Music Production

[Calintz]

i'm aware that there are a few enthusiasts of music production here at Chaos Project. i just began experimenting with it myself and i found that i rather enjoy creating music as a new hobby. whether or not i plan to sale albums someday is not being considered, but i was hoping we could use this thread to candidly discuss the different approaches (amongst other things) to creating music.

some of the things i would like to discuss first:
- music theory
- melody creation
- advertising

Music Theory:
theoretically, when you're creating a chord and you know the half steps for that chord's associated scale (for instance C Major begin 4-3) and you're following them to a tee as you create it, you should never have to worry about your chords falling out of scale, right?

Melody Creation:
i'm a wreck at this right now. i can't create a melody to save my life so any and all help in this area will be greatly appreciated.

Advertising:
where? where can i share my music in hopes of getting people to listen in and give their honest feedback? Facebook seems to be an okay place, but where else?

[Shek]

Music Theory

I rarely meet people that apply theory correctly.  
Knowing how many half/steps are between each of the notes in a chord does nothing for you.
Music Theory is largely a child of the piano, and it can only be truly conceptualized through the piano (and to some degree the guitar).

Learn your chords as physical shapes that your hands make on the piano, not as abstract concepts about F-Ab-C-Eb = F-7

The abstract concepts (the F-7 chord for example) can only be used to describe to others the physical realities that you have learned to manifest through your fingers.

Once playing chords/scales/melodies/progressions etc, becomes second nature to you on a physical level, your brain will pretty much automatically make the theoretical connections required to compose music on a very complex scale.

Melody Creation (or Composition)

Some thoughts on this:
-Melody is largely gestural.  If you can't physically sing a melody, or dance it, or gesture it, it probably isn't going to connect with a listener.  
-Silence is just as important as sound.  You need to breath, so does your melody.
-A melody is a phrase.  Try speaking sentences of words over your music, pausing dramatically, emphasizing important words.  Your melody should also have pauses, and emphasis.

-On a nuts and bolts level, an easy way to write melodies is to write the chord progression first, then write your melody.  Make sure you find the scale that works best over the chord progression.  If you are writing jazz, use a different scale for every single chord change, if you are writing more straightforward music, use a single scale that works for all the chords.

Production

If sequencing ->
                         Try out Reason.  It has basically everything you need to start producing songs from the ground-up. 
                         When using any piano roll, don't look at the keys to the left, instead pay attention to the color of the rows.  They show the black keys/white keys on the piano.
                         

If recording    ->
                          Use Sonar, it has a pretty shallow learning curve. 
                          Don't put too much reverb on your tracks.
                          Listen to your pieces on many different sound systems to make sure you mixed it right.
                         


Advertising
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