What is your way / process of writing music?
Saturday, June 24, 2023 - 23:11
I'd like to hear from people who write music.
What is your usual process for it? Do you come up with some theme before you start writing? Or do you just write something that came to your mind and then kind of adjust that to the theme along the way?
How do you choose your instruments and synths? Do you just pick whatever sounds fitting or do you maybe create some new synth? How do you add some variety to your track?
Where do you start with your music? Do you come up with a chord progression or bass line first, or maybe you start with the melody?
good discussion prompt.
so i usually go through these steps:
1) what am i going for? A - do i want to make something in specific style or B - do i just wanna riff around and see what sounds good.
if A then proceed, if B then just do whatever i want.
2) pick a mode that fits that style.
3) come up with a hook or signature riff
4) make the rest of the song around that hook, usually i write in a verse chorus verse chorus style cuz i come from a punk band background.
as far as instruments and synths i will play around with different stuff. i use midi so i can plug in diff instruments to see how they sound.
for the variety question -- i fail at this. my music is usually pretty steady repition of what i hope is catchy hook. this comes from the punk band background i think.
Thanks for the reply!
I think my process is close to yours. Although I rarely seem to be able to do the 1A step. I have some ideas of what I want to make, but then it always comes down to just playing around and hopefully finding something that sounds good.
But my biggest problem is that for some reason I often get sucked into patterns, like I'd write a chord progression or a melody and then I would have a hard time getting out of the loop
samesies on the pattern problem. although i dont think its necessarily a problem as such.
listen to popular music throughout modern history, and it's ALL repeating patterns.
take this:
do-re-fa-la-re
do-re-fa-la-re
do-re-fa-la-re
do-do-re-la-do
first three lines are just repetition of a simplle minimelody, fourth line is a resolution of that melody ending with the same note that started the melody.
now take that same melody, mix it up a little, see if it sounds good (assuming first one sounded goood XD) and you have two patterns. repeat these two patterns to make a sort of meta-pattern X. now try to make a breakdown pattern -- a tempo change, or a another resolution pattern, call this Y.
X X Y X X
you just wrote a pop song! here is your golden record, thanks for all the fish!
Haha, well yes you are right
Of course it's really difficult to avoid repetition whatsoever especially in a long track. And that's why I was wondering about variety and diversity of the music.
Some of my favorite OSTs are from Stellaris, Cosmoteer, a couple of tracks from Doom and D:E. And yes they also have quite a lot of repetition in terms of melody or chords. But they also have a lot more other stuff going on inside each track. Like random short submeldoies, ever so slightly changing percussion, various FX sounds. And despite all the general repetition, it still doesn't sound boring, there's always something new going on. And I fail to understand how people can come up with all these seemingly random but organic sounds, melodies or percussion. To me it seems quite complex
they are probably just better than us :)
You can start anywhere with music, I think! It just depends on what's inspiring you in the moment. Often times, if I must work with a premise, that alone will usually inspire the instruments, and a lot of the times, the melodies too. For example, if you are tasked to create a post-apocalyptic zombie shooter track, you may be inspired by dark and heavy sounds. A dirty bassline could get the project started. Maybe you got some heavy drum kits you want to paint down to guide the instrumental rhythms. I find that a premise will usually guide you if it inspires you! Just think about a scenario involving the premise and stick yourself in it. How do you feel? How do you express that through music?
In general though, if you're making music just to make it, which I do a lot, I usually work the other way around and I'll let the sounds inspire me. Sometimes I'll just go scrolling through preset libraries, tweaking knobs and bashing keys until I find something that piques my interest! Usually, when I find a good sound, I'll be hearing the music in my head right off the bat. Sometimes it'll be a cool bass, maybe a cool synth, a lead or whatever else. It doesn't matter where you start, but wherever you do start will inform the direction of the rest of the track.
Important piece of advice, too! If you are making music for the sake of practice, or just for fun and aren't required to stick to any specific theme or mood, do not start over if your track doesn't sound like what you had originally intended. Instead, let the new direction of the song inspire you and embrace it. That is also a great way to add more variety to your track if you are feeling that it is becoming too repetitive or stale.
Another way to combat repetitiveness is to build upon your track. Usually, I will create a handful of different sections, say, an intro, A section, B section, C section. You can piece these sections together like, for example: Intro, A, B, A, C, A, B, C, Outro. Then, for every time a section repeats, add at least 2 new elements to it each time. The A section shows up 3 times, so the first time it will be more basic, the next time it comes in, it'll be a little thicker, and the last time it will be very big! Or just detailed in any way you see fit. That way, even though the sections of your song are repeating themselves, they are rising in intensity, or at least changing in an interesting way. For game music, starting with a fully fleshed out section is the way to go, and then swapping out instruments in subsequent loops to change the feel of the sound adds variety, even though it is repeating.
Anywho, I've been rambling too much. I hope this was helpful! Happy musing!
Thanks for the reply and for your advice!
That is helpful :)