LMMS • Forums

Hi there all! My name is John, and I'm a freelance writer living in Austin, TX, USA. Music has been really important to me all my life, and I've always been able to be transported away by the right piece. Recently I've been taking stock of my life, and I've decided to branch out into making music.

I know NOTHING about making music. I know what feels good to me, but I haven't had any formal instruction aside from a few months of piano lessons when I was much younger.

I like artists like JS Bach, nervous_testpilot (ensnare), Michael Brook and many many others. I have a MIDI-capable keyboard, but it's not set up and I don't have an interface for it anyway.

I plan on installing the software and following some tutorials. That's pretty much how I taught myself how to use Photoshop! And I'm pretty good at that, so I reckon I can become pretty good at this too.

Oh, and "Abstane" — my user name — you know, I don't know what it means. It came to me in a half-sleep, and it seemed like a pretty cool musician name. So that's what I'm rolling with.

If you've got any advice for me, I'd LOVE to hear it. I have a total "beginner's mind" about all of this.

Abstane wrote:Hi there all! My name is John,

Welcome to the forum John! Here are all important links:
http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4740
-And a few rules for Avatars, signatures, posting and using the right sub-forum :)

Abstane wrote:Hi there all! My name is John

Welcome to the forum John! Here are all important links:
http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4740
-And a few rules for Avatars, signatures, posting and using the right sub-forum :)

I know NOTHING about making music.

Just ask, Everyone here are happy to help.

I plan on installing the software and following some tutorials.

Perhaps my rookie-guide can interest you? Link in signature.

If you've got any advice for me, I'd LOVE to hear it. I have a total "beginner's mind" about all of this.

The Wiki ofcause,
http://lmms.io/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
and on my yT channel i have 90+ tutorials for lmms and music theory, as like.

Welcome and see if you can hook that midi keyboard to you're pc.

Does it have usb or only the "real" midi ports?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p42P4d5JXwM

Thanks for the welcomes and well-wishes. Much appreciated!

GPS: My keyboard is an older Yamaha model. I don't remember which one right now. But it is a synth (it's got loads of instruments and its own speakers) and a controller — as I recall, it's got two or three MIDI plugs. You know, the older 5-pin DIN connectors, the round ones. It doesn't have USB, as it was made before USB was a big thing.

Musikbear: Wow, that's a lot to go through. I'll get into all that stuff soon.

Questions: How important is music theory? Should I study that as well? And can I add sounds (patches?) and samples to LMMS? Its library seems fairly extensive, but I'm sure that I will eventually want to add to it.

The round old midi ports, are the ones I like to call real midi ports.

Like the two my AtariST had. MIDI in and out.

You still might be able to connect the Yamaha to youre pc.

http://www.bax-shop.nl/midi-interface/t ... GwodbFIFvQ

Music theory how important is it ?

You need to understand some basics, but you had some piano lessons, that might be already enough.

There is quite an topic on my struggle. Before lmms and about 2 years ago now, I knew almost nothing about (composing) music.
My career started with me asking if my creation was out of tune. ( and it was, but I did not hear it )

Some people do not know any theory but still can play about anything.

What do you know about drums?
I am slowly starting to see how kicks snares and hi hats are used, and work together with the bassline.

I also learned a lot by watching many you tube vids, on how other people do things in a DAW. ( a program like lmms )

I have seen all Musicbear's vids at least ones.

For me personally it does help to read and learn some music theory.

I also had to learn allot and still do about synthesizers, a study by it self.

The MIDI interface link you gave me was in Dutch or something, but I found an English one that should work just fine. I don't think I need anything fancy, hm?

I don't really know anything special about drums. Why do you ask?

I found a great site — musictheory.net — that has all kinds of lessons and exercises for free. So I'll be studying that in addition to LMMS. Yow!

Welcome Abstane.
Enjoy!

brandystarbrite wrote:Welcome Abstane.
Enjoy!

thanks mate! I intend to. I really appreciate it!