How long have you made music for?

[Paranoidhumanoise]

Hey everybody! I have to admit i am new here, i just signed up recently. I'm sure like everyone here, I've been avidly interested in music my whole life . Though only trying too produce and make music electronically for a few years now, and last year attending an audio engineering course for six months. Music means different things to everyone, and is a great form of expression. When did you start producing and releasing music? Any advice for a noobie?

[stunkel]

I started playing piano 3 years ago, I started writing around the same time. So three years for me ;3

[Yoshiii343]

Played music for about 5-6 years, started making music a little more than half a year.

[Back-From-Purgatory]

At 2/2/13 10:38 PM, Paranoidhumanoise wrote: When did you start producing and releasing music?

I started playing music in like... grade 1 (Recorder), moved on to a full orchestra in Grade 5 (Clarinet/Tenor Sax) which won a few national competitions, started writing my own music about 3-4 years after that with guitar/bass... been doing that for about 10 years...

So... in total.. I've been part of music for something like... Uhhh... 20 years...

Damn I feel old now.

Any advice for a noobie?

Practice, practice, practice. And when you're done that... Practice some more.

[SkyeWintrest]

Hey there!

I've been playing piano for about 7-8 years, and making music for a bit over 2. It's been a weird road for me, but I've enjoyed it a lot.

When it comes to advice, I have to agree with BFP - doing it is one of the best ways to get better. But that's not the only one - you can also listen to other people's advice on how to make music, listen to other songs and analyze how you think they did it, and simply work on thinking more creatively!

[Paranoidhumanoise]

At 2/3/13 12:08 AM, Back-From-Purgatory wrote:

So... in total.. I've been part of music for something like... Uhhh... 20 years...

Damn I feel old now.

Any advice for a noobie?

Practice, practice, practice. And when you're done that... Practice some more.

Thanks alot man! 20 years is a long time, here's too a hopeful 20 more. Cheers!

[MetalRenard]

I played around on a keyboard from the age of 6 onward but got serious 9 years ago when I first picked up a guitar.

[AetherX]

I've been playing piano for about eight or nine years now (not necessarily improving that whole time but hey, what are you gonna do?). I didn't actually start writing music until just before I picked up FL three years ago.

[ForeverBound]

well i started when i was 14 year's. I downloaded the free LMMS DAW back then. I think i've used it over a year and then i found Fruity loops and ever since then i'm working with that. I'm 17 now btw so that means I'm producing for like 3 years.

[KKSlider60]

I grabbed a recorder in middle school for 3 years, then I learned some of the basics of music theory back in... 10 years ago? Wow. Then the moment I signed up here I was already playing around with Reason 4 and FL Studio, so effectively... I'd say I've been composing for about 3 years. And even BEFORE that, I had a brief story with Midisoft Studio with veeery limited hardware, and then trying various free stuff like LMMS and Rosegarden in a time when I used to migrate often between different OS. Luckily, I have no old MIDIs that can prove that. ^^

I also suck at piano, electric guitar and bass. :D

[Neon-Bard]

I started playing the bass guitar when I was 14 at the behest of my friends. After playing for a couple of years, I moved on to the mandolin and dabbled with the guitar and tin whistle once in a while. When I was 17 I joined a band as a vocalist, and we participated in some competitions, but mostly it was just for some fun. This is when I started to actually 'write' music. I wrote lyrical pieces, but didn't have the nerve to bring my work to the rest of the band. After a while we decided to go our separate ways. I tried to look for another group to play with, but there was never any interest wherever I looked.

Then, during my second year of university, when I was 18 (almost 19) one of my good friends introduced me to the digital side of audio with the DAW FL Studio. I was immediately hooked. I no longer had to rely on others to make music which felt very liberating. I made music sporadically for a while, learning little tricks and also learning from my early failures.

Fast-forward to 2013 and I'm still at it. Always learning new things, always growing. Isn't that the best thing about music?! So, I suppose I've been 'making' music officially for close to 3 years now. :)

[TroisNyxEtienne]

I've played the piano for 18 years (I started when I was 3), started drumming when I was 16, but only started handling a sequencer when I was 19 (so two years of digital.)

[Step]

I spent the first 10 years of my life not really caring much for music. I thought it was really overrated and never got how people could spend hours and hours everyday listening to music.

At around 10 - 11 years of age I started learning piano and I was really enjoying it. At around that time I started to go on Newgrounds and I visited the Audio Portal. It opened my eyes on how possible it is to make great music without being some professional musician.

So eventually, at 12 years of age I started making music with Echo, using music notation programs like Mozart9, Cakewalk and Finale Notepad. I would've probably stopped eventually if it were not for this song. I heard it, thought it sounded great, and saw FL Studio mentioned in the Author's Comments.

I took an interest, got FL Studio, and started making music with it around the beginning of 2009. I've been making music since then, so I'd say a little over 4 years.

[ReconCraftTheta]

Guitar when I was 8, cello when I was 12, quit at 13. Drums at 15, and then I found FL Studio when I was 16 (18 now).

[Elitistinen]

1999, I composed my first song on DOS using Fasttracker 2 (it was horrible). First shared my crappy music via crappy diskmag and FTP at 2000. Then I taught myself how to play keyboard during winter 2003. Since 2000, I have my own little turf to do music compo in demoparties (although never win). I index my creations on FTP and torrent.

[StaticBlu]

Started learning how to play the saxophone about 10 years old. Started teaching myself MIDI music about at 16 as well as teach myself some cords on the piano. Then I started working with a DAW about a year later. So it's been about 12 years being involved in music and 6 years making it.

[Knoxius]

Much like BFP, I played the recorder as my first instrument. That was in 3rd/4th grade. 6th grade brought the ukulele to my attention (also in music class). At some point in 2005, I discovered Rockstars Beaterator, and shortly after found FL Studio. I proceeded to midi rip video game songs very shittily, which, regardless of such detestable behavior, did help me learn my way around the interface of FL Studio and delve into the world of mixing. Eventually, I broke out of this lazy method of producing and started to mastermind my own, albeit lame, creations. I was real on and off with music around 2009/10 due to Diablo II and other video games capturing my attention.

Music once again took focus about 2 years ago when I took up bass. Since then, I've really only been into rock/grunge/funky music (think Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Rage Against the Machine). A couple friends and I have been attempting to solidify a few tracks that we have written, and we intend to start gigging around.

So I guess I've been playing around 8 years, although I would only consider the past 3 to be truly productive.

[SpaceWhale]

I've been producing music since 2008, so what's that, 5 years? I guess it's 5 years.

[Sequenced]

making music 7+ years. piano 16 years. saxophone 6 years. guitar 1 year. drums 2-3 years. violin 3 years.

#foreveralone

[DylnMatrix]

I've been singing for about 14 years, and I've been playing guitar/bass for about 3-4 years. Around the time I got my acoustic I started trying to write music, so I've been making music for 2 years. I only have been doing electronic music seriously for the past year now though, and that's what I've been focusing on.

I've been making music for a long time, but only these past couple years have I started to seriously write music, and 2012 was my electronic "debut", per-se.

[CheckeredZebra]

My history is spotty and hard to put a timeline on. It's on and off.

tl;dr:

Grandma's house (8)--> 6th grade because of a Eureka moment involving Spirited Away movie --> Re-teaching myself piano and composing on it -->*Failed experiment with Sibelius 5 --> (8th grade) Mario Paint/a flash game --> Re-trying Sibelius and it working--> continue until now.

In total (ignoring my 8 year old musings), I'd say it only really started about 9 years ago. It was only a serious interest of mine beginning 4 years ago.

*By "failed Sibelius 5 experiment," I mean our computer's sound card died THE MINUTE I TRIED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME.
So I thought "this is useless to me. I only know if I'm putting down the right note by ear, soo..."
What a waste. I put it down for 2 years; 2 years I could have been using productively to learn stuff.

[BenjaminTibbetts]

When I began taking piano lessons, about twenty years ago, I noticed that I liked improvisation. About ten years ago, I started messing around with some computer software.

[Paranoidhumanoise]

At 2/3/13 10:10 AM, Neon-Bard wrote: I started playing the bass guitar when I was 14 at the behest of my friends. After playing for a couple of years, I moved on to the mandolin and dabbled with the guitar and tin whistle once in a while. When I was 17 I joined a band as a vocalist, and we participated in some competitions, but mostly it was just for some fun. This is when I started to actually 'write' music. I wrote lyrical pieces, but didn't have the nerve to bring my work to the rest of the band. After a while we decided to go our separate ways. I tried to look for another group to play with, but there was never any interest wherever I looked.

Then, during my second year of university, when I was 18 (almost 19) one of my good friends introduced me to the digital side of audio with the DAW FL Studio. I was immediately hooked. I no longer had to rely on others to make music which felt very liberating. I made music sporadically for a while, learning little tricks and also learning from my early failures.

Fast-forward to 2013 and I'm still at it. Always learning new things, always growing. Isn't that the best thing about music?! So, I suppose I've been 'making' music officially for close to 3 years now. :)

Too true, trying new things and adapting new techniques too strengthen our production abilities is the funnest part i find. Using the space within a song too manipulate whatever endless musical universe of possibilities to express yourself(if that makes sense :p) Is what it's about too me.

[StaticBlu]

At 2/4/13 12:55 AM, BenjaminTibbetts wrote: When I began taking piano lessons, about twenty years ago, I noticed that I liked improvisation. About ten years ago, I started messing around with some computer software.

I love to improv myself. It really helped strengthen my creative process. Not to mention improv is just all kinds of fun in itself.

[Blackhole12]

I composed my first song when I was 5 and it was some amusing form of banging on the small electric toy piano I had. I took piano lessons since the age of 6 until I was 18. I began improvising and recording songs when I was 12 and discovered FL Studio when I was 15. Despite having nearly 7 years of music production experience, I still suck.

[MilkyChocolate]

I'm not sure that I would exactly call myself good per se, but I've been making music as long as I can remember memories.

[Draewa]

I've been playing different instruments for as long as I can remember, I guess technically I started making music when I began taking piano lessons at age 8.
As for electronic production, I've been producing since early 2009, so I'm at it for about 4 years now. I never took any production classes or learned it in any serious way though, so I picked up many bad habits and unprofessionalities along the way.

My advice is to learn music theory as early and thorough as possible. No matter how much natural talent you have, what tools you use or what kind of music you are making, at some point you're gonna hit a brick wall if you don't possess basic theoretical skills.

[Mushraven]

I've been learning off and on for a few years. My time is pretty limited being a father of two but I like to at least set aside a half hour per day to work and learn audio production. I'm a long ways from creating anything relevant but I love my work just the same.

[Megamannt92]

I've been playing guitar for about 7 years. I'm probably not near as good as I should be.

I've been recording for about 4 years I think.

[Chronamut]

10 years.