Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Okay, I'm trying to make a new song, but I just can't seem to think of an original melody. I've tried playing around on the keyboard, thinking during orchestra.... but nothing. Anyone have any tips and pointers to get a beginner composer started?

EDIT: BTW, I'm using Psycle, if that helps at all...

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

I had composer's block in AP music theory a lot. Just make up a generic sentence and then pretend they are lyrics and write a melody to fit the words.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

I guess that could work for composing techno. I'll try it and examine the results.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Start with a beat and bassline first, melody later. Especially for techno. For beat-based stuff I usually go beats > chords > bass > melody. Focus on the beat for a while and make sure it is awesome before you continue.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

That should help a lot. I'll do that for my next song. And I'm going to PM you with another question.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

lol it's not hard to find a melody for techno. Just do like everyone else and "inspire yourself vaguely" from another song.


But in all seriousness, just try playing random stuff on your keyboard, like power chords and such. Just find a progression or something and the melody after.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

I really don't know. I usually find themes, titles, and melodies at random. When I do finally get something in my head, I usually write it down. It just takes patience and the right moment, really.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Thanks, SGX.
The problem is that I cannot find a good VST for drums! I've tried many kinds of drum VSTs, but they were either really crappy or didn't work. Do you know of any drum VST instruments (preferably free)? Please give the link to the download page or a home page of a VSTi site. (Please make sure the VSTi's are in .dll [program extention] format.)

Right now I am using VSTi's from DSK Music (http://www.dskmusic.com/blog/) and Angular Momentum (http://www.amvst.com/).

(I sent this same thing in a PM to SuperGreenX, but I don't know how long it will take to get a reply.)

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Just start kitting keys. The train of though will ignite from there...

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

So do you know of any good drum VSTi's, Frozen?

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

I'm not sure if there are any good drum VSTs, because I don't use any.

I use samples that I download. I'm not sure if Psycle supports that but um... you can download a lot of percussion samples and packs here:

http://www.vipzone-samples.com/
http://www.breakbeat-paradise.com/

Both are legal. There are probably more sites / better packs with samples out there to download, but those should get you started.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

I remember you putting those on my profile a while back. I don't know how to work with samples yet because I'm used to using VSTs with the sounds already built in. If you would like to, you can PM a short tutorial to me on how to use samples.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Like I said, I'm not too sure how it'd work in Psycle )=. But you 'should' be able to just import them somehow.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

i usually just mess around with my keyboard for a good hour

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

My favorite way to get percussion is from sampling old funk and soul tracks. You could even mic yourself playing different parts of an actual drum kit and splice them as needed (which I think is really fun to do). If you like vintage drum machines consider Nepheton and Drumazon.

As for melodies, yeah, pretty much what SGX said works best for me.

Also avoid the amen break like the plague.

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

Just build a melody off a chord progression. If you can do that, you'll never have "musician's block."

Re: Uhhh... Musicians.. block?
 

For drums I use either Reason's drum sampler, or the drum sampler included in Ableton Live....both of which are not plugins.

I wouldn't really look for drum vsti's.....it is likely that your host came with a drum sampler with it....you just need to find a collection of drum hit samples to choose from and make your own kits and patterns. It's not likely that you're going to find any good free vsti's that come with good drum sounds built in. You might find an ok drum sampler vsti, but you'll still have to get samples from somewhere.