Oh man I've been waiting SO long to say this: get a music degree. I chose to get a BA in Music instead of a CS degree. I've had many regrets around doing so for the purposes of getting engineering jobs, but 15 years later I still have a deep understanding of music theory, history, and acoustics.
That said, self-learning music is both viable and highly enjoyable. Here are some topics you should probably cover:
- Scales
- Modes
- Rhythm and time signatures
- Musical notation
- Chord Progressions / Regressions (this is extremely high value to learn)
- Chord Voicing (using the same notes in different octaves)
- Song Forms / Structure
- Harmonics, resonance, and dissonance (this is all about ratios, and typically very interesting to those who enjoy maths and physics)
- Instrumentation, including the practical range of each instrument and voice.
- Writing and arranging music.
- Non-western approaches to all of the above
In terms of the course of learning, I recommend:
- Get lessons from somebody you respect and enjoy working with. They should be able to help with theory.
- Learn multiple instruments. Just like learning additional programming languages, adding another instrument furthers your enlightenment significantly.
- Play lots of music with consistent daily frequency.
- Listen to LOTS of different kinds of music. Listen actively, picking apart melody, rhythm, chords, and structure. It really helps to transcribe songs you like to develop a critical ear.
- Hang out with lots of different musicians.
- Spend time in a good DAW / digital audio workstation. Like your IDE, it can help you create music while giving you the power of a good linter and test suite. Record simple melodies then practice editing them in a Piano Roll view.
- Music doesn't move fast like programming. Some of the best educational materials available today are 75+ years old.
- Improvisation is one of the best paths towards discovery IMHO, but you have to be learning other musical idioms to expand your own improvisational pallet.
Have fun. Music theory is very enjoyable to study, and any work in that direction will improve your performance abilities far beyond what you might expect!
It might be different now, but I actually found my music degree a net positive in terms of getting computer jobs. It's probably only true when the job market is hot, but hiring people tend to respond well - I've gotten lots of comments from people over the years indicating they've seen a good correlation between being a musician and being a good programmer.
> Oh man I've been waiting SO long to say this: get a music degree. I chose to get a BA in Music instead of a CS degree
Most people will not be well-served by this suggestion - even people with some serious interest in music. Music education is a tiny, tiny niche, and the amount of effort that you're asked to put in at a serious college level is not obviously worth it. Maybe get someone to teach you in your spare time instead. There's enough people around who have pursued undergrad or even grad studies in music (also theory), and have yet to land a satisfactory position.
That said, self-learning music is both viable and highly enjoyable. Here are some topics you should probably cover:
- Scales
- Modes
- Rhythm and time signatures
- Musical notation
- Chord Progressions / Regressions (this is extremely high value to learn)
- Chord Voicing (using the same notes in different octaves)
- Song Forms / Structure
- Harmonics, resonance, and dissonance (this is all about ratios, and typically very interesting to those who enjoy maths and physics)
- Instrumentation, including the practical range of each instrument and voice.
- Writing and arranging music.
- Non-western approaches to all of the above
In terms of the course of learning, I recommend: - Get lessons from somebody you respect and enjoy working with. They should be able to help with theory.
- Learn multiple instruments. Just like learning additional programming languages, adding another instrument furthers your enlightenment significantly.
- Play lots of music with consistent daily frequency.
- Listen to LOTS of different kinds of music. Listen actively, picking apart melody, rhythm, chords, and structure. It really helps to transcribe songs you like to develop a critical ear.
- Hang out with lots of different musicians.
- Spend time in a good DAW / digital audio workstation. Like your IDE, it can help you create music while giving you the power of a good linter and test suite. Record simple melodies then practice editing them in a Piano Roll view.
- Music doesn't move fast like programming. Some of the best educational materials available today are 75+ years old.
- Improvisation is one of the best paths towards discovery IMHO, but you have to be learning other musical idioms to expand your own improvisational pallet.
Have fun. Music theory is very enjoyable to study, and any work in that direction will improve your performance abilities far beyond what you might expect!