Every time I ask my friends about learning music they hammer me with lots of steps and ambiguity. So I did my own googling and found great instruments and lots of texts (either for the instruments or music theory).<p>It's a big mess. What's a good approach?<p>P.S. The accordion is awesome, but they also told me that it's "hard" too.
Get a keyboard with USB connection to your computer, this will allow you to use it as a controller (a piece of hardware that can send input to software). Download some software like Logic Studio or FL Studio (John Boswell uses FL Studio, <a href="http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/</a>, he's the one who did the Symphony of Science videos). Begin playing. You can easily create patterns to repeat, record yourself playing, record audio, compose visually and use any instruments and effects that you want. Even just Garage Band would be enough to get you started :)<p>You don't need a lot more than that. If you need any help setting it up, let me know.
Don't listen to people telling you something is hard or that you need to study some amount of theory before getting started. Find an instrument you like the sound of and play it.<p>Focus less on the tools and more on enjoying yourself.