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-- Should I learn how to play an instrument??
Should I learn how to play an instrument??
I wanna get into producing, i've been thinking of playing a musical instrument to learn more about music theory. Should I? And what instrument should i learn?
u should learn how to play drums... drums are very important in dance music.. playing them live is an essential thing.. u would need great stamina.. cause those drums are indeed very fast.. 
Piano? Easiest instrument to start playing, hardest to master. And enough theory to drive song ideas for however long you play.
I don't find it really necessary to know a whole lot of theory. You don't need to site read 
, thats reading from a score and playing what you see. Depends on how far you want to go. If you want to work with a vocalist then having a great deal of musical knowledge is a must (as far as Trance goes). Knowing how to read notation is always a plus and is a bit more professional. The problem is you don't really need to play well with edm (unless you want to be like Infected Mushroom).
Someone here said that playing drums is
a good thing to know as well. I've never really gotten into it beyond fooling around with a kit. But it'd be nice to sample from! I suppose to develop a sense of rhythm.
I guess it depends on how you approach production. It can be musical, technical, a step toward being a sound engineer, or a whole bunch of other things.
Oh and production is beaucoup expensive.
Lots of toys. And companies keep on coming out with goodies every year. Get a job. If you dont have one already.
If you're seriously thinking about getting
into production I would fork out some dough for a synth (not a midi controller).
And then fool around with it. Then you get to learn about all the synth kinda stuff and that translates well into production software.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Subtle u should learn how to play drums... drums are very important in dance music.. playing them live is an essential thing.. u would need great stamina.. cause those drums are indeed very fast.. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJFreaq lol, you're kidding /me sequences something in his drum machine and sets the tempo to 165 bpm there! done! it was really hard |
naw, not stupid, just ignorant, lol, i had no idea, but that's friggin sweet
You should learn to play piano not drums. Its very hard to describe but you wont be able to make a good melody in my opinion if you wont know which tons go together.. You can experiment but i prefer other way.
You dont need to play drums to know how to make a trance beat because its a lot different then in other genres.
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| Originally posted by DJFreaq naw, not stupid, just ignorant, lol, i had no idea, but that's friggin sweet |
piano / keyboard will teach you a lot about theory, and is possbily the most versatile in the long run.
guitar is really good for musical theory also, and you'll probably be able to use the guitar on your tunes, unless this current wave of guitars-in-trance dies out...
actually, just learn piano / keyboard. it is essential.
btw, if getting lessons, keyboard lessons are different to piano in that in keyboard you'll learn more contemporary techniques, esp. improvisation which will help you compose melodies etc.
anything i learned on piano carried over to what i know on guitar.
but knowing how to play guitar is useless, IMO for trance/dance.
i realy wish i would have stuck with piano, but you cant carry one around with you most of the time like a guitar.
i think if you want to invest in some midi drums it might be worth a study. i saw this guy preform a whole set once on Roland V-drums. it was the most provocative thing ive ever seen. he programed the synth leads to trigger off a certain pad, and just did everything else on the fly. (forgot his name, darn!)
the piano is the basis for all instruments... learn the piano and you can understand and easily learn another instrument.
This is the only instrument you will ever EVER need to learn to produce chart topping trance anthems!
LOL!!!
/me caresses his crapp ol' Yamaha PSR-225
it's myyy precsiousssss
OOO MIDI
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Subtle u must be very stupid.. (sorry) but didnt u know that for instance Armin van Buuren, Ferry corsten and even Tiesto play there own drums.. not live off course but in their studio.. |
Well I've been trained in playing the keyboard. I think that it helps a lot in the creation of melodies, but I wouldn't say that it's essential to be able to play an instrument in order to be able to be a producer.
If you do decide to learn to play something, I would advise you to learn the keyboard like me or the piano. Something like the drums wouldn't really help I don't think because lets face it, the drums in dance or trance music are often quite simple. It's the actual production of the sounds and the mastering that makes a good drum line.
I recommend you only learn how to play keyboards. It isn't very usefull learning how to play the drums, because most people who like electronic music know how to add good drums in their tracks!
Playing on piano is necessary to start whatever so yes...you should start 
My advice to you is that you don't have to learn one instrument very very well, but rather, learn many different instruments.
There are different things that help you from different instruments. With the piano, it will help you write down melodies with a midi keyboard, guitar will help you develop a sense of chords and also help you develop song writing skills. Learning percussion I would say are not necessary unless you plan to do some live recording with bongos and congas and etc... which then is much better and easier to play live than to try to sequence it.
I myself play violin, trombone and guitar and I have played solo, in concert bands, jazz bands, orchestras, jam sessions, and string ensembles for over 13 years and that is the thing that I have found that has really developed my musical sense.
You cannot just learn an instrument if you want to learn music. You must actually play it a lot, enjoy it and just have fun. It isn't obtained by learning, but rather by experience.
It takes time.. but I would say, learn 1 or 2 instruments, and just play and have fun with it for about 1 or 2 years and you'll start to see yourself gain musical experience
my 2 cents
hahaha i belive your giving trance producers too much credit by saying they play drums live. lol just isnt really done. its done with drum and bass production teams and shit but not with trance. but learning an instrument is very important. you might not be able to produce bad ass shit that would end up being considerd a classic but itll help you devolp an overall abilty to do many things. me personally i have 14years cello and 7 years bass experience and still cant make a good trance track for shit. but as far as in the experimental department where its not all about this before this and all the bullshit i can do some pretty insane shit. trance production isnt easy and really i know a few producers whove never played a instrument in their life and in a matter of a year they were producing on a profensional leval.
really it just all depends on how you dedicate yourself to it and the way you learn. best bet is getting a midi controller and getting some software and just get fucked and fuck around with it til you can familarise yourself with everything. or just sit on a piano and start knocking out patters. creativity will prevail. learning music theory would be more benficial then learning an accutal instrument to be rather honest. go to your local music store and pick up some starting books on music theory. they will be rather cheap and very usefull. or just search online for shit but getting a published book would be alot more helpfull then reading posts. atleast to be it is. then again monkeys can produce better then me so lol.
....I need more cowbell!
um... yeah... the "trance producers play drums live" ... it was a joke ... just learn the piano, the basis for all things and you'll learn the wonderful world of music...
I play guitar and keyboard. The main way it's helped me is that when I got into production, I didn't have to learn any music theory at all, and I haven't had to learny any since 
It also helps you get more musical, better ear, and so on.
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