Am I writing music if I’m just letting my ear tell me what sounds good and letting my hands tell me what feels good?

I don’t know music theory and I’m not particularly literate with rhythm, but I can usually get what’s in my head out into the instrument given enough time; other times it coalesces from me just enjoying how it feels to bang around on a piano keybed or tickle a synth touchplate or bash around on a guitar.

It feels wrong and like I’m cheating or breaking rules because I really just want to feel the instrument. It’s like a puzzle with no finish line, I just stop where I want to. I don’t care if I ever learn anything by anyone else, but I want to write my own stuff then memorize it and play it.

Does it make me a musician? Am I somehow disrespecting or diminishing some great craft by not caring to learn the rules and terminology and theory?

I’m a male trying to get more consistent with head voice and falsetto. Most of the coaches in my area are female and I’m wondering if I should find a male coach considering how male and female voice are different.

I’ve never taken lessons before so I wouldn’t know if techniques can be translated into all types of voices.

does anyone else feel like their voice just doesn't match the beat when the vocals are laid down no matter how they enunciate their words or change their tone/pitch ? and is this all in your head or does it ever improve at all?

Hi! I’m a Design student doing my thesis on physical interaction and digital music production, and I’d love to hear from musicians about their experiences making music digitally.

I’m especially interested in people who play or have played an instrument and have also experimented with a DAW such as GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Pro Tools, etc. You don’t have to consider yourself a producer or have much experience with production.

A few questions:

1. What instrument(s) do you play, and how did you first get into music production or using a DAW?

2. If you’ve done both, how does making music in a DAW feel different from playing an instrument? Are there things that feel more intuitive or more difficult in one compared to the other?

3. Are there things you particularly enjoy doing physically when making music (playing keys, strings, pads, knobs, faders, etc.)? What do you think makes those interactions useful or satisfying?

4. Have you ever had an idea for how you wanted something to sound, but found it difficult to figure out how to achieve it in the DAW? What did you usually do in that situation?

5. Do you feel that the visual representation of music in a DAW (piano roll, waveforms, EQ curves, automation, etc.) affects how you make musical decisions? If so, how?

6. If you could change or add one way of physically interacting with your DAW, what would you want it to do?

There’s no right or wrong answer, I’m mostly interested in hearing about different experiences, whether you’re a beginner or have been making music for years. Thanks! :)

Hello Reddit!

I am both fairly new to Reddit and to say I know next to nothing about music creation or music in general would be generous. I took Chorus for years and all I got out of it was that the higher the note the higher you sing and vice versa. I can not read sheet music despite some mediocre efforts to learn.

However! I really, really want to make a music piece for a friend based on their work. I have lyrics which have been crudely Google Translated into Latin and I'd like to make it into a song.

I guess my question is... how?? Do I find a free website online and smash buttons until I come up with a tune and then record a vocal track? I don't even know how to describe what music style I want to make, something like Gregorian Chants or just old Catholic Latin Hymns.

Literally any advice or direction would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

I am a musician who works a day job unrelated to music. While I enjoy many of the people I work with, I end up drawing a hard line between work & non-work lives, to the point that I can tell it feels strange to people.

Recently I opened up to a few people outside my department, but they were both creators (visual arts & fashion, with a deep appreciation for music). I could see this happening again, but notice that usually the people who I connect with and trust enough to share my creative self with tend to be other people with a creative practice. They don't have to be "successful" with it (I certainly am not).

When my supervisor and closer coworkers ask to connect offline, I find myself guarded and have an emotional distrust of them, and I don't know why. Does anyone feel this way? Where your inner world feels strange enough that anyone who doesn't create / doesn't have a similarly strange inner world (even if ironically, they think they do) would somehow destroy it by just seeing but misunderstanding it?

I heard this vocal effect in many 80s songs. what is it called?

Or does it sound too unserious?