Learning Is Amazing: Adventure Driven Self Education

You have to learn a tiny bit at a time,

and sometimes let what you are learning dictate a new path forward, so as long as it is interesting.

For example, I've been looking over the LB302 instrument that comes with lmms,

the 302 developers homepage has plenty of demos if you don't have lmms handy.

It says that the LB302 is inspired by the 1980 era Roland TB-303 Bassline synth,

a quick look on YouTube reveals a great great example of programming in a song.

Doctor Mix (no relation), is recreating Donna Summer's masterpiece under the title,

“The Bass Line Of I Feel Love On A TB-303"

Donna Summer is also mentioned in Ableton's Learning Music Tutorial,

noting that her masterpiece was an early example of music with almost entirely electronic instrumentation.

With modern software, the user interface is a lot more consistent,

a simple program like lmms almost does not care what instrument is playing.

And the LB302, though very different from the TB-303,

actually creates an easier on-ramp, it is just five buttons and six knobs.

What a fantastic invitation,

to play with a fancy instrument.

A YouTube user named Michael Gregory has a remake of the song loaded in FL Studio,

and you can see what a simple setup it is, it is just about seven instruments and the vocals.

This is a very famous song,

that simplicity is yet another invitation to a new tangent, that will eventually result in you becoming a world class musician.

My interest in the piano opening of Faded by Alan Walker,

has not faded at all.

I the melody is so simple.

it in it self is a call to create a library of such simple melodies.

Beneath the melody, are chords,

and again very simple, and very beautiful.

The way notes are arranged in here is just,

one thing, another thing, and repeat.

Walker moves up and down the scale,

after sixteen beats or, a full measure to keep things interesting, and in harmony with melody.

But it is the same pattern,

a-b-a-b-a-b-a-b on an on.

You can see that really well in the first 26 seconds of a video entitled,

"Alan Walker - Fade - PIANO TUTORIAL", where the left hand is playing the repeating pattern, and the right has the melody.

Searching for similar chord progressions in other songs,

is yet another great adventure.

Mad World comes to mind, in a video entitled "Mad World - Gary Jules ver. | Piano tutorial | Karaoke",

you get a really good example of the difference between the poetic chords and high pitched melody.

All of this, right at your fingertips,

you don't have to practice the piano or anything, you just reproduce the notes in the piano roll.

This is such a great way to learn,

that the idea of taking a music class for this, makes me sad.

So many people are denied music,

and by the place that claims to teach it, that this is a great tragedy.

People are being tricked into thinking they are not musicians,

I don't even know what to say anymore.

Self education, wow, once we start making connections, like actually see Roland TB-303, and what it used to be like programming those darn things,

and now; how lucky we are to have a piano roll in a free program like lmms, where we can make music by clicking squares on a grid, you can't help but to learn.

And while Donna Summer is like the critical central instrument that makes the song,

and Faded has a singer singing throughout the entire piece....

...it does not mean that songs require lyrics, not at all, not at all,

a piano cover of Mad World, is still a masterpiece.

There truly is something magical about learning on our own,

at our own pace, in just the precise sequence of things, especially when curiosities connect.

Like how Donna Summer's digital masterpiece connects LB302 and TB-303 and the Ableton Tutorial,

and sets us off on an adventure looking at how Daft Punk created their beautiful songs.

It is not a passion for music,

it is curiosity at an enjoyable pace-forward that makes a musician.

Self education,

has nothing to do with discomfort or stress, it is just not how real education works.

This entire text is like a gateway to music,

lmms is not difficult, especially with a few tutorials.

It is of some note that setting up Bandcamp is free,

you just need album art, and a paypal account where Bandcamp will deposit money your song sales

You get to learn music from the greatest artists,

and hope to sell it at the same time, more importantly you learn about money making, business, advertising, and get to reason about it, and day dream about it...

...and bother your classmates to buy your Sick New Album,

which I can tell already is going to be, Radical, Notorious, and Cowabanga.

Word.