How do you guys compose?

Re: How do you guys compose?

I wouldn't necessarily call it magic lol. But honestly, (to me anyway) Music is the most tangible form of emotion. The Closest I can get to showing the world what my emotions look like.

I like to start with a chord progression, a very simple group of triads, then I listen to those chords over and over and I hear in my head how i want those chords to sound, then I add/move notes around inside those chords. That's usually how I get my basic structure.

From there, I will try to write a melody or a stab line. I do this with multiple methods, one is to hum out vocals. As if I were singing, except not. I take the melody of what the vocals would be and i vocalize them with an instrument that fits the song ( or at least attempts to fit the song)

another method of melody writing is to mash keys until I find something that sounds good lol.

For drums, I usually wait till the melody/Chords are done(at least the basic structure)

Then, I try to sequence the drums as a lead instrument, playing along with the song.



Ehh, don't know if this is going to help you at all. But that's my two cents

Re: How do you guys compose?

That depends. If I can find atleast one artist that doesn't have to correlate his emotions or expression with his work, I might feel a little more comfortable.

Re: How do you guys compose?

i use drawing to express my emotion lol

music i just play whats in my head and go from there lol

Re: How do you guys compose?

Hmm, it's very rare that i will produce a track with no emotion behind it, but i HAVE done it,
usually on songs that have a funny sample or something like that. I'll build the song around the sample, or alot of my 8bit music. For example "Fight for noone wasn't really emotional, just an idea. I made up a story in my head and tried to hear what kind of song would be in the background. ( while staying in the limitations of 8bit obviously)

Re: How do you guys compose?

Do you think my apathy will be a problem in the future?

Re: How do you guys compose?

I'll be honest. That sentence makes me sick. <_<

Re: How do you guys compose?

Different question: When you finish composing, and you relisten to the song again, it sounds like you've heard of it before. Then you realize that you basically created a remix version of the song you recently listened to most... How can you prevent that from happening? It's very unintentional while you're in the process, and I didn't quite realize that the resemblance of the two songs were so close until I finished.

Re: How do you guys compose?

You might want to let me hear the two songs first.

Re: How do you guys compose?

bassline,chord progression,melody,beat
does it sound good? 2 hours max and it's done
doesn't it? then won't never leave project folder

@kgz and to all guys who blame him
it really doesn't matter HOW do you make music, what really matters is the final mp3
period

Re: How do you guys compose?

That statement coming from you makes me feel ten times better, James = 3

Re: How do you guys compose?

What you are saying here, completely contradicts what you are saying up there. Here you are saying music is what you love to do, and making money off of it would be great. etc.
Up there it seems as if you are saying "I only put my emotions and enjoyment in to music if it helps make more money".

Its the way you say it. Either way, if your only making music for money then Im still dissgusted. If you make music for the pleasure of making music, but plan on making money from that music as well, then thats fine, thats pretty much my outlook. Personally I just make music because I love to, and I love to share it with other people. If people want to pay for it, cool, all that money just gets recycled back in to my music as new equipment, cd production etc.

Also, as I read your reply once again, you seem to be saying that you make music for other people to like, and not because you yourself like it. Doing this is what causes all that generic crap thats populating the world to continue. I remember when music actually had meaning, and artists genuinely made music because they loved to and made music that they liked.
In the end, people who become famous usually loose their way and end up making generic crap that "other people like", and in the end everything ends up sounding the same.

This is what bothers me about statements like the one I quoted.

yea..

Re: How do you guys compose?

As far as emotions go, I'm fairly stoic, constantly. You know the type.

I don't write my music via emotions, however my music brings out emotions in myself that I use to finish my songs... it's interesting.

You'll find, you probably do use emotions in your songs at some point you just don't feel it. Most stoic individuals have emotions they're just not familiar with them so you wouldn't really call it an emotion.

Composition wise, I use Reason, Cubase, and Ableton.

Re: How do you guys compose?

I don't really base my music on my emotions I guess, but when I'm in certain moods, I tend to think and produce better.

Generally, like nubbin, I come up with a chord progression, and base every other aspects of the song around it.

Order: chords, background effects (usually), bass, percussion, melody. Also, I go through tons of melodies and see which I like best if that counts for anything.

Re: How do you guys compose?

I usually work on some percussion first, perhaps some progressions, and have it looping. I then grab my keyboard and mess with melodies and tunes that I think would fit great. From there I tweak the notes, time correct them etc and work on an accompanying bassline (sometimes this process is reversed). I usually add effects last and do all my knob twisting once the project is close to finish to get an idea on the final sound of it.

A large portion of the time I'm playing I just find myself messing around with my synths and not really recording anything.