From an Idea to a complete song

[captain lysergicacid]

Hi KVR'lers!

I am pretty new to music production, and i have following problem:

I have composed a couple of nice ideas, like a nice melody with a bass line / drums, or a nice chorus..

But then i always struggle to make a whole song out of this idea.


What are your techniques to make a whole song from an idea?
Do you have more links like this:
https://www.reasonexperts.com/basic-ele ... music.html

Where the basic schemata and rules of certain genres are discussed?

[Zexila]

Spend time examining the tracks you like in genre of your choice, their arrangement and everything, take notes, there's really not much than that, they fall into similar pattern, especially dance music.

[dark water]

More experienced people than I will chime into this thread shortly, I'm sure.
However, I have found these articles/documents by these two producers to be very useful:

From Kim Lajoie, a free list of articles he wrote for his blog and which is encompassed within the 'downloadable' link on that first KVR thread page:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=295853


From Zencha music, ''How to Arrange Electronic Music'': costs about $12 but is well worth the outlay in my opinion:
https://zenchamusic.com/electronic-musi ... nt-course/

[topaz]

Take a couple of hours to work out arrangements of your favourite artists and write down the structure.

Then import your ideas into a template, here is an example. you don't even have to use markers, use dummy midi tracks.

In other words your are making an empty arrangement and filling in the spaces.

Here is an example of a classic Big Beat tune by the marvellous Propellerheads.

[vurt]

find someone using the same software, collab with them a little.
sending your ideas to them, then getting the file back to see how they've arranged it.

it may take time to find someone willing, with the time.


another way, just listen to what you have and try to play along, without intent, you may stumble across many things that work, then you can see if you can flesh out an arrangement.

most of all, you say you are new to music production, so remember this and don't expect to be amazing any time soon, this can often be frustrating and in some cases put people off carrying on. don't let it, just realise that with time you will understand more, but you will also then have more questions, its an ongoing never ending journey if you wish.
and have fun doing it!!

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I also struggle with completing a song - more often than I care to admit. The only piece of advice I can give is to really devote yourself to the song you're working on. Have it open in front of you without actually doing anything with it - just listen to it on loop if you need to. I've found that to be quite an effective way to make some progress on a song in my own case.

Don't force creativity, though.

[DrGonzo]

Spend time examining the tracks you like in genre of your choice, their arrangement and everything, take notes, there's really not much than that, they fall into similar pattern, especially dance music.

This is a very good advice.

One old and proven trick is to take a song you like, load it into your DAW and then figure out each sound and paint up the blocks track by track. It takes some time but that way you train yourself in listening to sounds, and identifying them. If you want you can later use that as a template for your own structure.

/C

[donkey tugger]

Just take the plunge and do it. Put your parts into a basic arrangement (even if you think it's simple) and then you've got a song. You can then work on it from there to create more complexity and subtlty with dynamics/chord substitutions and inversions,effects and so on. Until you take that first step and commit to a structure then you're still noodling. I'd also say never be too precious about it. If it doesn't turn out exactly how you'd like you can always write another one.

[jancivil]

deleted

[melomood]

find someone using the same software, collab with them a little.
sending your ideas to them, then getting the file back to see how they've arranged it.

Odd advice from somebody who used to send a raw idea and then say he was just content to see what fully fledged song I would make out of it when I tried to engage him in actually going back and forth with the project files during a Vurtopia collab

[vurt]

not really, he wishes to learn to arrange, i can see the benefit for his needs.

[thecontrolcentre]

Write an intro
Write a verse
Write a chorus
Write a middle eight

Arrange to taste

[vurt]

pfft amateur! no outro?

[thecontrolcentre]

pfft amateur! no outro?

Likely repeat the intro, or repeat chorus and fade

[vurt]

classic