A Newbie's Question on Experience (and other things)

[Sour Unicorn]

Hey there, everypony!

In the past few days, I've decided to finally pick myself up and give electronic music a try. It's always been a big attraction for me, and I'm excited to give it a go. I've always felt drawn to it, but in my own mind I just thought that producing electronic music would just be way out of my league. This community has inspired me to give it a shot, though.

But I'm in a bit of predicament.

You see, I've tried other forms of music--guitar, bass, piano--but nothing has really kept my attention for long. I've always been more dedicated to electronica than any other kind of music. I feel like this has crippled me, however. With no serious prior experience in music, how could I ever expect to produce entertaining songs?

I guess I'm just asking for any advice you can muster for someone like me....

I will still be giving my all to learn as much as I can,though, regardless of how my lack of experience affects me. And so, I have another question. Currently, I am running the trial of Ableton Live 8.2.7 to see how compatible I am with it, before I decide to buy/acquire it.

I was wondering, is a MIDI keyboard something that I should really strive to get, or is there at least a relatively easy way to make the music without the need for a special keyboard?

Thanks in advance! I really look forward to (hopefully) spending more time around here!

[bartekko]

A MIDI keyboard is not needed, but it's a big load of help to understand how notes work, and to improvise melodies/progression.

[TheSunAndTheRainfall]

What he said. A keyboard is immensely helpful to understand relationships between notes and why certain chords, or progressions, or melodies make sense in certain contexts. But before getting one I'd recommend just figuring out how you make music, and what kind of music you like to make. Unfortunately, that comes mostly from messing around with your program (or instrument, if you have one) and finding out how you're most comfortable working, and what you feel most comfortable making, you know, developing your way of working, finding your own style, but we can still try to help you with anything you might have a question about. c: