How did you originally start out making music?

[D4W1LL13]

I began with piano lessons back in 2011-2013.

[Latadenata]

I started on February of 2022, it hasn't even been 2 years yet XD

The year prior, I had been on a search of hobbies since I felt like I wasn't doing anything that I really liked outside of playing videogames and reading manga and watching anime, so I started trying to learn new things like drawing, coding, 3D modelling...

But none of them really stuck with me, or even I got super stressed out doing them (shot out to the art of drawing for being the most possibly stressing thing ever, I even had nightmares somehow lmao)

And then, I finally decided to try and learn music, so I downloaded FL Studio since it was the only DAW I knew and started bingewatching tutorials of music theory and FL studio all day long.

And somehow, just in my few tries at making music... I felt like what I was doing was already really good! (Even thought it wasn't XD) But it was enough for me, which was great.

And then I just began doing more and more songs, and learning even more of FL Studio and Music theory.

And so, that's how i started!

[SpazOmmo]

I made rap beats back in 2016 when I was in high school.

[Low-Power]

I first opened a (bad) DAW in December 2019, and rushed to make a whole EP and then an album until I started hating everything I made around May 2020. Since then I've been on and off making music, for several months in each phase. Right now I am in the off phase. Strange choice for a hobby because I don't listen to music that much, nor am I naturally curious to explore more of it, or for new experiences in general. And I've made less than 40 songs for these 4 years. I never even learned any other DAW beyond my first one, although I planned to; I bought Reaper and "tried" to learn it. By the way, I had two other Newgrounds accounts where I uploaded my old songs, both of them deleted when I felt especially bad about myself.

So I have themes, in the most abstract sense, I want to express. When I started out with music, I also started writing poems, and planned each "canon" song, which is a song that's a part of an album, to have a matching poem, you could call them lyrics if I ever intended to sing it (I didn't intend). The thing was, I didn't like writing poems and I hated reading poetry (I never read lyrics either or need a voice to guide my attention). Didn't think I could be any good as a write if I am not a reader first, so I ditched the poems pretty fast, somewhere within the first three months of 2020. Back to my "themes", I think music is the single worst medium to express them as music by itself, without lyrics, can't communicate anything. If I wanted anyone to understand anything, I would write them as poetry, or just essays.

What the themes did to my music making process is that I already know the composition of "canon" songs years before I start them. Even songs from the last few months I've planned as early as 2020. When I think about it, I am not sure why I chose music as a medium. Maybe I wanted to express ideas in the most ambiguous way to possible so that I don't have to inspect them closely and see them for how cringey they are.

[SkankyMojo]

Started playing bass in 2004, I'll be hitting my 20 years of musicking around July I think. 🤔 here's to at least 20 more years. ✌️🤟🖖

[wobwobrob]

I joined a brass band when I was 10. Started learning the baritone (like a smaller euphonium, which is like a smaller tuba!), then I moved to tuba. To this day it's my best instrument, and easily the most useless musical instrument I can play. No-one needs a tuba!

When I was 15, I learnt guitar after my twin brother's friend Pete leant him a 2 string bass. I picked it up instead and ended up joining his band. To this day we are still friends and regularly collaborate on projects!

[NikoN1nja]

Started at 02/22 because I wanted to be a whitelisted artist in Geometry Dash. Reached this goal in 4 months, but I'm still making music because I like it as a hobby.

[Kz-N]

I started in probably 2018 messing around with fl studio, just playing with it as a toy, not trying to do anything musical. Then i started using mobile apps like garageband or one that samsung had on their phones that I don't remember the name of cause it got killed, That was a lot better than garageband - they continuously added new instruments and sample packs, it had really good effect chains and was very intuitive to use. For some reason they just killed it.

Then in like 2019 i started using fl studio seriously and started uploading stuff i made to this website, It was not good. I only really used sample packs but still had some kind of direction, but overall it was very bad.

In 2022 i started using Ableton Live after reccomendations by some friends, and i haven't looked back.

[D4W1LL13]

At 1/28/24 02:37 PM, Kz-N wrote: I started in probably 2018 messing around with fl studio, just playing with it as a toy, not trying to do anything musical. Then i started using mobile apps like garageband or one that samsung had on their phones that I don't remember the name of cause it got killed, That was a lot better than garageband - they continuously added new instruments and sample packs, it had really good effect chains and was very intuitive to use. For some reason they just killed it.
Then in like 2019 i started using fl studio seriously and started uploading stuff i made to this website, It was not good. I only really used sample packs but still had some kind of direction, but overall it was very bad.
In 2022 i started using Ableton Live after reccomendations by some friends, and i haven't looked back.

I was on mobile as well around that time in 2017-2021. I think you might be refering to Medly Music Maker? They always added new instruments and sample packs, and i even used Medly for some of my earlier songs.

[TheMusicalManiac]

At 1/27/24 12:59 PM, D4W1LL13 wrote: I began with piano lessons back in 2011-2013.

When I got my first IPad, I began messing around with Garageband. I loved making music so much with the loops that when I got my first Macbook, I proceeded the loop the shit out of Apple loops. I took music tech classes in high school from there and here I am.

[Kz-N]

At 1/28/24 09:11 PM, D4W1LL13 wrote:

At 1/28/24 02:37 PM, Kz-N wrote: I started in probably 2018 messing around with fl studio, just playing with it as a toy, not trying to do anything musical. Then i started using mobile apps like garageband or one that samsung had on their phones that I don't remember the name of cause it got killed, That was a lot better than garageband - they continuously added new instruments and sample packs, it had really good effect chains and was very intuitive to use. For some reason they just killed it.
Then in like 2019 i started using fl studio seriously and started uploading stuff i made to this website, It was not good. I only really used sample packs but still had some kind of direction, but overall it was very bad.
In 2022 i started using Ableton Live after reccomendations by some friends, and i haven't looked back.

I was on mobile as well around that time in 2017-2021. I think you might be refering to Medly Music Maker? They always added new instruments and sample packs, and i even used Medly for some of my earlier songs.

I'm not sure, it might've been

[Darklion0]

I started in high school around junior year in 2016. I had always loved electronic music and the creative way they'd use or make sounds I'd never hear anywhere else. I felt like I had ideas I wanted to get out musically. Started with Ableton and realized how steep the learning curve was and felt everything I made sounded like shit lol. Learned the DAW and just music making in general here and there over the years. Over the past few years I really feel like I can actually execute ideas I have in my head (one of the best feelings) and also productively experiment on making unique sounds.

[larrynachos]

When I was still in single digits, my parents bought this really fancy electronic clavinova piano. It used midi instruments and floppy disks, you could play midi songs and there'd be lights by the keys to guide you, and you could also record and save your own tracks. Pretty awesome piano tbh.

[tydaze]

Does messing around with the Town Tune board in Animal Crossing count?

[Leavesz]

I used to play a lot of flash games around 2010 - 2018, many of them featured music by waterflame so I started looking it up and listening to it very often outside of those games. Then at some point I found out he used FL studio to make music so I felt like trying it out.

I've lost the file a while ago but I vividly remember my very first project using every fucking synth and preset sound in the program, I didn't know anything about music theory at the time so I just drew a bunch of very dumb symmetric patterns in the piano roll and it sounded really awful but I was kinda proud of it lol

[Jojo]

This lil' fella

[Viraxor]

2018-2019 I made awful unmixed dubstep in LMMS with samples.

[D4W1LL13]

At 1/29/24 08:14 AM, tydaze wrote: Does messing around with the Town Tune board in Animal Crossing count?

ha! sure

[AED-4]

At 1/29/24 08:41 AM, Leavesz wrote: I used to play a lot of flash games around 2010 - 2018, many of them featured music by waterflame so I started looking it up and listening to it very often outside of those games. Then at some point I found out he used FL studio to make music so I felt like trying it out.

I've lost the file a while ago but I vividly remember my very first project using every fucking synth and preset sound in the program, I didn't know anything about music theory at the time so I just drew a bunch of very dumb symmetric patterns in the piano roll and it sounded really awful but I was kinda proud of it lol

Yep this is the story for me aswell, just replace flash games with Geometry Dash :p

[EmsDeLaRoZ]

I began doing acapella, but not in a serious manner, more like "i'm a kid and i'm singing" or something. Later I began taking piano lessons too

[Jojo]

At 1/29/24 08:41 AM, Leavesz wrote: I used to play a lot of flash games around 2010 - 2018, many of them featured music by waterflame so I started looking it up and listening to it very often outside of those games. Then at some point I found out he used FL studio to make music so I felt like trying it out.

I've lost the file a while ago but I vividly remember my very first project using every fucking synth and preset sound in the program, I didn't know anything about music theory at the time so I just drew a bunch of very dumb symmetric patterns in the piano roll and it sounded really awful but I was kinda proud of it lol

This is very similar to how I became a musician! Newgrounds also made me a musician!

[d00dfayz]

Messing around in GarageBand on my family computer when it was first released in 2004. Prior to that I had also joined my school's marching band and was taking drum lessons. But with the music production I started out simply by dragging and dropping loops and samples. Shortly after then I graduated onto Arturia's first product and now one of the most obscure DAWs in history: Storm Music Studio, where I learnt pattern sequencing, basic synthesis and how to add effects. Some years later, roughly 2007, Storm had become more or less obsolete and the software was also constantly breaking on me. So I convinced my parents to buy me Logic Express 8, which I used for quite a bit until I decided to make Windows my main OS, so I saved up some money and bought a mid-range HP laptop where I started messing around with FL Studio. At this point I was getting pretty good with making my own synth patches, but this is also where I discovered how to chop breakbeats. Though yet again, after some years of mainly producing in FL, I went back to using macOS and Logic for all my music production, now on the Pro version which I have been using ever since.

[PoultrygeistGame]

tried and failed too many times lol

[lucidtoonz]

Pressing random notes on a keyboard

[DefKlaw]

At 1/27/24 12:59 PM, D4W1LL13 wrote: I began with piano lessons back in 2011-2013.

I started with a severely out of tune Elevation stratocaster copy. I didn't know fuck all about tuning guitars back then and I also didn't even fucking know how to play it. So, all I had at the time was that guitar and some shitty microphone. I did record some stuff from that time but as far as I know, those recordings are completely lost and as far as I'm aware, will remain lost forever. They weren't really that interesting though, it was essentially just me dicking around trying to get the hang of playing guitar.

[B4ssD]

I had flute lessons at school in like 2019, i was pretty good (for my clasroom´s standars at least) and decided to get another instrument, a melodic (it´s a small piano, but also an air instrument), i played cassually during pandemic, but due to the nature of the melodic (having 3 octaves) i really couldnt learn to play anything too complex

last year, when i entered preparatory (i dunno what this school grade it´s called in english speaking countrys, but basically, the school years from 15-18 years old) i had guitar classes and hated them ( i have small pianist hands, my guitar was way too big, it hurted playing some chords, and i was scared of my guitar teacher) during that time i hated playing, and, literally the day i graduated 1st year, i downloaded this program called Lovely composer, because i love chiptune

despite having relatively professional knowledge in music (no matter how scared i was of my guitar teacher, he was really good explaining), i dont really know how to composse, i just sit down, black out, and pray for whatever i made to sound decent, i´ve only made one (original) song that i feel is good enough to show, so here

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1288663

[Mesage]

At 1/27/24 12:59 PM, D4W1LL13 wrote: I began with piano lessons back in 2011-2013.

i started in 2017 when found some drum pads app, started publishing in 2019 when found the bandpass app and started making not a "piece of sheet" songs when moved to FL studio mobile

[MrBlistr]

Started playing guitar when I was 13 and played in some ""bands"" with friends; then started messing with Reaper and Audacity at 14; picked up the drums around 15; learned piano officially when I was 19 (played it a bit when I was a kid, but not much); and about 3 years ago, I started using Ableton.

After about a year of playing guitar, I started writing songs - as awful and cringe as they were - by myself and with friends in our ""bands"". Wrote minimally throughout high school, then I got back into it more and more in my early 20's.

[D4W1LL13]

At 2/2/24 11:28 PM, B4ssD wrote: I had flute lessons at school in like 2019, i was pretty good (for my clasroom´s standars at least) and decided to get another instrument, a melodic (it´s a small piano, but also an air instrument), i played cassually during pandemic, but due to the nature of the melodic (having 3 octaves) i really couldnt learn to play anything too complex

last year, when i entered preparatory (i dunno what this school grade it´s called in english speaking countrys, but basically, the school years from 15-18 years old) i had guitar classes and hated them ( i have small pianist hands, my guitar was way too big, it hurted playing some chords, and i was scared of my guitar teacher) during that time i hated playing, and, literally the day i graduated 1st year, i downloaded this program called Lovely composer, because i love chiptune

despite having relatively professional knowledge in music (no matter how scared i was of my guitar teacher, he was really good explaining), i dont really know how to composse, i just sit down, black out, and pray for whatever i made to sound decent, i´ve only made one (original) song that i feel is good enough to show, so here

I tried playing some guitar throughout middle school and high school but I didn't really understand it like I understood Piano. The flute/recorder in class I caught on quickly though, but I wasn't too into them. I remember having a piano organ given to me already paid for, and a Jasmine Guitar (idk which one, Dreadnought or Grand Orchestra)

I listened to your chiptune and I lowkey like it! I like to visualize a setting for all audio that I hear and that audio gives a video game menu vibe. Chiptune isn't my area, but I like things that sound good, maybe other users who focus on Chiptune could say more.

[altomare14]

i started around with LMMS composing small tracks using soundfonts from various games (especially pokemon), but then i eventually branched out into the EDM style i currently use today

if its not obvious enuff, old VGMs are what actually got me into music in the first place