Midi Keyboard

So I've been wanting to learn how to play/make music for some time now and for Christmas my sister got me this midi keyboard.  I'm so stoked to learn how to use it!  I don't know the first thing about anything musical though.  Does anyone know of any good youtube channels that may help?  Tips and tricks?  Good internet references or tutorials?  Thanks all!

The first thing I'd suggest is to learn to play an instrument.  Doing so will give you an understanding of notes, chords and scales and how they work together.

Xid has sound advice. You're gonna want to seek out some beginner level keys/piano stuff, and do yourself a favor and get at least the basic rudimentary music theory stuff under your belt as well.  Don't be afraid of literally "elementary school" instruction if you've got a knowledge base of zero.  you will WANT the simplicity at first, because the "beginning" stages of the journey towards "musician" can be frustrating....

Wish I had some less generic recommendations for you, but I'm a self taught guitar player, not keys.  The main thing is to get a firm grasp of the BASICS, and then practice practice practice!

Oh, an get a metronome!  Physical or app/program doesn't matter.  It will help you IMMENSELY with developing your mental sense of timing!

Thanks guys!  I'm still trying to get the software figured out enough for me to play it.  I'll take your advice and take lessons (probably youtube) for the keys and then go from there. 

What software are you using? I havent used an midi keyboard before, but I use Reason 4.0 and you should be able to use it in Reason, FL Studio or any other DAW. I use the on-screen "piano-roll" as they call it to load a wav and scale it as needed.

I'm just using the software that came with it.  I haven't looked to see if there are better free/cheap options.  Know of any?  Reason looks $$$...

Audacity is free and easy to use:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Congrats on the new kit! I definitely agree that the most important step is getting a hold on learning to play and learning the basics of how music works (basic theory, scales, chords, etc.). From there, the world is yours to conquer.

As far as the software, DAWs are fairly subjective. I'm personally in love with Reaper, and have tried most of the free software out there (Audacity, Kristal, Ardour, etc.). They are good at what they do, certainly, but I found that Reaper was pretty night and day as far as performance, though it should be noted that I haven't played around with the others much in about 3-4 years because of it. As well, Reaper is "free" for 30 days completely uncrippled (you can continue to use the software afterwards indefinitely, but it will ask you to buy a license each start up), and licenses are fairly inexpensive compared to other professional DAWs.

Also, when you want to start playing around with more VST's and VSTi's (virtual instruments ala Organs, Pianos, synths, etc) let us know. There's a plethora (to put it mildly) of freeware instruments that you can play around with when the time comes. I've actually been playing around with some new ones for my midi keyboard in the last few days and forgot how much of a blast it can be lol.

...

Tldr: Reaper gives me high fives. They are joyous. And there are a lot of sounds online to add to your arsenal as you progress.

What kind of music are you planning on making?

Xid wrote:Audacity is free and easy to use:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Thanks!  I've heard good things about it.

DarkFireDragoon wrote:Congrats on the new kit! I definitely agree that the most important step is getting a hold on learning to play and learning the basics of how music works (basic theory, scales, chords, etc.). From there, the world is yours to conquer.

As far as the software, DAWs are fairly subjective. I'm personally in love with Reaper, and have tried most of the free software out there (Audacity, Kristal, Ardour, etc.). They are good at what they do, certainly, but I found that Reaper was pretty night and day as far as performance, though it should be noted that I haven't played around with the others much in about 3-4 years because of it. As well, Reaper is "free" for 30 days completely uncrippled (you can continue to use the software afterwards indefinitely, but it will ask you to buy a license each start up), and licenses are fairly inexpensive compared to other professional DAWs.

Also, when you want to start playing around with more VST's and VSTi's (virtual instruments ala Organs, Pianos, synths, etc) let us know. There's a plethora (to put it mildly) of freeware instruments that you can play around with when the time comes. I've actually been playing around with some new ones for my midi keyboard in the last few days and forgot how much of a blast it can be lol.

...

Tldr: Reaper gives me high fives. They are joyous. And there are a lot of sounds online to add to your arsenal as you progress.

Thanks dude!  I started looking around briefly and found lots of sounds available indeed!

Metal Blessing Radio wrote:What kind of music are you planning on making?

Not really sure yet.  I mean, for now I'd just like to get down the basics but once I get going... eventually it'd be fun to maybe work with some other folks and maybe make metal!

So right now what I'd like to do first would be just to practice basic keyboard stuff but my current software is having a hard time allowing me to assign sounds to keys.  Is there a good software that would allow me to just assign a basic piano sound to the proper keys so I can get practicing?  Then ideally it'd be the same software that would allow me to record, modify, and all that...  Thanks guys!

I'm having a lot of difficulty being able to just plug it in and play...  Seems you have to assign each key a sound individually.  Anyone know of any free samples I can assign to practice with???  Thus far my internet searches haven't yielded anything...  I'd like to be able to practice learning the different notes first, and then start recording later.  Thanks!

Kerrick wrote:I'm having a lot of difficulty being able to just plug it in and play...  Seems you have to assign each key a sound individually.  Anyone know of any free samples I can assign to practice with???  Thus far my internet searches haven't yielded anything...  I'd like to be able to practice learning the different notes first, and then start recording later.  Thanks!

This is the kind of set-up that I use with my own personal recording rig, and the steps to get it working;

Step 1: Download and Install Reaper - http://reaper.fm/download.php

Step 2: Download a VSTi (Virtual instrument). The following link has a good number of free instruments to choose from, but I would recommend going with the EVM Piano for getting the hang of things. http://www.vstplanet.com/Instruments/VST_Piano.htm#EVM_grand_piano

Step 3: Place the VSTi in the corresponding folder in your directory for VSTs and for use in Reaper. Here's a guide to do that.



Step 4: Set up your Keyboard in Reaper, and arm a track for playing/recording (Note: you don't need to actually record anything, but you need to arm the track to in order to hear what you're playing.) Here's a video showing how to set up the device.



With that, you should be able to hear yourself playing and be able to go on from there. The following steps are optional.

Step 5: Save the session in Reaper. That way later on you can just open up the project to get right to playing/recording instead of having to set it up every time in a new session.

Step 6: Learn some basic theory and how playing a piano works; from there you can adapt what you've learned from the piano basics to other VSTi's and music in general. This seems like a pretty decent site for getting the basics down http://www.zebrakeys.com/lessons/
 
Step 7: Practice.

Step 8: Practice more.

Step 9: Rock out.

Step 10: Practice.

Step 11: Viv.


Hope that helps, bro! Let me know if anything doesn't want to work, or if you have any more questions. If all goes well, you'll be jamming out shortly.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Oh my goodness this is what I needed.  I am up and running.    I can't wait to get learning now!  Thank you again!

^^Sweet!