Midi Music/Music Theory

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Recently one of my obsessions is music theory. I don't know how to play an instrument though, I took some lessons and played in school a very little bit, on piano and cello... but I have forgotten everything I learned. And I quit before I learned anything good. I did play the drums in high school... and while I could read an interesting beat and come up with some pretty cool Ryhthms I never could gain the technicall profiency to be really great at the intstrument. Especially to get consistantly good enough to play in a band.

Anyways, as I said recently I have been trying to learn about music theory. Specifically the whys and hows scales, chords, and specifically why there are 12 notes per octive. And why a piano has the black and white keys positioned the way they do, seemed so arbitrary and is usually something people just accept and move on to learning how to play the instrument. Not me though... and I think I know why its set up this way. I have also learned much about chords the reasons behind why certain ones sound good, and how they all work together in a scale...

While I am learning about these musical ideas, I have also been writing music using a midi sequencer. Sometimes to experiment with ideas I have about music theory, other times just to make a song, other times to just put a melody I have in my head onto some usefull format.

Here is the link: http://home.wi.rr.com/puglywont/ to where I have uploaded all my work. Most of these songs, especially the first ones up till around the 7th or 8th song... sound extremely terrible... when I didn't know anything about music theory... and just played around. Later I started learning about chords and proper scales, and the compositions became much better. The songs I really like are 8, 9, 11,12 (though this one isn't finished yet, and sounds a bit crazy, a few parts don't work... it has the potential for goodness) and my most recent nearly complete song 15(it just needs the drums which usually are the best parts of my songs... ) I have also made compositions based off my friends recomendations and what he wants a song to feel like, and some of the instrumentation. Those are under PPP-nod.

Constructive criticism is appreciated, but keep in mind I have only been doing this for 3-4 months... and have no formal music training... at least that I can remember...

A really good book I think you'd enjoy is "Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy." A friend lent it to me a while ago. I cannot remember the author, though I remember the book was very interesting.

I've been making MIDI songs for a while. Anvil Studio is the program I've used for several years. It's pretty much a straight-forward sequencer program . . . easy to use. It has a chord builder but it sucks, so don't use it.

I'll take a listen to your music, especially your later suff.

PM if ya want to chat.

-Keith

Pugly, I think the bass guitar would be the perfect instrument for you to learn. It's really easy to pick up and start exploring theory with.

Actually, they don't sound all that bad.

I quite like minimalist music. Do you know much about the compositions by the likes of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams (ok, so he's not so minimalist now)? They developed a style in the 1960's and 1970's that was very repetitive, constructing very simple rythmic and harmonic patterns that evolve gradually and subtly through a piece.

:: Mark

Thanks for the book recommendation, I am thinking about buying a book on Music Theory as well. There is only so much information I can find online for free. And most of it isn't written very well, and doesn't explain the whys and reason behind concepts... which I desperately need in order to understand something.


I downloaded Anvil Studio, but never really figured how to use it properly. I since downloaded and am using, Jazz midi sequencer, the software is not without a few quirks, but so far I have been able to work through those and have become fairly productive with it. I am looking for a relatively inexpensive midi sequencer that comes with some decent sounds... but so far this works decently enough.

I might look into playing the bass, I know someone in my family has a bass thats around that I could start playing around with. Right now I am looking to buy a usb midi keyboard, and teach my self to play that, not really to become technically proficient at the instrument, just since playing chords on a keyboard is going to be much easier than entering it all in manually. But now that I have some theory background I'll have more incentive to learn to play an instrument.


I am interested in some music like this, where a song will just build and build and build into something interesting. I'll look into compositions by those musicians.

Wow, Pugly! I just downloaded Jazz and it is totally not what I'm used to.

Avil Studio is easier for me because it has a full range keyboard that you click, and when you click it puts that note into the music. First you select the duration (1/2, 1/4, 1/8) then just click on a key and that note appears on the music staff. It's the best program it you want to be able to read sheet music.

Jazz still has the keyboard... it just is on the left hand side. And while I can read sheet music, well just barely... I find the style used in Jazz a bit easier for me. Its called Piano Roll Notation I think... and writing music this way comes much more naturally than any other notation.

I used to do crazy stuff on a MIDI program. I used NoteWorthy Composer. I mostly put marching band songs on it so I can hear how they're supposed tp sound. I had lots of interesting "remixes" though. As for music of my own, I have trouble putting together a melody. Because of that, all my own music sounded like a bunch of simple rhythms and chords. 6 years of band and 2 of choir, I might form a band soon. My electric piano has a MIDI thingy, but I have no idea what kind of connections you need. I just want a way to save all the little rhythms and baselines I create. As for your music, I can't stand some instruments on MIDI. Sorry I couldn't sit through it, maybe you could send me sheet music. PM me for e-mail.

Actually the number of notes per octave depends on the scale being used (Pentatonic scale = 5 notes/octave, chromatic scale=12 notes/octave).