Do I have a chance to learn or am I too old?

[futures_untold]

Lets put things in perspective for all you 'old' 20 year olds...

My mum started jogging in her 50ies and has since completed the London Marathon, several sprint triathlons and each summer she cycles across France with her husband!

Get cracking young whippersnapper, all you adult life lies before you!

[Filthzilla]

My mum started jogging in her 50ies and has since completed the London Marathon, several sprint triathlons and each summer she cycles across France with her husband!

Woohoo! Big up yo mumma!

But @ OP: Seriously!! You're 23!! When I read the title of this post I thought it'd some 75 year old war veteran wanting to know how to produce.
Ofcourse you can learn. Who knows, the experience you have over your 23 years on this planet might come in useful.

Get on it. We're always here to help.

[Filthzilla]

Ooo and big up jrisreal, everything he's said is wisdom!

I'm not feeling what some people have said about learning the guitar instead of producing.

[Electric_Head]

Ooo and big up jrisreal, everything he's said is wisdom!

I'm not feeling what some people have said about learning the guitar instead of producing.

I agree
You don`t need to know music to make music.
Hell sometimes the coolest most off-the wall tunes come from music e literate people.

[benjam]

Half of the advice in this thread is bollocks IMO. im not saying learning an instrument wouldnt help but you would be better spending time learning production techniques. And as far as a DAW goes your gonna end up having to learn one anyway so pick one and get to it. All the major daws such as reason, ableton, FL, logic, pro-tools, acid, sonar, reaper etc are fully capable of creating pro quality tracks so just grab one and learn it inside out.
I understand how daunting it seems when you start but youve just gotta get on it. You tube has millions of videos aimed at beginners watch them all, read this forum back to front and inside out. Found a term you dont understand? Google it at find out what it is.
To give you perspective Ive just turned 23. I started at the end of jan last year so ive been going for a year ish now. Ive been reading everything I can find on production constantly every single day as well as spending as much time doing it as I can. While im fully aware of my shitness ive got a few tracks im proud of and even managed to get a radio play on a big dubstep station. You just gotta go for it and put the work in and enjoy it.

[legend4ry]

You're never to old to learn !

[hakka]

Watch endless tutorials on youtube, pick up computer music mag. Collect a nice library of samples. 6 months you could churn out your first beat.

[kaiori breathe]

So I have no idea what Im doing,,,, Ive never made music before, Ive never been around people who DJed or produced.....
All I have is ideas in my head, and and the passion and desire to learn how to make my own music....

Is there anyway that I have a chance to learn? I mean Ive NEVER done this before and have no knowledge in it, plus im 23.

How long would it take me to seriousaly make my first song?

I have ableton live 8 suite right now, the trial verison.

Ive been messing around with it for about 2 weeks or something like that.....
Havent really picked up anything.... struggling horribily.

I just need to know if I am wasting my time, or do I have a chance to make some good music???

What are your thoughts, how can I learn this faster and , do I even have a chance to know what all these "slang terms" are for different things about the sounds and program.

I really wanna make own shit, but I have no idea what to learn first.. everything is thrown at me at once, and so many things going on at once, its hard for me to study each thing, each sound, each sound format, ect. How can I break all this up into sections I can remember?

I'd suggest learning some really basic music theory, search on goggle for the 'raven spiral music theory' guide, should come up on the first page, start reading up, take it a little bit at a time, and while you're learning that, try experimenting with your DAW making new sounds an learning how the whole thing works, eventually you won't feel like you need to break it into sections, it all just sits in your head like one big folder full of music knowledge you can access, it seems very divided and confusing at first, to be honest, there's no easy place to start, the important thing is to just start. And nobody can really tell you where to start either, we can make suggestions, but while I might suggest reading up on some music theory to help you learn to write, somebody else might recommend you start learning about sound design or somebody else might suggest just fiddling around blindly and learning through trial and error. The annoying thing about learning music is that we all do it differently, which makes it hard to suggest a start point that would be helpful.

And no you're not wasting you time, anybody can make music provided you're not tone deaf.

The slang terms are confusing at first, I remember feeling the same as you do, especcially with regards to that, but just don't be afraid to ask what things like 'bounce a track' mean if you don't understand, people will always be happy to help.

If you feel like you're struggling and like it's work, then you will struggle and it will be work, it's meant to be fun, sure there's learning, but even that part of it is meant to be enjoyable, stop pushing yourself so hard, the passion is good, but it'll ruin you if you don't control it, you're never going to learn all music, it takes more lifetimes than you have to learn it, the best you can do is learn enough to make what you want to learn, if you make yourself think there's an end point and near kill yourself to get to it you're gonna miss out on a lot of what makes music enjoyable. it's good to push yourself, just not to the point where you're despairing lol.

You WILL pick it all up and one day you'll be like everyone else here with music coming out your ears, boring your friends to death talking about synths, sitting alone for hours writing a tune, constantly late to meet people because you were trying out a new idea (of course you'll always blame public transport, even though really you were sitting for 3 hours playing with a bit crusher and massive vst...)

anyway, yea, have fun brah.

[Shum]

And no you're not wasting you time, anybody can make music provided you're not tone deaf.

Adam Freeland is tone deaf and he's turned out some alright tunes so that isn't a barrier either it seems.

[gnome]

I never played an instrument and never learned music theory. But after 2 years of tinkering with Ableton I am confident I could create anything I have in my head. The two years learning the software and not knowing how to put down anything were lots and lots of fun. Enjoy it.

[Bass Music]

Definitely not too old to learn, keep experimenting and you'll get to grips with the program easily. Good luck man

[GV1]

My stepdad started at about 29/30. Having been a DJ on the Garage circuit playing with the big names of the day, he moved into production. He's had a number of releases, done tracks with Ed Case and other big artists. He's now 40 and still does it daily as well as hold down a full time job. So it's never to late to get started.

I'm 27, I started at 17, but it's only recently I unlocked a whole wealth of power when I got into synthesis and my knowledge is expanding daily.

[VirtualMark]

well if you've been trying for two whole weeks, and you're not yet one of the best producers in the world, you should give up. two whole weeks man!

[TheBrownie]

Youtube is one of your greatest allies when beginning your production. Spend a few hours just looking at videos on different things, NOT just synths and basslines, that won't help. You're not too old, and playing the piano is just to help you along and ease you into production a little more. IMO, you shouldn't worry too much about whether or not what you're making is sounding good, I'm being a little hypocritical there, but it's true. For the first few months, you'll feel like you haven't really done anything good, you're music won't sound great to you either, that's to be expected. It's just experience.

Btw, jrisreal, you're amazing for 15 years old...wish I was that good...I'm 16
Maybe when I'm 19 I'll be as good as you are now, but then you'll be even better O.o

[zerbaman]

What an obscene question.
OF COURSE YOU DO!

As long as you've got the ideas and passion, there's nothing else you need.

I know I wouldn't be the first saying that I started with no idea about music, and still don't have any, just make the tunes that YOU would like to hear. Keep it personal

[3za]

But after 2 years of tinkering with Ableton I am confident I could create anything I have in my head.

But are you confident that you can create the stuff out of your head, like the stuff in someone else's head?

I have seen that shit man, it oozes every where like slimmy purple shit.

If you can then your a fucking ninja, or some other shit like me manggggggg!!!!!!!!!

[jrisreal]

I'm not feeling what some people have said about learning the guitar instead of producing.

I know man, piano would be useful though. In piano, you can learn your scales and certain properties of music that are important to production. Also, the MIDI keyboard is played like a piano, so u gotta know how to use it lol.

[jrisreal]

Btw, jrisreal, you're amazing for 15 years old...wish I was that good...I'm 16
Maybe when I'm 19 I'll be as good as you are now, but then you'll be even better O.o

Wow, thanks man . But are you sure? lol I dont think I'm so amazing at dubstep just yet

(I saw this and just had to include it in the post:)

[Frodo Bassbins]

all about how commited and dedicated you are. i started when i was like 19, 21 now, basically have been a bum stoner alchoholic for the last 4 years and although i have improved quite a bit since i started im still nowhere near putting out a fully completed tune that im happy with.. that was with spending maybe a few hours per week at most i feel like if i spent all my time on it instead of useless video games or just wasting time in general id be alot better.

[dudebrux]

Dont worry about it dude. I've been messing around casually on ableton for a few years now and have never finished a tune, I just have fun fiddling around. Though I am looking at learning chords and stuff as I have a midi keyboard but really know nothing about music theory.