Summary

Now that we've gone on this journey of LMMS and making dance music, I'd like to leave you with a couple of thoughts:

• Music is 80 percent listening and 20 percent playing:

  When you are in your studio, try to listen to a couple of pieces of music before you even open LMMS. Try hard to pick out all of the elements you hear, and get into the emotional landscapes of the different pieces of music. Get outside of your comfort zone and listen to jazz, classical, pop, country, hip-hop, or any other style that you don't usually listen to. Every kind of music you take in will provide a rich soil to plant your creativity.

• Learning music theory will not affect your music in a negative way:

  This may sound silly, but I have known fairly accomplished music makers, who refuse to learn music theory because they believe it may hinder their creative development. There is a reason they call it music theory and not music law. Music theory can be absolutely beautiful when you study it. The...