Skill development pre and post-internet

[sellanraa]

I was thinking a lot about how much the internet has changed how we work on developing our skills / how we learn our instruments. Are there any essays or books that explore pre- vs. post- internet?

I remember sitting down to work on my Roland MC505 and there really felt like nothing but the manual in 1998. Now people can find endless Youtube videos and forums where people post ‘I want to make music like x, y, and z…tell me what I need and how to do it.’ (of course, thinking it’s just that easy)…

Anyway, not sure how much others have pondered the contrast, but it seems such a pivotal turning point (obviously) and I thought others might have thoughts or links on the subject.

[sandy]

Early 1990s. I think most of my pre-internet learning (whether it be about synths or anything else I was interested in) was through magazines. I certainly learned the basics of midi and how to plug things together through reading articles in Sound on Sound which I’d purchase most months. Manuals were useful for the specifics of using a particular piece of equipment but it was the basics that really helped.

I was also lucky that I was friends with a guy who had been into synths for a while. He was a great help explaining some of the things I couldn’t figure out through my own reading and letting me try things on his synths - he had a sampler!

Fast forward to 2003/2004 (my memory is hazy) when I got my first modular. Now the internet existed! There was a forum called modularsynth.net (it’s long gone) which was basically the precursor to MW. Not sure if anyone here was a member - @s_hamann maybe?? That helped although it really was early days for the “modular” internet - no youtube videos/module tutorials. Lots of learning through trial, error and experimentation. I remember spending an interesting hour figuring out how to patch my one and only oscillator from only doing drones using an EG and VCA!

I love how easy the (modern) internet has made accessing knowledge and information I need. Having said that I still really enjoy sitting down with something and figuring it out for myself like I had to 20+ years ago instead of going straight to the first Google hit “do it this way” video.

[jasonw22]

we went to… the library!

My mother was a librarian for 42 years (most of them in a very very small Missouri town). One of my earliest memories was of the Telex machine in the break room, used for transmitting interlibrary loan requests (pretty high tech for the late 70s!) At a very early age my mom taught me that thanks to the interlibrary loan system, I could read about anything I ever wanted to know about with no restrictions at all. Some things just took longer to get than others. I ended up testing this theory multiple times with great success, by checking out all sorts of rare, unusual, and even banned books.

I can understand the perception that libraries are going away, but if you spend any length of time in a rural community, you’ll find they are still a vibrant cultural center for many many people. Broadband is not so common in rural USA and for that matter neither is literacy. So people don’t just come to the library to find the tractor repair manual, they also come hoping the librarian will help them read it. And they do, just that. People use the library’s internet connection to find jobs and do research for school papers, and again the librarian is there all along the way to help.

The internet does not make libraries obsolete, it just changed them a bit.

[jasonw22]

I’m really sorry to hear that. A much happier story from Missouri (February 13, 2017 press release):
https://www.mymcpl.org/library-information/about-mcpl/press-room/press-releases

“voters approved Proposition L, a proposed increase to the Library’s levy for the purposes of building and renovating branches and maintaining or expanding Library collections, services, and programs.”

[jasonw22]

The story is much worse in California. State funding of libraries was eliminated in 2012 I’m not super up to date on how the counties are dealing with that. Most library funding happens at the county level anyway.

[diffuse371]

The internet has changed everything for independent workers and researchers. Many academic publications are now in the public domain, most old text books can be found thru online thrift resellers, and online interaction has allowed easy connections between these independent people.

Translating this knowledge into a livelihood that can sustain the individual discovering it seems harder now, however. The world, certainly in most industrialized countries, is ruthlessly results and resources driven, and finding the time, space and interest for something that does not lead to an easy result/sale is where the challenges lie.

[Plym]

I actually learned most of Ableton Live by reading the manual page by page when I made the switch from Logic a year ago. I wanted to just really get into it, and figured I could bring that with me wherever I went. I do think it’s something special with reading things in a book - a deep kind of focus. I should really get a good book on synthesis!

Still the internet is really great (hey Sherlock), and I’ve learned all things modular through internet, forums like this and YouTube videos.

[baleen]

I’ve been able to glean very little from youtube videos. I like manuals and written tutorials (I might be…old).

I learn even more by working with whatever it is. my mother insists I never did a single transformer with the instructions.

now, I’m not gonna bash the internet on this - I love being able to get a couple solutions to problems or knots in my workflow with a good search. cuts out a lot of heartache, gets to the next heartache faster.

[s_hamann]

Not sure if anyone here was a member - @s_hamann maybe??

I probably was, I had a habit of joining many, many forums then. There’s another forum from that time that I forget what it was called (small member count but I remember both Chris Randall and Scot Solida were members, possibly run by a guy named Don?), I wish I could access its archives, learned a lot from it.

[deltasleep]

The proliferation of the internet is only half the story here - I can barely remember not having the internet. My interest in music happened after the internet, but when I got started, there wasn’t much of a place to talk about this stuff. There was EM411, if you were one of the IDM cool-guys like me…it was a lot like this, but with more focus on music and “releases”.
At that time, I was still reading stuff like the Craig Anderton books on circuits for musicians, how MIDI works, etc. There was a sense that all the information was available, but that you’d have to WORK to get it.

IMO what has REALLY changed the game in terms of learning, and how I see music, is Youtube. Now a young musician could just blow and afternoon watching “top ten ways you’re using MIDI wrong” videos and figure it out pretty quickly. But there’s a downside…can you imagine the naivety that a lot of electronic musicians had…even in the 1980s…if there was a Youtube? Youtube makes it nearly impossible to feel like anything is original. If John Cage was alive today, he’d think “I should record and perform 4 minutes of silence” and then look on Youtube and immediately find a thousand people outside of the art school bubble who’d already done it. In fact it’d be so OVERDONE when he found it that people would be overlaying Spongebob memes. Broad information access has lowered the barrier of entry a lot, but also raised the bar for what’s considered good. You’re no longer the best techno act in Birmingham Alabama, even in your mind, for long. You are very quickly confronted with the zillion other people who had your “original” idea.
I can only hope that removes the ego component some…but maybe it just ups the bar on the irrational narcissism required to be a musician any more…

[infovore]

So, weirdly, Youtube drives me insane for learning stuff.

Not the utility of easily shared videos, that’s fine. But the endless house style of ‘Youtubers’ - the narrative, the sponsorship, the wasted words. And you can’t search or scan video.

I learned a vast amount from a Sound on Sound subscription as a teenager, but I also learned from forums and prose - Sonicstate user reviews of knackered old synths, the Dancetech forum if anyone ever heard of that place - full of people making music and sharing tips and techniques (and not a vast amount of dance music, really). Blogs. And: downloading the manuals for things I didn’t own to work out what they did anyway.

I am fairly verbal, and I understand lots of people aren’t - especially when it comes to technique and expression, rather than, say, technical skills - and I know the effort that goes into a good video. But I really miss the effort that goes into good writing.

+1 on the Ableton Manual - amazed how many people don’t read it, because it’s really well written - that company’s documentation and writing team are top-notch; they really put the effort in, and it pays off.

[deltasleep]

OMG DANCETECH, forgot all about that place!

[infovore]

oh man I’m so happy somebody remembers it