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I'm just going to cut to the chase. I feel like I know most of the technical stuff in producing like mixdowns and using my daw and soft synths, and when there is something technical that I don't know its just a google/youtube search away and I can figure it out. But the thing I am realizing I struggle with while producing is music theory. I have never pllayed an instrument other than a couple months of piano lessons when i was small. So It's hard for me to write melody's and get my leads and bass to all fit together. I thought I could get by just by using midi effects in ableton like scale buy I know its a lot bigger than that. So If any of you guys can recommend some videos or give me some tips and tricks to help me learn this stuff and make my tracks sound more musical that would great! Thanks.

Get a midi keyboard and start learning to play classical pieces. Dissect the hell out of them too, well written songs on piano are fascinatingly put together.

Just to be clear though, it's a fairly slow and incredibly frustrating solution to your problem. There aren't many shortcuts to learning an instrument.

There's a really good pdf about music theory that used to be posted around here lots, cant remember the name though

Do you guys use a lot of music theory while your producing or do you just go with the flow. Because I rarely come across a tutorial or video or post where they mention anything about it.

I think once you grasp music theory it will become part of the flow

Found that pdf - http://www.worldofbryan.com/rsg2mt.pdf

basically for dubstep there`s just a few basic stuff to know as far as music theory is concerned.

YOu can write in google search "basic chord progressions" write a few of them down in piano roll, then use arpeggiator and its chop templates and move around notes you dont want to get close to a melody you want.
Offcourse the best way is to have the melody slip from your fingers as you play it but for that you would have to put in time and practice.
Scales are the best practice for melody cause it connects your brain with your fingers, or synchronizes them...Lets say you start with one note, and in your head you already hear the second. With practice your fingers would already know where to go. Something like that.

Brothulhu wrote:I think once you grasp music theory it will become part of the flow

This pretty much.

Eventually you don't really think about it anymore, you just know the scale you're in and jam around it. I still have to think about chord progressions a lot though, can't wait til that shit becomes second nature haha.

Thanks for the pdf. And so are you guys saying basically just stay in scale, and just learn a couple other things about it and keep it in the back of my mind?

Yeah I mean there are times you can go out of scale (I like to use harmonic scales a lot), but just be aware of what's happening. In regards to electronic music though, I've found my experience as a drummer has helped me more than anything. It's the feel and attitude of the notes being played that gives the song life, otherwise you're basically a melodic human arpeggiator.

If you haven't seen it before - Google
"ravenspiral guide"

It's a giant PDF around music theory for electronic producers.

Edit - found this older version... thoguh i think it's been updated since

http://www.worldofbryan.com/rsg2mt.pdf

breakitdown wrote:If you haven't seen it before - Google
"ravenspiral guide"

It's a giant PDF around music theory for electronic producers.

Edit - found this older version... thoguh i think it's been updated since

http://www.worldofbryan.com/rsg2mt.pdf

Arrg - I see someone above beat me to it.
Anyways - worth a look.

So how often do you guys think about it though? Is it like oh my bassline needs to be in these notes for this long? Or do just kinda goof around in midi and see what happens? Then put it in scale later? Should I even worry about this stuff or just do what sounds good.

Smiles wrote:So how often do you guys think about it though? Is it like oh my bassline needs to be in these notes for this long? Or do just kinda goof around in midi and see what happens? Then put it in scale later? Should I even worry about this stuff or just do what sounds good.

You should learn and understand it, but by no means use it as an absolute rule. I played violin for 6 years and understand music theory fairly well, but most of the time when I'm writing a song I'll just sit down at my keyboard and hammer out whatever sounds good over the beat.

Well the scale is pretty much always the first thing I decide, and sometimes if I'm feeling lazy I'll just throw a scale effect on my midi channel so I literally have to do no thinking about it haha. But melodies I keep it in mind to a degree depending on what scale degrees I want to hit and all that good stuff. I don't think about it as much because it's just part of the workflow, but if you're just starting to focus on it it might take a little while to get used to.

Note lengths and rhythms are all just based on feel. Drum and rhythm theory exist, but I literally have no idea how it all works logically, it's become an instinct after 10 years of analyzing progressive metal and funk drumming haha.

resample random growls, arrange as appropriate.

Shum wrote:resample random growls, arrange as appropriate.

this

the sad truth unless you're someone like kaori breathe is theory plays no role in edm
tunings and keys come randomly
most people into edm (myself included) just jam on a keyboard in spite of having previously playing an instrument till they hear something good

i know a lil music theory like major and minor keys and the emotions they evoke in people, but just jamming out is what makes edm what it is and special
you may defy all conventions of traditional music theory, but if it sounds good and resonates at your core, that's the secret i love

deadly habit wrote:the sad truth unless you're someone like kaori breathe is theory plays no role in edm
tunings and keys come randomly
most people into edm (myself included) just jam on a keyboard in spite of having previously playing an instrument till they hear something good

i know a lil music theory like major and minor keys and the emotions they evoke in people, but just jamming out is what makes edm what it is and special
you may defy all conventions of traditional music theory, but if it sounds good and resonates at your core, that's the secret i love

pretty much