House/Techno Artists: Reading Music

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:12 pm

I've been playing drums since I was twelve and have a good understanding of music, but I don't know how to read notes. I have no clue about scales, notes, sharps, flats, etc. Though I don't think this will hinder getting into house/techno production, but I keep thinking about it and wondering.

Do any of you know nothing about reading music (except note time) yet make decent music?

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:15 pm

Most people know no theory, trust your ears. Theory can help but it's still up to your ears.

Shoma · Post by **Shoma** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:16 pm

I have no idea, how to read music. BUT i love music, and we had a piano in our house, ive been playing it since I was 8 years old. Now i can play every melody (even hard jazz piano solors or Beethoven's sonatas)

And house/techno music is just 4 chords looped + synth programming. You have to be a better programmer than artist...

bradelectro · Post by **bradelectro** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:31 pm

Some of the best players I know don't read music. My friend does regular session work for tons of underground house releases, on labels you know, and he can't read music.

He does, however, have a huge memory bank of chords and scales. And he's been playing keyboards for 15+ years.

House music, at least the kind I like and try to make, is very musical. I.e. it's nice when things are in key, and your chords are a little more complex than C major triads

If you want to learn more, I'd suggest going to a music store and find a book that illustrates common chords. Or edit the 1-finger chord-builder type plug-ins in Cubase or Live and reverse engineer them so you can play them with your hands.

Or do what I do and play around tiill you have someting you like. But books are good for inversions and stuff you probably wouldn't figure out on your own.

NorthernMonkey · Post by **NorthernMonkey** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:35 pm

Agree with all of the above, just experiment until you get a sound you like, you never know, you might discover the new house style

Verbal · Post by **Verbal** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:53 pm

The house/techno I plan on making is more bleepy and repeditive. Nothing harmony strong. But I was just curious if it still had to go by certain notes.

For example, a band. Don't the bass and guitars play the same 'tune?' Is chord the right word? Or do I have it totally wrong?

NorthernMonkey · Post by **NorthernMonkey** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:56 pm

Most house/techno tunes are bleepy and repetative, just go with what sounds good to you, start off with a middle C and and work your way up and down the keyboard, you'll soon get the hang of it.

pax · Post by **pax** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:57 pm

Music theory is an addicting thing...

Hopefully it's just temporarily down, but the Ravenspiral guide is really nice general outline of music theory as it relates to electronica:

http://www.ravenspiral.com/ravenspiralguide.pdf

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:59 pm

Verbal wrote:The house/techno I plan on making is more bleepy and repeditive. Nothing harmony strong. But I was just curious if it still had to go by certain notes.

For example, a band. Don't the bass and guitars play the same 'tune?' Is chord the right word? Or do I have it totally wrong?

Depending what they are doing yes. They play in the same "key" and use the same "scales"

You're ears will be able to tell if something is in the same key as another.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:12 am

Make use of the scale plug-in in Live, it forces every note you play to be in key, I love that thing.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:44 am

Take a music theory class at your local community college. It will help immensely in understanding why certain things in music work the way they do.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:52 pm

For techno it is essential to know all inversion of all chords by heart.
Even though a lot of the time there are no chords in techno.

NeoMetric · Post by **NeoMetric** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:38 pm

there's plenty of simple chords in a lot of house music, music theory will help. obviously, learning to play a lil' bit of guitar or piano is ideal. it all can't be learned over night, but you want to learn how to build a let's say D minor chord and a D minor scale to program a melody over it. though even david gilmore says he trusts his ear when constructing melodies, he still has a full understanding of the basics. you should learn some of them, it can't hurt.

Steve Christian · Post by **Steve Christian** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:56 pm

Verbal wrote:The house/techno I plan on making is more bleepy and repeditive. Nothing harmony strong. But I was just curious if it still had to go by certain notes.

For example, a band. Don't the bass and guitars play the same 'tune?' Is chord the right word? Or do I have it totally wrong?

I would say this is one of the weakest points of many people. Although it's not necessary to understand keys and chords, I think you can clearly hear a difference between those that do and those that don't. Often times my friends will send me tracks to listen to and the bass, lead, and drums are all in different keys and they're clashing making it sound not quite right to the ears. It never hurts to get a basic understanding and taking piano lessons for a few months would go a long way in helping push your music further. Just my 2 shiny pennies

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:57 pm

I thought you LISTENED to music, not READ it.