After you copy and see enough of structure and arrangement you should get the hang of it and just be able do it on your own.

Some start with a beat or a bass/groove.
When I start a song I almost always start with the arrangement and where my key changes are going to be. Ill have it all mapped in the daw with markers or reigons named stuff like Intro-Fmin / Verse-DMaj / Chorus-Fmin This is before I even lay a beat or line. Just the way my workflow developed. I find it easier to work if I already got a map to the end of the song. Does anyone else do it like that?

 

Last edited: Apr 15, 2017

Don't listen to a loop for too long or you'll get stuck. Once you get an 8 bar loop sounding good you are already running out of time to finish your track, start structuring your track horizontally rather than stacking it up vertically.

Don't worry about eq'ing your kick drum, widening your synths and all that crap yet. What's the point in having a perfectly produced, Eq'd 8 bar loop?