Sequencing to learn

One way I like to learn music and especially band oriented I.e not solo pieces is to sequence it  which mostly means notate it in notation software such as Musescore and then import into your DAW of choice. Alternatively most DAWs have a piano roll which can be used to enter midi data.

My next goal along these lines is to sequence Pat Metheny’s So May It Secretly Begin. I have Pat’s Fake book which has a huge number of tunes. For this tune he provides the melody line as well as intro bass pattern which is used throughout most of the tune.  He also provides arrangement cues for drums. The entire structure ie available.

The challenges include finding or constructing an appropriate drum part, working out the necessary fills and breaks and of course later substituting live parts which starts with guitar , then possibly bass. Synth lines and other sonics ill keep sequenced.

Another advantage of this approach is that one gets to exercise production and enginnering skills. Nowadays musician’s need to do it all partly because its now possible to do a lot alone in the home studio but because its also posdible to self publish.

Not having a recording contract is no longer an excuse :)