MUSIC PRODUCTION
Songwriting & Production
Let’s take a look at the entire process of creating a simple song from scratch, recording it, and mixing it using basic equipment.
Songwriting
Songwriting
There is no doubt that songwriting is an art in itself, and the ability to fully understand how every word and every melody affects others is of the utmost importance to achieve success in the music industry.
Songwriting
There are some top-notch songwriters out there who have the ability to come up with lyrics and melodies that not many musicians with a full theoretical understanding of music could.
Songwriting used to be more poetic and more detailed in the old days, but nowadays, this isn’t the case anymore. Some lyrics aren’t even meaningful, but they have the ability to put a song on top of the charts despite not having any meaning at all.
Because of this, I believe that knowledge and understanding of the psychological side of songwriting plays the biggest role since today it all boils down to understanding how it affects others, as that plays the biggest role in what we do as songwriters.
Taking a look at some of the most popular songs of our time, the lyrics don’t seem to have that much value when it comes to the artwork itself, but they do have a very good understanding of the trends and the way that each word can help a song become more appealing to the listener. Im not saying that the lyrics are no good, in fact, in my opinion they are better due to the human element of making things simpler and not as complex as once they were.
While it seems as if everything used to be nice back in the day, I believe it’s necessary that we learn to adjust to and take advantage of these changes.
Music is evolving and, regardless of how much I like some of the old songs, I also like how it continues to evolve.
Production
Creating a song
Let’s take a look at how simple it is to create and record a song using a basic home studio.
It is here at this step of the entire journey that you should spend the majority of your time if you want to be successful as an artist. It is important to keep in mind that success is not about playing the guitar well, but rather about making the best music that we can.
The purpose of this section is to walk you through the entire process of making a song, from the planning of the song to mixing and mastering and keeping the process as simple as it can possibly be.
Let’s take a look at the entire process of creating a simple song from scratch, recording it, and mixing it using basic equipment.
Day 1
DAY 1
Step 1 - Idea
First, we need to come up with a new song idea if we don't already have one. If we have one already, this step is pretty much set from the beginning, which usually is the case.
It's okay to start with lyrics or with a melody when making a song.
Step 2 - Raw take
This is just a rough recording of the idea we came up with on our mobile devices so that we don't forget it and can elaborate later. Any recording device works.
Step 3 - Create a map
We can create a map for this song after we have a raw take, which basically helps us divide the song into its different sections, such as the intro, verses, chorus, etc...
Our goal of becoming successful requires that we follow a common map, based on modern music, which normally looks like this: Intro, verse 1, verse 2, chorus 1, verse 3, verse 4, chorus 2, bridge, solo, chorus 3, chorus 4, outro.
The Idea
I have an idea for a pop/rock song. It’s just an idea, so no lyrics yet. I’ve got a melody in my head and we think it’ll sound good.
Considering I’m not primarily a singer, I find it easier to start with melody.
Raw take
The idea in the raw sounds promising. Let’s see what we can come up with. We’ve made a raw recording on my phone since that’s what I use when I have a song in mind.
It doesn’t matter how this raw take sounds, it’s just so we don’t forget. It’s common for great ideas to be forgotten if we don’t record them.
Song's map
This song follows the typical modern pop/rock song structure: Intro, verse 1, verse 2, chorus 1, verse 3, verse 4, chorus 2, guitar solo, bridge, chorus 3, chorus 4, outro.
Day 2
DAY 2
Here’s an overview of our home studio setup.
For the purpose of the course, we will be using equipment that everyone can access, and we are keeping things simple to illustrate that it does not take much to make an entire song.
Computer
- 2019 16-inch Macbook Pro. Processor 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9. Memory 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Recording Software
- Pro Tools Studio 2022.10
- Native Instruments
- Waves plugins
Headphones & Speakers
- Bose SoundDock 10
- Beats Studio3 Headphones
Equipment
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Gen) USB Audio Interface
- Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A25 Controller Keyboard
- Shure SM7B Vocal Microphone
Instruments
- Fender Stratocaster
- Gibson Acoustic Songwriter Standard
Let’s take a look at the entire process of creating a simple song from scratch, recording it, and mixing it using basic equipment.
Day 3
DAY 3
We are going to open up our recording software that we will be using to record our music and we are going to set up our DAW (digital audio workstation). The goal of this step is to make sure everything is in the most convenient place and get used to the layout.
We are going to add our first tracks which will include a click track to keep track of the song’s timing along with our initial tracks for all the instruments that we imagined in our idea for the song, for instance the drums track, bass track, the acoustic guitar track and the vocal track. As the need arises, additional tracks for other instruments will be added later.
Let’s take a look at the entire process of creating a simple song from scratch, recording it, and mixing it using basic equipment.
Day 4
DAY 4
Content will be posted here…
TASK
Most of our focus is on this part of the course. If we don’t make music, our skills are meaningless.
Making a song
This task is meant as an encouragement to you to create 3 songs in 3 different styles and in three different genres. At the same time, the idea behind it is for you to recognize the feeling of creating something you are passionate about and creating something that you are not so much passionate about.
As a result, it will teach you how open-minded you are and how willing you are to make songs that you might not like as much, but that might just lead you closer to your goal.
In order to become successful, it is very important to have an open mind within reason and not let our feelings get in the way and prevent us from being open to accepting something that could help us on our way to success.
Thumbs up when you're done with this task
Trust The Process
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