Ableton has just launched a new online app geared towards teaching people the fundamental music theory behind production. The goal is clear – they want to help everyone learn the basics of making music. The new site, Learning Music, is impressive, and a great place to share with the next person who asks you “how do I start producing tracks?”. Keep reading to learn more and try it out.
Ableton’s Learning Music
Ableton’s Learning Music site starts out: , the website states “In these lessons, you’ll learn the basics of music making. No prior experience or equipment is required; you’ll do everything right here in your browser.”
Built around 10 chapters ranging from beats to song structure, the course offers built-in browser music tools as well as helpful demonstrations. What separates this from other online music theory programs is its emphasis on interactivity – each lesson offers a web-based Ableton simulator. Furthermore, they offer several well-known example songs including: “Single Ladies” by Beyonce, and “We Will Rock You” by Queen. The program also offers an online music-making application called The Playground, which allows users to actually produce music online.
The online examples are pretty fun to play around with – and if you find yourself making something impressive in their simple online interfaces, you can even click “Export To Live” to bounce out a basic project for the DAW.
Training the Next Generation of Producers
The launch of a music-theory training course represents an interesting move by Ableton as it allows them to introduce people who might not have any production experience at all to the world of music production. It feels essentially like a digital version of their very popular self-published production book, “Making Music” (see it in Ill Gates’ recommendations here). The big difference is that this is a hand-on experience, so the learning process is very natural.
It’s a pretty ideal place to send someone just getting started making music – and anyone who doesn’t have the time or money to invest in a proper music theory class can get a very good primer from Ableton’s offering.
It’s all a smart business move as well. By having people learning to produce music in the Ableton ecosystem, they become drastically more likely to continue using Ableton products later on. It creates new users for their existing products.
