As far as starting with realistic drum patterns goes, one thing that really helped me is: remember the physical limitations of the player/instrument. For example, a drummer only has 2 arms and 2 legs, so playing 6 notes at the same time is a bit harder. For a guitarist 6 notes aren’t a problem, but for realistic bass it might. Likewise key players have trouble playing chords of more than 10 notes at the same time, so keeping the physical limitations in mind when programming gets you a long way IMO.
Thank you for this. This is like a holistic approach to making wonderful music. You don’t push your products but allow each viewer to make the conscious decision to support. I pray that you know we appreciate and support you
I'm very glad to hear you say composition over production. That's exactly my view too. These days it almost always seems to be the other way around: production over composition, especially when you see the amount of YT videos on the subject. But as far as I'm concerned, the music comes first. I'll gladly listen to a bad production of great music rather than a fantastically produced boring composition.
I really appreciate the audio version, I'm so strapped for time that to be able to listen in the car or while doing other things is really valuable to me.
As someone still very new to all this, but with a history in playing music in a band. This is extremely helpful. It's really helping me break down and understand why things we did sounded the way they did. At the time I just learned the music and played it lol. 🤙
Max, this show is great. You touched on well-known topics, but so important in our music production. I am very impressed by your musical sensitivity and I absorb each of your productions like a great lesson. Thank you very much for all this. 🙏
Ok good to know. The audio is available in the description, for anyone that doesn't know. If this series becomes a regular thing, I will host them on some streaming service.
Your passion for music and music-making is contagious. And I really appreciate this Q&A. I think once a month is good. I have a question for the next Q&A. I don't play keyboards (I keep threatening to learn!) - therefore, I get really frustrated programming in the piano roll. Do you have any tips for programming in the piano roll, regardless of keyboard skills? NB: I use Studio One.
Thanks for your informative and honest approach to teaching. For a future Q&A: what about repertoire through sheet music? The next paragraphs are my thoughts: I really love playing piano repertoire from various periods of music, but also want to compose a lot and improve my skills in that realm, but sadly as many others, don't have many time in a normal day (maybe 1 hour, max 2 hours). I found (maybe others too) that in order to compose with ease and freely is nice to have a good foundation in theory, aural skills, knowledge of your software, a nice understanding of your instrument (ideally the piano), and ideally practice a lot of improvisation and transcribing. The thing is in that set of skills I don't necessary see the importance of reading sheet music, which is specially truth with the emergence of DAWs and the facility to write using the piano roll or recording yourself, unlike the old method of writing using sheet music. And in the end, the time is limited, and is impossible to dedicate time to all of that. How do others approach this? Maybe practice a bit of various things in one day during a period of time, or maybe dedicate more time to one or two of them and then the other. This concerns me because when I dedicate time to learn sheet music I also dedicate a lot of time to improve my reading skills, using apps and doing excercises, but maybe that's not the most conducive way to develop the skills to compose well and with ease. I would like to know what others and Max think about that.
this QnA was lovely to listen to! I would love watch more videos like this because hearing you talk about music is just so inspiring! and your voice is very relaxing :-)
You hit 20k subscribers! Congrats Max you deserve it, I found you last summer and you had 10k at that point, glad to see you growing. Keep it up my friend, 50k is around the corner :)
I am very interested in your thoughts on ear training as this is the most difficult part of music I have experienced. The subject of ear training is just not discussed between band mates, it is almost like it does not exist. I have to admit, I struggle following the flow of music by ear in real time like when a band leader takes a request for a song that I never heard before. I have been recording scale degree exercises in relation to a key center and this seems to be helping a bit, but the process is so slow that the only way I am going to learn ear training is by sheer will power. Anyhow I am not complaining, I just thank God there are musicians such as yourself that give me hope to keep working on ear training. So thank you so much for the encouragement to carry on.
I can relate to this for sure. I will be releasing some more videos on ear training very soon with specific exercises and tips. Thanks for the detailed comment!
That was great, Max. listening to this while making breakfast on a sunday fit perfectly. Id love to hear your deeper thoughts on the topic of harmony/music/sound and their effect on humans or even further, their role in life.
I ripped off the audio and store it into my phone so I can listen to it at the gym. I hope you don't mind. and just my personal opinion you should make these well mixed Q&A episodes into a podcast series
Hi Max really enjoy your videos! Really awesome to see any side of you outside of Udemy. At 1:04:35 onwards, you mentioned that "if that was difficult for you or for me to get to some form of music then whatever, that's what it is". Do you mean that in the context when compared to people exposed to music at a younger age(as in we should not compare our music with others since it's not a composition) or do you mean in general that we should just move on an create other types of music(if it is difficult for us to express)?
I think he is saying your natural limitations can lead to a kind of creativity. Keep creating within your possibilities. Don't be afraid you can't do it all. Work with what you have. That's my understanding from 1:04:35 to 1:09:50
I've been thinking of doing a listening session video/stream soon - just listening and talking about a bunch of music that has inspired me... In the meantime, some important artists for me: - Pat Metheny - JS Bach - Debussy - Ravel - Ted Greene - Take 6 - Bonobo - The Rippingtons - Anomalie - Cory Henry - Snarky Puppy - Robert Glasper - Noisia - Dirty Loops A wide variety of artists in these genres: - Gospel - Fusion - Hip Hop - Dubstep - Drum & Bass - House - Metal - Film score - Video game music Could go on and on!
Nope! But that one is wonderful as well. The one I was thinking of was Opus 10 Etude 4. I posted a link to a random performance of it in the description. Not a big fan of that performance honestly, but it gets the point across!
First what is your Discord channel, Second I am most interested in Orchestral or cinamadic music so the more videos you do on this subject the better for me simply because the way you do your videos I seem to understand better.
Nope, but it can definitely be very helpful. Depends on who you are and how 'good' your ear is already. Some people can compose music without any theoretical knowledge at all and others need some kind of mental framework to help.
