How do people come up with good songs
>>129850241harmonymusic theory and structurereferential materialintelligence
>>129850241Don't be a talentless hack
>>129850241STUDY THEORYYou could never come up with anything original, just rip and modify Bach melodies, and you could be a great musician. STUDY THEORY
>>129850260personally I find a piano progression i like I learn it though synesthesia or otherwise, play it in reverse and if it sounds good in reverse i use it. They cant sue me. chords and arpeggios are free too so long as you dont play them exactly with the same timing. You need to mix them up differently.
>>129850251>>129850260t. talentless hack
>>129850274You just cannot make great music on pure talent. You need to study, you need to practice.
>>129850270>>129850276t. talentless hack
>>129850276>You just cannot make great music on pure talent. You need to study, you need to practice.True but some retards believe you can, they will say hurr durr Jimi Hendrix even tho Jimi himself considered himself a talentless hack and not even a top 10 guitarist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fARN1Vd31C0you will always hear a hipster retard say>if i learn theory it will kill my creativityfrom time to time
>>129850251Ok>>129850257That's not good advice >>129850260Oh ok>>129850270Alright
>>129850296It's the only advice there is
>>129850296
>>129850311Ok so then should I just give up
>>129850241You don’t need theory. At least, you don’t need to STUDY it. What I’ve done is always just put notes and chords together that sound good. I usually start with a riff. If you’re good at music, what sounds good just comes naturally.
>>129850763That depends, are you gonna dedicate your time to mastering an instrument, or to asking advice on an el salvadorian frog farming forum?
>>129850241Sometimes when I hear a song, I hear some completely different potential song idea. Like I would hear a Bob Dylan song and I would hear a potential metal song or something. I bet actual musicians hear that too.
>>129851253It doesn't come naturally :(>>129851394I use bandlab>>129851465Uh ok
>>129850241Way back in 2006, I literally started making songs on Garageband before I even knew how to play an instrument. I would record a basic riff on one string of the guitar, layer another counter-melody or two on new tracks, etc. until it started sounding like a "song". That magical feeling has basically carried me through the rest of my life, and I've been writing songs now for 20 years.But at this point, my belief is that a potentially great song is one you are humming in your head when you're cooking dinner, out for a stroll, etc. I always start with just a guitar and no DAW. I don't move to the DAW to figure out the exact tempo/ drum pattern until I've found something I just want to keep humming all day. Basically, you should be able to vaguely hear the song in your head before you even start recording. You don't have to have it all figured out, sometimes it's good to start the demo with a basic chord progression - add some layers. Maybe even doing some stupid soloing/noodling over top to see if you can pull out any useful melodies. Even just a really rough mix with a couple elements can be enough to really solidify the voice-leading in your mind when you're humming along. Once you get to that next level when you're imitating horns and string sections with your voice overtop of a song that does not yet exist... you're golden. Start over for real with a new DAW session.
>>129853389Cont'd.Because we can all see there are different forms of music cropping up that are not the traditional pop song style we grew up hearing. Now there are "beats" or "loop rock (like busker-core stuff)" or "slowed + reverbed covers" or even just straight up AI slop passed as original music. If you want to write songs in the traditional sense, it's really hard to do that when just staring at a DAW project, because the temptation is to just keep layering unnecessary crap, wasting time with sound selection. It also often leads to loop-itis, or demo-itis. Real songs should be created in the real world by instruments pushing air. Then once you have that kernel of an idea, go ahead and go ham with the plug-ins and make it as dense as you want. You might find at that point that you need less elements than you thought.
>>129850251>>129850260No great musicians from the past 50 years knew theory. They just played their instrument and wrote what came natural
>>129853493That's not even true, Sting's favorite musician is Bach.
>>1298534930/10 bait
>>129853389Idk how to come up with good riffs and I don't have any original melodies in my head, tho
>>129853861It's very rare that you can start with a melody imo. For me, I need to start with a chord progression that tickles me all on its own. Basically, you play until you hear something that has some legs to it. Then it's that humming along while doing the dishes where I start voice-leading and really digging into the melody. It's a balancing act, because it is very possible to write a great chord progression, with a great groove, and a nice topline melody - that doesn't lend itself to the human voice. Maybe that's okay, and it's just an instrumental. But normally you need to shift a bit to find the right phrasing for a vocal to even fit the chords. This is why I don't tap out the BPM or make a drum pattern until I've played the chords on guitar for a few days. Sometimes you need to shift the tempo a bit, or get rid of an element you really like, to fit a stronger topline melody for the vocal. If you've done this correctly, you should realistically be able to remove/mute the chords and just sing the vocal to a basic click track. If the phrasing feels right, you're golden, and can start layering in whatever you want.
>>129854040Idk man I still can't create good melodies or basslines and stuffI think I'll just learn theory first
>>129854703E6 > D6 > C6 > B5 E6 > D6 > C6 > B5 E6 > D6 > C6 > B5 E6 > D6 > C6 > B5 it has a watery nostalgic feel to itthere you go even a retarded kid can do that on piano or on guitar, figure out what it harmonizes with
>>129852624>I use bandlabdoes that mean you don't play an actual instrument? good luck then, I guess it's not impossible but there's no way I could write music like that. when you become familiar enough with an instrument you can naturally feel your way through a chord progression and start humming a little melody and go from there. I wouldnt know where to start staring at endless options on a digital instrument screen.
>>129850241They usually say it comes to them from somewhere else.
>>129850241The pedals you own the better the toan.
Listen to a lot of good music and your brain will start autogenerating new songs
>>129855872this is unironically true, your brain just can improv sections similar to the motifs those artists use within that genre
>>129852624>I use bandlabthis has to be bait
>>129853861Doesn't bandlab let you lock the piano roll into a scale? It's not guaranteed to sound good but it makes it much harder to sound bad, I would also suggest mainly sticking to chord tones for the melody and using non-chord tones for emphasis>>129854703Theory is important but it's basically impossible to implement well if you don't already have experience composing music.
>>129856021I think OP very likely has black skin anon
>>129856031I love all my brothas and sistas.
>>129855985It's not, I use it because I can use various instruments to make a song>>129856021Ok>>129856031I dont
>>129850241Accidentally it seems. Artists put out so much shit that some good stuff comes up eventually.
>>129850241experimentation, practice, determination and mental fortitude
and by mental fortitude I more mean willpower, to keep practicing and experimening and jsut keep on making music in the face of failure
>>129850241I never wrote a good song, but I guess : accident/"luck", after many attempts, + naturally creative mind. Why ?, 1) David Byrne first song was Psycho Killer (his best song imo) he knew nothing of theory, nearly all musicians peak early in their career (one of the first 5 albums) if theory knowledge helped, why being more experienced almost never did ? 2) Why musicians who recorded great albums often go on to make a few great ones later on ? even after peak creativity is gone, enough talent remains to produce popular albums/remain above average when compared to other seasoned musicians ?
>>129850241If you need lyrics then write diary regularly and copy some entries/parts
>>129858670Probably, but I think they just come up with one song and then make a lot of shit ones to make an album >>129858908Ok>>129858983Prob>>129859005Most lyrics aren't from dairies
For me it's just spontaneous inspiration, working off of a little motif or small chord progression I happened upon or is occupying my mind in the moment
i haven't come up with a song since i lost my virginity
>>129850241Literally just hum until it sounds alright
>>129850241Taste + skill
>Pick your keyboard (maybe guitar)>Play around with scales and chords>eventually, you'll find a new riff or phrase you like >Work with it in its mode and scale.That's it.
