Ableton’s Push really is growing on me; it’s astounding to have lots of the working methods from software integrated on a piece of hardware, in pads and buttons and knobs. But because it does so much, because it’s open to so many tasks, it isn’t something that reveals itself in just a day. From mapping harmonies across the pads to understanding every last edit workflow, it takes some time.
Josh Weatherspoon took an interesting approach this summer and spent 30 days both teaching himself to better use the hardware, and sharing techniques one at a time, for free, on YouTube.
Those 30 days of videos are at top. And while we failed to share them all when they first came out, now is good timing. If you prefer to work in the studio, as I do, with the Internet disconnected, or don’t want ads or streaming, you can pay to download. The first 30 people get it for US$5 (promo code: “push-it”), the rest of you, for a very reasonable $10.
I’m sure there are other Push tutorials out there, but I do like the focus of some of these.
Scale options. Hold down shift to change the interval spacing.
And being a theory nerd, here’s a good example: working on finger position and inversions to easily play chords. (And people kept griping to us that it wasn’t really a musical instrument. Cough.)
Check out the full playlist on YouTube
Josh has an EP out now, too:
http://joshspoon.bandcamp.com/album/battle-cats-ep