Bryan Michael Cox interview

[Keyflo]

I dunno if this is old or not,

IMO he's is the best music producer out. He dominates the POP/R&B world.
He is a all-around guy, He writes songs, produce the songs, and mixes(very lil tho).

[Keyflo]

This is his new record, he's making a album. Yes his voice is a little churchy but its a good song

[Keyflo]

THis is one of the best R&B songs out IMO

Im just trying to be a R&b/Pop hitman myself. Besides Danja, B.Cox is one of my biggest influences, I'd probably put him before Danja, but ima keep studying music theory and come up with great melodies like that

[Keyflo]

SOrry for all the post, im done now, feel free to rag on me

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by Keyflo

ima keep studying music theory and come up with great melodies like that

Keyflo,
dont look to music theory to come up with great melodies. Great melodies come from within, from inspiration, from jamming over a beat for hours, from your soul. Music theory is a tool in your tool kit, just like a screwdriver or hammer, its a tool, its not the creative force. Keep doing you, those melodies will come.

And keep posting clips like this dude, I love catching glimpses of other hot producers working their magic.

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

Keyflo,
dont look to music theory to come up with great melodies. Great melodies come from within, from inspiration, from jamming over a beat for hours, from your soul. Music theory is a tool in your tool kit, just like a screwdriver or hammer, its a tool, its not the creative force. Keep doing you, those melodies will come.

And keep posting clips like this dude, I love catching glimpses of other hot producers working their magic.

i agree ive intentionally kept myself from training on the piano for too long in fear of becoming "stiff". i just learned the basics (notes,chords,scales,intervals) and things like that..

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

i agree ive intentionally kept myself from training on the piano for too long in fear of becoming "stiff". i just learned the basics (notes,chords,scales,intervals) and things like that..

boy you are thinking about it backwards my friend. unless you are specifically referring to "training" as taking lessons. i think mastery of an instrument can be great. Mastery of an instrument has little to do with music theory. i seriously doubt Ray Charles or Quincy Jones had a theory lesson a day in their lives but were masters of their instruments and could never be called stiff.

I guess my point is with theory that, if you sit with an instrument and just play. make mistakes. make TONS of mistakes, and in those mistakes you will hear new things. new ideas, new shapes and colors, new chords, new melodies. you dont have to analyze what they are, just incorporate them into your playing. stretch yourself. I used to just throw on a beat, or a CD and just improvise guitar over it for hours, i need to get back to doing that. it makes playing effortless and creative.

[Keyflo]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

I guess my point is with theory that, if you sit with an instrument and just play. make mistakes. make TONS of mistakes, and in those mistakes you will hear new things. new ideas, new shapes and colors, new chords, new melodies. you dont have to analyze what they are, just incorporate them into your playing. stretch yourself. I used to just throw on a beat, or a CD and just improvise guitar over it for hours, i need to get back to doing that. it makes playing effortless and creative.

Thats kind of what i do before i make a track, i just mess around with the keys, thats how i got the name keyflo, My production group UBM (United Beat Makers) just started calling me that and i stuck with it.....I make lots of mistake, I can relate to B.cox in a way, some times playing the keyboard you take advantage of the melodic structure without thinking of simplicity, and thats my problem....I like to put alot of melodies in my music and sometimes it comes out confusing and hard to mix....

[halfguard]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

i agree ive intentionally kept myself from training on the piano for too long in fear of becoming "stiff". i just learned the basics (notes,chords,scales,intervals) and things like that..

yea, i think thats crazy, how would that make you stiff? the more the better. my mom made me play the piano for 10 years, classical music . hated it...so thankful now. i wish i could play now like i could then. i try to brush up on my music theory every once in a while. i think its good to now why yes, why no, and why maybee.......know the rules so you know how to use them and how to break them....now, im slowly learning guitar.

[Keyflo]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

Keyflo,
dont look to music theory to come up with great melodies. Great melodies come from within, from inspiration, from jamming over a beat for hours, from your soul. Music theory is a tool in your tool kit, just like a screwdriver or hammer, its a tool, its not the creative force. Keep doing you, those melodies will come.

And keep posting clips like this dude, I love catching glimpses of other hot producers working their magic.

Here's more for your Ken

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by dissolva

Quincy Jones attended the Schillinger House of Music (later named Berklee), wrote charts for Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie's bands (among many others), and studied composition with the renowned French composers Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger.

Ray Charles studied classical piano and clarinet and learned to read and write music in Braille at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind.

well, looks like i need to bone up on my history a bit. and i even went to Berklee, i should have remembered the Quincy connect. But anyway, i'm sure there actually are countelss examples of incredibly talented musicians who learned by ear and by jamming with other players and didnt have that formal training, and vice versa.

Personally, while i'm glad its a part of my tool kit, i had to deprogram myself from theory and from the "proper" musical structures, etc... when i graduated Berklee. i think ear training was one of the most beneficial things to come out of it for me, and definitely has been a big advantage for me to have a musical vocabulary so i can communicate on a musical level with other musicians and talk about notes, intervals, chords, rhythms, etc...and so i can identify each musical instrument i hear when i hear it. How many people can listen to an orchestra and call out the instrument playing the melody lines each time they switch? there's alot of great stuff that can be gained from it for sure, but i think as far as songwriting and musical feel, i got more out of jamming over music and jamming with other people than i ever got from class.
Kurt Cobain broke every rule of music theory and changed a generation of music.

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by halfguard

yea, i think thats crazy, how would that make you stiff? the more the better. my mom made me play the piano for 10 years, classical music . hated it...so thankful now. i wish i could play now like i could then. i try to brush up on my music theory every once in a while. i think its good to now why yes, why no, and why maybee.......know the rules so you know how to use them and how to break them....now, im slowly learning guitar.

i ment to say if you learn a instrument growing up and are put against certain rules (say by a church or some type of teacher) - those things can be hard to break out of

[PettyCash]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

but i think as far as songwriting and musical feel, i got more out of jamming over music and jamming with other people than i ever got from class.

I agree, nothing beats just jamming out and working on developing a "feel" for the music you play and ultimately compose.

If there is any one thing that pisses me off about life the most, its how much people I see limiting their potential and their life by not taking it upon themselves to follow their own path; pursue their own way of thinking and doing things.

Its great to go to school or read a book and learn theory; its great to learn and study engineering, and its awesome to have mentors to look up to... but once you have all that knowledge, you then have a choice. You can either stick within the confines of your acquired knowledge and/or your abilities, or stretch beyond it. Those who have achieved true greatness in this life time (Quincy Jones, David Foster, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, etc.) have always been those to have done the latter. Too much people only hope and dream about someday being as good as the mentors they admire so much... not enough of those people seem to have enough balls for aspiring to become something much greater, and stand out on their own two feet, doing things and creating styles of music no one else has ever done... and we sit here wondering why there is no innovation in the game anymore. The game has gotten soft.

[PettyCash]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

Kurt Cobain broke every rule of music theory and changed a generation of music.

I'd pray for more of that to happen today.

[Ken Lewis]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

i ment to say if you learn a instrument growing up and are put against certain rules (say by a church or some type of teacher) - those things can be hard to break out of

well said.

or they can be the foundation for a great career. all depends on the person. Music theory is just a tool. if it becomes your main tool, your in trouble. If its not yet a tool in your tool kit, then you might just come up with stuff nobody else ever thought of. You might anyway.

Hey, why arent we bashing the hell out of BMC on this thread? i guess he wasnt dancin like a fool. I KID I KID. I love the civility and exchange of thoughts in this thread for a change.

[filterayok]

The only problem i see with dudes that learn intense theory is that theyve worked SO hard to understand it, that they cant let themsleves play chords they cant explain.. They'll be dickin around with chords and ill go STOP!! Move your ring finger down a half step!! Then they pause and think what 'number' of the scale that becomes and decide wheather it works before they strum it.

Thats not in the key! theyll say. And i'll say well thats what sounds good.. Usually, later, they'll 'figure out' why the note did in fact work, and nodd in amazement, like 'oohhh how innovative!' Meanwhile i didnt know what the hell i was doing, i just knew what i wanted to hear. I think learning your instrument as well as possible is fine as long as you remember its about WHAT sounds good, not WHY it sounds good.

[MarkusColeman]

Originally Posted by Ken Lewis

How many people can listen to an orchestra and call out the instrument playing the melody lines each time they switch?

welcome to the club.

improvisation skills are based on the amount of "prejudice".
if you listened to a lot of DIFFERENT music throughout your life, you will have a broader repertoire to base your improvisations on.
this applies without saying to phrasing and picking "harmonic" sounds, too.

especially in this day and age, hard, dry theory is not really THAT important.
what became crucial is the ability to recreate moods/sounds.

pen and paper are enough to write a great tune - knowing the sound of instruments/being able to recreate it with synths/samplers/instruments/effects is what makes a great SOUNDING record.

on the other hand, I think it is important to master at least one instrument - even if it is "only" your voice.

[Agzilla]

Two words....

Jimi

Hendrix







Zz.

[str8heavydance]

I agree with jamming, improvisation, learning through trial and error and by ear.It is important to learn chords scales and the basic theory, but i think alot is done from within. Recently there was a post here where people were really bashing Ryan Leslie.Personally i think he is very talented.After watching his video of him playing chops over Lil Waynes Lolipop, i went and tried the same thing.Took me quite a while to get my stuff straight, but i learned alot from that technique.Its something i plan on alot more often now, and guaranteed in the process of trying to improvise over a certain song i know i will learn alot.I would urge all of you to try it.

[Keyflo]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

i ment to say if you learn a instrument growing up and are put against certain rules (say by a church or some type of teacher) - those things can be hard to break out of

Actually Church music is all improve, just like jazz, I see you prefer playing by ear rather than reading notation, And notation can make you stiff

[lastdon100]

Like they say learn as much as u know about theory, then forget it