Music Theory and EDM Production (practical usage)

[Hades]

Ha! I am actually one of those sad people who can play guitar but not read sheet music. I know how to finger chords and construct them, although I'd need to think a bit to make some 9ths and 13ths and inversions. But I never read proper music since guitar tab is a lot easier and if you know how the piece sounds it's enough to read the tab to play it (tab has little to no timing info). But I still struggle with calculating, from the top of my head, what the minor fourth chord is in G#, for a random example, and which notes are in that chord. I'm wondering if being well versed in sheet music allows you to visualize this in a quick and easy visual way. I can visualize scales along the neck of the guitar and count up the notes but everything there is always relative to the position of the root, I'd be pressed to say what the actual note value is. Ie To go from a major to minor barre chord you just move a finger one way or the other, and it's the same finger movement for all chords, but actually saying which note is getting flattened requires some mental gymnastics. And I wonder if this becomes easier with visualizing things on a staff rather than a guitar neck.

Perhaps I should have taken another example than guitar, cause of course you can get by quite nicely with just playing chords following tabs.
And most pieces for guitar are played with chords and not much else.
Maybe take a monophonic instrument for what I was trying to say, or at leasst some instrument where there are no tabs or other shortcuts for.
If you'd be able to play say the clarinet, but you never learned how to read notes.
Then if your hearing isn't perfect (so you'd be able to learn how to play a song just by listening and finding the right notes), then how would you learn how to play a new piece ?
This is what I'm trying to say.


btw : very useful post above with your explanation about drums. will certainly check out some of that stuff.

but you're still a sad cunt though !

[qb748t394]

Why the fuck are you calling it EDM anyway? EDM is Guetta round these parts.

Anyway the answer is 10,000 hours. Just experiment, thats what techno is about.


.

EDM!!... ha haaaaaa

fwiw...

there's been some studies out recently which basically says that the whole "10,000 hours" thing?... only really composes up to 20% of success... so there's another 80% which is responsible for those that are successful.

[Hades]

Why the fuck are you calling it EDM anyway? EDM is Guetta round these parts.

Anyway the answer is 10,000 hours. Just experiment, thats what techno is about.


.

EDM!!... ha haaaaaa

fwiw...

there's been some studies out recently which basically says that the whole "10,000 hours" thing?... only really composes up to 20% of success... so there's another 80% which is responsible for those that are successful.

care to give a link to these studies ?
I'm always interested to read that, but I personally don't believe any of it.
sure, some are just born with tons of talent, but all the rest of us have to put in a minimum of hours,
problem is that minimum is a LOT higher than most of us want to realize (or admit).

We are trained by society to believe everything has become easy and fast.
Patience is a long lost virtue.
I see it every night in my job.
If people are on hold for 1,5 minutes, they will say they were on hold for more than 5 minutes.
After 9 seconds the average person thinks there's no response. 9 seconds, for fuck's sake.

I can understand why people don't read books anymore.
Well, actually, I can't understand cause I think it makes them all more stupid, but yeah, the attention spam and patience of the average person has become next to none.

[qb748t394]

I heard it on NPR (National Public Radio... U.S.), actually, it was a radio program entitled, "Here and Now." I'm sure there's a link on the NPR website then... Personally speaking, I know the study is legit... and it means nothing to me whether anyone believes it or not... but check into it if you like.

I think its just about the fact that, with the "10,000 hours" everyone that isn't successful right now can always look to the fact that, as long as they do 10,00 hours of "a" or "b" then they too, have the ability to be great... but, in reality, there will only be a select few that will be great... and these new studies will of course let many people down... but as I asserted before, I'm still doin' what I was already doin', and no studies are going to change that.



Edit:

here's a link champ: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/09/17/p ... -macnamara

[Lost to the Void]

You are confusing being successful with being Proficient, or mastering a skill.

10,000 hours applies in terms of mastering a skill, becoming proficient.

Becoming successful contains many factors,: natural talent, skill, determination, persistence, patience, big ass chunks of luck etc.

So in this context, 10,000 hours applies.

[Hades]

and it means nothing to me whether anyone believes it or not... but check into it if you like.
...
I'm still doin' what I was already doin', and no studies are going to change that.

I'm not having a go at you mate, I'm just saying our society makes us all believe everything has become so much easier and faster, while if you think of it, a lot of things have become much harder than they used to be.
Sure modern technology has made our life easier. I mean, consider washing your clothes by hand instead of having a washing machine. And God knows I LOVE my dishwasher.

But people have become slaves of their tv's, smartphones, FB profile,...
So in reality I believe there is just as much time "lost" by our modern day inventions, probably even more, then there was once gained by them.
Just consider how much more stuff kids have to learn in school nowadays compared to 30, 40 or 50 years ago.
Having to learn all that makes it a lot harder in my opinion to have enough time/patience (next to all that school stuff) to properly learn something you love, like making music.

Just think about how many things our society is shoving up our throat as we're adults : "1000 films you must have seen", "100 books you must have read","top 10 restaurants of 2014", blablabla.

here's a link champ: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/09/17/p ... -macnamara

that link right there says enough : one of those typical short articles of 7 to 10 sentences long, saying absolutely nothing it wasn't already saying in the title.
So I click on the link to the "new research", and it's the same type of article, going : "we conclude that with sports ity's only 18%, with music it's 21%, with..."
Ok, but based on what, getting your information from where ?

And honestly, it's almost impossible to do such an investigation in any serious "neutral" scientific way, because you would need 2 exactly the same people to do such a thing.
I mean, one can't measure if person A is better than person B in sports if both did the same 1000 hours of training, because person A might just have a much better physique than person B, or longer arms and legs, or be more muscular,...

And the same goes for music : I for example have small hands, a real pain in the ass if I have to play notes that are more than 1 octave apart (1 octave + 2 notes is the real maximum I can do), how would that compare me to someone with bigger hands ? Maybe I still have a better ear or simply play with more emotional skill ?

Anyways, I'm rambling again...
Like you said : it doesn't really matter: we'll still be doing what we're doing.
but yeah, personally I'd rather believe in the putting in the hours thing, even if it's hard as hell...

[qb748t394]

I'm with you hades... also, I never thought you were "having a go" at me either.. so, we're cool.

[calum666]

qb748t394 just seen your signature and I have the answer haha

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

[qb748t394]

qb748t394 just seen your signature and I have the answer haha

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

good man!!!

[serial]

I've watched really good tutorial so if you have chance do the same, even if his voice ain't that cool he knows what he is doing
http://skillshare.com/classes/music/Mus ... d/68887879

[seanocean]

I'm not sure what else can be said, really. Either way too much, or not a lot....

i really dig on what chernobyl said on this. theory really is just a language and techno definitely has it's own unique dialect and syntax.

i mean you don't really need theory per se if you're just aping someone else, but if you want to go further or build upon current ideas, it's helpful to understand wtf is actually going on. like, it's helpful to understand chord theory when making a new layered osicllator patch and trying to use it over drums that are pitched. you put it on those drums and you're going. uh, this.. doesn't.. sound right.

also if you're just ending your bars all wily nilly and wondering why djs will suddenly stop buying your tracks cause they are impossible to mix, you might run into problems.

as far as learning drumming and paradiddles.. please do try to learn that because it will help you record better and in one take rather than tapping away and stumbling across something golden and spending the next half hour trying to get it right or editing it in your sequencer, then settling on something that only kinda sounded similar.

personally, i think what's really necessary for techno is the understanding of tension and relief.. maybe that's been my focus for some time, but really that's just music in general. what goes up goes down, what's loud gets quiet, ask a question, get an answer. just really focusing on opposites. how you do that makes it unique and there are millions of combinations to choose from. i think about this song from the advent when i think about drum combinations or combinations of ideas.
youtu.be/Ek5nA_27Oio
it's kind of a suggestion that music is a constant search for the right ingredients for gratification... too much of the bad ingredients or if you exhibit a lack of knowledge for what the right ingredients are, people will discredit you. exhibit the right amount and you've exerted a kind of mind control upon your listener.

i've heard lots and lots of tracks that sound fine. they are really technically proficient and say the artist understands the tropes and basic principles of what techno is supposed to be, but as far as to why something works, you have to try and understand what that is to be truly proficient. always try to investigate why something works, and always try to find out why you did something sounds bad to your ear. then you'll start making an outline of theory that will be invaluable to you in the way that you can understand.

[Hades]

I've watched really good tutorial so if you have chance do the same, even if his voice ain't that cool he knows what he is doing
http://skillshare.com/classes/music/Mus ... d/68887879

yeah you see 1 video from like not even 2 minutes.
then you need to "sign in", so in other words get all his SPAM for years to come,
but hey, it says "sign in for free", so you think "ah, why not"
and then all you can see are the video's in this tiny screen, and it says "if you want to go full screen, pay 10$/month.
WTF ???

look, yes, the guy's accent is irritating as hell,
but please, if you wanna post video's that use such a maffia way of getting more members,
please, do us the courtesy of giving us a slight warning upfront, no matter how good the video's might be.

[serial]

look, yes, the guy's accent is irritating as hell,
but please, if you wanna post video's that use such a maffia way of getting more members,
please, do us the courtesy of giving us a slight warning upfront, no matter how good the video's might be.

sorry I didnt watch it on the website, I have downloaded it from torrent ^^ & I can warn you that all other tutorials on site are shit but this one is really good!