Hi guys!
I've been writing music since I was 12. I'm 26 now. Lyrics, songs, everything. I've taught myself how to play piano, guitar, bass and sing well enough to record my music. I'm decent at writing, arranging, and recording my music into a cohesive product. Here's an example of what I can do. (Excuse the bass-heavy mix, I'm working on that).
But deep down, I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing.
I took some piano lessons on and off from 6 to 12, but I never really learned much past the really basic stuff (how to read very, very simple music, notes––e.g. A - G--etc, time divisions, basic chord theory (3rds, 5ths, 7th, 9ths). Being a kid at the time, I didn't really appreciate what I was learning. Instead, I'd learn by ear and just figure it out that way. I got older, picked up guitar, learned the chord shapes, barring, etc., and relied on experimentation to learn to write on guitar. Likewise, same with bass.
The common theme here is that I've never really been much interested in learning other's music. I've always resolved to just making my own, and it's worked out fantastically for me so far––I love it, I've written well over 500 songs, and generally people seem to enjoy the things I write. That said, my methods of learning music so far have created a certain number of challenges for me. I've reached a plateau that I've been facing for the past 8 years. I'm not really getting any better, and the problem is I don't really know how to improve from where I'm at now. I'd like to be able to survive in a band environment on all the instruments I can play, and also improve my endurance. Here's a list of things I'm struggling with now:
- My timing sucks. I've been playing to clicks and metronomes forever and just can't seem to improve in that area. I've been told "maybe you just don't have rhythm", but I'm one of those people who believe that human beings can learn anything. I'm 100% confident this can be fixed. I'm just not sure how to fix it, and I'm not sure what to focus on. I keep tempo in my head and if I really focus, I can kinda hold beat a little bit, but I never really feel like I'm grooving, more just struggling to keep in time. I'm on beat probably about 65% of the time, and the rest of the time I'm either a little late or rushed. It takes a million takes/comps to get anything reasonable useable, and it's frustrating.
- I can't get through a whole song without fucking up a million times. I rely a lot on comping/looping to get by, kinda like with my timing. It works, and lets me translate my ideas from my brain to DAW, but I want to be able to get through a song.
- I understand what scales are, but I don't understand what they're used for or how to apply them effectively. I'm sure just about everything I play falls into a scale in some way, and that I'm utilizing them subconsciously, but my understanding is blegh.
- I can't really solo on any instrument. My ability to think on my feet just isn't there. If I play piano and I have to hop down a bunch of notes, I can't really "hear" ahead of the note I'm playing. I might have an idea for the note I want to hear, but I can't look at the keys and say "okay, this note is what I'm looking for". I'd really like to be able to do this on guitar and bass as well––especially on bass to make the playing a little less boring.
- I'd like to improve my chord theory. I think this is the thing I understand strongest, but sometimes I come across situations where I'm like "hmm... okay, I know roughly want my brain wants to hear but I don't know how to get there."
- I'd like to improve my musical nomenclature, and make sense of terms like "modes" and "tonics", because when I start reading about them I just get really confused. Or the circle of fifths and it's uses.
- I've probably developed some bad habits along the way. I'm not sure how hard it would be to unlearn some of these things, but I understand how primacy works (I teach people how to fly airplanes for a living, so I understand that once someone has a bad habit, it's quite difficult to work through).
- I'd like to figure out how to be more creative, and I feel a lot of this due to the things above.
I understand these things take years to get good at, and I'm willing to put in the work, I just don't know how to figure out the path there. Like I said earlier, I feel like I'm stuck.
Any help with this would be appreciated!
Submitted January 04, 2022 at 08:13AM by PM_ME_YOUR_PITOTTUBE https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/rvs0ik/ive_been_writing_songs_for_14_years_i_dont_know/?utm_source=ifttt