As a "producer" do you feel the need to understand keyboard keys and scales?

[Kurupt]

I've been making beats for a few years now, and let me tell you that before I took this Beginning Piano Class at a community college I was just playing by ear worked with watever worked. but when I learned the basic ground knowledge of how a scale works it did open my eyes to new possibilities and ideas. I dont know all the scales by heart but this site helps me to use scales and what not

http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefinders/piano_chords.asp

easy to use, choose what scale you want and it will tell you what keys

 

[Young_Matt]

I feel as a producer you should know some of the basics of the piano..especially scales major and minor because with that you are able to create very different melodies. I've been taking recording arts class at the local community college and i've seen my beats and sound improve alot. Learning the different scales and chords really does make your music sound better. it also allows u to create your own style. -Y.M

 

[Carnage187]

Western music solely uses the Ionian and Aeolian modes, sometimes dorian, so I don't know why you guys feel as if you have to "memorize" all the keys. WWHWWWH, just memorize that. Everything else just comes with knowing the circle of fifths ie. knowing how many sharps a key has and the sequence of sharps.

C=no sharps
G=1 (F#)
D=2 (F#, C#) <----the sharps are then the fifth of the previous sharp (F#, C#, G# and so on)

 

[HERESY]

Western music solely uses the Ionian and Aeolian modes, sometimes dorian,

This isn't true. A lot of Jazz uses the Phrygian mode and many rock/metal bands have the Mixolydian mode going on.

so I don't know why you guys feel as if you have to "memorize" all the keys. WWHWWWH, just memorize that.

Whole note, whole note, half note,....should be the first thing one memorizes (l agree with you.) From there everything else should be simple, but for a lot of people it isn't.

Everything else just comes with knowing the circle of fifths ie. knowing how many sharps a key has and the sequence of sharps. C=no sharpsG=1 (F#)D=2 (F#, C#) <----the sharps are then the fifth of the previous sharp (F#, C#, G# and so on)

I wouldn't say everything else, but for the most part you're right.

 

[ChittyBang]

According to all the garbage on the radio now it's not important.

But if you have pride in what you do, I say yes.

Hella props in my personal opinion shit like this is what makes the difference between a producer & a beat maker, Say for instance someone hires you to produce there whole album well you get to a song they want a real piano played & not a sample, well they hired you so you cant just say well i cant play the piano/strings/what ever instrument they want... I actually like alot of live sounds over synths, but most of the new shit like fantoms, etc. the sounds a just as good so that dosent really matter but I believe sampling is hella over rated....

I actually taught myself the piano when I was younger actually on a yamaha psr my folks got me for christmas, I learned the easyest way for me is A,B,C,D,E,F,G then repeat it over down the board so a goes with a & so on then create your own piano/string/guitar track, dont know if thats actually how its taught but for me it was pretty easy

 

[SteadyMobbin]

I play by ear.. Fuckin around with grandmas keyboards since I was 6. lol

 

[Sick Wid It]

Playing instruments isn't a requirement of being a producer although most do actually play an instrument to some degree. Even so, it's common that session musicians are brought in to play live parts, or someone specific if you want to get their certain feel/style of playing. One thing I recommend is that if you're working with live instruments, make sure you're not ruining it with bad mic'ing, recording, and mixing. Sadly it happens a lot. Why spend the money if you're just going to fuck it up?

 

[28g w/o the bag]

i'm on hiatus from making beats right now... but when i decide to get back in, i'm DEFINITELY going to learn some music theory.

::

 

[BOOBOO619]

I actually taught myself the piano when I was younger actually on a yamaha psr my folks got me for christmas, I learned the easyest way for me is A,B,C,D,E,F,G then repeat it over down the board so a goes with a & so on then create your own piano/string/guitar track, dont know if thats actually how its taught but for me it was pretty easy

It's actually C,D,E,F,G,A,B. Starts with C.

 

[Carnage187]

It's actually C,D,E,F,G,A,B. Starts with C.

Way to think outside the box! haha

Maybe he messes around with the natural minor scale a lot and has set that as his reference scale?

 

[SteadyMobbin]

A producer is "The person with THE vision" That's it.

Why is most of the shit thats out there right now that isnt sample based, garbage? just my opinion. I'm not saying I havent heard some wack shit that was sample based, totally not the case Ive heard some really awful beats. But I mean, look at the difference in hip hop music before everyone started cracking down on it and after. Most young people nowadays dont know shit about Blue Note, Smokey Robinson and the miracles or Parliament etc. At least with sampling, we learned to appreciate good music. With sampling you still need to learn how to arrange..some music theory is required and it aint like youre sampling the whole song because thats different, just taking a 5-6 seconds, even less. With the technology we have today you can totally mask it.