Making music with an instrument is such a personal thing, and once past childhood (if we do mature), we tend to take advise or feedback personally. The ego rules.

That being said, your friend may need to hear that he's not keeping tempo from more than one person, and you being his friend may not count at all. Can he jam with others? Does he ever play along with a rhythm guitarist? Does he record his playing so that he can hear it second hand? What kind of difficulty does his playing cause?

Before he will make any changes, he's got to see the benefit. That's human nature. I dunno that cookies will work, but my piano teacher used to tell me a story about a pony she had as a kid, and how it would never come to her unless she had hay or grain in her hand. And then she'd ask me, "what is your bale of hay"? LOL

So as his friend, find out what he really wants out of his music and help him get there gently.

I used to play with a great lead guitarist, G'bless her soul. While we'd be jamming, she'd put me in awe so badly that I'd lose my place! She'd never had a minute of lesson and couldn't read a note. There was no "theory" what so ever in her musical experience. But she made that 1968 Gibson cry the blues like somethin' I'd never heard. She just passed away last week.

I've noticed over the years that folks who sing or play blues have a tendency to lag the beat. It's in their soul and can't be unlearned. If that's where your friend is at, then maybe you'd be better off to chalk up his untempo'd playing to artistic license.

Good luck with this, and make sure this friendship is at least as valuable as your need to fix his playing.

This post has been edited by azkid: Thu 11 Mar 2010, 15:29

Hello

Rule of thumb: we never learn anything untill we are aware we need to, so people can't convice us if we are deaf or blind to reality.

Here, i suggest you record you and your friend playing, or your friend and a metronome, make him hear, and try to know what he thinks of what he heard. Maybe he won't notice anything, so he's not ready to learn , so wait till he asks.
More sophisticated: compose a tune, record drum & bass & keyboards with your sequencer on you computer, quantize all or most of it, and have him play one or two parts (and sweat to record a clean track). Afterwards you can move his tracks to make him hear how it would sound if it were played more "in place" with the beat.
Most of us are reluctant to play on a metronome or electronic drum because machines' lack in feeling. Actually whatever a machine plays, we bring the feeling. The most commun trick is "play on a cowbell, and make that cowbell sound groovy". It is really joyfull when we succeed in doing that. You can share that key info. In fact, all musicians around the world need to respect a regular beat, because it is the immemorial link with the dance. Subtelties that happens inside the beat is specific to local or historical culture, it has to be dealt with later, don't worry yet.
Another very efficient method is to practice the same line or pattern or groove at 4, 5... 10 different tempi, faster, then back slower. (For instance add 5 to 10 - or 15 if you are impatient - points to the tempo until it's really unplayable, then decrease down to 60 or even 50)
That's for rhythm.

About theory, which is not needed to produce the magic of music, it is needed when it's time to organize the knowledge we accumulated through the years. So same thing, if curiosity is aroused, you friend will be asking by himself on time. Just talk about it slighty.

But, alas, the best way to understand that we don't play properly - and so that we have to practice with one method or other - is unfortunately when people stop playing with us 'cause we don't make any progress . Music is a collective art. Easy to get kicked & banned when we are not up to it.

Hope this helps.

Sorry, i cant help you about that . Maybe you'd better look around on graphic or video forums... Please let us know if you find how to do that.

You can do this in iMovie. The 'titles' options will handle lyrics, the most fiddly aspect of the job. You can easily 'share' the finished work to YouTube, of course.

A laptop and MIDI Keyboard are definitely required equipment if you want to make more than just one song and really get into making music.

But you could just make do with a laptop.

An almost necessary requirement is music production software/programs.

Some free and simple ones are Audacity and Virtual DJ.

The free DEMO of FL Studio can be downloaded, but you CANNOT save or undo any of your work.

BUT, the loophole is, you can export.

Basically, if you downloaded FL Studio 11 Demo, made a song in 6 hours of being on your computer, and exported; it would be MP3 and would be yours.

However, practice is needed first before you can get good.

Anyway, yeah. A laptop is needed, with internet of course, so you can access DAWs and possibly download VST's for them (Virtual Studio Software).

It is good you can play guitar and keyboard already, knowing how to play both may help/expand upon music making.

Here is my advice:

1. Laptops are OPTIONAL. If you already have a computer, even one your whole family uses, just ask if you can use it for your music as well.

You do not need to waste money on a laptop if there is already a working computer with internet at home.

2. Look up some free producer/dj programs. Like I said my suggestions above, there are also other free programs that can be used. Here are some ideas:

- Reason DEMO
- FL Studio DEMO
- Reaper DEMO
- Wavepad
- Mixx
- Mixpad
- Virtual DJ
- Audacity
- Garageband (if using mac products)
- Wavepad
- etc.

Some of these programs are not for production but simply live DJ performances.

However, this is not necessarily bad, and some of the more basic programs may give you a basic idea of music editing and special effects.

I did some very basic remix/mashup projects using only Virtual DJ and Audacity, it actually turned out pretty well.

Once you can save up enough to buy a full version of a producer program, I suggest choosing very carefully between programs.

The one thing you need more than anything else is purely, simply, practice and patience.

It takes time to learn how to produce music, especially electronic music on the computer.

Please take your time to learn, make your own choices with what you want to do with equipment and programs, and make some of the best edm someone could hear.

Note: I would explain HOW to make electronic music instead of just telling you what you need, but unfortunately every program is different and every laptop/computer you use is different, airport car pick up, so I cannot help you further there. I am just giving you your options and what choices you can make.

After that producing becomes a very individual thing; your own style, what programs you use, and how you learn to use them become up to you and you only. Good luck from a fellow beginning music producer!!
Source(s): I'm a producer. Here is my channel
:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX02hcrULgQ