pretty new to all this, but to give you a bit of history i love electro/dubstep/drum and bass/techno so a bit of everything really, and would really like to produce/mix all of the above,I use Reason and VirtualDj at the moment and iv got a few things up on soundcloud and i keep playing around with things but i would love some feedback on where im going right/wrong any help???
Was just lookin 4 some advice from like minded people who enjoy music as I’m pretty sure that’s how anyone does anything, they get advice from people who have more experience, clearly I was wrong
In that case, for me the first thing that seems to stand out is that there is far too much going on at once throughout a lot of the track, and all of things that are going on are jostling for position and not one of them is winning.
Pick a part of your track that you really like, or that grooves really well and try and bring this to the fore.
I think that development of your ideas is key, too. At the moment, your track seems to jump from one idea to the next without it seeming to make much sense as from how you got from A - B.
To break this down a bit (and speaking as a classically trained musician), think of it like a journey (yes, a cliché that is probably overused, but it works, so why not).
You should have various stop off on your journey:
The first idea (your EXPOSITION), should be something that tells the listener what the major theme for your track is going to be, it could be a catchy synth hook, some grooving or driving bass, or a vocal (this list is by no means exhaustive).
The second part of the structure should be developing your idea (funnily enough, known as the development section). Use your first idea, and play around with it and come up with something that is not exactly the same as your exposition, but that that we can hear what you have done.
The key to the development is to think of it a little like a mathematical problem… The second idea you have been working on for your development, is your answer, and the exposition at the start is your question. The interesting bit is the workings out so don’t just jump straight from one idea to the next, show us how you got there, let us listen to it and let us try and figure out where it is going.
The final section, is whats called the recapitulation, or recap. Work from your second idea, back to the first, and again, show us how you got there (It doesnt’ have to be a mirror image). If you just jump straight from one to the next, then it just leaves us (the listener), confused as to “What the hell just happened”.
This does not mean to say that your music should always follow this structure. At its simplest, this would be ternary form (A-B-A) and could work, but could end up sound boring. Maybe use the A-B-A idea as a guide for the for the opening, do the same for the middle, and then for the end of the song. (So like A-B-A 1, A-B-A2, A,B,A3 if that makes sense).
Use this as a guide to structuring your songs, but please don’t treat it as gospel. Music is organic and should be treated as such.
And remember that we always associate house/dance/edm/electronic music (or whatever generic umbrella term we are using for our genre of music today), with groups of 8 bar phrases, or multiples of 8.
My production is still quite limited, and I wouldn’t want to be giving you duff info, so I will leave that piece of advice to someone who is better versed in this than I am.
We all start somewhere man. I can tell by the notation that you understand structure and key. Now you just need to chill back and spend more time organizing your ideas. Work on your instrumental first then match your drums. The end of that tune is pretty ill actually. Have fun man. Experiment. The great thing about music is that it is an artforma dn there is no right or wrong way to do things.
totaly agree, i don’t think anyone can tell this is shit ! I don’t like that type of music but, of course, with a little more i’m sure you could start doing something very interesting !
I guess you have to work but positive thing for you is that you are free to do what you want…