I'll ask the questions I always ask.

1, how old are you?

2, if you aren't a musician, do you have any desire to become one or not?

3, what is stopping you from taking lessons and learning how to play?

You can learn anything you want to learn if you want to learn it bad enough. This kind of topic is always double edged for me because it points out the strengths of the software but also a weakness in the spirit of such software existing because it feeds into the microwave world concept that people want end results fast without all that pesky "work" that typically goes with achieving end results. This is one of the reasons I am somewhat unpopular here is that I came from "the old skool" and believe if people want to make music they should also learn, you know, music. In a world of music that consists of 8 bar loops downloaded from the internet set to loop endlessly, over which bad beat poetry is recited, and that is called rap, hip-hop, whatever...

I usually end up getting assailed with email telling me that learning scales, notes, timing and the basic basics is a waste of time.

It all depends on your end game. What are you trying to do? Make serious music, like to publish CDs and sell them? (Many have tried. Many have failed. Like me.)

See, I only know one way to do this, that being the way I did it. Anything short of that I liken to trying to sneak into the circus rather than paying for a ticket. But that's just because of my musical history. I was fortunate to have all of the fine people in the USA who paid for me to go to college on the GI Bill after the military, where I was a music major, which I chose because at age 22 when I got out I had already been playing music for 17 years and it seemed like the best choice. But everybody doesn't walk the same path.

I strongly suggest you take some music basics either at a community college or a music store that has teachers who understand that "music lessons" is way different from "learning songs". Songs are made of music. Music though, isn't made of songs. If you study music fundamentals for a few months to where you know steps of a scale, know half steps from while steps, major from minor chords (which are easily figured out when you know steps of a scale) and a little bit about time signatures, much will be come clear.

Now that all assumes that you are not already 92 years old and have time and means to take such lessons. 3 years ago, at 69, I went to Kent State to study Pro Tools on an audit basis and after 5 weeks I knew my way around software that is somewhat complex because of how full featured it is. The more it does, the more there is to learn, right?

Choose the path that's right for you, and only you know what that is.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.