreciate that too, but you don't have to have formal background to have musical talent.. you either HAVE it, or you DON'T, you know??

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G what kind of BS story is that You either have a feel for music or you don't You can teach a musical dimwit to play the guitar. That doesn't mean he will ever be able to compose music. Some people are very musically talented and don't play an instrument. Why shouldn't this be possible? If you don't have any feeling for it, you can't make AvB tracks. Even if AvB doesn't play the piano, or guitar, or the digeridoo, his tunes tell me that he has a feel for music (he damn well better have, it's his living!)

agreed, very true. just because someone can't play the piano, doesn't mean he's not musically talented. I know people who have been playing piano since they were small, but wouldn't be able to write a song if their life depended on it. On the other hand, I know people who don't know how to play any instruments, but they are very creative, and have a sense of rhythm, and melody, and have the potential to compose music.

i've been playing the piano for 13 years now, trombone for 10 years, guitar for 2 years. I'd say i have some musical talent, but I don't think that's enough to be making really great tracks. i don't think i have production skills, and it takes both to make a good track.

i'm taking a class on my university next year (University of Maryland - College Park --- NCAA National Champs in case you have no idea about Maryland ) called "Applications in Music Technology".

Here's the class description:

"A hands-on study of computer hardware and software which makes use of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) specification. This protocol allows computers, synthesizers and various other devices to send and receive information about musical performance, notation and sound. The course focuses on two of the most frequently used applications on MIDI-sequencing and music notation."

Only 16 spots in the class too! I had to convince the professor that I want to pursue a Music Citation for him to override my registration and let me sign up for this class. Each student gets a Apple g4 and a midi keyboard in a lab to produce music for 3 hours a week for a whole semester! Should be amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G Some people are very musically talented and don't play an instrument. Why shouldn't this be possible? If you don't have any feeling for it, you can't make AvB tracks. Even if AvB doesn't play the piano, or guitar, or the digeridoo, his tunes tell me that he has a feel for music (he damn well better have, it's his living!)

Although I agree with that to a certain extent, I still think that many Trance artists (including AvB) are not natural-born musicians.

How often does AvB release new tunes or remixes? In the Trance world, an artist usually releases a single tune and remixes a few, in the span of a year or maybe half-a-year. Can you compare that with albums (each having 10-12 songs) released regularly by rock-music artists and bands, for example? Take anything other than Electronica, and you get famous groups and their albums (released on CDs).

The problem also seems to be that it's not the artists who become famous, it's the DJ's. Therefore, the public expects these famous DJ's to contribute some music. But mixing somebody else's work and writing your own are two different things, and many DJ's write inferior music because they don't have much talent.

Another thing to consider: Many rock- and pop-music artists who we believe have "musical talent" do live shows, concerts, and tours; their songs are actually called "songs" because they have lyrics. None of this applies to Trance. Most artists are very obscure "one-hit wonders." Singing/performing live doesn't apply to Electronica, either.

quote:

Originally posted by Eugene Singing/performing live doesn't apply to Electronica, either.

?
Underworld? Junkie XL? Rank 1? Truckloads of unknown techno formations (like me soon)?


and since when does a piece of music need lyrics to be called a song?

Also I don't really think a rockband writes more songs than an electronic music artist...usually more than a year between albums.

And one-hit wonders...as if they don't exist in pop/rock?

quote:

Originally posted by Pjotr G and since when does a piece of music need lyrics to be called a song?

that's the definition of song. A song is any musical piece that's written for singing, song comes from the word sing. that's why a song has to have singing in it. i don't nkow what you would call it otherwise if it doesn't have singing though, a musical piece? i just say "track" or "tune" instead of song when talking about a EDM "song", but i guess those aren't correct either.

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