Where to start...again

[br490]

Hello all,

I am after some advice advice on what to learn/hoan first and also in order of importance (if that even is true) in order to really get the grasp of music production.
Ive played around with ableton for the past few years but as I have never really put the time in to learn to specific components of production, I time and time again just get frustrated and give up.
Those components being, music theory, synthesis/sound design, effects, arrangement, ableton itself etc etc
I'm not someone who can just open up a DAW and play around for hours and learn things by doing. Im much more of a structured learner.

So in saying that, I would like to know where everyone thinks I should start and any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Passing Bye]

Start with playing an instrument, get MIDI keyboard if you don't have one and invest in piano lessons with real teacher. Than when you manage to make rough full arrangements/skeleton's with place holder sounds (presets and etc), start getting into production aspect, sound design and etc, there will be something worth finishing and polishing.

[DJ Warmonger]

Uhh, dude, did you get past Ableton tutorials on their official page?
If so, then you can try dozens of paid courses or thousands of free Youtube videos on any subject.

Learning music production is not much different than learning anything else, so the question is: Do you know how to learn at all?

[leeleema]

Uhh, dude, did you get past Ableton tutorials on their official page?
If so, then you can try dozens of paid courses or thousands of free Youtube videos on any subject.

Learning music production is not much different than learning anything else, so the question is: Do you know how to learn at all?

Aye, the Ableton tutorials are really good and well presented too. Like anything, it takes a huge amount of effort and time. I'd narrow it down if I was you, by choosing a specific genre and deconstructing a favourite song in that genre. This will be extremely useful for arrangement and a bit of music theory too. It's easy these days to find what key a song is in e.g. tunebat, beatport etc. Just do a bit at a time, otherwise, yes it will be totally overwhelming.

[Armagibbon]

Hey man I been there. Trick is to start at your keys and copy what you love. Like throw your fav tracks in your daw and play along with whatever sounds you got. Presets aint gotta be a perfect match... just play what you hear in time and in tune. Match it up... keys. Bass. Synths and pads. Drums and beats. All that.

Do that alot before you try makin originals. Gotta work on your ears man... build the intuition so you know where to go. Theory and all that is just words to explain how it is and dont mean jack if you dont put in the time to feel it.

[squidot]

You can really start wherever you are inspired to start but personally I would say learning Ableton would be the number one thing to focus in your position. You won't be able to accomplish much if you don't know how the software works. Theory is always great but some genres find that less important than others, so it depends on what you're trying to do. If you're more of a structured learner, find a course that has structure and set goals and deadlines for yourself to accomplish. Can you do short tutorial a day, every couple days, every week. Put the time you can invest and don't give up. I've struggled with this myself over the years and about a month ago I started to get serious about learning about a month ago and I've set goals that I hold myself accountable for.

So for my personal learning journey, I've set my focus to Ableton > arrangement > mixing > sound design > theory. I don't really neglect any of them per se but that's where the priority is at my current level. You can always use samples or presets until you get more into sound design and theory. This path makes the most sense for me but ymmv.

Like Armagibbon said, copying songs is a great way to learn. You can do an arrangement exercise in Ableton by pulling in a song you really like and making a bunch of blank midi clips for all the different sounds you hear (kick, snare, hats, synth lead, pads, bass, etc). This will show you how great artists arrange their music. Then try to recreate the sounds in those clips to the best of your ability and you will learn a ton along the way. It's not easy at first, but it's a great exercise.

[Tendou]

If you do EDM I can recommend edmprod foundations course. Its pretty good snd after songwriting course from them I can say they are really good teachers.

[Bulbizarre]

What you can be sure about is that anything other than just going and actually try to make stuff won't give you anything done. Sometimes it's terrible because you don't know what to do or how to do it, because you don't have the experience, the knownledge etc. But in my experience the most efficient way of learning is just by doing things myself. Plus, sometimes I would watch tutorials, and the guy would give opinions like they're general rules, then I would compare with my last stuff and as I did in my track it sounded so much better than if I followed some random advice on internet.
So, experience is the best teacher. I think the only critical moment where you literally need to look things up is when you really cannot do something and you're wasting time. Eg. writing midi, trying to record with your interface, handling panels in your DAW, learning the waveforms and basic music theory...
Also I recommand that you do analytical listening. Don't listen to your favorite music like they're in the background. Try to follow each element one by one, and think about how they interact as a whole, part after part, effect after effect (if applicable) etc. Try to put names on the things you hear.

[jamcat]

Learn how to play an instrument. Learn how to write a song. Figure out why you want to make music and what you want to say with it. Find your own voice.

The rest just comes out of necessity in pursuing your musical purpose once you’ve found it.

[thecontrolcentre]

This ^^