How can I improve my proficiency at passing the melodies from my head to the keys?

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DonTrump

New member
as a beginner, my biggest frustation now is: I have in my head exactly how the beat should sound (melodies, drum patterns, bass etc) but when I try to transmit it to the DAW: zero. I think of myself as a creative person, but when it comes to the technical part I stuck. saw here at FP that one way to pass through it is studying music theory and I think maybe it's the way to go, but music theory is soooooo extensive, how would I know if what I'm reading is really useful to start having a nice workflow?
speaking of the melodies in special, what method did you guys use to improve your keyboard skills enough to create the tracks you create now? is keyboard classes the way to go since I just need enough skills to create hip hop instrumentals?
 
Usually I don't have the melody without my fingers being on the keys,, meaning I rarely invent a melody in my head to play it after.

if I do, I record my voice doing the melody so I can always listen to it when I will be playing it on the keys.

Usually I find my melodies while playing the keys so i'm already in the workflow when i'm thinking of the melody.

hope that helps.
 
Sounds like you don't have much knowledge regarding theory. Well the good news for you is that theory has nothing to do with putting down a melody you already have in your head. Just hum it and play it bro. Just find the first note on any sort of instrument or in your daw then you're golden..just gotta keep humming it till you put the whole pattern down
 
i just improvise all the time it doesnt get me bored and ican only play by ear, and iwas watching a segment on herbie hancock he mentions its good practice and it makes you better to improvise coming from a person who reads notes
 
I wish I knew too Don, dam. Scales give you all the correct notes to hit randomly but when you have a specific melody in your head, gotta look for each note by ear beforehand...omfg.Why can't it just work like the brain and mouth do where you can instantly lay out the melody from your head in realtime?

There has to be a way to train the hands to do on a piano what humming by ear can do.
 
it's called ear training which has 4 individual components that come together to make it possible to do what you are seeking

rhythmic transcription
scale/key transcription
interval transcription
harmonic transcription

go to teoria.com and use their ear training and theory training exercises to improve your skills

and whilst everyone who has written so far is "right" about not needing any theory or special knowledge, having that special knowledge moves you from being a hunter-gatherer (where you hunt and peck out the individual notes using your mouse or keyboard) to a producer (where your musical ideas simply flow from your mind to your hands to your daw)

an interesting sound bite I heard yesterday which may reflect my own world-view is "inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work"

Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem-Creating | Brain Pickings
 
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I believe it's also a matter of experience. As you make more music, you get to know yourself better.
And over time you learn your own workflow and how to translate your ideas into the real world better.
I mean except music theory and knowing different technical things in the back of your head, because nothing kills this translation better than having to struggle with other things that get in the way.
 
thank you all that shared experiences, I really appreciate it!!

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@KonKossKang, totally agree with u bro. hope I can improve my ear training skills. I think that when I have the ability to pass the music phrases from my head to the midi controller in real time my workflow will multiplicate by ten in terms of speed.

@bandcoach, speacial thanks to you, bro. maybe ear training is exaclty what I need, I will study about it now. One question tho, do you know any exercises to memorize all the scales on the keyboard? I know that many sites have all of them exposed and all but, when it comes do memorize them for the times I want to improvise, looking in websites everytime does not helps me. my knowledge now is: major chords, minor chords and C major scale... any way to expand it would be really useful
 
That teoria can be learned but I'm very reluctant(that's just me lol).
However those links he gave elsewhere, those...yes.
If those help...for doing a [it doesn't even have to sound like beetohoven just enough to do catchy lil riffs and main] melodies...
Dear god.
 
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