Learn the Basics of Music Theory With This Interactive Tutorial
As a music fan, I would like to learn how to write a song. However, devoting time to studying music theory is not quite on my priority list. Music lessons are intimidating, a little awkward, and definitely expensive.
So this interactive beat making guide from Ableton is perfect for aspiring musicians of all of us. It has tons of tools that simplify advanced concepts, especially since you can play around with them yourself.
The lessons are divided into chapters and subsequent lessons, starting with the basics of beatmaking. Tutorials break down what you need to know in just a few sentences, give an example of a concept. Every lesson, from chords to song structure, has an interactive component, so you can experiment with what you just learned. For example, the scales section features a complete piano scale that you can play with, as well as a looped piano track that you can tinker with to learn about scales. It even has examples of beats from Queen, Beyoncé and others.
Interactive music creation tools are easy to understand and present one concept at a time, letting you understand how each one interacts with the other as you progress. By the time you finish the six introductory chapters, you will have figured out how to use the Playground section, the page where you have all the tools you need to create elementary melodies. You can clean up the work to experiment, or export it to work in Ableton Live.
If you’d like to learn more, you can check out the advanced section , which offers even more songwriting tools for explaining concepts such as inversions and diatonic triads. In an hour, I made a beat that I thought was pretty cool and just exported it with one click.