The First Step

My first instinct on how to get started on music theory is my first instinct for when I want to learn something new. I googled “How to Learn Music Theory”. After not too long, I came across this awesome website: https://learningmusic.ableton.com. It walks you through the basics of music theory by breaking down music into its smaller components and slowing adding them along the way (notes, chords, baselines, melodies, etc). At each step they give examples of different songs and recreate it to help you understand what each component adds to the song. They also have advanced lessons where they explore these concepts in greater detail after you have grasped the basics.

The best part is that you can also create your own sounds to help you learn. You start with just making beats, and then slowly add the different components that make it into a song. This approach breaks down the daunting task of creating a song to making smaller individual components that work together to make something bigger and complete. As an engineer, that approach sounds familiar and gives me comfort. Here is a first attempt of me trying to make some music. (Warning: This might hurt your head :P)

I have to say I really enjoyed doing this course on Ableton’s website. Now whenever I listen to music I can hear the different parts individually and how everything works together to create the song. I would recommend anyone, wether you want to make music or not, to take this course. I have a newfound appreciation for the music I listen to everyday.

Let’s Start!

After some thought, I’ve finally decided what I’m going to write about! Music.

I’ve been wanting to play my guitar more, and more consistently, and eventually start making my own music. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the fuzziest about music, what goes into making music and how to start. I’ve been playing the guitar for a bit but that has mostly been blindly playing to chords/tabs without understanding the music and the different layers that makes the music I enjoy listening to.

I plan to use this blog to document my journey of learning music theory, studying existing music, and eventually making it. Follow along to learn how I get there and maybe I’ll even help you discover some cool stuff along the way. I’ll also write about some random stuff along the way. Let’s go!