Basic Writing Reps of Music Production
Place the foundational architecture for the creative process to flow.
As a guitarist you pull up your guitar, you have the guitar tuned, you have the tuning you want and the strings you want. It's in place, and you're ready to go; you don't have to try to re-string your guitar every single time you are about to write a song or be creative or whatever. These 5 tips are like having your guitar strung and tuned before you begin your writing session.
So number one, load a template. I use the Digital Audio Workspace (DAW) Logic Pro X. If your DAW does not have this, you can still do it creating a project that's blank, but with the preset tracks and busing you desire. I can make a more dedicated blog on this or video on this, but I want to keep it a little more broad.
Template
Audio design can quickly become intricate and turn into a rabbit hole of rabbit holes distracting from the actual writing process. I've run into this on multiple occasions. I have just a blank slate right here. As you can see (refer to Template), there's no audio files in here, but we have loads of tracks. And if I need to just take away as needed, I'll just take away as needed. It's easier to delete tracks than just add tracks because it takes a while to set routing up properly once busing gets involved, and busing is helpful when mixing.
On to number two, is find the BPM. Pretty straightforward, it gives you an invisible rhythm to build from. And another way to understand it can be, it's a ruler for patterning, allowing you to gauge how succinct your rhythm is.
And moving on to number three, is determine the musical key. Essentially providing you a wheel, so you don't have to invent a new one each time you create or write a song, unless you're into that sort of thing.
Violet Star Key 1
So, we're in C major here (refer to Violet Star Key 1), and we got (the notes) C, D, E, F, G, and B. Okay, so we got G (major)(refer to Violet Star Key 2), we got the circle for the root note here, A, B, C, D, E…Yeah, it's F sharp. (We're) not here to theory-craft deeply, we're here just to creatively flow and make music. So, if anyone else wants to know about the Violet Star Key, feel free to reach out to me. And remember these are just guidelines, don't let you creativity be stopped by bounding yourself to a "recognized" key or a chord.
Violet Star Key 2
On to number four, uncover the melody and beat. Play, practice, and contemplate what you are bringing forth. I know, short and sweet, but sometimes it's easier said than done. If it feels right it feels right, if it does not, let go.
Number five here, bulk and detail. Songs can get very dense very quickly. I'd say this song is more on the denser side, which leaves less headroom in your production, a lot of layers here (refer to Project). I mean, there's a lot of muted tracks too because I've done other things to cut things out, bounce tracks for unique sonics. It's to stay true to the sound and feel that was actually there from the inspiration, not getting clouded by peripherals of the song. A guideline of the peripherals in a song is to highlight the focal point, however this is art, so the world is your oyster.
Project
To wrap:
Load a template
Find the BPM (can be optional)
Find the key (can be optional)
Uncover the melody & beat
Bulk & detail
Before I start rambling on, I'm just going to read out my final notes here, and just carry on, and leave this to you. Yeah, if you would like any more elaboration on anything mentioned above let me know in the comments, and I'll see what I can do to help.
Cheers.