Ableton Forum

Hello together,

i feel a little stuck in my learning approach and hope i can find some help by experienced users here.

i watch a lot of different tutorials about very different aspects - synthesis, different genres, the program ableton itself, drum programming etc.

i have the feeling that i dont "adapt" (is this the right word in english?) all the things that i see. so i decided to learn producing in a more structured way.

what do you think how someone should learn new stuff? i want to experiment more. therefore i think i should concentrate more on learning ableton and its functions and then watch different videos WHILE experimenting. what do you think about that? do you have any more tips for me?

greetings

fckthwrld

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Hmm that's a big topic


Forum User invol (aka Brian Jackson) has written an interesting book (The Music Producer's Survival Guide) which breaks up everything you need to learn into four big areas - he calls them holons. These are

Music theory (how chords, rhythm, melody etc work)
Sound design (being able to get your synths and devices to make the sounds you want, and how to know how sounds fit in the mix
DAW skills (know thy software)
Audio engineering (mixing, mastering, ear training etc.)

Each of them is a lifetime of study.

So you have two choices. Spend your life learning one of them and then die just as you become a complete master.

Or you need to approach them all together and become sort of good enough at them all before you die.

Jackson is good on explaining how to do the latter in a recursive way, learning one set of skills and then defining the next set of things that you now realise you don't know, going on and on in a cycle of learning

I set myself modest learning goals and try to stick to them.

At the moment my goals are

- Learning the basic chords throughout the circle of fifths on the keyboard. Wif both hands
- Developing a detailed sound palette for use in my music so that I don't spend all my time hunting for sounds
- Learning how to program Zebra 2
- Learning how to use feedback systems in Live
- Teaching my ears (learning to listen) to analyse stereo placement and reverb

If I do music for a couple of hours each night, that's plenty of work for six months. At the end of those 6 months I will have new challenges. But I see myself as progressing in all four areas, a little bit each week.

The most important thing for me, is as someone else said on this forum a couple weeks back: have fun doing it!

The Finn wrote: - Learning how to use feedback systems in Live

never heard of this? is it a live 9 thing?

The Finn wrote:viewtopic.php?f=1&t=198760

Thanks!