Being able to play an instrument

[matrixo9]

How many of you draw your stuff in midi
And how many play it really roughly and edit quantize it after ?
Which is what I do I'd be useless live

Apart from the late Tim berglin
Who drew stuff in

and Max Martin Who admits he plays stuff really to a minimal level
Are there others
I really should divide my time on learning more piano songs
But once I get producing ,the piano skills start to rust up not that there that great anyway lol
I learned a couple of songs before
That I have now forgotten
Ie Brooklyn by hauschka
Max Richter couple of simple 1 Mon songs by him
Spiderman etc
But it's so time consuming to learn piano songs as I read music like a snail

Is there anywhere to get smal synth parts to learn in sheet music
Sorry this was a question now it's a bit of a ramble

[AnalogGuy1]

I don't know enough to have general advice, but I can tell you what worked for me. As an adult I wanted to learn to play the piano. I had no training as a child. I tried on my own using internet resources, and mostly failed, other than being able to pick out a few songs and memorize them. For me there were three major turning points.

The first was that I took piano lessons. I thought there was no way in-person lessons for 30 minutes could beat having access to hours and hours of online tutorials and lessons. I was wrong. There are so many little things that can only be taught be a live teacher - it fixed my posture, the way I was holding my hands, the "feeling" when depressing the keys...many things only made a difference after a few weeks, so I would have never discovered them on my own. Plus, my teacher taught me how to chunk pieces when learning them to make learning much faster. And there's motivation to push through to learn new pieces so you don't look foolish.

After a year I hit a plateau. My reading of music was far better, but not enough to avoid memorizing. And I'd still make tons of mistakes on anything that I hadn't memorized to death. I couldn't play anything that someone would want to listen to. It was depressing. That was when I met a guitarist friend and we started practicing together. Let me tell you - if practicing for a teacher isn't motivation enough, practicing with a friend will be. In another year I could play well enough that I could play simple solos (e.g. Cars "Just What I Needed") and play backing chords to support pretty much anything else. At this point perhaps my wife would "enjoy" listening to 10 minutes of us playing.

Then the last turning point: we added another guitarist who could sing, the first guitarist went to bass, and we added a drummer. After another year we began playing out. I was the worst musician of the group, and that gave me huge impetus to learn to get better. I never did get to the point that I feel comfortable improvising live, but after 10 years of gigging in bars, small local festivals, university functions, and weddings, I can play anything in our setlist of 300+ songs.

My band broke up last year, and I no longer have the desire to play out. But I still semi-regularly practice and play my favorite tunes - I'd feel comfortable walking up to a piano anywhere and playing Lady Madonna without thinking twice.

So my (very limited) advice is: get some in-person lessons, practice with a friend, play out, and expect it to take several years.

[foosnark]

There is no shame in entering stuff in a piano roll, tracker, etc., just as there was no shame in writing music on staff paper. But I think being able to play at least one instrument -- not necessarily well enough to perform live or impress people, but to have a feel for it, play some basic things by ear and improvise a bit -- is really helpful.

And if you're not writing purely synth music, or are at least imitating acoustic instruments, you should have at least a minimal understanding of the physical limitations, characteristic roles and gestures/phrases, etc. of the instrument. E.g. things like chord voicings on guitar (and things like hammer-ons, slides and so on), breath or bow control, reach, and so on.

As for me: I have dabbled in a few instruments and am not particularly great at any of them. Violin when I was a kid, keyboards (I did have piano lessons for a few months), hand percussion. Some basic chords on mandolin and uke. I was a semi-pro taiko drummer for a couple of years (I have the rhythm for sure, and am comfortable improvising solos... but endurance in long sets is difficult, I had a hard time following more complex choreography, and it meant I was performing other peoples' work and had too little time for my own creative pursuits). And now I'm teaching myself fretless bass guitar and putting in some solid practice on it.

I don't do MIDI sequencing anymore -- I record everything live. Modular hardware, controllers and software. There might be a couple of modular sequences/generative patches, or basic built-in sequencers/arps running a looping pattern, but the rest is a combination of faders, joystick, pressure controller, touchplate keyboards, and pads. Improvisation is super important to me, not really virtuoso playing... but enough control and a good feel for emotional intensity, timing, when to switch things up, and what works with the current drones/sequences that are running.

[matrixo9]

There is no shame in entering stuff in a piano roll, tracker, etc., just as there was no shame in writing music on staff paper. But I think being able to play at least one instrument -- not necessarily well enough to perform live or impress people, but to have a feel for it, play some basic things by ear and improvise a bit -- is really helpful.

And if you're not writing purely synth music, or are at least imitating acoustic instruments, you should have at least a minimal understanding of the physical limitations, characteristic roles and gestures/phrases, etc. of the instrument. E.g. things like chord voicings on guitar (and things like hammer-ons, slides and so on), breath or bow control, reach, and so on.

As for me: I have dabbled in a few instruments and am not particularly great at any of them. Violin when I was a kid, keyboards (I did have piano lessons for a few months), hand percussion. Some basic chords on mandolin and uke. I was a semi-pro taiko drummer for a couple of years (I have the rhythm for sure, and am comfortable improvising solos... but endurance in long sets is difficult, I had a hard time following more complex choreography, and it meant I was performing other peoples' work and had too little time for my own creative pursuits). And now I'm teaching myself fretless bass guitar and putting in some solid practice on it.

I don't do MIDI sequencing anymore -- I record everything live. Modular hardware, controllers and software. There might be a couple of modular sequences/generative patches, or basic built-in sequencers/arps running a looping pattern, but the rest is a combination of faders, joystick, pressure controller, touchplate keyboards, and pads. Improvisation is super important to me, not really virtuoso playing... but enough control and a good feel for emotional intensity, timing, when to switch things up, and what works with the current drones/sequences that are running.

i know chords can play stuff in albeit badly
i dont practice enough im lazy with the daw editing
i couldnt play live tbh

[cryophonik]

I've been playing keys and bass for most of my life, so it's easiest for me to play things live and edit in the piano roll afterward. That's not to say that I don't ever draw things in. I actually do that fairly frequently, like say when I want to add a few notes, or try something different. It's often quicker to just pencil them in than it is to repeat the performance.

On a somewhat related note, I don't usually play all of my drum patterns into my DAW. I have a Maschine and I'm a somewhat decent finger drummer, but I usually find that I get better results much more quickly if I do the bulk of that in my DAW or Maschine software, particularly with a step sequencer, rather than the piano roll. I'll often play some percussion hits after the basic pattern is drawn in, mostly for improv and variety.

[matrixo9]

There is no shame in entering stuff in a piano roll, tracker, etc., just as there was no shame in writing music on staff paper. But I think being able to play at least one instrument -- not necessarily well enough to perform live or impress people, but to have a feel for it, play some basic things by ear and improvise a bit -- is really helpful.

And if you're not writing purely synth music, or are at least imitating acoustic instruments, you should have at least a minimal understanding of the physical limitations, characteristic roles and gestures/phrases, etc. of the instrument. E.g. things like chord voicings on guitar (and things like hammer-ons, slides and so on), breath or bow control, reach, and so on.

As for me: I have dabbled in a few instruments and am not particularly great at any of them. Violin when I was a kid, keyboards (I did have piano lessons for a few months), hand percussion. Some basic chords on mandolin and uke. I was a semi-pro taiko drummer for a couple of years (I have the rhythm for sure, and am comfortable improvising solos... but endurance in long sets is difficult, I had a hard time following more complex choreography, and it meant I was performing other peoples' work and had too little time for my own creative pursuits). And now I'm teaching myself fretless bass guitar and putting in some solid practice on it.

I don't do MIDI sequencing anymore -- I record everything live. Modular hardware, controllers and software. There might be a couple of modular sequences/generative patches, or basic built-in sequencers/arps running a looping pattern, but the rest is a combination of faders, joystick, pressure controller, touchplate keyboards, and pads. Improvisation is super important to me, not really virtuoso playing... but enough control and a good feel for emotional intensity, timing, when to switch things up, and what works with the current drones/sequences that are running.

[matrixo9]

sorry done that twice

[pekbro]

I have to play stuff, drawing it out on a piano roll only works for drums with me, even then I have to play for anything complex. Frankly, I can't understand how folks can even draw stuff out beyond writing out the actual music, which is a different thing all together imo. For me learning any instrument is only a matter of getting my hands on it and knowing what it's supposed to sound like and how it works.

[matrixo9]

I have to play stuff, drawing it out on a piano roll only works for drums with me, even then I have to play for anything complex. Frankly, I can't understand how folks can even draw stuff out beyond writing out the actual music, which is a different thing all together imo. For me learning any instrument is only a matter of getting my hands on it and knowing what it's supposed to sound like.

I hate drawing and I'm the same as you I have to ay stuff just sometimes I'll play it so badly I'll have to edit it anyway sometimes just quantize

[pekbro]

I have to play stuff, drawing it out on a piano roll only works for drums with me, even then I have to play for anything complex. Frankly, I can't understand how folks can even draw stuff out beyond writing out the actual music, which is a different thing all together imo. For me learning any instrument is only a matter of getting my hands on it and knowing what it's supposed to sound like.

I hate drawing and I'm the same as you I have to ay stuff just sometimes I'll play it so badly I'll have to edit it anyway sometimes just quantize

I don't have to quantize, use a tuner or anything like that. My brain handles that automatically.
I may have to restart something of course, but I know instantly when it's off. That's another thing,
I don't understand how someone can't hear when something is off.

[donkey tugger]

Got no problem with mouse entry into the piano roll - it's fun for a change now and then. However, in terms of writing it's a snails pace to what I can do on the guitar/bass VI/midi guitar controller. When I'm on a roll I write really, really fast , which would be impossible fiddling about moving notes with a mouse. When the inspiration strikes you don't want to be f**king about.

Drums wise I do play (badly) and will most of the time play the basics on my little electronic pads and pedals thing, then tart it up later.

[matrixo9]

Basslines are another thing I sometimes play badly and edit the f**k out of keyboard melody's I really enjoy playing

[synthgeek]

For anything that isn't guitar or bass, I tend to draw it in more often than not. Much more often. Despite having keyboards of some kind around for most of my life, and developing a huge interest in synthesizers, I never learned to play keys very well. For whatever reason, I seem to get on slightly better with fretted instruments.

[harryupbabble]

i wouldn't mind learning keyboard really well. when i see paul maccartney playing lady madonna on the piano, it sorta kinda adds credibility to his credit.

[Hink]

I record because I play