How do I start making music?

[Benjamino]

Hi,
I want to make musicand compositions. What free programs and blogs/tutorials would you recommend for a beginner?

[HellSpawnIV]

At 11/30/13 02:13 PM, Benjamino wrote: Hi,
I want to make musicand compositions. What free programs and blogs/tutorials would you recommend for a beginner?

Garageband i think is the norm when people first start using a DAW (digital Audio Workstation) for their music. It's what i used before moving on to ones that you have to pay for.

If you know how to play an instrument then you'd probably need to get a mic and some kind of adapter/interface to plug it into your computer.

If you plan on using Midi (synths and what not) then you need a midi controller and VST (virtual studio technology) samples.

from here i think it's just creativity and a lot of experience to develop an ear and get the sound that you are hearing in your head. Just remember that producing 'good' quality music takes time and don't be discouraged if you're having problems with making what you want

if you ever get to the point of mixing here is a cool and easy guide to help with that: magic frequencies

Hope this helped

[Breed]

This is a large topic, but if you're at all serious, you should really start by simply typing the name of this thread into a search engine, cuz its pretty common and I'm 100% certain you will have way more information that way rather than asking a relatively random group of people on a relatively random music forum to explain it to you.

[MetalRenard]

I wouldn't call us random. :P

Everything else is true though - google is your greatest asset. I learnt by reading, listening, trying, reading some more and then talking with others about it.

Have a specificideaabout what you want to do (right this instant).
Read about one approach to it > try it. Read another person's approach > try it.
Which one works best for you?
> Keep the best approach, move onto the nextidea.

You're learning through experience, applying research and creating your own path at the same time.

[DOTcurrency]

Download demos of some of the popular digital audio workstations and see if there are any you can get the hang of with a few simple tutorials or by reading the manual. If you found one that you like, stick to it. Sure you're gonna hear things about a competing program and how it can do this and your program cannot, but you absolutely MUST ignore that and stick to what you have, it's the only way of progressing as a composer/producer. Once you learn the ins-and-outs of whichever program you chose, you'll realize that there's no real limitation beyond your own imagination.

[Luer]

There are not a lot of good "free" programs out there.

Save up some money and get whatever you want.

[eatmeatleet]

the standard for starters used to be fruity loops studio + nexus vst + VEC drum kits if you wanna make electronic music

[deadlyfishes]

If you just want to start composing you can get yourself some manuscript (music staff) paper, some dark pencils and a huge eraser. :D

o0o0oh my terrible penmanship here. some analysis thing.

[MichaelMYaa]

And this is one of the reasons why you're my hero Matthew!

I get the impression that people are completely clueless that pretty close to 100% of great music being released is by people who can play instruments or have some sort of music knowledge... even when music is entirely electronically produced in a computer program .. a lot of the time the composers who release really great stuff can play Piano, guitar .. or drums or have a very good idea of music theory ..

People who release great music are also able to listen to a song or composition and break it apart and analyze it.. they understand what makes things sound the way they do etc.

It always makes me happy when I come across a track that blows my mind and then later realize that the person is very well versed in some sort of instrument even though it's not shown in the composition.

At 12/3/13 08:36 AM, deadlyfishes wrote: If you just want to start composing you can get yourself some manuscript (music staff) paper, some dark pencils and a huge eraser. :D

o0o0oh my terrible penmanship here. some analysis thing.

[SoundChris]

I had no idea of composing about 2 years ago, too. I just can tell that i have purchased a DAW and started to compose very little pieces with my keyboard and the piano roll and tried to bounce anything to mp3 to get used to the way that programs work. Do you want to compose with notation (Programs: Finale / Sibelius 7) or compose / edit your music in a DAW (composing with a piano roll and set focus on the sound results?)
In my case i had purchased logic studio for (a DAW for MAC, but i now want to get Sibelius, too), but there are also cubase, protools, fruiti loops, sonar and lots of alternatives. Lots of people here use fruity loops (= FL).

When you know what you want to work with and got it installed: Just make music and have fun. Learning by doing is the most important rule :D If you are getting better handling your basic software you can watch out for good sample libraries to increase your sound. Dont know if it helped you - but thats what i did :D

[deadlyfishes]

At 12/3/13 01:28 PM, MichaelMYaa wrote: And this is one of the reasons why you're my hero Matthew!

I get the impression that people are completely clueless that pretty close to 100% of great music being released is by people who can play instruments or have some sort of music knowledge... even when music is entirely electronically produced in a computer program .. a lot of the time the composers who release really great stuff can play Piano, guitar .. or drums or have a very good idea of music theory ..

People who release great music are also able to listen to a song or composition and break it apart and analyze it.. they understand what makes things sound the way they do etc.

It always makes me happy when I come across a track that blows my mind and then later realize that the person is very well versed in some sort of instrument even though it's not shown in the composition.

At 12/3/13 08:36 AM, deadlyfishes wrote: If you just want to start composing you can get yourself some manuscript (music staff) paper, some dark pencils and a huge eraser. :D

o0o0oh my terrible penmanship here. some analysis thing.

This is usually the case, but some people are just naturally good at their instrument and play it by ear, and consequently compose in that same fashion as well.

We all have our niches here as musicians, some of us may be more well rounded, but yeah with composition and playing an instrument it takes a lifetime's worth of practice and study to get to that level of amazingness you are talking about :D

But a bit more on topic to the OP;

Just get something that will allow your ideas to come to life on the computer. Something simple as Sibelius or Finale for notation is a bit more traditional and more for notation purposes, but you'll still have your music on your computer for you to hear it playback. General MIDI isn't the greatest, but it gets it's point across.

FL Studio, Garageband (Mac), Logic Express (Mac), Reason, Live are all some good places to start in terms of just general music production. Some of these cost some money, but if you want to get more into this sort of thing it's worth the investment.