My friend’s dad was telling me that with classical music, rock, or any other type of music, you can write down tabs and notes etc, but electronic music can’t be written on “paper”. So I am curious, how do you keep a note on how it’s supposed to go? I hope this makes some sense, I have very limited knowledge of music.
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Electronic music is.. well.. electronic.. so you don’t write it down. You don’t play it on instrument, but compose it on computer.
If you want to work with it, there is digital format called midi. It’s closest to writing notes down.
Your dad is wrong. Electronic music can be written down just like any other music.
All music can be written down via [musical notation](https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-notation) which will clearly contain what note to play and how long to play it. Some instruments will have their own special notation (like guitar tabs) to make it easier to play on that particular instrument, but standard musical notation can be used for all instruments.
It’s not that electronic music can’t be written down, it just isn’t. There’s no real point because the music is generated and played by a computer.
Creating electronic music is a digital procedure that necessitates a DAW software. With the program, one can meticulously order riffs, rhythms, and tunes utilizing various virtual tools, instruments, and backgrounds. Each tone can be later transformed or rectified to achieve the apt vibes. Not unlike classical or any other sound tracks, the expert tweaks and adjusts until satisfaction is accomplished. On top of that, MIDI apliances are instrumental in securing live exposures and stitching them into the slew. Music sans paper is possible thanks to DAW.
It’s not that it can’t be written down, but it usually isn’t, and that’s because the things that sheet music indicate (primarily exactly how and when to play the notes and rhythms through time) aren’t really a concern for much of electronic music, because it’s not composed to be recreated by other performers (the recorded work IS the piece).
But furthermore, electronic music generally has some particular processes that are set up beforehand — for instance, generating a rhythmic loop, specifying an arpeggio (a particular sequence of notes, often outlining a musical chord in a specific order), setting parameters to tweak tone, etc. But it’s often (not always) heavily based on loops, and then the further manipulation of those loops, so the sheet music would look like the same thing over and over again with a remark like “after 2 minutes, twist that knob to make it sound brighter.” It’s just not really what notation is good for.
So again, electronic music is based on processes and techniques, and standard musical notation is useful for indicating things other than that.
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