How to Create more Movement

C

caycay

New member
Some of my compositions have been described as "elevator music".

I was wondering how you create more movement in music? Mainly for songs that are meant to be slow, like rnb?

How would I bring more movement and energy into a track, besides using drums or percussion?
 
There's all sorts of impacts, winds, drum fills and shit out there you can add in to add some "cheap" movement. The key to doing it right is to take something away first. The thing that helps me most is I always work with an acapella and build around it. At the end of 4 or 8 bar phrases I'll drop the beat and that kind of splits it into sections to work on. You might add a wind up to that drop, then add a drum fill or impact, or put pieces of what you had back but cut different to add some variety. You might even want to just change up the beat entirely in some way for that 4 or 8 bars.
 
you have already identified it for yourself: it is rhythmic density - more notes playing but not necessarily just in the drums or the percussion,

sustained notes are the enemy of movement;they are static (as in still)

Add it to the bass, turn a stab chord piano part into a winding arpeggiated chord part, add brass fills that are moving,
 
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Attack, attack, attack. There is so much movement which comes from how you attack a note and release a note. Those two things are starters which you should be using all the time. If things sound stiff, stop snapping them straight to grid or use your attack and release. Think of playing notes as singing. Not every note sounds like a robot, every note sung has movement. Thats because the artist attacks and releases notes differently. Experiment with your MOD wheel and your pitch bend, those will help as well.
 
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