advice on switching styles

M

matthewm77

New member
I've been messing around with all kinds of styles since I started producing, they all have similarities but are generally quite different form each other. Lately I've been inspired by the imagery and 'scenes'- if you want to call it that- I'm into and been inspired by the cultures of new genres I've discovered over the past few months. I want to combine genres together to really give my stuff an original feel and not just hop into one style and be just another producer in it. Obviously most famous artists did this and just had something that made them more popular but I want to push myself and really create something that I'll be happy with. I'm not even happy with the genre specific stuff I'm making now. So does anyone have any advice on approaching this, should I start researching the specifics of what I want to combine?
 
My advice would be to try incorporate some of the attributes from the genre you want to emulate. What exactly do you mean when you say imagery and scenes? Like Film scores? I've been trying to sway away from the traditional Hip Hop drums so I've been listening to a lot of Alternative and Rock drums and incorporating them into my beats with pretty good results. To give you a clearer understanding, here is some advice a friend of mine gave me on the benefits of different genres.


I have grown to be open to just about anything. I love making music period and challenging myself to learn the secrets of production is my favorite thing to do. But, you ain't ask for my autobiography, did you? lol
1) Jazz (Great for learning about chords and chord progressions)
2) Reggae (Melodies in reggae translate well into hip-hop)
3) Hip-hop --obvious
4) Electronic Dance music (a good one to dig into because it's about crowd control, lots of techniques here apply across other "dance" genres)
5) Dubstep (another good one, because the key to making a good dub step song is understand bass and the different ways of controlling it)
6) Rock (good for learning about mastering vocals and mixing acoustic instruments)
7) Classical (good for learning epic instruments, layering sounds etc.)

Now, I didn't say I liked all these different styles of music, but I've learned from each. I didn't like math in school either, but I benefitted from learning it, you know what I mean. Still, I have an appreciation of all production, because I love music, in general.

My advice is simple. If you have Internet access, spend a little time every week watching tutorials on different genres (even hip hop), I promise you you won't regret it. Lots of it will be boring. But, you'll learn things these cats who just copying each other all day don't know.
 
If you want an original sound you're going to have to say F you to genres. If your goal is to get of the typical genre don't learn how to make them.

Simply start making music, don't think about it. It's like picking the clothes you wear. Don't buy them because lots of people are wearing them, buy them because you personally think its cool. The big original sounding artists get there sound because they let there personality speak through their music. They don't get caught up in any of the bullshit logistics stuff. Let your mind be free. And create. The less you think about it the better
 
When I did music GCSE and we studied specific pieces, we divided the music into, rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, instrumentation etc.
I still do this today for different genres.
For example, if I were to listen to minimal house, I might think:
Harmony: not much really, keep it simple
Structure: lack of defined sections, a kind of flow between different ideas. Very loop based, few ideas that last longer than a couple bars. Slow development of ideas.
Melody: again, keep it simple as possible
Rhythm: lots going on here. Contrast between very on the beat kick and hi hats, and very off beat everything else. Avoid similar rhythms at all costs.
Instrumentation: again a lot going in here. No one sound dominates, and all sounds are very contrasting, some percussive, some less percussive, different pitches etc.

This means that I can combine two genres more easily, I might decide to add jazz harmonies to a minimal house tune or the rhythmic elements of minimal house to a rock tune, whatever might work
 
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