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FamiTracker
This is probably the most FAQ on the forum, But I want to ask it in my own words.
How do you get better at music?
Is there a way chords and random notes work?
Isn't music I like another persons least favorite?
How is music causally created? (beats first, or just start it from somewhere?)
Last of all, How long does an average song take?
Hopefully I can get a slight understanding on this stuff and I can comprehend it from there.
I also uploaded an FTM because I'm tring to mix things up a bit. tell me if this is any improvement please!
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Day 1147
I've read up on all of my old forum posts, and I can not tell you all how grateful I am to have had your support and feedback in the past
Thanks everyone! Keep on composing :D
~Yuccatosis
I get better at (writing) music by doing two things:
- keep working on each tune until it's good
- studying/transcribing/playing other music
There are a lot of ways that chords and notes work. Maybe find a good harmony textbook. At school the standard was Robert Gauldin's "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music". Arnold Schoenberg's "Harmonielehre" is a good one too.
Yes, different people like different things. So?
When I don't have ideas for music, I will pick a song I like and use it as a model. Make a similar melody, probably change the chords around, when something changes in the model, make a similar change in my piece. This has helped me get through episodes of writer's block in the past.
For a 2A03 tune, I find I take about 3 hours to produce 1 minute of music I'm satisfied with. For larger orchestrations it can take a bit longer.
Honestly, you're probably not going to like the answers to these questions.
How you get better at music: There isn't a single way to get better at music, but one of the best ways is to just make stuff. Study the stuff you like and observe what it is they do that makes you feel like you're having an eargasm. Honestly, learning how to play an instrument is HUGE. I cannot stress enough how much easier it is to learn about music when you are learning how to play things. Patterns start popping out that you'll recognize and can use, and scales will make sense in ways that most people cannot grasp by simply reading about them.
How chords work: There isn't a short explanation for this, but there are a bunch of guidelines in Music Theory that can help you with this. I recommend reading about scales, practice using Natural Major and Natural Minor in any key and once you get a grasp on that, move on to more complex things if you want. Chords are basically just a subset of notes from a scale, so if you understand scales, you will have an easier time with chords. Also, learn the Circle of Fifths/Fourths (same thing, opposite direction, read about it!), it is highly useful for harmonizing, arpeggios, key changes, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Yes, people have different tastes in music. You cannot please everyone.
How to create music: You can start with a beat/rhythm, start with a melody, start with a chord, or even just start with a single note. You might even start with lyrics. The only wrong approach is NOT to start.
Creation time on songs varies wildly between people. Some people take months to write a single song, some people can shit out gold in an hour. Practice will definitely make you faster, but depending on how much thought you want to put into a song (or how challenging the material is to you) definitely correlates to how long it's going to take.
As for the FTM, I'm not familiar with your previous stuff, but in terms of listenability, there's no dissonance (meaning you're in a scale of some kind, which is a start!) It's not particularly interesting, but you only play 3 notes, which looks like it's probably some form of D# Minor (my guess is the melodic minor scale but I am by no means a music theory expert).
Also, don't take what music thoery says as LAW. They are simply guidelines, and while useful, should never dictate what you write. There are some amazing things in music that go against the traditions of theory, but understanding theory allows you to make those decisions about when you want to break those guidelines and do something that sounds awesome.
You must know the rules to break them.
I couldn't agree more with everything clerian has already said. You seem to by now understand what sounds discorded and unpleasant, now what you need to do is find something unique that you can implement in your music. What I'm trying to say here is though this ftm you posted here makes sense musically, it still just feels like it's missing something. Try and jazz it up a bit and do whatever you can to add personality. I can only tell you so much, though. I haven't posted any of my work with famitracker lately because I simply feel that I'm unable to create something that sounds, well, different from any of my other stuff. With practice, I'm hoping I'll be able to learn how to create more unique music.
Being someone who plays the piano, I can create some sort of melody or song idea much easier with that instrument as opposed to just messing around in the tracker. If you know your way around an instrument, you'll have a much easier time coming up with ideas and ways to add personality to your music.
Above all, practice makes perfect. There are some people around who have never seen or heard of famitracker in their life, or any sort of tracker for that matter, but seem to have a sort of natural talent and can simply create amazing things right off the bat. With others, it take months or even years of practice.
What I'm trying to tell you here is to never give up. Try new things with your music, just make sure they don't make it sound discorded. Only with time and patience will you be great.
Haven't really gotten to music stuff yet, but I tried to put vibrato and modified the second instrument in this song.
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Day 1147
I've read up on all of my old forum posts, and I can not tell you all how grateful I am to have had your support and feedback in the past
Thanks everyone! Keep on composing :D
~Yuccatosis
To me it's one big mystery. I don't know any theory at all. I just go with my gut feeling. I always knew I had some kind of talent with music since i'm a little kid. Started playing guitar at age 14 and pretty much quit at the age of 26. Been in many heavy metal bands as a rythym guitarist so I DO have some kind of musical background. I always refused taking music courses because I believe in Natural talent more than textbook theories. Most people that make good tunes usually have some kind of musical background. I could not imagine learning music on a Tracker. You also have to be a music lover in general. If there isn't music playing in the background, i'm humming or whistling a NES song at work all the time. You just gotta live and breathe music. The rest comes natural. I've been fami-ing for almost 1 year and a half, and I still learn new tricks and techniques EVERY DAY in the forums. As some mentioned, covering is an amazing teacher but will mostly teach you tricks with performing different sounds and instruments in the tracker, not really musical theory.
All in all, good luck on your quest.
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[url=http://soundcloud.com/fezuke/sets]My 8-Bit Soundcloud
[url=http://soundcloud.com/fezuke-2/sets]My Other Project Soundcloud
My advice for this tune: DO NOT be afraid of volume levels. They are your friend, and they add depth to any music. They can also be used to simulate echo effects. Listen to any of fezuke, nicetas_c, weirdbananas, TechEmporium, mine or anyone else on this forum for examples. I have edited your tune just a bit to show you what I mean by volume levels making a big difference in any tune, bland or not. I also changed the bass line in channel 2 of the FM.
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You now process Dracula's Rib. Good luck processing it...
Thanks for mentioning my music as an example, Demick12 (you'll have to thank Tadpole for teaching me this when I first started tracking).
yucca70: Like zephemeros & clerian said, music theory is only theory. There are no solid rules of law in music because everyone's taste/ability is different. I can speak for myself when I say I've taken music theory for 7 years & 3 years of practice with FamiTracker before getting to where I am in skills. This said, I can list a few great musicians that don't have theory under their belt.
The fact of the matter is, it helps to know music theory, but it's not as desperately needed as knowledge of your chosen instrument. But what's more important is to realize that, even though we all have different tastes in music, we can all agree on what constitutes harmony & discord. It's up to the musician to know how to balance both.
In my case, I don't bother timing how long it takes to make any song. All I do is keep working at it until I'm at least satisfied (& if I'm not, that's when I ask here for a little push or some critique). As for how I work or where I start, I actually start with my lead tune & work my way to either a drone channel, bass or both (I save percussion for last).
But my most important realization is that we're technically all music students; we learn from each other & draw inspiration from others.
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Technology: the one thing that's hated & cursed at by all engineers, technologists, scientists & technicians!
Learning how to play instruments has helped me tremendously; I used to only be able to play drums (I took private lessons from grade 3), but in highschool I joined concert and jazz bands (and learned a bit of theory in concert band). I actually won an award for being the most improved instrumentalist for my first year of highschool. (I really sucked on any tuned percussion at the start.)
Without this I probably wouldn't even be using Famitracker or have as much of an interest in music.
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Everything moves real slow when it's 40 below.
[quote=clerian]Creation time on songs varies wildly between people. Some people take months to write a single song, some people can shit out gold in an hour. Practice will definitely make you faster, but depending on how much thought you want to put into a song (or how challenging the material is to you) definitely correlates to how long it's going to take.[/quote]
I just want to add to this that it varies for the same artist depending on the song too. Sometimes I can crap out something amazing in a couple hours (a full song), or sometimes it takes weeks to finish something relatively simple. Usually complexity goes hand in hand with the time it takes to write something, but this is not always the case.
Getting better at music is an awkward one to answer, really. There's just so many ways to learn.
I'd say, as long as you [b]don't stop making music[/b] you should get better. However, analyzing music you like (whether by analyzing sheet music or modules, or simply just listening) will help you on your way. And of course, there are people that just have a knack for these sorts of things, so some might improve faster than others - you can't really help that.
As for things like chords and other theory-based things, I'd say ignore it for now. Personally, I never really learnt anything about music until rather recently - I look back on my old modules and I'm astounded by how strangely natural they sound. I dunno, I'm not sure I can describe it.
That said though, knowing just a bit of theory can be quite useful. Learning about key signatures could be a bit of help, then at least you'll know what is and isn't particularly tonal (assuming you're not making atonal music on purpose), but I wouldn't say "go memorize the table of fifths" - I don't even know what that is. It's just something best learnt as you go on.
Yes, I think that's the best description of it all - you just learn as you go on. Eventually you'll hit a point where you just find something that sounds superb and your skill will increase exponentially as you use your newfound technique well. And then you'll learn to love that one track you composed and you'll feel that you'll never surpass it.
And, of course, it's not just melodies and progressions that are important - you'll need to practice on your sound design too. Nobody's going to fuck you in your 4 poster bed if the bed's made of vomit and cat piss.
But yeah, as myself and others have said multiple times, practice. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. You'll hit that one point someday!! <3
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