How to make a professional song

How to make a professional song

Feb 04, 2021

The music creation process has often been viewed as daunting by the novice musician, but ask any professional musician and they will tell you that the feeling hardly wears off with time. This is because each project is different and requires a completely new mindset each time. You are sure to get started faster and improve your workflow, but each registration is a new learning experience. Below is a typical song creation process used by today's pros. Opinions and methods differ, so don't think this guide is set in stone, it is there to point you in the right direction. One of the best things you can do when making music is experiment ... whether it's in the songwriting, songwriting, mixing, or mastering stages. Creativity is essential.

Now you may be wondering why so much music sounds the same today and, above all, says experiment. This is because you want to take your musical risks wisely. Over the centuries, music listeners have unconsciously become accustomed to music that follows a general pattern. Note that it says "general" because there are many hit songs that have broken the "rules". Typically, you will hear a song with an introduction, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. Also notice how during the chorus you will probably hear the "hook", which is the part of the song that you will probably hum or pick up first. Most songs are made or broken by their hooks, so when it comes to building one, make sure it stands out!

There may be many or few stages to making music, depending on your preferred workflow. Below is a tried and tested method that many use today.

Stage 1: composition, arrangements

To make music, you generally need to have a keyboard to input your music if you are not going to record all the instruments live. Learning to play an instrument is important as it will be indispensable for a music creator, unless you are a sample-based producer or perhaps rely on session musicians to translate your musical ideas to the computer. Using a midi keyboard to create music is great because it gives you that live / human feel that doesn't make a record sound so mechanical.

These days people normally start with the beat, finish it, send it to the singer, and then rework it when the singer returns the vocals ... what a process! ... but if done, writing it down can be very rewarding.

Composition

Before you begin, you want to have a general idea of ​​what you are about to do. Ask yourself; Is it a dance song, sad and soft? Will it focus on dark musical themes associated with genres like hip-hop, or will it gravitate toward lighter pop sound? Start with the name of a song in mind and a general story (not lyrics) of the song. This will help make the song more exciting later on as you can use a subtle instrument to play parts and then a wall full of sound pounding the speakers for an intense part. However, it is not uncommon to start a song with one idea and then end with a totally different one. As long as the end result is something you know you love.

Typically, you want to start composing with the "main attraction" of your songs ... this can be a drum pattern, piano, or instrumental melody. This will allow you to build your song around what makes it great and you won't have to start figuring out what makes it great when you finish the beat. Usually starting with a mediocre sound will give you a mediocre track! Starting with the chorus can produce some amazing results, although it can be long and tedious trying to find the right tune! ... but once it's done right, the rest of the song seems to fit perfectly into place. The instruments you choose for this stage are very important ... you have to decide if you want powerful kicks that do not require too much support from a bass / sound or maybe if the vocals later will take 90% of the attention. of your chorus / hook and the instrumentation becomes very simplistic for that part. Try some combinations that work best for the song of the song.

After the "main attraction", you can now create the rest of your song ... some songs these days don't differ much between sections, which means building the rest of the song will be easy, while some songs have a lot of different sections. to keep you interested. Typical commercial dance music has a lot of variety. This is mainly because you have a lot of "room" to work. If the average song length is between 3.30 and 4.30 minutes and a dance song is at 120 bpm, this means that they can get 30 bars of music for every minute of music compared to a slow and steady hip-hop song at 60 bpm that only gets 15 bars to work in that same minute. Of course, you can spice things up on the 60 bpm, but the 120 bpm song will give you better options to work with.

After completing the rhythm, you send it to an artist who can usually also write songs and sing along. This process of writing lyrics and discovering the vocal melody of the song can be a lot of fun, as you will discover a whole new dimension to your song. For songwriting, remember that something catchy and original will make the best song. Repetition used intelligently can make a song stick in listeners' minds ... but use it too much like that LL Cool J song "Lose Control" for the "zzzzzz" lines and you'll have your listeners avoiding the miss of creativity.

Organize

This process begins when the final vocals of the singer are sent back to the producer. He puts the vocal tracks and their backing tracks in the song and begins to play with its structure. Some songs sound better when the chorus hits you from second 1 and yet some sound better after a nice gradual build-up to climax. Arranging is often overlooked as an important process, but it is essential to a good song. Knowing where to place the song sections will help highlight the crucial parts and create some nice crescendos on the song parts.

During the arrangement process, play with the instruments at your own pace ... do they sound good with your voice? ... Are there contradictory notes between the lead instrument and the lead voice? Some songs don't fit the beat because a standout beat would have been put underneath and a standout voice! You need to decide which parts of the song will have the bright beat and which parts will have the bright voice ... this should keep things interesting and provide a balance in the mix. Playing without speeds here can help and give the song a human feel, but generally the delete button works better. Some music creators hate erasing the parts they've created and can end up with too many instruments in one section of the song ... don't even think about falling into that trap.

After this, you are ready to track your song in preparation for stage 2, which is the mixing process. Mixing is really challenging and usually requires a professional to get the best out of your song.

Many more articles for musicians and music lovers and song lyrics can be found at [https://www.afastcompany.com/lyrics/lovely-lyrics-billie-eilish-feat-khalid/]

As the founder of the site, I did it to cater to all people who love music, from creators to listeners, by providing them with a platform to talk to like-minded people while building relationships with each other through the use of the various social features. like forums, video sharing, user-submitted articles and much more.

Enjoy this post?

Buy afastcompany a coffee