Today I show how you can take a simple idea with some potential into a bigger concept and eventually a song by trying a few simple production techniques, arrangement ideas and creativity hacks. This video is aimed at beginners who are not familiar with arrangement and song structure. I start with a simple chord loop and try to arrange it into a structure and add some variety to the song.
The video covers 3 topics:
1) Finding a theme for your song
2) Filling out the song with rhythm and tone
3) How to arrange your music into a structure that makes sense
Time Stamps -
0:30 - The original loop
1:00 - Improvising to form new ideas
3:30 - New chord ideas and humanizing the loop
4:00 - Song structure
4:50 - Adding rhythm and tone
6:30 - Adding a synth to keep the tempo
8:00 - Adding a bass to match the song
9:10 - Drums
10:00 - More synths!
11:00 - Strings
12:45 - re arranging the song (using multiple playlists)
14:30 - Transitions
16:00 - Recording some guitar
You can see from the video that I am not getting into the mixing and mastering as I create a song. This is after a few years of taking the mixing far too seriously in the early stages. Some prefer to mix everything as they go but I have found that it kills the creative energy for me! I try to match sounds well so that I don't need huge amounts of EQ and Compression right away. There are no rights and wrongs when making music.
Common Structures for a song include:
Intro (4 Bars)
Verse (8 -16 Bars) + Prechorus (Optional)
Chorus(8 - 16 Bars)
2nd Verse (8 - 16 Bars) + Prechorus (Optional)
Chorus (8-16 Bars)
Sometime pre choruses are used depending on the genre, in my case I don't really have a pre chorus but in many genres it's essential to create build up and energy for the Chorus/Drop.
Hopefully it helps you out. Should I make more advanced videos about arrangement and structure?
Let me know in the comments below :)