This is certainly a way to go. Having said that, I wish I could be comfortable with doing that sometimes; a lot of my soloing relies on weird off-scale notes to build tension and I think I’d just miss that if I were to snap everything to a scale 
Pitch bend is your friend - suppose that’s my inner guitarist speaking. And you can always switch off in-key mode and have the black keys available, which is how I use it most of the time.
The real winner about it is that you can think in terms of intervals rather than having to additionally think about the scale you’re in, if that makes sense.
True! I’m a guitarist too so I should know this 
this is exactly why … can do that, just cant, it is like I try to find a needle in a needle stack… gets blurry … eye hand coordination goes out the window also pretty quickly … tolerance of frustration generally pretty low … etc… thanks for suggestion though…
Perhaps write the notes on the keyboard with a marker?
Or get one of those kiddy pianos?
I dunno. Maybe I’m taking some kind of inherent musical knowledge for granted… but you can type, right? Consider it to be like learning to type, except for music. And consider chords to be like words. You don’t have to count the number of letters from A every time you type a word, do you?
edit: sorry if this post sounds condescending 
I just don’t see how putting in the time to learn/pay attention won’t pay off with skills
I’ve been working on this idea for years:
https://imekon8.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/wxwidgets.png
A piano roll that’s tuned to the scale/mode you want. Put notes down anywhere, and they’ll sound in tune.
Scale/mode have started to appear on some synths.
I did the coloring thing with stickers alrady… did not help … kiddy pianos…did that also…
cheers pselodux
after klicking your link, my mouseclickin didnt produce any sounds, hammering the keyborad neither … then I realized it was a picture, not an chrome app…
imekon…looks good…would not mind trying that out … cheers buddy
By the way, if you prefer to stay detached from the computer, maybe keep an eye out for the Launchpad Pro?
As for music theory, lecture of
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
might help.
I’ll have to blow the dust off it. Last time I tried, it wouldn’t build. Be interesting to hook it up to my A4.
I was also thinking about buying a keyboard and learning some music theory, but I decided to get a push after watching these videos. Some online stores are selling them new for $419, not sure if this is a permanent price drop.[/quote]
I appreciate the video … again, yet again… head banging against the wall… I end up, putting a finger on a note ( after counting to the note from C) then from C counting up to find the second note, then again , then again , and fucking again… so for 1 goddamn fucking chord, I am busy for 30 seconds … everybody else seems to know this off by heart. … when it comes to chord progression,… and this is no joke, I am busy for prox 3 min, to find 4 chords on the most basic scale, no big transpositions and what not … then in this video he says after a cadence you end with a period somethign something… and I am like, what the fuck… really… no , not today … I am getting angry while writing this … honestly 3 min for 3 chords… not a joke! my success rate is about 80 %… so after I am done there is a good chance all this was for fuck nothing … thanks for posing the vid tho![/quote]
You find 3 minutes long ! ? !
Maybe you aren’t patient enough ?
Generally it takes me much more time but I enjoy that…
I never had this need to work fast - if you wanne go fast with chords etc… I’m afraid there’s no other way then to study and work very hard, witch will probably include suffering for you.
Personnaly I’m not prepared to do that but I accept and enjoy that it takes a lot of time for me to find the right notes.
A fiend of mine who has all this wonderfoul knowledge about music-theory I don’t have - and he knows all fucking chords - is always surprised wen I play his piano. Because i’m not coditioned by chord-progressions things come out he would never do. Wen he starts to analize he sais alot " well this sounds really good - but there’s a few mistakes you are making " Than he alters some détails and plays it like " it should " It may be " correct " what he’s doing, but than the feeling’s GONE.
I’ll never be a good life-keyboardplayer but that’s not my goal.
It all dépends what you’re trying to achieve - and what you’re prepared to do for it.
Don’t make the mistake of having false expectations - witch is easy to do.
I remember a music-teacher who - after seing AMADUES ( Mozart ) movie - told me how they give a totally false image of composing .
He mentioned the scene where Saliery sat at the bed of Mozart Saliery is writing down what Mozart dictates him. If you watch the scene you’ll see Saliery hearing in his head - with tearing eyes - what he’s writing down. My taecher explained this is totally bullshit.
You can wish what you want - that dousn’t mean it’s possible the way you want it. The less you know a certain technique -
the bigger the chance of having urealistic expectations.
Maybe Mozart could do that but he was a Genius - Worked like hell for it - and started before he could talk so to say. He wrote music like we write words at an incredible tempo. But he was DRILLED man.
and nobody really knows how things where in his head.
a remark in general - Why are somany peole complainig about TIME these days Why should things go fast anyhow ?. If you love - time’s no issue. If you are focussed at a goal on the contrary … 
This site is very helpful, although the layout sucks…
1 Like
I was also thinking about buying a keyboard and learning some music theory, but I decided to get a push after watching these videos. Some online stores are selling them new for $419, not sure if this is a permanent price drop.[/quote]
I appreciate the video … again, yet again… head banging against the wall… I end up, putting a finger on a note ( after counting to the note from C) then from C counting up to find the second note, then again , then again , and fucking again… so for 1 goddamn fucking chord, I am busy for 30 seconds … everybody else seems to know this off by heart. … when it comes to chord progression,… and this is no joke, I am busy for prox 3 min, to find 4 chords on the most basic scale, no big transpositions and what not … then in this video he says after a cadence you end with a period somethign something… and I am like, what the fuck… really… no , not today … I am getting angry while writing this … honestly 3 min for 3 chords… not a joke! my success rate is about 80 %… so after I am done there is a good chance all this was for fuck nothing … thanks for posing the vid tho![/quote]
You find 3 minutes long ! ? !
Maybe you aren’t patient enough ?
Generally it takes me much more time but I enjoy that…
I never had this need to work fast - if you wanne go fast with chords etc… I’m afraid there’s no other way then to study and work very hard, witch will probably include suffering for you.
Personnaly I’m not prepared to do that but I accept and enjoy that it takes a lot of time for me to find the right notes.
A fiend of mine who has all this wonderfoul knowledge about music-theory I don’t have - and he knows all fucking chords - is always surprised wen I play his piano. Because i’m not coditioned by chord-progressions things come out he would never do. Wen he starts to analize he sais alot " well this sounds really good - but there’s a few mistakes you are making " Than he alters some détails and plays it like " it should " It may be " correct " what he’s doing, but than the feeling’s GONE.
I’ll never be a good life-keyboardplayer but that’s not my goal.
It all dépends what you’re trying to achieve - and what you’re prepared to do for it.
Don’t make the mistake of having false expectations - witch is easy to do.
I remember a music-teacher who - after seing AMADUES ( Mozart ) movie - told me how they give a totally false image of composing .
He mentioned the scene where Saliery sat at the bed of Mozart Saliery is writing down what Mozart dictates him. If you watch the scene you’ll see Saliery hearing in his head - with tearing eyes - what he’s writing down. My taecher explained this is totally bullshit.
You can wish what you want - that dousn’t mean it’s possible the way you want it. The less you know a certain technique -
the bigger the chance of having urealistic expectations.
Maybe Mozart could do that but he was a Genius - Worked like hell for it - and started before he could talk so to say. He wrote music like we write words at an incredible tempo. But he was DRILLED man.
and nobody really knows how things where in his head.
a remark in general - Why are somany peole complainig about TIME these days Why should things go fast anyhow ?. If you love - time’s no issue. If you are focussed at a goal on the contrary …
[/quote]
hey there Vos … this reminds me of a jam session I had with a trained singer / accomplished musicain = piano player… he looked over my shoulder whilst I was monkey style playing my A4,… and said: wow… I wold never dare to have done this and that, used that note, or chord … but it sounds really interesting … that boosted my self esteem towards dimensions like the planet sun for a (short) while… so yeah, I guess there is a beauty into what we are doing… cheers, thanks for your other suggestions and insight
thanks for the link … I had this page bookmarked for a while … good to check it out again…
My heart goes out to you, TrabanT. I think I have been in a similar situation in the past. I am absolutely fascinated by music, listening as well as creating. I sometimes wished I could stop this obsessive desire to create it though, because for the life of me I cannot seem to get over music theory mental hurdles. Makes me feel really stupid! My eyes start to glaze over when reading or watching theory tutorials. Year after year of trying, quitting, trying, quitting. I am envious of people who talk of this stuff like it was easy as walking and chewing gum at the same time.
(What I write will doubtless upset some purists and music theory enthusiasts, but I hope they realize different people have different time constraints, are at different life stages, different levels of free time and responsibilities, etc. You have to do what works for you. Learn all you can, and wish to, but don’t ever feel bad if you can’t learn everything out there.)
I will say what helped me was - I stopped trying to learn everything and memorize everything under the sun. What is my goal? To be a master of music theory and be prepared to play anything at any time on command? Or, to write/compose songs in my favorite genre?
I accept my shortcomings, learn what I need to accomplish my goals of writing songs, instead of a self-imposed need to master music theory, and most importantly, I am able to make songs (albeit slowly) that I enjoy and am proud of.
I now am more tightly focused on learning what I need in order to create what I want, project by project. Define your goals. Learn what theory you need to. Let the rest fall by the wayside. You can always go back and learn more for the next project! Progress.
- My best advice is to learn/memorize 3-4 scales. Maybe a C, F, G scale? Write a tune. Go from there. Build some confidence. Then add more. Try this - get out a large book of scales or some online tutorial site that has a way to view a bunch of scales and chords, as well as progressions. Go through them all, really listening and taking notes on what sounds good to you personally. What fits with the type of music you want to make? What inspires you and conjures up visions in your head? If I want to make dark downtempo techno, why would I spend a large amount of time memorizing happy chords or scales that simply don’t get my juices flowing?
For me, for a certain project, I boil it down to perhaps only 3-4 scales, maybe 20 chords, mostly minor things. Those make up the core. When I need more variety, I go back and learn more. If I don’t feel an actual need, I don’t worry about it. Before the next project, I’ll go back and learn a few more scales and chords. Progress.
I can’t sit down and jam out tunes or play keys live, maybe I never will, but I can try different combinations of sounds, find what works, and make something out of it that pleases my ear. It took me maybe three times as long, and lots more heavy lifting, to complete my album as it would have a more naturally talented musician who truly understood theory. But… I persisted and finally completed the project after three years. It can be done. Good luck in your journey.
PS - I should note - learning the basic notes on the keyboard, intervals, terms, etc. are a must. No counting keys laboriously like an old man trying to type on a computer. I guess I am saying, memorize some things, what you need to, just don’t harbor this illusion you have to memorize everything and be able to jam with 70 year old jazz cats in order to make some decent techno or electronica. 
Side note 1 - For what it’s worth, I find the Push waaaay harder to get to grips with than regular keyboard.
Side note 2 - I have similar experiences to Vos, regarding playing with (some!) people who are steeped in music theory knowledge. They tend to play sort of safe, generic, within the bounds, sheet music, and get irritated at anything remotely experimental or electronic. Again, these are just the people I know, not trying to generalize. I tend to agree with those who view music theory as explanations rather than rules.
1 Like
heres another great one IMHO… it shows you different rythms for different styles of music, gives you the notation but more importantly translates that to a 16 step pattern based format as well… plus its got tons of info on swing, quantizing and so forth, coming from an era when drum machines were just getting started, so its more based in straight music theory… love this one, its helped me out many times
thanks for chiming in Bwax
[quote=““invisible acropolis””]
heres another great one IMHO… it shows you different rythms for different styles of music, gives you the notation but more importantly translates that to a 16 step pattern based format as well… plus its got tons of info on swing, quantizing and so forth, coming from an era when drum machines were just getting started, so its more based in straight music theory… love this one, its helped me out many times
[/quote]
you couldnt send a birdy with a floppy to berlin ?
I learned a lot of the theory behind music but not the names etc. I figured I’d let my own software do that for me.
Blowing the dust off Melody Mine (see http://www.imekon.org/melodymine.html), I’ve got a working build of it, however I can’t upload it yet as my ISP has changed FTP access to my own website.
It lets me set, for example, D Dorian, then enter notes and they’ll be in that scale and mode. It does work with the A4, but what would be cool is if I could extract the patterns from my tool and SYSEX them onto my A4 as a pattern. If only I knew the format!
Would this help?