How do I get better at writing music? (Page 1 of 2)

I certainly concur with Lazerbeat, learning an instrument is a great start. For me, I had played a brass instrument for 10 years, it was not until I studied music theory that composition made any sense.

Lay down a beat, and write a melody. Look at some of the music you like, and notice how they play with their melodies. Do they stay on the same pitch for a couple of beats, then go down a bit? Do they go up a bit, then back to the original note, then down a bit, and back again? Incorporate these sorts of patterns, but don't go overboard and solo the whole time. Keep adjusting notes until they fit in with the rest of the notes and don't sound too out of place. Play it back, and if it sounds weird, then change it. Once you have the melody down, add some bass. Make sure to change the note every measure or so to a pitch that sits nicely with your melody and keeps it interesting. From there you can add harmonies, maybe some arpeggios, what have you. As the song progresses, start out simple (maybe just have the beat) and build upon that. Switch up your melody, your beat, your progression, your harmonies, whatever you feel needs changed. Make sure to rely on repetition at least a little, and always remember to switch things up before they get boring. It's really important to think about the music that you like to listen to and notice what they do with their song. If you're listening to a song and hear all the instruments drop out except for drums, you should think, "oh, that's something I can incorporate into my song." Build up a library of techniques and methods that you can apply to your compositions.

It's important to know that the above is just an indication of how you might want to start a song; there isn't any exact formula to songwriting. Most important of all, practice. Once you can write a song and have a little bit of an idea of what's going on, just play with new ideas and do your thing and I guarantee that you'll get much better over time.

I like to find a nice chord progression first, then I lay it out with a nice trance pluck synth and a simple dance beat in my DAW, I find it helps to get the thoughts moving, having at least something of a song fleshed out. FL Studio has a really solid piano roll, so it's easy to see the notes that fit in the progression and lay new ones on top of what's already there. I start with quarter notes and move them around and something usually catches my ear. From there it's a simple matter of porting the notes from FL to LSDJ.

I think everyone has their own methods of inspiration, it's just a matter of finding your own or what others do that works well for you.

edit: I forgot to mention, usually when I find a really amped melody that I could listen to forever, I'll strip it down, and build the song backwards off of that. So I'll remove notes from it, or only use the first bit of it, take out the bass, slow down the drums until I've reached the beginning.

Last edited by Nursey (Aug 10, 2013 2:58 pm)

Listen to a lot of music, and just deconstruct it in your head/on paper.  Examine what is going on in a song, and what makes it be like that.  It helps a lot to understand how other people structure songs, and then, try on that same piece of paper, try to plot out a song, and then try to execute it.  Try using a different program/medium to get practice.  Let yourself suck, it's a part of the process and generally the hardest part.

start whistling

First and foremost stop comparing yourself to others. This will drive you crazy and tends to make people give up. Anything worth doing isn't going to come easily and most people don't sit down and immediately write an amazing song. The process can be arduous requiring days, weeks, months or even years depending on how long you're committed to completing a song.

Experiment, always. With each track I try to incorporate something new that I haven't done before, no matter how trivial if you're always pushing what you can do you'll always get better. Each experiment won't always work but that's a solid lesson in what to avoid.

Learn to walk away. If you've hit a wall don't force it. Walk away from your song for however long you need and come back whether it be an hour or a couple days. Typically I write as much as I can then sleep on it. Wake up and listen by then I've gained a new perspective and know what needs to be done.

Don't force songs. If the song just doesn't sound good, erase and start over. I've written complete songs and have ultimately wiped the entire thing because I wasn't happy with it. If you don't like it chances are other people won't either.

Imitate. I'm not advocating plagiarism or suggesting you be another artist's clone but if there's something in a song that clicks with you, use it. Every song has been written already you'll never create anything truly original so use what other people have established and make it your own. Little things like a particular sound/instrument, a drum break, or just how something is played take that and build off of it. Music is a constant exchange of ideas if you can take someone's previous idea and morph it into your own creation then go for it.

weed