26d ago in Production Techniques
THE Method to Writing More Music
We’ve talked a lot about mindset, tools, and ways to get past perfectionism.
Let’s lay it all out on the table. Here’s how to write a song every week.
Use a Template
This is covered in the next section, but the basic idea is this; have a template for your DAW, whichever flavor you choose to use, that lets you sit down and get right to work.
Go With the First Idea That Happens
If you’re writing a lot of music, two things are going to happen:
- You’re going to have an idea that you want to make happen.
- You’re not going to have any ideas.
Either of these situations is optimal for writing more music.
If you have an idea, sit down and do your best to run with it. It may or may not come out of your head the way you heard it. That’s ok.
Play Anything, and Create a Variation of Anything.
If you don’t have an idea, embrace this. Play anything. I find that starting with a melody is a quick and easy way to break the ice. Play a chord on your guitar or piano. Load a virtual instrument and play with the first preset sound that you load up. DO NOT spend hours searching for the “right” preset sound.
Record That Sound.
Once you have a sound – anything – record that sound.
Then, record even the slightest variation of it – change the chord, timing, or even the key – and record it.
Now you have written two key components to a song.
Move Onto the Next Part and Create Variations
Next, move onto either the bass or drums; I personally like to move onto the drums from here.
Again, repeat the steps as previous with melody for drums or bass; record what comes to you first. Then, record a slight variation. You now have two parts to a song, or four, or perhaps more, if you play with these variations.
Next, move onto bass (or drums, if you opted for bass in step 2). Repeat the previous steps of at least two variations.
In the purest sense, you now have the building blocks for a standard structure song.
If you increase each of these variations to three of each instrument, you’ve now written the basic structure for 90% of pop songs released in the last 50 years.
There is no need to over complicate this process. You are free to explore these sounds once you’ve created them; change their tuning, effects, note length, etc. and you’ll find that you’ve got more song structure than you thought.
This can be done in less than 20 minutes if you allow yourself to experiment and you do NOT get lost in perfectionism.
Explore Variations
Next, you can explore variations of your variations, and you may find that your song begins to go in new directions – some of which you never expected. This is ok.
Remember, our goal is to write and release a song a week, not to be perfect.
Arrange the Song
Once you’ve written the building blocks for your song, it’s time to experiment with arranging the song – see Basic Song Structures for ideas.
After having arranged your song, step away for a few minutes, and then come back and listen to what you’ve created.
Here’s the hard part; don’t delete what you did because something was “off”.
Let that rest, and even allow yourself to decide that the song is done.
If this is version 1 of this song, that’s fine. There may be ten, twenty, and even more versions. This is the essence of art; it is never finished.
Export It.
Export version 1 of your song from your DAW after having looked at the section in this course about Mixing and Mastering Your Song. Master this song using either tools available to you in your DAW, or using an online mastering service such as LANDR (a free trial of which you get with this course).
Release It.
Release this version. Release it on your Bandcamp or Soundcloud page. These are your release early and often platforms because you control the timing and release of the music, as opposed to Streaming services, which require a more structured release model (see Releasing Your Music for tips on how to do this).
Let Them Talk.
Now, the difficult part; let that song sit, as-is, and announce to the world that you’ve released it.
You’re going to get plenty of “insight” from listeners who will tell you what you should change, what should be “better”, and the like; while I won’t tell you to ignore this input, I will tell you this – it is not obligatory that you listen to every single piece of input and make changes accordingly. Thank listeners for their input, take with you what you wish, and move on.
Repeat.
Your task after this is to repeat this process again, and again, and again.
At some point, you’ll likely come back to one of these songs, recognize parts you wish to change, use in other songs, or build upon. Repeat the previous steps I have just outlined, and create version 2 of your song. Again, release it. Once you feel confident that this song is ready to reach a wider audience via streaming services, refer to How to Digitally Distribute Your Music, and release your music to streaming services.
Congratulations, you have now released music – something that a large percentage of musicians never allow themselves to do.
Remember, the key factor here is allowing yourself to release music.
Every time you do this, instead of telling yourself, “It isn’t ready”, you’ve accomplished something that many others do not allow themselves to accomplish.
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THE Method to Writing More Music
skool.com/write-release-a-song-a-week-3594
How and WHY to write and release a song every week, for all genres, and all skill levels. I do this. You can, too, and I'll teach you!
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