Hello from Slovakia! 🇸🇰 Complete beginner here. Any tips?

[Vente]

Hey everyone, Vente here.

I have recently become interested in trying out music production (I have never been interested in music, really). I was recommended to check this forum as I recently installed Ubuntu Studio 24.04 on an old gaming PC (Asus GR8 mk1) I had sitting in a drawer.

I'm a big fan of EDM (specifically the 2010-2015 era) and being inspired by my favorite artists I wanted to try making something myself, specifically genres like dubstep or moombahcore (or something similar). I explored the world of DAWs a bit and some plugins... and I think I'm going to settle with Tracktion Waveform 13 Free and Vital. It took me a while to get familiar with how DAWs work in general (I was completely unfamiliar with such software), but I think I got the very basics now.

Since I'm a complete beginner when it comes to music in general (and I have yet to find out if, and how much I like music production), would you please give me some tips on what I should learn / look at, before trying to compose a song? Thanks

[k410]

Hello!

By analogy, I taught myself how to draw (in my teens, half a century ago) by analyzing and emulating some science-fiction magazine illustrations from decades even prior to then.

The composer Aaron Copland broke down music into four elements: rhythm, melody, harmony, and tone color (which today we might call timbre, I think),

Maybe take a short piece that is perhaps not one of your top favorites but still pretty good*, and try to reproduce it or riff off of it (in the sense of maintaining the timewise structure in bars but using different melodies, etc.).

If you can hear a rhythm and a melody in your head, practice putting those down from head to hand to DAW -- I think cultivating that skill is more important than learning the "correct" way to do things. "If it sounds good, it is good."

Also, sometimes the melody of a piece might track the inner thoughts and moods of someone thinking something through or working something out, and other times there might be more of a call-and-response, this-versus-that kind of thing going on. Not sure either of those would apply to the EDM genre, but thought I should mention it.

Hoping this helps!
Kevin (whose ancestry is half-Slovak)
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* So as not to ruin your enjoyment of your top-favorite tracks.

[Vente]

If you can hear a rhythm and a melody in your head, practice putting those down from head to hand to DAW -- I think cultivating that skill is more important than learning the "correct" way to do things. "If it sounds good, it is good."

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Similarly in photography, doing everything the "correct" way doesn't always bring satisfaction and I find myself breaking the rules sometimes. Although prior knowledge of these rules (and knowing know how to exploit them) often seems to be the best way of doing creative stuff.

Also, sometimes the melody of a piece might track the inner thoughts and moods of someone thinking something through or working something out, and other times there might be more of a call-and-response, this-versus-that kind of thing going on. Not sure either of those would apply to the EDM genre, but thought I should mention it.

I'm honestly not sure what you mean by that, maybe later I'll understand.

* So as not to ruin your enjoyment of your top-favorite tracks.

Yes, if I decide to imitate or remix a song, it's definitely not going to be anything from my favorites. Most likely a song that I think I could build upon (I didn't want to say "improve", that might sound rude) or perhaps transform a song of a completely different genre into EDM..

Thanks for help!

Kevin (whose ancestry is half-Slovak)

Oooh, that's so cool! I honestly didn't expect anyone to mention that.