Funny post. How long is a piece of string?

Seriously: Rock, Pop, "good ol Dubstep/EDM"?? Dubstep and the sounds and vibe that goes into that is hugely different from say Minimal House. EDM is not one genre. theres many subgenres to drum and bass, and the subgenres have many conventions also.

If this is a serious question firstly you need direction - a goal. pick a genre. If you dont know what goes into ANY music, trying to learn lots at the same time will send you all over the place.

I find it hard to believe you learned years of music theory and have no clue about music composition.

Looking at project files will not be better than just listening to songs and analyzing (or being told) why decisions were made.

One thing you hear many say is a good way to learn, is to try replicate some of your favourite music - structure, instruments everything. In the process of trying to get sounds the way your idols do, you will learn.
If you already "have years of music theory" and already understand basic song structures... this shouldnt be too big of a leap.
You say you know how to structure, and you know theory... so for ideas of the sounds that go into songs...listen to songs that are already out there in the genres you like! And then try to give your spin on things.

Why do you want to write music? I'm not sure why people try to start writing music if they dont already naturally "hear" songs in their head. My issue when starting was "how do i get my computer to play the sounds in my head?" and so i learned the technical stuff. The theory etc was all just in support of that. If you dont have any ideas in the first place.. what is the driver?

 

O.k I'm going to go against the grain here. To learn how do do something you have to start doing it. It's all very well listening and watching other people, but until you do it yourself you won't get things wrong, which means no one will be able to correct or advise you, so you won't learn from your mistakes.

So, show us what you can do now. Upload what you can do, so people here can hear it and give you advice. Be warned though some people here can be a bit " Brick Top" at times, but that's something you'll have to learn to live with if you want to succeed.

 

Yeah, do this, and going a step further load some songs into your DAW and use markers to split them into different regions, and study them forensically comparing the different variations. You can even use these as a template.

Also get hold of some stems of famous tracks, they will teach you a lot.

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2016

First some Americans assume they're top class humans and the rest of the world is watching how cool they are and try to mimic 'em. Believe me it's not like that
Second not good example comparing societies to beginner artists.

(no offense to Americans)

 

This.

 

Have you been watching Victor Wooten talking about music as a language? because he says exactly the same xD ... Yep, I agree with you, it is definitely something that has to be natural more than theoretical

 

@xXDayDreamerXx: I have no problem with sending you an Ableton Project, but I do not use descriptive locators, so I would have to add them and probably you don`t understand me anyway.

However I googled and found this: http://subaqueousmusic.com/dubstep-and-electronic-music-song-structure/

Don`t apply it too ridgidly (is this English??).

 

No problem. At least we can have scores and and the structures of our songs or even rendered parts that have been created by 3rd party plugins.

I don't say to share them publicly. We can help each other privately.

No place in the world better than this forum so please let's use this big opportunity.

I we'd have a section called "our raw projects", I am sure it would be the most crowded one.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 19, 2016

I would recomend Band in a Box software.

It allows you to hear how your chord progressions sound with a band playing them.

If you have trouble with that, It can generate useable chord progressions and melodies. It is also good for examples of different instrumentation used in various styles of music.

 

there is a lot to do before play music
The aim of the game called “Music” is to communicate ideas: the raw material of good music are ideas.
So, before turning on computer or playing the first note on guitar, the composer has to have crystal clear what he wants to say, what is the story to tell.
A good chord progresion is only musical aestethics: no good chord progression can hide a lack of ideas

 

@foster911 and @xXDayDreamerXx

I promise, that a person's project files couldn't inform you about their musical decisions anymore than a mp3 could. But about their mixing practices, well that's a different story. However, since neither of you are at the stage Mp3s and WAVs are just fine to learn about arrangement and writing parts for various instruments. Seriously, if you can't hear what's going on in a song you hear on the radio you have problems with your ears that looking at a project file won't fix.

Second and this is the big thing. like @The Teknomage if you want to learn to do something you have to just do it. Not watch, read, look at, other's doing it. For example, we have all read a novel/novels before. Can you write a novel just because you read one or two or three? Or after you've written one, or two, or three? Also, if i have sufficient vocabulary can't I just write a book off the top of my head? Do i need to pick up a Stephen King book in order to emulate him? No, but if you do, you run the risk of writing just like him.

So at some point, no matter how much theory you read or projects you look at. If you don't hear anything in your own head in the first place you're not expressing yourself, you are just copying others.

@TwinBorther
When i was first learning bass i did but not recently, as such, those where my own thoughts after careful observation of my own learning process.

 

Suppose you have done more than 50% of your project and need some hints for making it perfect.

What should we do?
1- Completing it alone and making shit.
2- Using other ones' experiences by directly manipulating.

 

Notes and pauses!

Sorry, I had to...

 

All you need is templates for specific genres and time to study them, in your DAW. I find difficult to follow most of the tutorials from web about music because they are maybe great musicians but very bad at explaining simple things.

Only few people with tutorials I seen are able to explain good, the rest are either boring, either on fast forward to finish the videos.

 

You're still at the writing phase, there's no such thing as perfect, only finished or unfinished. If you do 100% of your project and you like the way it sounds you're done. If not, then you iron it out yourself or ask for help maybe, if your stuck.

Yes!!! That's what is known in the writing community as a rough draft. Or the First Draft, which if it is shit, the other writers give you notes and you go home yourself and rewrite it. Because the instant, another writer rewrites one your parts, they now get credit as awriter on the script. Same thing with music. If you want to produce music by yourself, and own 100% of the writing shares then you can't have anyone else write your melodies and chords.

There's a difference between asking someone what instruments you might use on a given section, and as opposed to what notes those instruments should play in that given section.

If you don't understand the difference between the two, you clearly are not trying to write yourself but have others do it for you.

 

here isn't different from the whole Internet : a guy behind his keyboard and Internet router, that can choose to be whoever he wants.
here, he can be a famous mixer, a rich producer, or a talented rapper. And those who won't believe him and will attack him and his capabilities, are the first ones who never released a track, never will, and are jealous of anyone who might look better than themselves.
there are also the kind of guys, who join this forum and other 150 different ones, just to have the highest visibility on their signature, for something they are selling.
the only guys you can be sure they actually make music, are those who have worked on the Audiosex Album. Go check their profiles.

You also have a large group of people, who will bash everything the others say. They're always right, the others are always wrong. Their way and opinion /method is always the best, what others say, is bullshit, doesn't exist,can't work, isn't right, isn't well done.

you also have a group of guys, who love chaos, and love being so important, that, to not be and think ,lIke the majority, they would go as far as saying the return of catalyst would be a good thing, and the whole forum and Saint are being too harsh towards catalyst.

Once you remove a good chunk of people... sorry, but there is no one left, to publish a personal file, tutorial, etc.: the forum and members they love so much, actually, don't deserve him spending 10 minutes of his life publishing a file, or doing another thing that requires time.

For the basic song structure, these are the best 196 pages a noob or pro musician can read:

*The Addiction Formula- A holistic approach to writing captivating, memorable hit songs* available on the 'other' site.

As usual, let the thumbs down overheat

 

It's mainly arrangements I'm struggling with, and I play French horn which feels pretty useless compared to Piano or Guitar. So less of the composistion side, more just how it all should be arranged. Thanks to the people who reccomended sites and such! :D

 

Bounce out what you've got, put It up so people can give you advice.

 

You're very vague in what it is you really want to accomplish, so put something up so we can get an idea of what you can do. The people on here make music. Music is something you listen to, so give us something you've done to listen to. You'll find a lot more people will be able to help.

 

[QUOTE="I play French horn which feels pretty useless compared to Piano or Guitar. So less of the composistion side, more just how it all should be arranged.[/QUOTE]

The french horn is a beautiful, soulful instrument, and though it can only play one note at a time you can always overdub yourself to create intricate harmonious pieces using your instrument alone. Harmony, chords, the sky is the limit with just you and your horn to make it up as you go along. Transpose it up or down an octave, use spacious reverbs and/or delays to create space. If you haven't an idea intellectually in which direction in to point yourself, feel what your first line informs you to feel and work off that energy, translating your emotions into an audibly palatable section and then on to the next and still the next, and before long, voila, a new song! The French Horn is such a beautiful sounding instrument, let her rip.