Here's the deal- I am just trying to become an accomplished musician and I'm looking for the right resources to do that. With that said, I am asking for your advice/thoughts.
http://www.berklee.edu/core/default.html
According to the link above, it seems like these four core elements- "Arranging, Harmony, Music technology, Ear training"- constitute the fundamentals of musicianship.
Have you guys mastered all this stuff? I guess it perhaps depends on how serious you are and whether or not you're looking to pursue music as a career. Well I am.
Anyway, My main interest is in becoming an accomplished songwriter and I have bought songwriting books(on lyrics, melody, harmony) which seem quite informative and almost sufficient. I have a pretty good idea on how songwriting works and I feel I can do that on my own.
Now here's the tricky part. One piece of advice I've gotten from a songwriter was that, songwriting itself doesn't require all that much of four elements mentioned above- "Arranging, Harmony, Music technology, Ear training."
Here's my take on the matter. DO REFUTE and correct me if I'm wrong on anything. (liberate me from ignorance)
Harmony semes to be part of basic theory, and it seems like most books on songwriting explain harmony pretty well cuz its obviously a fundamental part of songwriting. I THINK I got this covered with the songwriting books I have.
Ear training, I THINK, seems like something that can be learnt on my own with a product like earmaster pro. And there's a zillion products on that so.
Music tech/production(recording, midi, engineering)- what is this necessary for? making demo recordings to send out to record companies?
who is this mainly relevant to? Does this concern performing songwriters?
SHould I learn this? And if so how do i go about it? EH-my laptop is pretty good but I wonder if it can handle all this.
Arranging- when you play with a band, I THINK most rock musicians seem to arrange by ear rather than on sheet. Am i mistaken? I heard that for stuff like film scoring, arranging is necessary. Anyways, nevertheless, this seems like a useful skill and I'm interested in learning this. How do I learn this?
P.S. My opinion is that nowadays with a good books/resouces, one can learn A LOT by him/herself using the internet. Hence the existence of so many of us self taught guitarists/songwriters.(owing to such nice online guitar communities like this) It's actually making me wonder whether it is absolutely essential for musicians like us to attend an official "music school" for our pursuits. I'm thinking about going to berklee college but it's so pricey. Did john mayer drop out b/c he's a genius who didnt need any of that formal schooling? Is he like the exception who didnt need that? Brilliant songwriters like Bono, jon bon jovi, johnny rzeznik- it seems like they didn't attend any formal music schools. Some thoughts on this matter please.
Anyway about the four core elements mentioned above, do you fellas know any good books available on amazon, or any resources/products available online for this stuff? Any recommendations? And if you believe that the aid of an instructor is necessary for certain parts, then feel free to elaborate on that matter as well.
