Hey guys I was wondering whether you could help advise me...

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Im kinda stuck in my playing style. Perhaps some of you can relate to this....

I play 80's power chords and catchy monophonic stuff (perhaps some of you aspire to this! If not...why not!!). Im not a piano player (although I sometimes wish I was). My point is......I have a self taught style which is cool....but at the same time its restricted. Im scared that if I take piano and theory lessons...im going to loose my cool retro style. Ive heared horror stories of little old grannies taking keyboard players and making them into boring players. Am I just paranoid or do you guys think it would help me greatly to further improve my own style?

Cheers guys...

DS

[Wandering Kid]

its always good to approach music from a different perspective every once in a while. music theory i found very useful for when i was stuck for something to play, i could improvise alot more easily because i knew what chords and scales i was playing. what key changes i could make without it sounding pie eyed. like anything theres a tendancy to overdo it and produce utter wank. i went through a phase of rattling off scales on guitar like there was no tommorow to make up for the fact i was a pretty uninspired guitarist. so i got bored with that and got interested in industrial music which is, essentially noise. had a go at writing that, but it became a cliche. then i started producing. dissected a few trance songs like for an angel and salt water and cafe del mar. 90% of the stuff i write now is trance. or i start something with the intention of not writing trance and it somehow ends up as trance. thats only because it has been occupying my mind alot lately and in the past year ive invested a lot of time and effort into what goes into making that trance sound. if i get stuck for an idea, i can always twist it into a generic trance tune, because i know alot of the ins and outs of making very generic trance - ive practically ate slept and breathed it for the past year.

my advice, music theory is a wonderful thing to learn if you can afford to get classical training. or if you cant its worth learning anyway by whatever means you can. whats not so good is to let it dominate your view of what music can and should be. as long as you dont let your knowledge of musical theory narrow your creative horizons i cant see how it could be detrimental to you in any way. its easy to let things narrow your creativity though, particularly if you like a certain style of music or a certain way of writing music and if you let these become steadfast rules for making music. keep in mind, there are no rules. and never lose touch with your musical roots. you'll be fine. and you'll be able to wank that keyboard when you cant think of what to play next. which has its advantages in tricky situations.

[blay]

Originally Posted by DIGITAL SCREAMS

Im kinda stuck in my playing style.

my advice - if you already have solid theory and it is just that you are in a bit of a rut - pull out some records/cds of some music you havent listened to for a while, listen with some fresh ears and then try a little improvisation over the track - you generally will find yourself playing a style that varies to your own, or at least in a different key

thats my RUT-BUSTER for today (available at all good audio retail outlets)

[Onkel Dunkel]

Watch those old grandmas or you?ll be playing f?r elise for the rest of your days No seriously, i take piano lessons and i find it very helpfull learn about theory and it improves my playingskills and creativity but it?s also time-consuming since you have to practice (more piano, less tweaking around). I have a real cool teacher who makes me play all sorts of musical genres. Much of it cool stuff And then he?s a synth-lover too

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Wow guys.....inspiring responses.

Wandering Kid......thx alot for taking the time to right that. I think its applicable to me and alot of others. I think I will go for classical training....and at the same time Ill make it very clear to the instructer that I have my own style and I want to improve upon it...not detract from it. Perhaps Ill look into getting a jazz pianist to teach me. They often understand the need for individuality. The old granny across the road tend to manufacter

Cheers bLay.....good advice. Funny enough ive done that with some of my fav 80's songs. Love it! But, it doesnt always help me to progress my own original ideas

DS

[saba]

But what if you listen to drone ambient? How do you practice that?
________
E-class

[Wandering Kid]

i guess you just...you know...make shit up. over at tranceaddict.com there was this guy who just popped into the production forum a few weeks back. wanted feedback on a tune he wrote. all the comments were bad. REALLY bad. so i got curious. the song doesnt really have any coherant structure. alot of drone instruments. sounded like it was written completely autonymously. it was essentially gamelin music although the person who wrote it had no knowledge of gamelin and wrote it quite accidentally on his own admission. i think it was just me and 1 other guy that kept telling him 'dont touch a phucking thing! try and refine that kind of sound.' it was definitely very rough around the edges. but it was heading in a direction that not many people try and push forward in. all those tranceheads were saying 'you gotta give it a phat beat like this...and have some hihats like this...have a rolling bassline like this...' the list of corrections can basically be summed up like this:

K---K---K---K---
--O---O---O---O-
-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h

--B---B---B---B-
bb--bb--bb--bb-

that was a real smack yourself on the forehead moment. at least for me and that one other dude. that guy is probably producing horrendous, generic TARNCE!!!11 right now. that in itself though, isnt a complete waste of time. its just another way of writing music and evoke a certain feeling in doing so. whats a shame is that hes been persuaded that theres a right and wrong way to write music and that to write good music you gotta have 4 beats per measure and all instruments have to start with the same key note. GAH.

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by Wandering Kid

whats a shame is that hes been persuaded that theres a right and wrong way to write music and that to write good music you gotta have 4 beats per measure and all instruments have to start with the same key note. GAH.

Yup. We (I, hoho) have had loooong discussions about this thing. Seems like experimenting and doing different is criminal on some genres. Everyone is forced into the same mould. "If you want to make this type of music, you'll have to it this way" - Why not "If you want to make this type of music, feel free to experiment and make it sound like you".

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by saba

But what if you listen to drone ambient? How do you practice that? :(

This reminds me of the april's fool joke on Sound-on-sound (or was it Future Music?). That one key Novation synth for hard house producers. Buahaha! That was ultimate classic! I'd like to give a medal for the bloke(s) that invented the whole thing.

[Juho L]

To the original subject: There are good teachers and there are bad teachers, but fixing a style of play is not a bad thing. With better technique you can still play the same stuff you do now, but in addition to that you can play lot more. You don't loose anything if someone fixes your crappy 80's technique. Hoho.

I'd recommend piano/keyboard and theory lessons for everybody, even for you trance boys. It helps you to make music. It's a common "urban legend" that theory destroys creativity. The truth is opposite. When you know theory, you know more ways to create melodies, chordprogressions, etc. And remember kids: Theory of music is not a set of rules, it's more like a guideline. For example when you teach child to mix water colours to create new colours, do you destroy the creativity? Is the child now a dumb robot when he/she knows how to mix colours properly?

Choosing between classical and pop/jazz education is really a matter of a preference. Both of them teach you to play well. Pop/jazz has more weight on theory and improvisation. Classical is more focused on playing technique and score reading. If you want to learn good technique and prima vista, choose classical. If you want to learn improvisation and theory, choose pop/jazz. Of course both teach you all the things, but the weighting is different. I'd prefer pop/jazz because theory and improvisation are great tools for making music.