On Electronic Music

I continue my journey, and discover some things that I failed to realize from the start. All great music starts with a groove.

Having been a guitar player, mostly playing for myself, the concept of the “groove” has a very niche meaning to me. Mostly, I work on defining catch riffs, and then using a looper, or similar simple recording device, I use these riffs as a motif that I then play against to jam against.

But, as I have been chasing the dragon of making music and realizing my childhood dream of messing with synthesizers, I am spending time learning the foundations of building electronic music. The realm of drum machines, synths, samplers, DAWs, MIDI and the like, and I am realizing that the first step is to define the beats. The pattern, the timing, the syncopation.

Of course, at the very beginning of my musical journey, I learned these terms, how to count, how to read a rhythm, but once I became proficient enough to sound pleasing (to my ears, my siblings, not so much) I sorta just played by feel, using my internal grove, so to speak.

Turns out that I am beyond rusty in my timing. But when I am playing alone, I can just go with that feel.

When staring at the blank screen of the DAW, and that first track, the beat, is a lot like a blank page as you begin writing a novel. An empty canvas, unlimited potential, but suddenly no idea how to begin.

8, 16, 32 or even 64 bars, and it all starts blank, waiting for you to layer on your sounds.

I have been watching many tutorials on the use of the DAW, and how it all comes together. But it is not easy to create something new. Sure, you can string clips together, and use one of the canned beats, and if you want, play a guitar or other instrument.

To create something truly new, that takes a lot of talent. And I pretty much suck at the moment.

I couldn’t be happier.