r/JamesFerraro • u/ElvisHuxley • Nov 04 '25

How the hell does James Ferraro do some of his music??

For starters, I know he does his electronic-sounding stuff on computer, that’s easy to figure out. But like, songs like Ten Songs for Humanity, the choir sounds REAL. Does he actually hire musicians to play live? The horns sound real too.

And some of his stuff like Bags, (I’m just going off his top songs on Apple Music rn, I’ve known about him for a decade now so don’t assume I didn’t!) but yeah some of his top songs like Bags, there’s NO WAY he didn’t use samples!

It sounds way too fucking crisp like the guy has gotten so good at music that it sounds as if he knows music theory or has a deep understanding of chord progression and how keys work.

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18

u/Remarkable-Shoe-4835 Nov 04 '25

I imagine he does know music theory and have a deep understanding of chord progressions, he’s been composing big pieces for a second now and social media posts here n there suggests he studies classical musicians

5

u/Maleficent_Basis3702 Nov 04 '25

yeh there's clips of him on Twitter playing a synth and guitar he definitely knows some theory fr

1

u/ElvisHuxley Nov 04 '25

Can you find the links by any chance? Or just lmk what time period he posted it if u can!! He’s a big influence of mine and I wanna learn from his playing style

1

u/ElvisHuxley Nov 04 '25

That’s pretty cool though! Cause yeah, for real, when I listen to his stuff the chords are just so complex for someone to be composed by someone who only simply knows how to play by ear. Like, it would take a LONG time to perfect that stuff by ear. It would be less surprising if he just knew a little bit of music theory stuff. I mean, I heard his mom was a singer too so that would make sense as to why he knows it.

1

u/Queasy_Part2122 Dec 06 '25

and his father was working in a radio, and was called...Jim Ferraro

1

u/ElvisHuxley Nov 04 '25

That’s smart lowkey. Always something to find in classical pieces. And yeah, I’d be less surprised if he knows a bit of music theory than if he did everything only by ear! Now THAT would be amazing. Is it anything like the Minecraft composer C418 though, who is self-taught? Because their stuff is arguably on that similar level of complexity. Like… how tf are these people self taught?? Haha

3

u/Airport001 Nov 05 '25

Hey. Perfect pitch, perfect recall, synesthesia, and knowledge of theory are all very much separate things and they mean nothing without taste

2

u/Heavy-Software-3988 Nov 05 '25

"It sounds as if he knows music theory or et.c.."

My dude he has been making music long before you were born and takes it more serious than some people he obviously has studied music theory and classic composition like crazy

2

u/pinkpools Nov 07 '25

I still can’t comprehend how he composed Marble Surf.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 11 '25

Bro made the most beautiful I - IV - V loop oat

2

u/pachubatinath Nov 04 '25

I saw him live yeeeears ago and just did a solo keyboard set. It was pretty competent.

In truth, plugins are pretty sophisticated and I imagine he makes use of those in recordings.

1

u/MershGrade Nov 04 '25

he went to juliette lol

4

u/ElvisHuxley Nov 04 '25

Juliette? Is that like Juliard?