Make your song stand out by using these simple techniques!
June 13th, 2011
One important key aspect to creating songs that capture (and keep) a listener’s attention is to ensure your song’s overall structure is ‘interesting’.
Duh! Now that is not really a revelation!
In this post however, I want to present some specific methods for creating that interest
Structure
This is probably the most basic method of maintaining a listener’s interest and all of you will probably be familiar with this even if you never actively thought about it
If all sections of your song sound exactly the same or you repeat the same melodies over and over and over, your song will fade into the background of your listeners’ attention very rapidly.
If on the other hand, your song changes to something completely new every few measures, people will be unable to follow the structure of your song and, again, lose interest.
It strikes a good balance between introducing enough variation to remain fresh and enough repetition to create a feeling of familiarity.
Just as people’s attention starts to wane after the second chorus, a bridge or solo introduces something new before the song ends with the familiar pattern of the chorus.
Of course this is not the only song structure that works well – but I think it is probably the most commonly used. Experiment around and have a listen to your favourite songs to see what structure works for what type of songs
Emotional Intensity
Even if you have a good song structure, your song might lack emotional intensity to have much of an impact.
The chorus is the heart of your song and should convey the core of your song’s message to your listener. As the most important section it should also be the most emotionally engaging.
Have you ever noticed that when we get emotional, we raise our voices in both volume and pitch? This idea also applies to music:
we associate high pitch and volume with stronger emotions which is why in most popular songs, the chorus is louder and the vocal line is higher in pitch than in any other part of the song.
For vocals especially, since they carry the message of the song, it makes sense to have them softer during the verse and raise them in power and pitch during the chorus. In hardcore/metal music, often the verse will be shouted and the chorus will be sung.
Here are two prime examples of this concept in action
Linkin Park – Waiting For The End
All That Remains – Not Alone
I am currently working on a song called ‘Rise Up’ and was having trouble making my chorus stand out against the verse because both sections were using similar chords and the vocals remained at about the same pitch level.
Here is what it used to sound like (the piano plays the vocal melody, sorry for the midi quality):
[audio:examples/14_05_2011_KeepingInterest/14_05_2011_Rise_Up_Segment_Flat_Emotion.mp3|titles=Rise Up - Flat Intensity]
Now that is not too bad as the patterns of all the instruments changes during the transition. The guitar strum pattern changes and both bass and drums become more lively.
However, I wanted the chorus to be more emotionally engaging and interesting and for that I had to bring the vocal line up in pitch compared to the verse.
I ended up transposing my chorus by a fourth from E minor to A minor. Have a listen to the new version:
[audio:examples/14_05_2011_KeepingInterest/14_05_2011_Rise_Up_Segment_Increased_Emotion.mp3|titles=Rise Up - Increased Intensity]
The chorus stands out more and feels more emotional in contrast to the verse – I like it much better this way
Withholding & Expectations
This section covers two different but closely related ideas:
You can make certain sections stand out by using notes and chords that have not been used in the previous (or any other) part of your song
You can create tension and interest by withholding chords and notes a little longer than your listeners are expecting
Assume someone tells you a about a movie they watched recently but gives away the ending too early. Kind of a let down, isn’t it? The twist of the story will be more exciting when it is not given away too early. The same applies to song composition. A chord or a note will sound more exciting if it was not used in the previous section. If your chorus kicks in with a fresh chord and the vocal line moves over notes that did not occur in the verse, it will introduce excitement into your song.
Have a listen to this small song fragment:
[audio:examples/14_05_2011_KeepingInterest/12_06_2011_Never_Falter_Bad_Vocals.mp3|titles=Never Falter - Bad Vocal Line]
The piano contrasts nicely with the verse as both the pattern and the key changes. Additionally a previously unheard chord, Ab, is introduced.
However, notice that the vocal line does not have the same impact and freshness.
The reason for this is that the first note, the C, has been preemptively “given away” in the verse and therefore does not sound surprising any more.
If we withhold the C in the verse and use it as the first note in the chorus, we can make the transition more exciting! I know there are plenty of other things we can do to improve this piece, but have a listen to how this simple change alone affects the feeling when the chorus comes in:
Another way of adding tension and interest is withholding a section of a song a little longer by using padding measures.
If we go back to our movie analogy for a moment, think of a padding measure as the scene where the hero jumps around a corner ready to shoot the bad guys, but finds himself standing alone in an empty alley. The viewer will be surprised as their expectations haven’t been met.
Of course a good movie never lets the viewer wait long until the hero runs around the next corner and the shoot out with the bad guys does actually occur.
In music, we can use padding measures to introduce that ‘empty alley’ moment to raise tension and add interest
30 Seconds To Mars use padding measures frequently to increase the tension before certain parts of their songs. Have a listen to 2:11 of Capricorn – a single 4/4 measure has been inserted just before the chorus to withhold it just a little longer from the listener and give it extra punch when it does kick in. It can almost be considered a very short pre-chorus.
30 Seconds To Mars – Capricorn
Odd Time Signatures
Another way to spice up your songs is to break the stable and familiar pattern of time signature and measures.
Most songs will consist of sections which contain either 4 or 8 measures and the time signature remains constant all the way through.
Utilising odd time signature measures can work very well to create interest by introducing something different into your song.
One of my favourite songs that uses a verse containing three 4/4 measures and one 2/4 measure is Master of Puppets by Metallica. Have a listen to the verse around 0:53. Notice how the 2/4 measure breaks up the verse and emphasises the beginning of every new 4 bar measure as it falls back to the 4/4 timing.
The verse also creates a nice contrast with the chorus which uses straight 4/4 time signature measures.
Metallica – Master of Puppets
When I first heard Spark by Tori Amos I had a really hard time working out what timing was being used. The odd timing together with the flowing and gentle nature of the song created something unique and intriguing. Have a listen for yourself and see if you can figure out the timing
Tori Amos – Spark
Of course there are plenty of other ways to make your songs exciting!
This post simply summarises some of the most commonly used techniques. Have a listen to your favourite songs and I am sure you will find them used almost everywhere
Today’s riff is a fat metal riff that uses harmonic minor and palm muting to create a dense rhythmic pattern.
I decided to present you with the demo song first because
It gives you an idea of how the riff sounds in context
It is more fun to listen to than the dry riff
Have a listen!
[audio:examples/SundayRiff/taking_it_all_demo_09_04_2011.mp3|titles=Taking It All - Demo]
Now for the actual riff. Here are the notes including the tabulature:
The riff is based on the hard rhythmic beat of the palm muted bass notes contrasted with the brighter semitone slides.
The first 2 bars are in E harmonic minor. In the second half of the riff, the entire pattern is shifted up by to A harmonic minor, which introduces additional tension. This tension is released with a 2/4 bar at the end leading back to the beginning of the riff.
It can be a little tricky to play the semitone slides perfectly on time; I think even I’m not doing such a good job of it
Here is the plain guitar riff:
[audio:examples/SundayRiff/taking_it_all_riff_09_04_2011.mp3|titles=Taking It All - Riff]
I am currently planning out a bigger post on the importance on improvisation, but it might take me a little given the large amount of demo/backing tracks I want to include.
I haven’t been posting nearly as often as I would like. Part of that is due to having been a bit busy, part is simply due to laziness.
However, I do believe that many of my posts also get held up by the fact that they are so monolithic it’s hard for me to find a good place to start. Even once I’ve started writing, i tend to endlessly change things around or reword sections and I feel like I may never get done.
So I’ve decided to try to do a small weekly post called ‘The Sunday Riff’.
In The Sunday Riff, I will present a small musical element I’ve come up with during the week including the recording, the notes and the tab. It might not always be an actual guitar riff; it may be a classical arpeggio, a piano melody or a drum pattern – just a small and simple piece of my music.
If there is a specific idea behind the piece, I might explain a little bit about it, but the basic idea is just to give you something to listen to and try out for yourself
I will still try to get bigger, more informative posts up, but I won’t to feel so pressed to get them up each week that I just end up getting writer’s block.
Today’s riff is an actual, simple and gritty, guitar ‘riff’.
It uses muted strings and semitone steps within the harmonic minor scale to create a dark and rugged feel.
Have a listen to the plain riff:
[audio:examples/SundayRiff/rugged_shade_of_grey_riff_03_04_2011.mp3|titles=Rugged Shade of Grey - Riff]
Here are the notes and the tab for the riff:
The riff does not sound overly exciting by itself, but when combined with a solid drum line and a bass guitar, I think it creates a nice and dark atmosphere.
[audio:examples/SundayRiff/rugged_shade_of_grey_demo_03_04_2011.mp3|titles=Rugged Shade of Grey - Concept]
I hope you enjoyed this post
There will be more to come!
The elegance and magic of composing with open guitar chords
January 8th, 2011
A lot of people seem to have trouble coming up with their own melodies and chord progressions so today I want to show you one of my favourite – and probably most simple – methods
All you need is a guitar. You don’t need to be a particularly strong player, but you should be comfortable shifting your hand up and down the neck. We will be using open chords and fixed finger positions to create some interesting chord progressions.
Place your hand somewhere at or above the 5th fret of the guitar and choose one or two notes to hold down with your fingers. I usually make sure that the notes I press are within the same scale as the open strings I intend to use, but sometimes you can get nice effects if they are not.
If you are not sure, simply stick to any notes from the Em scale (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D) and you’ll be fine
Now strum or pick the notes you chose together with the open strings in an arbitrary rhythm. You might want to only strum some of the strings as too many different notes in one chord will make it sound muddy. In Example 1 below I am not playing the A string because it would add too much dissonance to the chords.
Finding a nice sound is all about experimentation. Never be afraid to just let your fingers fall wherever they want and just try it out! With time you will get better and better at having your fingers naturally find notes and chords that sound pleasant
From this initial chord, it is really simple to find follow up chords: simply shift your entire hand up or down the neck, keeping the relative finger positions and the open strings. Sometimes you might have to move a finger up or down by a fret when you shift your hand just to keep the notes within the scale and sometimes you might have to change your entire grip to something entirely different, but most of the time simply shifting your hand can give you some nice results.
Example 1
E|---0---0---0---0---0---0---
B|---0---0---0---0---0---0---
G|---8---4---6---8---11--9---
D|---9---5---7---9---12--10--
A|---------------------------
E|---------------------------
[audio:examples/30_12_2010_open_chords/open_chords_example_3.mp3|titles=Shift with fixed finger positions]
Notice that all I am doing in Example 1 is shifting my hand up and down the neck. My grip remains the same throughout. A modification of this method is to shift only a single note of the chord instead of the entire hand. This is most often done with the bass note of the chord as show in Example 2:
Example 2
E|---------------
B|---0---0---0---
G|---0---0---0---
D|---9---9---9---
A|---10--9---7---
E|---------------
This is a really simple approach, but can give you some nicely flowing chord progressions.
For the last example, let’s look at something a bit more complicated! In Example 3, I am not only shifting my hand, but I am also changing my grip each time to add more intricate elements to the chords. We could add even more detail to this pattern with hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Example 3
E|---0---0---3---2---
B|-------------------
G|-------------------
D|---5---4---2---4---
A|---7---5---3---5---
E|-------------------
[audio:examples/30_12_2010_open_chords/open_chords_example_1.mp3|titles=Shift with changing finger positions]
I usually start with my hand at a fairly high position on the neck because I feel that it makes the notes under my fingers stand out in a nice contrast to the lower notes of the open strings. Furthermore, very simple picking patterns can sound quite elaborate because notes on consecutive strings are not necessarily in order of pitch.
And that is all ther is to this technique I like it for its simplicity and because it takes you away from playing the ‘standard’ chords you are usually taught when you start learning how to play.
To show you the power of this technique, I have created a little song example!
For the chords, I started off with a simple power chord on the 5th fret of the D string, leaving the 3rd and 4th string open, giving me a nice G9/D chord – that’s a G major chord with a 9th (A) and the D as the lowest note.
I then shift my hand up to the 7th, then the 10th and down to the 3rd fret to create my simple verse section:
I wasn’t too creative with the bridge. I wanted a similar feel, but with a little bit more power so all I did was change the picking pattern and move my hand down to the 3rd fret and across to the 6th string. I haven’t created a chorus yet, so the bridge just falls back to a small interlude section and then the song frament ends.
Here is the mixed song fragment! I hope you enjoy it
It’s been a busy Christmas period, but as promised, here is the second half of my compression tutorial!
If you are not yet familiar with what a compressor is and what it is used for, I suggest you have a look at the first part of this tutorial, ‘compression – controlling dynamics’. If you already know all the basics, read on
In the first part we have covered the volume threshold, compression ratio, and make-up gain parameters of the compressor. Today we will be looking at the attack and release parameters.
Attack & Release
When a sound overshoots the volume threshold, the compressor does not instantly apply the full compression to the overshooting signal. Instead, the compression ratio increaeses gradually from 1:1 to the maximum within a certain amount of time. This time is called the attack time.
When the sound drops back below the threshold, the compressor does not instantly stop compressing the sound. Instead, it gradually reduces the compression ratio until it reaches 1:1 again. This time is called the release time.
Let’s look at some examples. Assume our signal looks as follows:
Note that I deliberately left out any dB indications on the threshold. For the theory presented here, the actual loudness of the signal is irrelevant.
If we now compressed this signal with the specified threshold and a compression ratio of 1:4 while leaving both the attack and release times set to 0ms, the output would (theoretically) look like this:
Applying compression with extremely short attack time will cause the signal to be almost instantly compressed with maximum ratio when the level overshoots the threshold. Applying compression with extremely short release time will cause the signal to be almost instantly released to no compression when the signal falls below the threshold. Since sudden jumps in volume can cause an instrument to sound unnatural or distorted, we generally want to avoid extremely short attack and release times.
Here is what our compressed signal would look like if we used a little bit of attack and release time.
Notice how the compression gradually increases and gradually releases when the signal level crosses the threshold. This compression would sound alot more natural than using 0ms for attack release times, but whether it is appropriate will depend alot on the style of music and the instrument you are compressing.
Emphasizing attack
Assume you have a bass track, but the bass itself sounds flat and is lacking in attack.
If we compress the signal with a little bit of attack time (~ 10-20ms) and a release time to match the speed of the bass (long enough to fully release before the next note is struck), we can increase the punchiness of the bass.
This works by letting the initial spike of the signal, the attack, through and compressing the rest of the signal. We can then raise the entire signal and thus increase the relative loudness of the attack.
The signal will have a natural peak when the bass is being struck. We set the thresold so that this attack crosses the threshold and thus triggers our compressor. Because we do not want to compress/reduce this initial peak, we set the attack time to the duration of this peak, if not a little bit longer. The release time is set to be long enough for the trailing part of the signal to be compressed, but not so long that the compressor is still active when the next note on the bass is struck.
Note that only the part of the signal after the initial attack is being compressed. We then raise the entire signal by using the appropriate make-up gain and therefore end up with a signal with an increased attack Be careful not to clip your signal when applying the make-up gain.
Let’s have a listen to an actual example!
Here is the bass drum track we will be working with. To be honest, I do not find the bass drum to be too terribly flat, but let’s assume we want to increase the attack a little bit anyways.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_drum_no_compression_solo.mp3|titles=Bass drum before compression (solo)]
In the context of the full drum track, this is what our uncompressed bass drum sounds like:
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_drum_no_compression_full.mp3|titles=Bass drum before compression (in context)]
Here is the compressed bass drum track. I used a compressor with 10ms attack time and 400ms release time and a ratio of 1:2. Notice that there seems to be a little bit more ‘smack’ sound to the bass drum now.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_drum_10msattack_400msrelease_compression_solo.mp3|titles=Bass drum with increased attack (solo)]
In the context of the full drum track, the bass drum now sounds clearer and stands out a little more.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_drum_10msattack_400msrelease_compression_full.mp3|titles=Bass drum with increased attack (in context)]
Notice that the compression effect is fairly subtle (at least to my ears) which is due to a low compression ratio and a threshold that only affects the signal directly below the peaks of the signal. This way the bass drum maintains its natural feel.
This very same technique can also be applied to cut the reverb of an instrument. Simply don’t apply the make-up gain and the compression will reduce the part of the signal after the initial attack.
Increasing Sustain
Compression is also often used to give an instrument more sustain, like a lead or bass guitar. It works on the exact same principles as increasing the attack of a signal, but is somewhat the inverse effect.
In order to increase sustain, we want to raise the part of the signal after the initial attack. We can do this by compressing only the attack and raising the entire signal, thus increasing the relative loudness of the signal after the initial spike.
Notice that in the uncompressed signal, the level falls off quickly after the initial attack. What we want to do is de-emphasize the initial spike so we can raise the entire signal and the loudness of the signal does not fade away as fast any more. To do this, we need to set the attack time to 0ms (or as short as possible on your compressor) so the compressor clamps down immediately and we need to set the release time to 0ms (or as short as possible) so the compressor releases as soon as possible and does not decrease the signal after the attack.
In the diagram above, the initial attack is being compressed, but the signal below the threshold is unaffected. Now we can apply the make-up gain to raise the entire signal until the attack is at the same level as before. The relative volume of the trailing sound has been increased, adding more sustain to the instrument
Again, let’s listen to a concrete example!
I prepared where the bass guitar notes are fading away too fast. Sorry for the ugly fluctuation at the end of the track, I cut the sustain manually and was a bit sloppy at the end of the track.
When played together with the drum track from the earlier example you can feel a gap coming up everytime the bass fades away too quickly, leaving only the drums playing.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_guitar_no_sustain_full.mp3|titles=Bass guitar lacking sustain (in context)]
In order to add sustain to the bass I used a compressor with 2ms attack time (shortest possible), 10ms release time (shortest possible) and a ratio of 1:2. Again I wanted this effect to be rather subtle, but you can clearly hear alot more sustain in the bass even though my settings are fairly conservative.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_guitar_added_sustain_solo.mp3|titles=Bass guitar with added sustain (solo)]
The track with the drums now sounds fuller and does not contain the obvious ‘holes’ it had before.
[audio:examples/19_12_2010_Compression_Part2/bass_guitar_added_sustain_full.mp3|titles=Bass guitar with added sustain (in context)]
Pumping & Breathing
Compression is a great tool for many things, but there are a few things to be aware of. Besides potentially making your instruments sound rather unnatural due to too much compression, another artefact that can sneak into your tracks is pumping or breathing.
Pumping occurs when the compressor’s release time is so long that, when the next note is played, the compressor is still active and thus the new note is not compressed in the same way as the one before. This causes the overall loudness of your track to fade in and out, creating a pumping effect.
I have prepared a drum track with pumping. The compressor is activated by the bass drum kick, but the release time is so long that the compressor is still active when the hi hat notes are played, creating the feeling that the hi-hats are fading in. This is pumping.
Breathing is essentially the same thing as pumping except that the volume fluctuations occur in high frequency noise that may be part of your mix. It will sound like someone is breathing in the background of your tracks, which is where the term comes from
Pumping is not always unwanted though. Especially in dance/techno music it is frequently used to give the bass or drums a more vivid beat.
Tips & Tricks
I feel like I could talk (drone) on about this topic for another few pages, but this has been the longest and hardest post to write for me so far, so I’m going to leave you with just a few tips and tricks instead.
It is better to compressor more frequently in a subtle way than to compress once heavily. Your results will sound more natural
Before setting up your compressor, have a look at your track. Take note of the maximum dB as well as the time of your signal attack and the time between notes. This will make it alot easier for you to choose appropriate compressor parameters
For percussive instruments, use a little bit of attack time. This will avoid making the instruments sound ‘blunt’
How much and what type of compression is appropriate will depend on the instrument, the type of music and the effect you’re after
Some compressors have a hold parameter. This parameter specifies the time before the compressor is allowed to release again. It ‘holds’ the compression for a certain amount of time
Side-chain compression is supported by some compressors. It allows you to use a separate input signal to determine when the compressor will activate and release
Ducking is a type of side-chain compression and is often used in radio shows where the music will be ‘ducked’ under the disc jockey’s voice when he starts talking
De-essing is a type of compression where only certain mid/high frequencies are compressed to suppress overemphasized ‘s’ sounds in a vocal performance
I might cover some of these in more depth later on, but for now I hope this compression tutorial was helpful to you and feel free to let me know if anything is still unclear
Why harmonic minor is my favourite mode to play in
December 11th, 2010
One of my all time favourite scales is the harmonic minor scale. It is just like the natural minor scale but the seventh degree is raised by a semitone.
I love how the D# adds alot of tension and a touch of mystery to the scale. The D# creates tension by wanting to resolve towards the tonic of the scale, the E. Harmonic minor is used very widely in jazz and rock music.
I always have to think of Slash from Guns ‘n’ Roses when I hear the harmonic minor scale since he uses it extensively in his soli.
Have a listen to the Sweet Child of Mine solo (at 2:34). The first half and the high speed fill are entirely in Eb harmonic minor (it’s just E harmonic minor but his guitar is tuned down by a semitone) and then the scale resolves to Eb natural minor which creates the ‘release’ feeling.
Here is a bit of music theory about why harmonic minor is actually called ‘harmonic’ – it all has to do with chordal harmony. But don’t worry, it’s very simple
E major consists of E F# G# A B C# D# and the chords you can build with this scale are
I – E (the tonic chord)
II – F#m (the supertonic chord)
III – G#m (the mediant chord)
IV – A (the subdominant chord)
V – B (the dominant chord)
VI – C#m (the submediant chord)
VII D# dim (the subtonic chord)
A very classical chord progression is I – IV – V – I, which in E major would be E – A – B – E. Here is what it sounds like
[audio:examples/11_12_2010_harmonic_minor/e_major_sequence.mp3|titles=E - A - B - E]
It does have a very classical feel to it doesn’t it? I like the tension created by the dominant chord (the B) and the resolution to the tonic.
Now let’s see what happens when we do this chord progression in a natural minor scale. In E natural minor, the chord progression is Em – Am – Bm -Em. Have a listen!
[audio:examples/11_12_2010_harmonic_minor/e_natural_minor_sequence.mp3|titles=Em - Am - Bm - Em]
Hm, kinda lacks the tension doesn’t it? That’s because the dominant is actually a minor chord. The chord lacks the D# that would make it a major chord to create the tension and lead back to the tonic of the scale. In order to give this natural minor scale a more harmonic feeling, we need to make the dominant chord (the Bm) a major chord. We do this by raising the seventh degree, the D#, by a semitone – and thus we get harmonic minor.
[audio:examples/11_12_2010_harmonic_minor/e_harmonic_minor_sequence.mp3|titles=Em - Am - B - Em]
The progression has the feeling of a minor scale, but the same harmonic tension as the progression for the E major scale. Harmonic minor is a great sounding scale and you can
easily switch between the D and the D# while the harmonies of the song progress over the E minor scale. Have a listen to some other of Slash’s soli – he has an amazing feel for when to introduce more tension by using the harmonic minor scale
Important things to watch out for during song composition and arrangement
December 5th, 2010
This is the second part of my song creation series and today I will be focusing on the second phase, the composition and arrangement phase. Again, this is just how I do things and my way is not necessarily any better or easier than anyone else’s. I am merely presenting it here so you might take some tips away
First off, in my mind i clearly distinguish between ‘composition’ and ‘arrangement’. To me, composition involves the inventing and transcribing of notes, chords, melodies and their evolution throughout the song. Arrangement is about how these composition elements are layed out to form the structure of the song.
Whenever inspiration strikes and I come up with a fragment that I consider good enough to be a part of a song, the first thing I do is transcribe the notes. I used to do this by hand on note paper, but lately I have found it much easier to go straight into Cubase and transcribe my ideas as MIDI notes since I will need all the MIDI tracks for arrangement later on anyways.
Here is a screenshot of one of my song projects as it looks in Cubase during this phase:
There are a number of reasons why I prefer to work (almost) exclusively with MIDI during this early stage of the song creation:
Having your notes in MIDI means you have them written down. Even after 5 years you can come back to your piece and start playing without having to pick everything up by ear.
This early during the process, the whole song structure, all melodies and chords can easily change and when I work in MIDI it is very easy to move, delete, edit, clone and modify whole sections of the song. If it was all audio at this stage, I’d have to re-record instruments for any minor change I might want to try out randomly.
I can try out different instruments for the different tracks just to see what effect I’d be getting. Again, no recording is required.
Of course, MIDI is not all awesome and two disadvantages come to mind straight away:
You need to know how to transcribe music notes. If you are having trouble with that, try plugging a MIDI keyboard into your computer and recording the notes as MIDI signals while you play. You can clean up your recorded MIDI notes afterwards. I do suggest you learn how to transcribe your own music notes though – it makes life a whole lot easier
Working with MIDI will give you MIDI sound. You will need a bit of imagination to ‘see’ how the final song would sound.
To me, composition and arrangement are not cleanly separated or consecutive activities. Instead, I will compose a little bit, integrate the fragments into my arrangement, make changes, come back and compose a few other elements, etc, all depending on the flow of the song and what mood I’m currently in – late at night inspiration is more likely to strike so I prefer to invent music then. It is a circular process that, for me, works best when I feel the song growing naturally. Forcing a section into a song usually makes it sound odd and out of place.
For the last few weeks I have been working on ‘The Circle Concept’, which I used in a very early version for my initial collaboration post. I have not had as much time as I would have liked since I was on holiday the last two weeks, but here is the current MIDI version of the song:
[audio:examples/SongCreation/28_11_2010_ArrangementComposition/TheCircleConcept_MIDI_02_11_2010.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - MIDI]
There are still a few more modifications I want to make before moving on to recording stage. The drum breaks need to be a bit more varied and I want a little bit more of a build up during the interlude section at the end. Notice that there is neither a solo guitar nor any ambient effects or guitars yet. I usually improvise these during the recording stage because I find that trying to transcribe them using MIDI takes away from their ‘feel’.
I am not a professional composer, I am self taught and have mainly learnt by writing my own songs for many years. Still, I have picked up a few tips to keep in mind during composing and arranging that want I to share
Create space
I am a fan of light arrangements (classical music excluded) where the number of instruments playing simultaneously is kept fairly small. Since songs live from their dynamics, having all instruments play all the time and blasting a consistently loud wave of sound at your listener will simply cause their ears to tire out and block out your music.
I’m not saying to never have all instruments play at once. Simply consider creating some sections with alot of space where most instruments are muted before it all comes swinging back in for one last emotional chorus. Of course it all depends on your style of music and the message you want to bring across in your song
Another option is to not have your instruments play too many notes, but let chords ‘hang’ for a little while before anything new happens. This will create a very easy and relaxed atmosphere like in the following little demo song I recorded a while ago.
[audio:examples/SongCreation/28_11_2010_ArrangementComposition/Comfortable_06_05_2009.mp3|titles=Comfortable - Early Idea]
Create tension
There are many ways you can create and resolve tension in your compositions. I have talked about using dominant chords and key changes to freshen up sections or making transitions stand out more.
Another great way is by using dissonances or very off-beat/non fitting patterns. During a transition, you could introduce an instrument that plays at increasing dissonances or at a beat contradictory to the main beat of the song. This will create tension which you can then release by having the instrument fall back in line when the next section of the song comes along.
Bush is one of the bands that comes to mind when i think of tension and dissonances. Have a listen to the following song and note how the dissonances increase just before the chorus kicks in.
The Chemicals Between us by Bush
Another way to create tension is by (ab)using the expectations of the listener. Often when the listener is expecting a certain instrument to come in, withholding that instrument can create tension that can then be resolved with a greater emotional effect than if you simply did what the listener was expecting.
For example when you have a bridge building up tension and the listener is expecting the fat guitars to kick back in, try inserting a few bars of just drums or just bass or just a hanging ambience instrument before you jump into the chorus! This of course works just as well with withholding chords or entire sections of your song.
Be unconventional
Dare to try unconventional things! Ever listened to a song and liked it mainly because it was a ‘breath of fresh air’, something a little different that contained unusual instruments or had a style that you couldn’t quite place? Being unconventional can range from creating songs that break the typical verse-verse-chorus structure to piecing together a rhythm section from recordings of coins hitting different types of surfaces. Go crazy and try different things – they might not always work, but sometimes you can discover some amazing sounds and it’s usually always fun to play around
I find that listening to musical styles that vastly differ from mine, I often get inspired to introduce new elements into my own music. Here is an African song I really love. It is very simple, but has a great ambience sound and a simple yet memorably melody.
Kothbiro by Ayub Ogada
Arrange with MIDI, compose with improvisation
MIDI is great to arrange instruments and work on the structure of your song, but I cannot sit in front of a virtual staff placing notes with my mouse and hope to come up with something that sounds great – for that, I need improvisation!
Once I have a certain part of my song layed out in MIDI, I grab my guitar, drums or piano, hit playback in Cubase and start to jam along. I try to let my hands naturally continue after my playback has ended or try to come up with supporting rhythms or melodies that fit very well into the song. Once I come up with a fitting piece, I transcribe it as a MIDI track and add it to the arrangement.
Improvisation to me is a natural way to make my song ‘grow’ organically and because I am merely jamming to it, I can try alot of different things without having to transcribe them first and then decide if one of my ideas is suitable. I will have a separate post about the importance of improvisation with some examples, theory tips and backing tracks for you soon!
I think I’ve been ranting on for long enough now, but I hope I gave you some ideas you can potentially use for the way you create your own music
Compression is used extensively in most modern musical styles and is a great tool to have in your skill set. Compression is a complex tool and while it is (fairly) easy to get your head around it, it takes a lot of time and practice to master. Even I still have a long way to go, but I want to share what I have learnt so far anyways
What is compression and why should you care?
Rather than just talking about it, let us use a concrete example instead. Listen to the following bass line!
[audio:examples/27_11_2010_Compression/bassline_original.mp3|titles=Bass Line - Original]
I hope that does sound awful to your ears – because it is! The dynamics of the bass are all over the place, there are really soft and really loud notes played erratically and it’s hard to get a good feel for the rhythm. If you look at the waveform of the bass line, you can clearly see the abrupt changes in volume.
Now if you ever record a track like that, I’d urge you to “flush and re-record”. Working with a horrible recording makes mixing difficult and your final sound quality will suffer if you end up processing the signal too much! However, for the sake of this example, let’s assume you have no chance to re-record and are stuck with this inconsistent bass line. Good news is that we can apply compression to even out the dynamics of the track
Essentially, compression takes all sound waves above a certain volume threshold and reduces their excess volume by a specified (compression) ratio. It is important to remember that only the overshoot will be compressed, not the entire signal. This allows us to push down the peaks of a signal and reduce the volume fluctuations of the instrument track.
For our bass line example, I will start off with a threshold of -24dB and a compression ratio of 1:4. This will cause any sound louder than -24dB to have its excess volume reduced to 1/4th of its original output volume.
The red lines mark the -24dB line that we will be using as our compression threshold.
Notice that after compression all levels that exceeded the -24dB threshold have been reduced.
Listen to the compressed version.
[audio:examples/27_11_2010_Compression/bassline_compressed_24_4_8.3.mp3|titles=Bass line - Compressed]
You should be able to hear that the overall volume fluctuations of the bass line have been reduced and the bass line sounds more consistent. Notice that the overall volume of the signal has diminished. However, by compressing the peaks of the signal, we have freed up some headroom so we can increase the gain of the entire signal by a certain amount, called the make-up gain, to compensate for this loss in volume. I will use a make-up gain of 8.3dB to bring the level back up to where it was before compression. Be careful to avoid clipping when using make-up gain.
The following image shows the waveform of the compressed bass line after the make-up gain has been applied.
Again, here is the audio example. Compare it to the original bass line.
[audio:examples/27_11_2010_Compression/bassline_compressed_gain_24_4_8.3.mp3|titles=Bass line - Compressed & gain adjusted]
It’s not perfect, but can you hear how much more even the sound of the bass line has become? Compression is a great way to control the dynamics of an instrument and even them out. The loudness of the overall bass line has also increased because we pushed down the peaks and raised the level of the entire signal up to compensate.
One thing you have to be wary of is overcompression. Too much compression can lead to a very flat and dead sound and, because you typically apply make-up gain to make the quieter parts more prominent, you also increase the volume of any noise in the signal and decrease the signal-to-noise ratio (which is not a good thing). Here is an example of the above bass line overcompressed with a threshold of -40dB, a compression ratio of 1:8 and a make-up gain of 23.5dB.
Notice how our threshold is so low that almost the entire signal will be compressed and not just the peaks.
The waveform of the overcompressed bass line looks almost like a square – all dynamics have been squeezed out of it.
Have a listen to this overcompressed bass.
[audio:examples/27_11_2010_Compression/bassline_compressed_gain_40_8_23.5.mp3|titles=Bass line - Overcompressed]
In this example, the life as well as the natural sound of the bass has been squeezed out of the bass line and a lot of low noise that was present in the signal has been increased in volume by using too much make-up gain.
While compression has a distinct sound that experienced sound engineers can pick up on very easily, most people (including me to some extend) will hardly notice even strong compression. I do hope you notice the ugly compression sound in the overcompressed example tho
Compressed instruments usually sound thicker, more compact and punchier, which makes compressors popular to use for kick, snare or bass tracks. It is also used for vocal tracks, but simply to even out the dynamics a little like we did in this example.
In order to preserve the natural sound of your instrument track, it is usually better to compress a signal more frequently by a little bit than to compress it a lot once.
I like to start off with a fairly high threshold (so little of my signal is affected) and a small compression ratio (approximately 1:4 is fairly common) and then adjust your parameters based on what it is I am mixing. Compression is best learnt through experimentation and feel free to download the above bass line and play around with it
Wait!
Stop!
You didn’t mention the attack and release parameters!
Yeah I know, but I’m feeling like this post is already getting way too long and those compressor parameters are important enough to warrant a separate post to cover them properly. I will write about them soon – promise
Everyone has a different approach for transforming their music from an initial idea, a riff, a melody or a lyrical line into a completed and mixed song. Some people are very disciplined enough to bring their song form start to finish with one continuous stretch of work, others collect a million fragments of music over the years and slowly stich them together as inspiration strikes.
I definitely belong more into the latter category but have recently been trying to adopt a more disciplined approach in order to end up with a few good results rather than with many unfinished beginnings. In general there are as many different approaches to music creation are there are people in this world and neither approach is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. However, I do believe that by looking at other people’s methods, we can learn, be inspired, adopt a few techniques and thus improve our own process.
The intention in presenting my personal process here is to potentially give you a few ideas that you can incorporate into the way you create your own music. Or – if you think I’m doing something horribly wrong – feel free to email me and let me know. Look at it as a friendly knowledge exchange
The other reason for this post is simply that I want to write down how I am doing things at the moment so I can look back at it in a few years time and (besides getting a few laughs out of it) see if I have improved.
My current process can be broken down into 4 broad phases that each song is going through:
Each phase is feeding back into the previous one and I think it’s important to be able to say ‘wait, this is not good enough’ and take a step backwards to re-record, re-arrange or even re-invent parts of your song. Of course this will introduce alot of extra work and I find myself generally being quite careful from the moment I start arranging and composing to only move to the next phase once I am happy with the outcome of the current phase.
Today, we will be looking more closely at the first phase: Conception.
Phase 1 – Conception
I am not very good at sitting down with a “let’s be creative” attitude and invent something. It works sometimes, but most of the time I find that whatever music I come up with is very mediocre and not worth persuing any further. To me, inspiration comes when I let my mind drift, for example towards the end of an instrument practice session when I lose focus and start to play whatever I feel like or when I get tired in the evening and just pick up the guitar or sit at the piano to impovise a little, either with or without background music.
My ideas are usually single riffs, rhythms or melody lines though sometimes I just sing along randomly as I improvise (which for me works especially well on the piano where I mainly play chord sequences and small arpeggios) and it ends up sounding good. Once i have the feeling that I might be on to something, I play the same fragment over and over, try different variations to see if it can be improved or play the first half and then let my hands play randomly to see if I can automatically (and very naturally) connect it to something else.
Once I have a short fragment that I like, I usually write it down just so I won’t forget it. To me, this is a crucial part of my process! With everything else going on in my life, it’s easy for me to forget a great piece of music I invented just a few days ago and thus I tend to transcribe everything – this in my opinion is an essential skill everyone should have!
Once transcribed, I do a quick recording of the fragment, adding a few additional instruments just to get an idea how the piece would work within the context of a song.
The first example started out with a single guitar riff and I added bass and drums to it, trying to see how much power the riff could generate. Be careful – this fragment is pretty loud, so turn down your volume first!
In this second example, I was actually trying to get a more Guns’n'Roses style sound out of my guitar by playing more melodic intervals higher up the neck rather low power chords. I liked the staccato nature of the riff and tried adding drums and bass to contrast the guitar.
When i play guitar, drums or bass, my mind seems to be more in ‘rock mode’ and thus any music fragments I invent tend to have a heavier feeling to them. However, I do love the piano and all the pieces I invent while letting my fingers play over the keys tend to be alot more melodic and chord based. I am not a big fan of ‘standard chords’, I prefer to add a little suspension and mystery to my music by using suspended, extended or added tone chords (Em add9 is one of my favourites ).
Here is a simple piano idea I came up with. It has a very ‘open space’ feeling to it that I really like with piano music and it naturally flowed from the verse into a chorus without me having to really think about what chords I should be playing. I added some simple percussion to give the song a bit more pull and energy.
Now i am not a very good singer. I’m probably not even a ‘good’ singer, but I do love to sing and one of the best ways for me to come up with a nice vocal line is just to sing random words over whatever I am playing. And I mean really random – I just sing whatever words (or sounds) come to me just to play around with melody lines that might sound good.
Here is an unedited example I recorded simply by placing a microphone on my piano. The verse I have played a few times before just because i wanted to get the chords just right, however this is my first or second time letting my hands play around and improvise a chorus. I don’t really like the chorus that came out of it and you will hear me sing total gibberish, but hey, random experimentation is how i go about inventing music – and in my opinion, all experimentation is good
Keep improvising and don’t be afraid to experiment – even if it sounds silly at the time, you will get better and better the more you do it! Let your mind drift and all sorts of great ideas will come to you!
The theory behind why we perceive louder as better
October 20th, 2010
When I first started mixing, I had a strong tendency to continuously increase the volume I was mixing at, either by increasing the level of my master fader (which should always, always remain at 0 dB!) or by raising my monitor volume. There are two fundamental principles that cause this tendency:
The first is ear fatigue. Ear fatigue occurs when you listen to music for too long and your ear, trying to protect itself from continuous bombardment, starts to shut down and block out the sound. The best way to prevent this from happening and from interfering with your mixing is to take regular breaks during a session (probably at least 15 mins every 2 hours).
The second principle has to do with the way we perceive different frequencies at different loudness levels and, together with ear fatigue and increased volume, is often the reason we end up with an unsatisfying mix that is lacking lows and highs.
In 1933, Fletcher and Munson performed an audio experiment where listeners were asked to (subjectively) compare the perceived loudness of two different tones – one reference tone at 1 kHz and a second tone of a random test frequency. Fletcher and Munson then graphed their findings into a number of curves known as the Fletcher-Munson Curves. This experiment was re-examined later with similar findings which became the basis for the ISO 226 standard.
The way to read this graph is as follows: look at the blue curve at the 1 kHz / 40 dB point. Now follow the curve towards the left until you reach 50 Hz on the horizontal axis. You should now read about 70 dB on the vertical axis. In essence, this states that in order for a 50 Hz tone to be perceived as loud as a 1 kHz tone is at 40 dB, it needs to be played at 70 dB. That’s 30 dB difference! A similar thing happens when you move into the high frequencies. A 10 kHz tone needs to be played at about 55 dB to be perceived at the same loudness level. Notice that this difference in loudness evens out as the volume increases (the curves higher up in the figure), for example at 100 dB, the curves have flatten out considerably, meaning the perceived loudness difference between tones at different frequencies decreases.
There are two important things to take away from these curves:
We are less sensitive to low and high frequencies, we hear mid frequencies more prominently (especially between 1-5 kHz)
As the volume increases, this perceived loudness difference between the frequencies diminishes
In terms of mixing, this principle is the main reason why we have a tendency to increase the volume; as we raise the levels, the low and high frequencies become more prominent in the overall mix, leading to increasing power (lows) and clarity (highs). This makes the music appear more appealing to our ears and thus we often feel that ‘louder is better’. However, if we mix at very loud levels and then play the mix back at a lower volume, we will often find that we end up with a weak and muddy mix containing mainly mid frequencies.
There is no ‘simple fix’ for this problem. Your approach will also depends on your target audience and on how loud they are likely to play your music. Personally, I like to listen to my mix at different volume levels, from very soft to pretty loud, just to get a feeling for how well my overall frequency distribution will hold up in different situations and to make the mix as loudness proof as possible.
It is very useful to be aware of ear fatigue and our perception of frequencies at different levels and I hope it will be beneficial to your mixing!
A free song construction kit for you to experiment with
October 16th, 2010
Welcome to SurfacedMusic!
If you are passionate about writing, recording and mixing music, you’ve come to the right place!
While I am not a music professional, music has always been a big part of my life and I have been writing, recording and mixing my own pieces for well over a decade now.
There are 3 main reasons I have created this blog:
1. As my creative outlet.
I have large amounts of ideas, fragments, unfinished songs that got stuck somewhere between inception and mastering, lying around and I want to have a place to gather them, share them with other people and get some feedback to – hopefully – gain more motivation to complete them.
2. To share knowledge.
To teach and learn (there’s plenty of stuff I’m still having trouble with) about song writing, recording, mixing and the general music creation process with other musicians.
3. To collaborate.
I consider myself a fairly good guitarist/pianist/drummer, but I am not that great at the bass guitar or with vocals. I will post ‘collaboration’ posts on this blog where I will put up a song (or parts of a song), disassembled into individual instrument tracks, for other artists to download, modify, remix, put their own ideas, melodies, vocals over and submit back to me.
My plan is to regularly update this blog with my own music, random tutorials, collaboration posts or general music experiments for others to enjoy, learn from, or give feedback on.
Today’s post is going to be a collaboration post
The Circle Concept
The Circle Concept is one of my many unfinished rock songs. It’s missing an escalation/solo part as well as an ending and I haven’t gotten around to recording any vocals for it yet either. However, I have chosen it because I think the sound quality of the song is just so much better than my old music (mainly due to new gear and learning more about mixing) and will make it easier for other musicians to work with.
Here is the current version of the song!
[audio:/collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept]
Feel free to send me any feedback on the song so far, what you like, what you don’t like. I am always open to suggestions
In order for you to participate in this collaboration, you can download the individual instrument tracks here:
[audio:collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept - Drums.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - Drums] Download
[audio:collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept - Bass Guitar.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - Bass Guitar] Download
[audio:collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept - Delayed Verse Guitar.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - Delayed Verse Guitar] Download
[audio:collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept - Delayed Chours Guitar.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - Delayed Chours Guitar] Download
[audio:collaboration/the circle concept/16-10-2010 The Circle Concept - Fat Chorus Guitar.mp3|titles=The Circle Concept - Fat Chorus Guitar] Download
Simply right click the links to download the mp3 files. Feel free to remix the tracks, add instruments, add vocals, redo instruments, add whole new sections, anything really, and send them back to me so I can post them online on this website for others to hear!
I myself will continue to work on this song and I already have a few good ideas, but I am curious what other artists can make of the material I have so far.
Again, welcome to SurfacedMusic and I hope you will enjoy this blog!
