The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

DMANX@... heeft geschreven:
> Thanks to all for your tips.
> But I find learning to read and write music very complex,fustrating and restrictive.
> I mean with all the soft synths/step sequencers,loop players and samplers etc is it really necessary to learn.
> I mean some people play by ear like my self,is this normal.
> I like ambient dance/trance and experimental electronics sounds.I like using an150/reaktor/reason.I just mess with sounds and create interesting noises and generate paterns/sequences and it into somthing interesting or may be an intrumental peace of music.But please advise if you think my approach is wrong.

Purists wouldn't call that music, but just creating noises and loops. I 
see it as an aspect of music, but a limited one, just like pop is a 
limited aspect of music.

If you don't bother about melodies or chord progressions, arguably you 
don't need to learn about theory.

But then again, can you ever really learn a foreign language by going to 
a country and just listen to how people speak? Isn't it a lot easier 
when you learn the grammer (in other words, the theory), and you learn 
how to read and write in that language? It may be more hard work in the 
beginning, but when you *understand* what is happening, you can make 
your own sentences instead of repeating what other people say.

It's the same with music. You can get some way with just mucking about 
and playng by ear, but you will never fully understand it and go further.

- Peter