Well, how do I start when I’m actually starting? 🙂
I want to make electronic music:
Ableton Live 12 is the tool I use for this. It’s a great feeling to sit in front of an empty project, waiting to be brought to life without any preconceived notions. I don’t experience that famous fear of the blank canvas or the empty page; for me, it’s an invitation—a landscape waiting to be explored! And sure, things might go wrong sometimes… but so what? I’ll just start over. Being able to “let go” is an important quality. Sometimes a project is well underway when things suddenly stall—the arrangement just won’t sound right, or no new instrument seems to fit. Deleting it feels like a relief!
But back to the beginning—I haven’t actually started yet. Usually, I build the kick drum first, though sometimes I use pre-made samples. I then bring it to rhythmic life by adding various drums and percussion. At this stage, I try to establish a structural flow before introducing bass, instruments, synths, and so on.
My intuition regarding the tracks I’ve already created dictates when I start fine-tuning the sound. I suppose everyone has their own strategy—and naturally, their own is the best one! But you are the boss of your creative process! It should be fun from start to finish (okay, there are dry spells; sometimes you just have to push through to get the song finished).
So, I draw inspiration from the rich array of sounds a DAW offers or the ones I’ve added myself. Eventually, you find your own style and preferences, and you start picking out the specific samples, loops, and one-shots that suit them.
I want to paint:
It’s similar when I play the guitar. Often, I just sit down and noodle around. Sometimes I play phrases from songs I’ve learned and vary them; new ideas emerge from that. I wouldn’t call myself a composer. Mostly, I play well-known songs and improvise over them. That’s fantastic practice! Here’s a quick tip: take a chord—or a power chord—and see where else on the fretboard you can play it. Remember, a chord consists of three notes; you don’t always need to use every string! This helps you get to know your fretboard and makes you more flexible.
For recording songs, I use Fender Studio Pro. For me, it’s the best DAW for this purpose. Of course, having just one DAW is enough; fundamentally, both are capable of doing the same things.
I’ll definitely make some guitar videos at some point so you can see and hear what I mean. However, I won’t be starting another guitar tutorial channel! There are plenty of those already, and most people do it better than I do :)! Of course, I’m constantly learning myself and watching videos on the relevant topics.