How to write music?

[Steelemiles]

Whats up guys. Steele here, Im currently just setting up a DAW and stuff like that. And I wna start writing my own music. Im very well at improvising, but when i seem to get one riff. Then extend that riff into riff-b. Any help? Itd be greatly appreciated. If you can help me on how to write Djent music to thatd me MORE THAN GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! Keep on rocking out dudes

 

[mikemueller2112]

Well that's a pretty broad topic to teach. How is your understanding of theory? The better your understanding of music theory the easier it is to teach/learn/understand how to build transitions.

 

[RevDrucifer]

DAW and good at improv?

Take a single riff, set up a few tracks, set up a click, play the riff and just start improving based around the riff.

Just improv for a good 10-15 mins, longer if the juice is flowin.

After, go through and pick the shit you're diggin' on, then arrange at will.

(This song was written entirely this way, every instrument, every little bit...)
Skinless Bow (Myrtle St. Director's Cut) - YouTube

 

[jackfiltraition]

Just follow your heart, let your ears have the final say and try not to force it. You said you are good at improvising, perhaps you could pull up a guitar tone, press record in your DAW and just improv for as long as you feel you want to. When you listen back to what you have recorded you may find a small idea worth salvaging or something that sparks a better idea, who knows!! Improvising to the click in your DAW while it's recording is great as you can chop up and dissect sections that were spur of the moment and build a song loop by loop, section by section. Theory can defiantly be a big help when it comes down to it but there is no reason you should feel limited by your understanding of it. I've found a lot of metal song writers feel it limits them and try to let it come down to what feels rite and sounds best regardless of how well their grasp on theory is but this is not ALWAYS the case. I personally let my initial riffs come organically by just jamming then when it comes time to structure a song out of a riff i use my knowledge of modes, keys, tempos and time signatures to build with.

There is really no one definative answer to your question so IMO it's best you just start writing and see what happens, learn as you go and always make sure you are enjoying it.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Dayn]

Check out the threads in the Music Theory forum. Songwriting is a skill, just like being able to play guitar, and needs to be practiced. The simplest thing I can suggest is to listen to the music you like, and see how it transitions between parts, and how similar the parts are to each other. Use tablature to help you if you wish.

After learning how others structure their songs, you can put it into practice. Coming up with a riff and then extending it into a second riff is good; just push yourself and try to extend it into other parts. It may sound formulaic to go "Intro, Verse, Verse, Prechorus, Chorus, Verse, Bridge, Solo, Chorus, Outro" or whatever, but it helps you plan out a song in advance. It organises your motifs and other recognisable parts, and you can plan your dynamics and how you want it to sound overall.

After that, just push it. Even if you come up with some pretty shitty riffs (hello, hundreds of files I made!) just try to make a skeleton of an entire song with the entire structure. Just push yourself to finish a 'song'. You can build your songwriting skills to make those riff writing skills take shape. You can always salvage the good stuff later.

 

[TheEvilsocky]

My guitar teacher gave me this golden nugget "paint a picture or tell a story, imagine what it is you are trying to portray to the listener and create the music that take's them to that place."


Feeling the icy snow?


How about Satan's eerie gaze?

As other's said there is no "right way" to write music, but if you know theory you can use that as a road map, "I want this part to sound creepy but still classical like the rest of the song, diminished should work." Moreover there are certain chord's and interval's that resolve into other's, which make's them great for transition's, so you can keep a certain note but still change the chord quality so it resolve's better, I always go with feel first and if I don't get the feel I'm looking for I consult theory so it will flow better.

 

[Riggy]

I'm fairly new to songwriting myself, despite having played for nearly a decade now. I tend jam around with a riff, and tab it out in Guitar Pro 5. A lot of the time from there I just play around with stuff and see what fits and works, without even using the guitar to write it sometimes (I've found it's sometimes good to write stuff you like but maybe can't quite play, gives you something new to learn while writing at the same time.) If that makes sense.

Learning theory helps (me at least) a great deal. Knowing that you can use X mode to get X sound etc makes things a lot easier.

This guys videos helped me quite a bit despite not being particularly in depth with theory or whatever. The series as a whole is pretty useful (I thought) - even if you're not into writing prog.



Hook up with a drummer, I've found that helps a lot too; but yeah, like Dayn said, it's a skill and takes time and practice.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

This guys videos helped me quite a bit despite not being particularly in depth with theory or whatever. The series as a whole is pretty useful (I thought) - even if you're not into writing prog.

[video]

I applaud this guy's attempt to describe the music he's teaching, but it seems like a very idiosyncratic system to me. I feel that he doesn't really know how to convey his process, or has a skewed perception of its workings. I see a lot of things that I associate with self-taught guitarists, like "tuning = key" and mention of throwing a bunch of riffs together in a song and ending up with "leftovers", and I can't help but to think that he would really benefit from some formal education to hone his ability to analyze and convey concepts. His presentation is enjoyable, but watched every installment and I don't really feel that a direction has been established. There's, like, no theory, then he mentions "scale mixing", doesn't come back to it, then proceeds to talk about intervals... sort of. I hear a lot more in the little clips of music at the end of his videos than he talks about, so I assume that he either places his focus elsewhere when composing and doesn't know what he's doing, or doesn't think the other stuff is as important as whatever it is he decides to talk about. It seems very stream of consciousness, but maybe I just don't get it. I'd like to hear the music of somebody who swears by these lessons from before and after.

 

[Ryan-ZenGtr-]

RevDrucifer...
Take a single riff, set up a few tracks, set up a click, play the riff and just start improving based around the riff.

Just improv for a good 10-15 mins, longer if the juice is flowin.

After, go through and pick the shit you're diggin' on, then arrange at will.

To make that happen you need to record many "experiments" to learn how to use your software, improve your tone and seek out recording advice and software to help you.

Adding to your recording setup a decent set of speakers will help greatly and should be your primary gear acquisition task.

So you know how to record and get a good sound now, let's record some music!

As has been said, jam out, record it, seek the good bits, make an arrangement, rerecord and re arrange until you have something you can work with.

1. Always record with a click track!
2. Record both your monitoring tone and a clean DI
3. Make sure to defragment your PC as you go and EXPECT latency of your equipment to push your tracks out of time to some extent - it isn't your playing, it's the computer can't process quickly enough and you have to adjust the tracks.

There are a lot of technical issues to deal with before you can get started. Those are discussed all over this site.

Let's say you have jammed, got a selection of ideas you like; they may not all be for the same song, don't delete your good ideas. Save them for another time if you can't use them on your current project song.

I've got a back log of unfinished material for 7 years, if I get time to work on music and I want to write something quickly I resurrect an old idea and rerecord it and finish it. I'm telling you this now because if you don't name and label your recordings well you lose them easily. It's important to back it all up so you don't lose your ideas.

The most critical part of songwriting is arrangement. As mentioned in the video, posted by Riggy, continuity of ideas is critical to convincing the listener to persevere with the music. The trick is to use rythmn and harmony, seperately or together, through out all the ideas in the song, using contrast with good taste and judgment.

Most of the initial trial and error comes from learning your software and hardware. The sooner you have all that down the quicker you can truly express your ideas without technical limitations from the DAW.

Jam - Quality control - Arrange - Save with useful name to a folder and file location which makes sense to you - label all tracks clearly - keep the DI's for later use - rerecord to your guide track - produce - bounce - mix - SELL FTW!

Think of your jam compilation as a guide track to be re recorded well later and you'll be on the right track.

Seek as much advice online as you can and check out all the links and content you can find. Don't be close minded to ideas and technique you haven't yet tried.

Best of luck!

 

[Ben.Last]

1. Always record with a click track!

Or don't

 

[Espaul]

If you're just starting writing music I would give you these steps:

1. Write exactly what comes to your mind without thinking to much.

2. If turns out to be shit, try to polish it a bit.

3. if it still sounds like shit, forget about it and start over again.


You will learn your own style, and that is always better than trying to mimic others. Also if you want to try writing in the same vein as some of the bands you dig, then that is probably your style! Just don't think to much about what it should sound like(at first that is, hehe).

 

[that short guy]

Chase the melody and sounds in your head. writing (for me atleast) is all about the emotions you're feeling when your writing and how good of an imagination you have and being able to use them together to get what you want.

Theory can help but going with what feels right to you instead of what makes since will make finding what your after a lot easier

and don't be afraid to learn techniques from other genre's of music to incorp. into your own writing.

 

[ZXIIIT]

Pfft, noobs, this is how you write le musics.

 

[degge]

I usually have a general idea of a song with some riffs, record it onto my phone and learn how to properly play it. Then I record it properly through Cubase and just keep on improvising from there.

Easy-peasy!