Let's talk about song arrangement

One thing I have done before is to take a little bassline, build melodies on top of it, then after a few loops of it, stretch the midi out to twice the time, maybe lower the octave, build new melodies on top of the new bassline(which used to be the melodies). Just keep doing this until it becomes a fractillion mess.

  On 5/19/2011 at 2:06 AM, Bubba69 said:

One thing I have done before is to take a little bassline, build melodies on top of it, then after a few loops of it, stretch the midi out to twice the time, maybe lower the octave, build new melodies on top of the new bassline(which used to be the melodies). Just keep doing this until it becomes a fractillion mess.

You should learn about canon, and then fugue if you're feeling up to it. You seem to be heading in that direction and there's a rich history behind each of those forms. Come to think of it, I would consider them worthy options for anyone who identifies with the premise of this thread. They practically write themselves.

i could never stand the sheet music, voice leading stuff myself

Sheet music has nothing to do with it and you probably already use voice leading, whether you're aware of it or not.

  On 5/19/2011 at 3:32 AM, Wall Bird said:

learn about canon, and then fugue if you're feeling up to it. You seem to be heading in that direction and there's a rich history behind each of those forms. Come to think of it, I would consider them worthy options for anyone who identifies with the premise of this thread. They practically write themselves.

yeah to say it in general: one should stop ignoring several hundred years of music history in general and try to reinvent the weel before you have actually been able to roll stones down a hill

I just listen and enjoy a lot of music, the way it is done is not extremely relevant if you are someone who primarily uses a computer to make tunes. for me anyway. just lift a bunch of concepts and you're good to go.

  On 5/19/2011 at 1:44 PM, Wall Bird said:

Sheet music has nothing to do with it and you probably already use voice leading, whether you're aware of it or not.

i took many classes in college with canon, fill in the voice homework, etc. it was more fun as a little sudoku-ish puzzle than it was useful. about all i ever use is the first semester shit -- how a chord works, counting intervals. the rest of it just went out the window; a complete waste of my time. i'd been writing by ear for years before i took those classes, and this was all on paper. i was hoping it'd help, but it never really wound up plugging into the way i was used to doing things.

if you want to write piano music, fine. but when you're doing a acid house track with an eight note bassline, some lead stabs, a bunch of drums... it's useless as grandma's tits. half the synths aren't in tune anyways.

  On 5/18/2011 at 2:59 PM, mafted said:

  On 5/11/2011 at 1:07 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

yeah fuck sharing ideas and building on the collective consciousness. why would anyone want to gain perspective on an issue that affects them? seems so silly to me.

 

lol.. how the hell did you read that in to what i said? not sharing ideas? that's not what i wrote or meant. let's be at least a tiny bit reasonable and a little less.. 'snarky'?

 

"Anyone have any methods on how to break free from the loop and keep things interesting over a 4 to 8 minute track? "

 

people take lifetimes learning how to achieve this. what i was saying is you can't teach intuition on a message board. fuck if i care at this point.

i just started actually practicing the use of secondary dominant chords. these things are really useful.

shit, well, after reading this thread (especially the Ed DMX advice) I feel I need to seriously revise my writing style. ahh well

  On 5/20/2011 at 5:16 PM, luke viia said:

i just started actually practicing the use of secondary dominant chords. these things are really useful.

Yes, they are.

Two five two five two five four five oneeeee

  On 5/19/2011 at 10:48 PM, hahathhat said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 1:44 PM, Wall Bird said:

Sheet music has nothing to do with it and you probably already use voice leading, whether you're aware of it or not.

i took many classes in college with canon, fill in the voice homework, etc. it was more fun as a little sudoku-ish puzzle than it was useful. about all i ever use is the first semester shit -- how a chord works, counting intervals. the rest of it just went out the window; a complete waste of my time. i'd been writing by ear for years before i took those classes, and this was all on paper. i was hoping it'd help, but it never really wound up plugging into the way i was used to doing things.

 

if you want to write piano music, fine. but when you're doing a acid house track with an eight note bassline, some lead stabs, a bunch of drums... it's useless as grandma's tits. half the synths aren't in tune anyways.

I find counterpoint immensely useful. You probably didn't spend enough time with it. I can write good music without even listening to it now.