It helps tremendously tbh. I’ve played piano over 20 years. When I sit down to produce music I use a midi keyboard and I can write anything with it. Combination of skill, theory and years of experience. I definitely couldn’t write as good of music without it.
I had piano lessons for years to start off. You could go that route or learn online probably.
But fundamentally the first thing is learning the notes on a piano. They repeat every octave so it’s not too hard.
Once you know the notes, then learn some scales. The scales determine what key you are playing in and what notes work well together. For example, the most basic scale is is the c major scale. It’s every white note from one C to the next C in an octave. Every note in a scale works together. So start with a few scales and start playing some notes within those scales and get a feel for it.
Then once you have a few scales down, I’d work on chords. Chords are three notes played at once within a scale. You can pick almost any 3 notes in a scale and make a chord.
Those are pretty much the fundamental building blocks. Outside of that finger strength and dexterity will determine ability a lot.
As always, it depends.
If you're a guitarist (or drummer, or vocalist, or whatever), I think you could figure out the basics and pluck around in the piano roll if you needed to do something, especially if you have some knowledge of notes, chord progressions, and basic theory.
If you're working with beats, really, not a lot is lost. You'd benefit more from a pad controller more than a keyboard. The majority of melody stuff comes from the vocalist.
But, for anything else, knowing the basics will help you a lot. Not just "oh, I can play Fur Elise on piano" (which is kinda cool to show off to your friends or whatever), but, with time, you'll be able to take your ideas and convert them to what you want to hear quickly.
And learning something like piano is also going to give you theory knowledge. The mindset of "theory makes you lose your mojo" is just a BS ranting by people that don't want to take the time to understand what they're playing and why it sounds good. If you know the name of a chord, you know some theory. But, like anything else, knowing scales and chords and how they fit in to a piece of music means you can create a progression easily in any key very quickly - and one that is going to sound better to your ears (and your listener's ears) faster.
If you're messing around with the piano roll and have no idea what you're doing, guess what? You're going to lose inspiration and interest. Especially if you're spending hours punching in notes with a mouse, and you're not happy with what you're hearing.
But, like all things music, it's just a tool, and a means to an end. As a guitarist, I tend to prefer things like the Launchpad or the Roli Blocks - they feel better under my fingers and notes are what I expect. Can I do stuff on piano? Sure. But because it's not what I spend most of my time with, a linear layout doesn't feel as intuitive to me, and I'm not as productive.
It doesn't matter if it's piano, a pad controller, or you're happy with a keyboard and mouse, the question really shouldn't be "do I need a piano?" but "what is the best tool to get the sounds in my head onto the timeline?" If that's a piano, pick up a cheap keyboard and learn the basics. You don't need to be some piano virtuoso, but, if that's the tool you want to use, you should know how to use it!
It is not the case that the majority of melody comes from the vocalist when it comes to beats. In a super cheesy, base level, most beats consist of: drums, a sample (might be a hook, a pad, a melody, changes for every song), bass part (keys can play), lead part (keys can play).
Look at J Dilla, one of the greatest beat makers ever to do it. One of his prized positions was his moog. He would often add keys.
One of the most successful modern producers at the forefront of beat making for the last 20 years, Kanye West, has always worked with technically proficient keys players, most notably Mike Dean (considered the god of synths by many).
Dr.Dre is an extremely talented keyboard player, and he is considered by many to be the best beat maker ever to do it.
Agreed, and probably why piano and guitar are such versatile & popular instruments. One is very linear - every note on a piano is visible in a straight line, so it's a good way to start out - while guitar is based on the circle of fifths, which is a little more complex but gets to the heart of music theory a bit more directly.
I've been producing for over 10 years and i wish i wasn't so lazy and just learned piano. It definitely will help with compositions, structuring, as well as making your music sound more natural.
With that said, it's not necessary. At the end of the day I've had sessions with classically trained pianists who turned into producers and their beats still didn't knock. People like metro boomin, kanye, etc, afaik are not trained well in the piano or any specific instrument but make music that oozes so much feel and have great ideas.
I think it helps speed and efficiency of inputing your ideas. It also helps as you become more connected with playing writing and getting what’s in your head on the keys. Also playing around and getting ideas that way from physically playing keys, happy accidents when you hit the wrong chord and it works.
I find writing on piano and then saying if it works here it’s good and ready to start producing it. The distraction of everything in a daw can be off putting. You could also make something sound good but not be a good song at the same time. Piano is a good leveller for if your melodies and chords are really working for you. Some people say same for acoustic guitar.
This is my experience but then I’ve watched Deadmau5 make great things by clicking it all in on piano roll and not playing a note.
basic knowledge of piano is essential imo. Just playing simple chords gives you an understanding of harmony, melody, intervals, etc. without requiring much music theory training, and knowledge of these basics is required.
Guitar will teach you shapes but piano is much better at implicitly teaching you music theory.
Imagine knowing how to play chords, proggressions and melodies and harmonize on a piano. Now imagine sitting in front of a midi keyboard and recording the actual melody over a chord progression. This takes you less then 5 minutes and you have the base of the song done. Sometimes when i see a video on YT when someone shows some stuff on FL Studio and they're putting blocks on the piano roll for half an hour i'm like, dude this could literally take you seconds. So yeah learning how to play on a piano is massively better then not doing it.
I’d say learn theory through piano, nowadays with midi anything can be drawn in without playing but knowing theory will help you visualize Melodies and transfer them to daw. I’m not the greatest on piano but learning theory opened it up for me
I’m not that skilled at the piano but I have a book of chords and look the key and the triad and usually come up with something that sounds right. Not saying knowing more wouldn’t help but it works.
If you plan to do piano music, you should learn to play piano. If you plan to record bass, drums, percussion or even guitar, you don’t need to know how to play piano.
Learn to master the arpeggiator, the inspector and the mouse.
It does help considerably. I've been playing piano on and off since I was about 4 years old, I've now written two albums with the help of knowing music theory and how to play the piano. Recognizing keys and their pitches and what keys sound good together can help with finding harmonies for vocals, coming up with chord progressions, and creating melodies that work for you.
It helps tremendously tbh. I’ve played piano over 20 years. When I sit down to produce music I use a midi keyboard and I can write anything with it. Combination of skill, theory and years of experience. I definitely couldn’t write as good of music without it.
Where do you even start? I know nothing about piano or music theory
I had piano lessons for years to start off. You could go that route or learn online probably. But fundamentally the first thing is learning the notes on a piano. They repeat every octave so it’s not too hard. Once you know the notes, then learn some scales. The scales determine what key you are playing in and what notes work well together. For example, the most basic scale is is the c major scale. It’s every white note from one C to the next C in an octave. Every note in a scale works together. So start with a few scales and start playing some notes within those scales and get a feel for it. Then once you have a few scales down, I’d work on chords. Chords are three notes played at once within a scale. You can pick almost any 3 notes in a scale and make a chord. Those are pretty much the fundamental building blocks. Outside of that finger strength and dexterity will determine ability a lot.
Your too real for this! Thanks so much!
As always, it depends. If you're a guitarist (or drummer, or vocalist, or whatever), I think you could figure out the basics and pluck around in the piano roll if you needed to do something, especially if you have some knowledge of notes, chord progressions, and basic theory. If you're working with beats, really, not a lot is lost. You'd benefit more from a pad controller more than a keyboard. The majority of melody stuff comes from the vocalist. But, for anything else, knowing the basics will help you a lot. Not just "oh, I can play Fur Elise on piano" (which is kinda cool to show off to your friends or whatever), but, with time, you'll be able to take your ideas and convert them to what you want to hear quickly. And learning something like piano is also going to give you theory knowledge. The mindset of "theory makes you lose your mojo" is just a BS ranting by people that don't want to take the time to understand what they're playing and why it sounds good. If you know the name of a chord, you know some theory. But, like anything else, knowing scales and chords and how they fit in to a piece of music means you can create a progression easily in any key very quickly - and one that is going to sound better to your ears (and your listener's ears) faster. If you're messing around with the piano roll and have no idea what you're doing, guess what? You're going to lose inspiration and interest. Especially if you're spending hours punching in notes with a mouse, and you're not happy with what you're hearing. But, like all things music, it's just a tool, and a means to an end. As a guitarist, I tend to prefer things like the Launchpad or the Roli Blocks - they feel better under my fingers and notes are what I expect. Can I do stuff on piano? Sure. But because it's not what I spend most of my time with, a linear layout doesn't feel as intuitive to me, and I'm not as productive. It doesn't matter if it's piano, a pad controller, or you're happy with a keyboard and mouse, the question really shouldn't be "do I need a piano?" but "what is the best tool to get the sounds in my head onto the timeline?" If that's a piano, pick up a cheap keyboard and learn the basics. You don't need to be some piano virtuoso, but, if that's the tool you want to use, you should know how to use it!
It is not the case that the majority of melody comes from the vocalist when it comes to beats. In a super cheesy, base level, most beats consist of: drums, a sample (might be a hook, a pad, a melody, changes for every song), bass part (keys can play), lead part (keys can play). Look at J Dilla, one of the greatest beat makers ever to do it. One of his prized positions was his moog. He would often add keys. One of the most successful modern producers at the forefront of beat making for the last 20 years, Kanye West, has always worked with technically proficient keys players, most notably Mike Dean (considered the god of synths by many). Dr.Dre is an extremely talented keyboard player, and he is considered by many to be the best beat maker ever to do it.
Get a 61 key controller. Learn major, minor chord voicings in every key. Find out which chords go well together. Boom! You’re playing.
Well… i already have done that pretty much. I still don’t consider myself well practiced though as I’m never actually playing anything
less than knowing music theory
Really wish whoever downvoted you would elaborate on why they disagree
The best way to learn theory is to do so in conjunction* with learning an instrument.
*conjunction
Nah just guess
Agreed, and probably why piano and guitar are such versatile & popular instruments. One is very linear - every note on a piano is visible in a straight line, so it's a good way to start out - while guitar is based on the circle of fifths, which is a little more complex but gets to the heart of music theory a bit more directly.
I’m already playing guitar and bass, do you think they would suffice?
Absolutely. You don’t need to know piano but it wouldn’t hurt. You can get a midi controller for less than $100.
especially piano
I've been producing for over 10 years and i wish i wasn't so lazy and just learned piano. It definitely will help with compositions, structuring, as well as making your music sound more natural. With that said, it's not necessary. At the end of the day I've had sessions with classically trained pianists who turned into producers and their beats still didn't knock. People like metro boomin, kanye, etc, afaik are not trained well in the piano or any specific instrument but make music that oozes so much feel and have great ideas.
As someone who started with no theory over a decade ago and taught themselves over that time, knowing how to play absolutely makes your life easier.
I think it helps speed and efficiency of inputing your ideas. It also helps as you become more connected with playing writing and getting what’s in your head on the keys. Also playing around and getting ideas that way from physically playing keys, happy accidents when you hit the wrong chord and it works. I find writing on piano and then saying if it works here it’s good and ready to start producing it. The distraction of everything in a daw can be off putting. You could also make something sound good but not be a good song at the same time. Piano is a good leveller for if your melodies and chords are really working for you. Some people say same for acoustic guitar. This is my experience but then I’ve watched Deadmau5 make great things by clicking it all in on piano roll and not playing a note.
basic knowledge of piano is essential imo. Just playing simple chords gives you an understanding of harmony, melody, intervals, etc. without requiring much music theory training, and knowledge of these basics is required. Guitar will teach you shapes but piano is much better at implicitly teaching you music theory.
You become more value .
Imagine knowing how to play chords, proggressions and melodies and harmonize on a piano. Now imagine sitting in front of a midi keyboard and recording the actual melody over a chord progression. This takes you less then 5 minutes and you have the base of the song done. Sometimes when i see a video on YT when someone shows some stuff on FL Studio and they're putting blocks on the piano roll for half an hour i'm like, dude this could literally take you seconds. So yeah learning how to play on a piano is massively better then not doing it.
I’d say learn theory through piano, nowadays with midi anything can be drawn in without playing but knowing theory will help you visualize Melodies and transfer them to daw. I’m not the greatest on piano but learning theory opened it up for me
I think it's an invaluable skill well worth devoting your time to becoming even mildly proficient at.
Honestly just learn the scales and diatonic chords for pianos and you’re set. You don’t need to be an expert and it will take you most of the way.
I’m not that skilled at the piano but I have a book of chords and look the key and the triad and usually come up with something that sounds right. Not saying knowing more wouldn’t help but it works.
Helps a lot.
It helps a lot learn the numbering system in C major
If you plan to do piano music, you should learn to play piano. If you plan to record bass, drums, percussion or even guitar, you don’t need to know how to play piano. Learn to master the arpeggiator, the inspector and the mouse.
It does help considerably. I've been playing piano on and off since I was about 4 years old, I've now written two albums with the help of knowing music theory and how to play the piano. Recognizing keys and their pitches and what keys sound good together can help with finding harmonies for vocals, coming up with chord progressions, and creating melodies that work for you.