how to learn?

[vousetti]

hello, 

I wanna ask for an advice. I've been in music school for 9 years but I've resigned, because of the stress caused by performing exams and also I was kinda disappointed with low level of education in my school, it was just so frustrating that the school was taking a lot of my daily time and most of the things which I've learned were looking so useless and I didn't even know to what I can use it. 

I wanted to create music, compose and know everything about it since I remember, when i listen to some music which I like I wanna know every detail why exactly I like it and what makes that song so amazing, but sadly, in my music school we didn't learn how to compose at all. 

Now, I decided that I want to come back to music and learn exactly what I want, but the problem is - I don't know how I can learn what I want. All the knowledge on the internet seems to be really shallow and generic, some dumb tricks not really helpful for people like me. 

 

So there is a question, is there any way that i can learn about it all without going back to music school - and after graduating - to some music university? how can I learn about music theory, chord progressions, analyzing the song and literally everything what I can know about it? Do you guys know any source of good advanced music knowledge on the internet? Can you recommend me some good books?

 

oh, and also - I really love jazz, r&b, soul and more complicated songs than just a pop songs, so I'm interested the most in this kind of knowledge, but I don't mind exploring other genres from various decades and regional creations.

ps: please forgive my english, I'm not a native speaker, I'm self-taught.

[handoman]

Do you movies and tv shows? to me writing music is like writing a story. think about the beginning and ends. conflict and resolution. the climax. its about the feeling more than the actual music. imagine how you want it to feel...maybe you already heard songs that feel like that. maybe learn how to play those songs. figure out what makes it feel that way: the chord progression, the production, the beat? I've never taken a real music class but i learned by just making stuff. trial and error. It sucks at the beginning... I used to hate everything i made.  but some how i found patterns and saw which chords feel which way, and it feels so easy to write songs now. whether they're good or not doesn't matter really as long as you actually like it.

 

sorry i don't have anything technical or concrete...

[MikeRobinson]

The Internet literally puts the "world wide" at your fingertips:  there are thousands of web-sites and videos that talk about all aspects of music, music theory, composition, orchestration, you name it.  (One excellent music-theory text is cartoons!)  

 

You can even get an accredited degree or certificate on-line, e.g. from the Berklee (sic) College of Music.

 

So ... what would you like to do first?  (Then next, then next, then next.)  Don't wait for someone to tell you to do it and don't worry that you might fail.  No one will know that what they're listening to is the product of a burst of creativity that happened at 2:30 in the morning when you're in your underwear. 😉  Just pick a topic of interest to you and run with it.  Don't waste time being "stuck on the horns of a dilemma."  Jump right on in – the water's fine, and there are life-rings floating around everywhere.  When you think that you've got something to show us, you'll always find a receptive audience right here.

 

You're sitting smack dab in the middle of a music-making environment that musicians for hundreds of years never could have imagined – and for which musicians not too many years ago spent $20,000 or more to get a fraction of what's available on your phone(!) today.  Yes, "you live in interesting times."  Enjoy!  (And ... "get to work!")