Now I am trying to get in the music field. I know a lot about it, but believe it or not, I am not familiar with all the instruments out there and what they look and sound like.

Does anyone know of any sites that could help? Or if anyone had some advise for me.

Hi, KB50MJ!

By "get in the music field", what do you specifically mean, please?

Thanks!

Okay.

I can see that you're no longe logged onto the site, KB50MJ. I was really looking forward to discussion with you about what you're wanting to know!

I hope that you return sometime in the near future!

Thanks!

I mean, like I'm working on becoming a singer/songwriter/producer. And being a dancer, but that is irrelevant to this subject.

So, what would you like to know, please?

Basically just what every instrument is, and what it sounds like. I don't need to know how to play. I just need to be able to identify a certain instrument when I hear it so I can successfully make records.

So you can successfully make recordings of what, please?

Also, do you mean like writing arrangements for the various instruments to use in songs as well as pieces?

Well I want to make songs in the pop, rock, R&B, and soul genres.

And yes, I wan;t to be able to make arrangements on my songs.

By "make arrangements" on your songs, I'm assuming that you would like to be able to write the musical arrangements yourself.

Would that be correct, or do you mean something else?

Well here is the thing.

Well you know how people like Lennon, McCartney, and Michael Jackson don't read music as in sheets of music. But they still made music and did all the arrangements on their songs. MJ even said himself that reading sheets of music is not necessary. That's what I'm looking for.

It's not that simple, KB50MJ...

Even if a person doesn't read music or says that they don't, most chances are that they've had a great deal of training and coaching as to what to look for in making an arrangement. If they could afford a professional arranger, then the arranger would go over with the artist as far as what the artist really liked according to what the arranger wrote. In essence, it wasn't necessarilly the artist that wrote or "made" the music before it was performed.

Any of the artists that you've mentioned, they were highly gifted as well as schooled in what they did. A great deal of that "schooling" came from being on the road with other musicians and learning from them. When the artist gives almost their entire life to what they do, of course they're going to learn how to do a lot of things to speed up the process of producing what they want to produce musically.

After you read the above, I'm going to go into more of the musical styles of those artists and how they "made" what they performed, published and produced.

Oops! I lost you again!

I hope that you return! :)

It OK. I'm on and off.

And yes, I agree with everything you said. But I have most of the arrangement in my head believe it or not. I just need to know the prosess of getting the music from my head and teaching it to musicians so they can play it. Which is probably writing sheet music. And then from there, I want to listen to what I have and then see how I can expand and improve spots on the song where I feel needs improvement.

And yes, I would love for you to go into detail on how those artists made their music. Especially Michael Jackson, he's an artist I very much admire.

I just now noticed the you had returned...

I love the music of the Beatles! A lot of basic rock music, but some variety beyond that into other styles...

John Lennon's music tended to be beautiful, but very simple in it's design and construction. Very playable and singable by musicians with some understanding of keyboarding and guitar playing.

Paul McCartney was the most learned musician of the Beatles. Really was the "brains" behind their group. Really knew his stuff about singing, writing and arranging. The most progressive of the four in terms of style. Went on to do other things musically rather than stay in limited types of style and vision. His music can be more complex, and the more difficult pieces can be more challenging to play and sing at the same time.

I love the music of Michael Jackson! Most will call it "pop". But, most of the music that he performed was in the jazz rock genre with it being "pop" enough so that it would be insured of making the charts.

Michael almost always had a group of other supporting artists and arrangers a part of and behind the music that he performed.

Below, is a list of some of them as found for one song that can be found via clicking on the following link. LINK

Quote:

---

Credits and Personnel

* Michael Jackson - writer, arranger, composer, co-producer, vocals[1]
* Linda Harmon - additional vocals
* Bill Bottrell - co-producer, drums, synthesizer
* Byran Loren - drums
* Louis Johnson - bass
* Brad Buxer - keyboards, keyboard arranger
* David Paich - keyboard arranger
* Larry Corbett - solo cello
* George del Barrio - string arranger
* Michael Boder - keyboards, keyboard arranger
* David Paich - keyboards, keyboard arranger
* Steve Porcaro - keyboards, keyboard arranger
* Jai Winding - keyboards, keyboard arranger

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KB50MJ

And yes, I agree with everything you said. But I have most of the arrangement in my head believe it or not. I just need to know the prosess of getting the music from my head and teaching it to musicians so they can play it. Which is probably writing sheet music. And then from there, I want to listen to what I have and then see how I can expand and improve spots on the song where I feel needs improvement.

---

If all you have is a melody, then a competent arranger will be able to come up with a basic arrangement for the keyboard instantly. I'm that kind of arranger.

From there, things evolve into adding the other instruments and voices, if that's what's desired.

Thanks for the info. The Beatles are a great band. I'm not to into their music, but I do enjoy some of their songs like Help.

But MJ is defiantly an artist that inspires me.

So basically making a song is an evolutionary thing. Like you start with a melody, then from there you and whoever your working with, will add to the song from there?

If you could, could you explain to me the process of which a song is made?

Sometimes a song might even just start with a progression of chords and then the melody or melodies might be developed later.

Are you familiar with Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major"?

No I'm not.

And OK I get what your saying. Not to go off topic, but I want to go back to learning what each instrument is and how it sounds. What are some ways that you suggest I learn this? Is there a site online that can teach me? Or anyhting like a CD that will teach me or something?

Please click on the following link and have a listen to what's on the audio/visual links
(videos).

LINK

More about that piece at a later time...

You can listen to the sounds of various instruments by clicking on the following link and subsequent links that you'll find there.

LINK

But, what each instrument does, in terms of an arrangement of music, that takes practical instruction to know how to put the instruments in their "proper place" so to speak.

I can help you on this site to be able to recognize the various instruments, what they do in a song or piece and how they might be placed best in an arrangement.

I can also help you with learning how to write your own music!

It's very late though, and I really need to get some sleep because I'm starting to turn into a pumpkin!

I can see again that you're no longer logged on here.

I really must get some sleep!

If you let me know what time zone you're in, we could plan to be on at about the same time at other times.

I'm in the Central Time Zone of the U.S.

Thanks!

Ok. I'm on the Eastern Time Zone in the US. I would love to discuss more with you. I'm willing and ready to learn about this. Currently I'm training my voice and building it up. On top of that I'm writing lyrics to some songs, sharpening my dancing skills, and trying to come up with new sounds and dance moves at the same time.

I'm multi-tasking like crazy. But It will be all worth it in the end. I'm trying to bring something new to music. Not too many people today are being innovative. And I'm looking for new things.

And I know, its going to be a HARD and LONG road. But that's what drives me to do it. The challenge.

But for now, I need to learn the basics on the music. I've been studying artists like Michael Jackson for about 3 years now, and he's inspired me to do this. I'm on various MJ boards and learning about his artistry and genius.

And I do appreciate your help.

I'm usually on here starting at about 12:00 midnight, your time.

I look forward to further dialogue with you about what you're wanting to know and do!

Thanks!

Ok, I'll be on then.

I'm around here now, KB50MJ.

If we don't get together here tonight, certainly we will another time.

Thanks!

Hey, what time do you have to get off?

Not too long from now. Need to get up early again.

I do have some time, though...

Ok. So going back to what we were talking about yesterday.

Now I'm currently writing songs. And I'm trying to figure out what are the right sounds and stuff and how I should sing the song.

Now I'm still learning the many different instruments s oI can properly help make arrangements.

Please give me some background about yourself musically. If you do that, it will really help a lot!

For instance:

Are you currently in school somewhere?

Do you play an instrument?

Have you had general music classes in school?

If you've had lessons of any type, what types of lessons have you had, please?

Etc.

Thanks!

To be honest with you. I have no professional training. The only experience I have in this field is studying Michael Jackson and his music for 3 years.

That's why I came here, as a starting point.

So, do you play a little bit of any kind of instrument other than being a vocalist and are you presently in school somewhere, please?

I'm currently in High School, I can look into taking some music classes.

And no I don't play any instruments. And I really don't plan on doing so. I mainly want to focus on being a vocalist/producer/songwriter.

Thanks for the information!

You'll need to know something about the theory, nomanclature and construction of music to be able to do what you want to do the best and most efficiently.

Most professional vocalists also know how to at least plunk out a melody on a keyboard of some kind. If they don't know how to do that, then they can spend lots of time trying to find someone who can do it for them.

Those are things with which I can definitely help you!

Thanks. I'm going to need your help. Because I just started taking making music and singing seriously less than a week ago.

So what are some pointers and tips that you can lend to me?

For starters, the basics of music theory and basic keyboarding skills.

If you click on the following links, you'll find my second cousin Adam. He's getting to be pretty big in the field of musical theater. He sings and dances.

However, he doesn't have any keyboarding skills. I've had to help him in the past with knowing the notes that he had to sing because he doesn't know how to at least plunk out a melody. Not knowing how to do that slows him down.

LINK ONE

LINK TWO

LINK THREE

LINK FOUR

There's plenty more "out there" about him on the Internet...

Cool. Now where do you live? And are you ever coming up to the New York area? Because I would love to meet up with you sometime to learn this in person. Any other tips?

I'll give you lots of tips in the coming evenings. What we discuss should probably be the subject of another thread. It could be about writing a song - theory and about keyboarding could be a part of that thread. However, we can talk about that at a later time for how the thread should be.

It might actually be on this thread. However, when the Administration granted me the Expert status, I didn't ask for Music to be one of the forum topic areas in which I would be an Expert. Hence, it's also not one of the areas that I moderate. At the time, there were hardly any questions being asked in the Music forum topic area about which I was interested. Most had to do with naming the song and/or the artist. Those are things that anyone can look up on the Internet.

I know regret not asking for Music... I could still ask for it, though. I'm sure that I've been considered for it, but the Administration gets busy with other things...

So, most of the questions about writing music or songs have been in the Writing forum topic area. That's the area to which I've led people, because I moderate that area, and if something goes "Oops!", I can fix it there.

If you click on my name, you can read my profile. I'm also listed in various places around the Internet. Some are reviews of shows that I've been in. Where I live is to the extreme right side of my name on this thread.

It's really late and I need to get some sleep!

Goodnight, for now! I wish for you sweet dreams, whenever you get to bed! :)

Thanks!

Ok, cool, thanks for the info.

Maybe we can do this private and Message each other here or via E-Mail.

Hi again, KB50MJ!

I did receive your Private Message.

Once a thread has been started, all information needs to stay on the thread so that others with similar questions can benefit by the information that's exchanged.

Also, once a thread has been started, going outside of the thread with the exchange of information, defeats the primary purpose of this site, and that would be for it to be the best question and answer site on the Internet!

As of this writing, this thread has already had 108 views. What that means is, because of the information on it, that people are curious enough to see what is posted on it or very interested enough in the contents of it that they might ask a question or questions in the future on a thread or threads about how to do something musically, or wanting information about something musical that will have more substance than just wanting to know about the name of an artist or the name of a song.

Another thing is, is that when I do things like teaching, playing and/or singing for people outside of the site, those are things that I do to make a living. Helping people here is a hobby that I like to do because of meeting and helping people who I most likely will never meet in person and helping to give them a "start" at something is a perk for me to see them beginning to realize their own worth at something they would like to be able to do.

If you were my neighbor, things might be different...

That's my short answer, without going into a lot of detail.

Please keep things on the thread, or other threads, as the case might be.

I'm glad to help you on the thread.

I appreciate your understanding concerning that.

Thanks!

Oh, OK. That's cool.

So lets pick up where we left off.

I currently have 2 problems when it comes to making a demo.

1. I don't know how I should sing it.

2. I don't know how to choose the right melody for it.

I know that all you really need to make a demo is the voice and a melody, like a piano or something.

But those are 2 things I'm having problems with.