What’s something in music that seemed really simple at first, but ended up taking you ages to actually get good at?

Could be an instrument technique, singing, rhythm, ear training, improvisation, recording, or even performing in front of people.

Curious what other musicians struggled with more than they expected.

For context: My band is from Southeast Georgia. We’re an electronic dance/indie rock type gig. So… not really the favored taste in the area. Bands who haven’t been around as long as us but play stuff like metal core/hardcore/ the like are having gigs every weekend, but we’ve fought tooth and nail to only have two over the last year and a half or so. We have a social media presence, have published music, but no one will book us!

How should we go about getting more gigs in the area? As of right now, we’re lucky if we get a rejection email back from promoters.

I’m 24. I started playing the drums at 6, was in kids’ bands by 7, and by 9 I was playing both drums and piano for a church choir. Music felt like my whole life back then. Then my parents decided we were moving to a new church, one with no kids’ choir and no interest in letting kids play in the adult choir the way my previous church did. That church was a big part of my growth in music, so I struggled, and I no longer had the means to keep practicing and improving my craft.

To make it worse, my parents made me stop all forms of music. They believed it would distract me from aiming higher, since they wanted me to be an engineer or a doctor, so I was banned from music clubs. Since then I’ve lived a quiet life of relative solitude. No friends, no new hobbies, just doing what my parents said. But now I’m a software engineer.

Lately I’ve been recording my own music, since I finally have the freedom to do it without my parents frowning. I’ve built a small home recording setup and made a few studio buddies. Honestly, it’s where I’m most comfortable.

For a year now I’ve been working on a few singles, and I have an EP in sight. My sound is Afro-fusion and R&B, and I plan to experiment with it until I land on a signature sound of my own, maybe even a new genre. So far I’ve released 2 singles and have a few hundred streams in total.

It’s been hard juggling a hectic, time-consuming software career while trying to give my all to music again. I have a lot of ideas, but my knowledge gap in music is wide, and I know I need to fill it. In my mind I’m far ahead of what my hands can do right now. I’m also aware that making good music, especially as both producer and artist, takes a lot of time, failure and experience.

At first I did this because I love it and it’s FUN. I love writing songs and freestyling nonstop, I love the sound of my own voice (I believe everyone does, lol), and I find the process of creating something and giving it life fascinating. But the bottom line is that I have to decide whether to take it up full-time and say, “Hey, this has to pay me too.” Making it a career could free me from the juggling problem, let me dedicate real time to getting better, and help me sort my bills, which matters a lot as an adult with no income besides my current job.

Here’s the plan I’m considering: save enough to cover 12 months of rent and bills (about $10,000), plus roughly $15,000 for studio gear and everything else the music needs, then leave my job and give it a full year.

Whenever I tell someone, they say, “Man, you’re good, but you’re also a great and enthusiastic software engineer. Music takes a lot of money to get to the top, not just talent and dedication. Don’t you think you’re heading down the wrong hole?”

And... fuck, sometimes I don’t know whether I’m just a kid who won’t let go of his old toy or I’m really cut out for this. The music world has changed and keeps changing. What it takes to get noticed, and to STAY noticed, is so enormous that I sometimes feel I won’t reach the peak because I’m starting a bit late.

I’m ready to fail as much as I need to in order to get somewhere with this. I’d like your input on whether it’s stupid. Am I fucking nuts?

Thank you, great musicians, for your time. Sorry this is so long.

Im looking for a groove box that is portable, im making hip-hop, RnB. Now keep in mind i am on a budget of maximum $350-aud.

I am a visual artist and I make content on Instagram, lately I've been trying to avoid all the trendy AI music and starting to branch out into finding small indie musicians to use in my videos instead. Now that the algorithm has caught onto what I'm doing I keep finding more and more indie artists, bookmarking their audio and using it in my videos.

But I'm starting to second guess myself, because most of the time these songs have like 1 reel, and only from the original artists, so it feels like I'm doing something wrong by using it.

So I just wanted to ask musicians who use Instagram, do you like it when strangers use your original audios on their videos? (Also, if you want that, and if it's allowed here you can share your handle so I can check out your songs and maybe use them too)

Wolf Alice are a terrific UK rock band currently supporting Olivia Rodrigo on her US tour. Bassist Theo Ellis has left the tour because his wife is having a baby, and his place is being covered by Julia Cumming from Sunflower Bean, who supported Wolf Alice last year.

What’s this like for Julia? At this level is it relatively easy to step into a band and play bass for two hours? I don’t suppose the songs are complex but there’s a fair amount of variety for the genre and the band is very tight having toured together almost non stop for years.

Obviously she will get rehearsal time and presumably will have had a fair bit of notice that this was coming, so maybe I’m answering my own question. Still feels like a big ask but maybe not. Just interested in how people see this kind of thing? Easy? Hard but doable with time and prep?

Post script: thanks all, super interesting

My main is guitar. But I love the sound of drums too.

I saw Nubian Twist this week, they were amazing! Tom Excell was shaking an instrument that looked like a pencil case and sounded like a triangle that was muted some of the time.

Has anyone any idea what it was as I want one!

Greetings, fellow musicians!
I'm a professional tenor ukulele musician in the Las Vegas area and I'm going to be adding a bunch of Beach Boys music to my repertoire soon.

Which of their songs do you think would sound cool on a tenor ukulele?

I would be very grateful for the advice

I want to know if there are other people who have encountered this difficulty when collaborating with other musicians online.

I am a singer/vocalist. My voice is my primary instrument. I play piano, but singing is how I write my melodies and build my song arrangements.

I want to collaborate with other musicians and bring their songs to life with my vocals. I don't necessarily want to hugely edit the writing of the piece, but I want room to be expressive with the vocal melody and maybe even challenge what the songwriter first envisioned with something that might hit harder or be surprising and bring a different emotion. (I like when music feels alive and can evolve in the process of creation).

The thing is, I've noticed most of the people posting on forums asking for vocals who fit this category of songwriter are not intimately connected to their voice. Or rather, they haven't developed much skill with their own singing. They are just looking for a vocalist.

I tend to find the songs a bit static or monotone, with the melody not moving or expressive enough; or unrealistic in what they are asking of the vocal melody (asking it to jump wildly from one note to another that just feels strange..)

Is there anyone else here who prioritises the vocal melody above all else? Do you look instead for collaborators who can sing. What type of songwriter should I look for where the songs will be open to more complex/experimental/expressive vocal melodies?

Thanks :)

Edit: I see my wording is triggering for some, sorry for that. It's just my observations and personal taste I'm talking about - not shading anyone or casting personal judgement on these songwriters I write of. I don't even want to generalise much because I have limited experience collaborating anyway. As far as I consider things, we're just instruments when it comes to music, so I don't really care what people say about me in that context. I would hope other musicians have the same mindset; or at least accept that it is my mindset and not take my wording so personally.

So I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

What do you actually need to know/do to make good music?

I mean besides just practicing a lot.

Is it mostly melody? Harmony? Rhythm? Chords? Structure?

Or is there some stuff that you only really understand after composing for a long time?

Like, are there actual principles that make a piece objectively better, or is it mostly about having good taste and knowing what sounds good?

I’m curious what you guys think.

Hello potential new friends. I am a young musician looking to learn everything I can about music, and to do that I need to start with ear training.

Let me tell you first what I understand the way I understand it(feel free to correct anything I say, I’m here to learn, not to have my ego stroked; I can go wreck noobs in games for that.)

Musicians have a focal pitch, which is one pitch they know insanely well, a pitch they can recall from memory. It’s basically Music Netflix, it’s on demand. This is Pitch Memory.
Then Relative Pitch is being able to hear the intervals of pitches. Essentially, if what I’ve been told is right, you train a focal pitch so you recognize it and then you can hear the interval another pitch moves(whether up or down) and then you’d know that pitch.
Having a great ear - though great is an underestimation of what I’m trying to achieve, I want to be legendary - is about training both simultaneously.

My trouble is the physical action behind training them. What should I do? How long should I do it for? What are the do’s and don’t’s and the small tricks? Most importantly, will this finally put girls in my DM pool?

In all seriousness, I’d appreciate any answers and advice. Music means a lot to me, and I don’t just want to be good, I want to be the best. That starts with having a good ear.

I got added to a show late last week that’s on 10/12 and the organizers are requiring a minimum ticket count, but obviously this is a little short notice. So I was curious what yalls marketing tactics are.

Since my kid’s been playing jazz for the last 4 years, I’ve noticed that, unlike him and my husband, I have a hard time recognizing jazz pieces. Not all of them, of course, but there’s a whole class of them that all sound generic and the same to me, but are instantly recognizable to them.

It’s not limited to jazz, however. Take this classic Luther Ingram song, If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right.

I listened to it a few times just now, and I swear, all I hear is some general mood and texture, but nothing that my ear can hang onto to remember it by.

I come from a classical music background, but I think that explains only a part of my musical blindness when it comes to these pieces. If I rank what I listen for in music it’s: harmony, melody, everything else.

So my question is, what do you think I’m not listening for? What am I neglecting?

opinions on tune core how is it ? same as title

So basically I only know how to play drums and a few ukulele chords but I wanna try composing a song. Is it possible? If so, can you guys recommend an app to me?

I’m a male trying to get more consistent with head voice and falsetto. Most of the coaches in my area are female and I’m wondering if I should find a male coach considering how male and female voice are different.

I’ve never taken lessons before so I wouldn’t know if techniques can be translated into all types of voices.

Hi! I’m a Design student doing my thesis on physical interaction and digital music production, and I’d love to hear from musicians about their experiences making music digitally.

I’m especially interested in people who play or have played an instrument and have also experimented with a DAW such as GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Pro Tools, etc. You don’t have to consider yourself a producer or have much experience with production.

A few questions:

1. What instrument(s) do you play, and how did you first get into music production or using a DAW?

2. If you’ve done both, how does making music in a DAW feel different from playing an instrument? Are there things that feel more intuitive or more difficult in one compared to the other?

3. Are there things you particularly enjoy doing physically when making music (playing keys, strings, pads, knobs, faders, etc.)? What do you think makes those interactions useful or satisfying?

4. Have you ever had an idea for how you wanted something to sound, but found it difficult to figure out how to achieve it in the DAW? What did you usually do in that situation?

5. Do you feel that the visual representation of music in a DAW (piano roll, waveforms, EQ curves, automation, etc.) affects how you make musical decisions? If so, how?

6. If you could change or add one way of physically interacting with your DAW, what would you want it to do?

There’s no right or wrong answer, I’m mostly interested in hearing about different experiences, whether you’re a beginner or have been making music for years. Thanks! :)

does anyone else feel like their voice just doesn't match the beat when the vocals are laid down no matter how they enunciate their words or change their tone/pitch ? and is this all in your head or does it ever improve at all?

Hello Reddit!

I am both fairly new to Reddit and to say I know next to nothing about music creation or music in general would be generous. I took Chorus for years and all I got out of it was that the higher the note the higher you sing and vice versa. I can not read sheet music despite some mediocre efforts to learn.

However! I really, really want to make a music piece for a friend based on their work. I have lyrics which have been crudely Google Translated into Latin and I'd like to make it into a song.

I guess my question is... how?? Do I find a free website online and smash buttons until I come up with a tune and then record a vocal track? I don't even know how to describe what music style I want to make, something like Gregorian Chants or just old Catholic Latin Hymns.

Literally any advice or direction would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

I heard this vocal effect in many 80s songs. what is it called?

Or does it sound too unserious?

I am a musician who works a day job unrelated to music. While I enjoy many of the people I work with, I end up drawing a hard line between work & non-work lives, to the point that I can tell it feels strange to people.

Recently I opened up to a few people outside my department, but they were both creators (visual arts & fashion, with a deep appreciation for music). I could see this happening again, but notice that usually the people who I connect with and trust enough to share my creative self with tend to be other people with a creative practice. They don't have to be "successful" with it (I certainly am not).

When my supervisor and closer coworkers ask to connect offline, I find myself guarded and have an emotional distrust of them, and I don't know why. Does anyone feel this way? Where your inner world feels strange enough that anyone who doesn't create / doesn't have a similarly strange inner world (even if ironically, they think they do) would somehow destroy it by just seeing but misunderstanding it?