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-- Can you really "learn" to write *great* music just by working hard at it?
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Intelligence is a huge factor in my opinion as well as experience. I think somebody who has listened to Trance for 10 years is going to have a lot more passion and innovation for music than somebody who has listened to it for 2 years. Creativity in its purest form cannot be taught, however it can evolve over time. I believe every person has the ability (if they try hard enough) to write tracks that have soul to them. The problem is they may not have soul to anyone else. There is no black or white answer for this question.
I agree everything can be learned and tamed, however dificult it would be. But only limited people are born to be next big thing. So the talent is not the last what an artist should possess. There're millions of artists out there but only some of them sound really tight.
Some encouragement, sort of:
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| Scholars have also demolished the old idea that Mozart was an idiot savant, transcribing the music that played in his brain. Instead, he seems to have refined his ideas to an almost manic degree. Examination of Mozart�s surviving sketches and drafts�Constanze threw many sketches away�reveals that the composer sometimes began a piece, set it aside, and resumed it months or years later; rewrote troubling sections several times in a row; started movements from scratch when a first attempt failed to satisfy; and waited to finish an aria until a singer had tried out the opening. Ulrich Konrad calls these stockpiles of material �departure points���a delineation of intellectual places to which Mozart could return as necessary.� In other words, the music in Mozart�s mind may have been like a huge map of half-explored territories; in a way, he was writing all his works all the time. The new image of him as a kind of improvising perfectionist is even more formidable than the previous one of God�s stenographer. Ambitious parents who are currently playing the �Baby Mozart� video for their toddlers may be disappointed to learn that Mozart became Mozart by working furiously hard, and, if Constanze was right, by working himself to death. |
some sort of vision is the most important thing imo.
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| Originally posted by cryophonik I think the notion that people are "born with it" is complete BS. Allow me to blow my own horn (no pun intended) for a moment. I've been a musician since I could talk, went to college on a music scholarship and got a degree in Music Theory/Composition, and made a very successful career as a performer and session player for about 18 years of my life, but it didn't come easy. I had to practice my a$$ off and study the hell out of music theory to make all that happen. One thing that would piss me off more than just about anything was people saying things like "oh, you were born with such great talent", or "you're so gifted". That's complete BS and makes it seem like I didn't have to lift a finger to become an accomplished musician. Worse yet, I hear other people use "I guess I wasn't born with it" as an excuse for their dissatisfaction with their musical abilities, when the simple truth is obvious: they're just not working at it as hard as they need to. Now, that said, I do believe that the ability to become a successful musician is something that is largely nurtured from an early age. Infants and children are the most highly influential life stage and that is the period in which we all learn lessons, values, and motor skills that play a hugely important role in our technical, cognitive, and creative abilities later in life. As a father, I see it in my 19-month old son on a daily basis. I give him pretty much free roam (supervised, of course) of the studio and he is free to strum guitars, bang on the piano and synths, turn knobs on preamps, sing into the microphone, etc. There is music playing constantly in our home and cars, and we buy him music toys regularly (bongos, drums, keyboard, etc.) The teachers at his daycare are amazed at his musical abilities. There's no doubt in my mind that he is going to be a far better musician than I could ever hope to be, simply because he started years ahead of me and has access to musical resources that I was still dreaming of when I was in my twenties. But, he wasn't born with it. He is learning the same way we all did. And, yes, he practices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DajzJa89w  |
My 2 cent:
"Being born with it", what does it mean, really? It does not mean you are born with the knowledge of how to operate a synthesizer, or tune a compressor just right, it means you have a burning interest in music and you have ideas, loads of ideas that you want to let others hear.
Someone said the words "If you don't have anything interesting to say, then don't say anything at all.". If you're trying to make music but you don't have any concepts to produce into reality, then why the fuck are you trying to make music in the first place?! Don't force it, that just does not work. So, being "born with it" is nothing more than the willpower and imagination to write the music.
Lastly, some people are tonedeaf, they can't tell you if something sounds good or bad, can't tell you if a melody is in key or off tune. I've had this ability since I was 4 and started playing piano, and 90% of people have it. most people can tell the difference between major and minor, once they've learned what the concepts are. The rest usually doesn't like music, so this probably doesn't apply to you If you do love music and define yourself as tonedeaf, please contact me as this is an psychological interest to me :P
Now; you have loads of ideas that you want to make reality, now you need some method of doing that. You can whistle your song, or sing, or bang a beat on the table, but another option is to use electronic instruments. You need to learn how to operate them, and the better you are, the closer you can get to that original idea in your head. Once you have complete mastery over you equipment there is no longer a barrier between your brain and the real word, and it is now up to your imagination to make it sound good. Have good idead; make good music! Have bad ideas and your music will suck. The problem is that most people don't have enough equipment skill but do have good ideas and thus become frustrated.
Yeah, that was my 2 cent
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| Originally posted by Low Profile "Being born with it"... means you have a burning interest in music and you have ideas, loads of ideas that you want to let others hear. |
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| Originally posted by hundred lsd. |
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| Originally posted by DigiNut Yeah, not exactly. Most kids have a burning interest in becoming professional athletes but find out pretty early on that they just don't have what it takes to get there. Trouble with solo hobbies like producing is that you don't really get that reality check. |
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| Originally posted by Subtle Yeah, mostly because producing music doesnt require any physical attributes. |
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| Originally posted by DigiNut It requires mental attributes. Most of those kids won't grow up to be internet millionaires either. Or rocket scientists. There aren't as many people aspiring to those careers so it's not as interesting to talk about, but the idea is the same. |
You can't turn a hoe into a housewife. 
That said, I think with dance music, raw musical skill might be a detriment to making great dance music. When you start following fundamental rules of music based on teachings you might be limiting yourself. Those teachings are good for playing back already created music, instead of giving you raw ability to create new music. There are too many rules that come along with a strong music background. With Dance music there should be less rules or no rules, and more experimentation and abstract throwing things at the wall and seeing how things react. Let your senses do all the work.
Dance music requires a different type of skill. I think life experiences, taste, influences are more important when making dance music. For example, for my own music different nights out are influential, different club environments, the way people have reacted to a tune they were dancing to and what different parts of the tune did to the dancefloor has pushed the direction of where I take my own music. Or why I put certain elements in and avoid other elements. I always think about the dancefloor and the headphone listener when trying to get my vision across.
If you are able to learn the techniques of creating different sounds and more importantly different emotions and moods then you have a leg up on people who spent their whole life learning classical violin or piano. A good ear goes a long way. So if you have these moods and emotions in you, then it becomes a process of learning how to portray those moods, emotions, feelings onto a canvas, in hope to have people feel what you want them to. A good ear allows you to take what you hear and decide whether what you are working on is beneficial towards the vision. So, your born with those things, but the ability to implement what you are born with comes down to technique, practice, skill level. Things you have to learn and work on. Ultimately great music is created by a mix of being "born with it," and then making use of what you are born with through technique. I think the best producers have that natural raw talent and over time have been able to make use of that natural resource through proper technology, and the techniques needed to extract those natural resources.
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