I think if u can improvise mate, that has definitely gotta be a feather in u're cap, that sort of stuff is really good to unlock musical creativity and stuff.

That's another point - musicality, the same as production, is an art form, and very few people are gifted with this from birth. It's all about pickin it up and gaining confidence, I learn't classical and contempry theory at a Saturday music workshop that me parent's got me into, but only on a very basic level and at a very early age. At school, I was left on me own to tinkle round on the Juno 106 when everybody else was playing on casio's in groups (because my teacher had been the one to teach me at the Sat workshop).

I think without this background all this equiptment I'm sittin in front of now would have been a hell of a lot more scary when I first bought it, and the learning curve would have been alot steeper.

Now I've got me production sussed(ish), I'm goin back to what I learnt years ago and trying to take that base level of knowledge and expand on it, so's I can make stuff that sounds more interesting/better/like nobody else.

So I'm only startin out really, but I have walked a little way down the path I've chosen, and that does make things much more simple for me.

I think alot of producers try to be musical, but those that are do stand out, just the same as any other musical genre. Now they maybe trained, or play by ear, or whatever, but I can't help but thinking that most of them, somewhere along the line, have had a bit of help in unlocking what knowledge they've got.