Take a class on musicology

pick up an instrument study ur fav artist religiously and understand what makes them tick even if they profess "they have no knowledge of theory"

theyre probably lying and have at the very least a basic understanding of theory, and built their own system of understanding their instrument to write harmonies they want.

regardless, u should just study genius artist (stevie, prince, joni, steely dan, bob dylan, beatles, mj) with a lot of fame to them . buy their songbooks, and get as much written material as you can on them.

studying lesser known artists is good for yr ear and if u start that way from the beginning it will be very rewarding. but it will be near impossible to start moving like that from scratch.

just pick an instrument and commit to it, study it everyday, practice, play with friends, and the rest will come as it may, on the pace it should

Practice practice practice. There’s a lot of directed practice on YouTube with full in depth tutorials walking through multiple aspects of music theory and whatever DAW you happen to be using. Practice is key though. I’ve been playing instruments since 4th grade but didn’t start learning real music theory until high school when I started learning different instruments and their embouchure’s

Good luck with everything and link up if you tryna create. I got a music collective I brought together, 5 singers, 2 rappers and a bunch of us are also producers/engineers including myself

it really is just playing music and reading. you cant just "read" theory bc it needs to be applied. theory is just a framework for understanding harmomy as most people understand that to be (major / minor scale based music, melodies anchored by chords, a set rhythm that is mostly consistent throughout)

to be creative musically you don't necessarily need to have theory, or shall i say know much theory. you just need the absolute basics that will get you in conversation with your instrument and other instruments for a track.

to be creative musically you must be willing to experiment endlessly. but we sadly dont have the time to sit at a desk and see what every combination of every note is for a line. theory just kinda gives us a framework for understanding what the best options are to expand a piece of music we like

someone much smarter than me can argue that this is a gross oversimplification of one piece of musical theory being applied to the entire study.

but for the sake of ur purposes, i explain it like this so u can feel encouraged to learn without feeling overwhelmed. its not really a requirement to make music. knowing ur instrument is. even if ur instrument is a DAW

YES.

hof worthy post bro.

as a nigga that's gone through 20+ years of music theory (been playing piano since 8/singing forever) this is a pretty damn good way of just letting folks that aint have to go through all those classical lessons/schooling type s*** know how that s*** works.

musical knowledge is great but also it's nothing without having soul, your own uniqueness to it.

You kinda gotta trial and error through that s*** and dont be afraid to break certain rules too.

THAT's what separates the men from the "technically proficient jazz majors that wanna show you their beats that have no type of soul or any heart to it" (srsly, ask a jazz major specifically to show you they beats, they all be the same lol)

Now say that same jazz major that also grew up listening to a wide variety of music from across the spectrum and found their OWN unique voice? NOW you getting somewhere.

that's why a lot of them viral IG producers that are technically great...are also hella mid. cause they don't have that "umph" to it.

And that "umph" is not something that can be found in a music theory class nor in expensive studio gear (trust me, I've been invited to mad people's spots that have heard production of mine that was/is made on a s***ty macbook and a f***in midi keyboard, meanwhile these people (tend to be of a mayonnaise category) be having mellotrons, vinyl to audio converters, maschines, omnisphere, 100+ plugins, etc and be dying to show me they "jazz trap" = )

Acquire the musical knowledge without becoming pretentious within your art. Cause real ones will tell.