Super inexperienced at production, looking for advice on getting started.

L

Leef

New member
I'm new to this forum
I'm 16 years old. I've been producing on my friends copy of FL studio since the age of 12 and within the past few months was given a copy of Ableton.
I'm a fairly competent pianist but I struggle to make and compose music at all. I find my rhythm sections are messy, my melodies/bass/chords are bland and I never find my way to some sort of developed concept. Does anybody have any ideas or tips for how I can get started and begin progressing as a musician and composer?
Thanks, in advance, for any help.
 
At this stage, no.
Keep making music until it gets better.

Maybe analyse in depth a few tracks you like to see what makes them tick. Sit down with a pen and paper and write what they do... not so much 'super awesome lead' 'catchy melody' but 'bright lead with reverb' ' 4 bar 5 note melody, with x rhythm repeated'. Think about the music theory of what's happening- and if you don't know the theory, learn an instrument and chords and things.
 
Leef said:
I'm new to this forum
I'm 16 years old. I've been producing on my friends copy of FL studio since the age of 12 and within the past few months was given a copy of Ableton.
I'm a fairly competent pianist but I struggle to make and compose music at all. I find my rhythm sections are messy, my melodies/bass/chords are bland and I never find my way to some sort of developed concept. Does anybody have any ideas or tips for how I can get started and begin progressing as a musician and composer?
Thanks, in advance, for any help.
Click to expand...

3 words...watch youtube videos. I've been producing for 12 years and i watch them faithfully. It's like being in school man, unfortunately, except you're actually learning the tools to create something you love. it's like when you learned how to play piano. Practicing scales can bore some people to tears, but you made it through to your chord progression days. You have a music theory background, so you have a head start on most new beat makers out there.

All you need to do is focus on Ableton now. Study it, watch videos on it, try to master it. If you do, you'll understand the concept of sequencing, mixing and you'll be composing in no time. Once you learn how to work Ableton well, you'll understand enough basic theory to easily learn other programs. So my advice is simply learn as much about Ableton as you can and you'll unconsciously learn about everything else.

Cheers
 
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Leef said:
I'm a fairly competent pianist but I struggle to make and compose music at all. I find my rhythm sections are messy, my melodies/bass/chords are bland and I never find my way to some sort of developed concept.
Click to expand...

To be honest... It sounds to me like you rush through the track.
Workflow is something that speeds up over time and with practice.

Work longer on your rhythm section until it's no longer messy. If it helps think about the mechanics of an acoustic drum kit; how it's played and the limitations of the traditional drummer.
Once you have that understanding you can kinda throw out the rulebook and add extra arms and legs to your drummer.

I'm not the best person to chat about melody's... As mine are either dependant on the flip, sung/hummed and transposed or written on the step (happy accidents).
Basslines are something I struggled with - took bass guitar lessons for a few months and thing kinda fell into place (beit on strings or keys).

But yeah... Slow down... Work on getting one thing right before flying ahead.
 
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Sounds like you need inspiration!
I'm new to this forum as well, but I've found throughout my little time of producing that inspiration is the key to getting your mind to create tracks that you like.

I recommend spending time while you can browsing through SoundCloud and following people whose music you enjoy. Like scrapheaper said, just analyse the tracks you like the most and try to create similar sounds in your own tracks, such as a drumbeat you think is cool. If you're getting inspiration from just specific elements in a song, it wont be copying, and I've found its actually a great way to develop your own style of music.

As for melodies, if you're competent at piano then you should know your scales and what notes to play to make a melody sound good. Although without inspiration I find it is hard to create tunes, so we're again coming back to the start.
Listen to a wide range of music that you like, analyse the songs, let it sink in for a bit and then ideas will come to your head dude!

Also with the technical side of things, youtube is a great way to learn certain techniques, and you can search just about anything from how to make a certain synth to how to master tracks well. Practice makes perfect, and you'll be able to put the ideas from your head to the computer more efficiently after a while.


Hope this helped a bit, I know there's no step-by-step way to become a good producer other than practice but it gives you an idea on how to make it easier for you.

If you want you can have a look at my SoundCloud, I get a lot of my inspiration from Flume, Gill Chang etc.
I just released a new song that is inspired by a lot of future bass songs I've heard around. I don't know what you listen to much but its always worth having a look at different genres! Just search for TAYLEOFFICIAL


Again, hope I helped!
 
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Youtube "BusyWorksBeats"

long videos but if you take notes like school, you will be decent in no time

keep pushing through it
 
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You've just got to keep practicing mate, nothing comes easy. You're only 16 so you've got so much time to get better and improve. Google and Youtube are your friends here, theres so much free material out there to help you out. Best of luck!
 
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