need help/advice how to keep making progress with our producing

Mrtnsson

New member
Hi all FP:ers. To begin with I can say that we are 2 guys that just started fresh and have been getting into producing for like 2-3 weeks now and have a common goal to learn how to produce music. We started out with youtube tutorials about the basics and stuff but whenever we start a track it feels like our knowledge about chord, pad and melody is really really weak. We have almost no ide what to think about when making chords, pads or any melody at all, which leaves us kinda stuck in tracks where we get the other elements good like kick, drums, claps etc. but just our melody sounds like a 3 year old child pressing some keys....:4theloveofgod:. We have tried 100 different tutorials on youtube on how to make a chord progression and it looks so easy just hitting some notes but we've tried and it doesn't really work. I think we need some kind of real explaination from the beginning how and what to think about when to make a melody. So thats why I wonder how you guys started out and learned how to make melodies and chords when you were "newbies".
 
Ok heres your real test that decides if you actually wanna do this or if you just wanna DJ with your buddy.

You're gonna need to take about the next 6 months to research and do some book knowledge of music theory. Learn the piano, learn some songs and analyze different chord progressions in songs. But before you can do any of that you need the fundamentals of music theory. And honestly to someone thats teaching themselves and basing it off my own experience in how long it took.. You're looking at about 6 months to a year before your comfortable with sitting down and making melodies/chord progressions. And thats only to understand it..after that you have production practice, mixing theory, etc...

You're about to find out this is a very educational based path, and most of your time in the next year or so is going to be spent NOT making music So you and your buddy should hit the books if you wanna do this right in my opinion. Hands on progress is a lot smoother and ALOT more fun if you have a year of research behind you and are confident in what you're doing.

If you're ever staring at your DAW with no ideas, its not producers block, its from a lack of preparation.
 
So most youtube tutes are based on presenting either minimal amounts of information or way too much information

Getting a chord progression that works is not as easy at it might seem either as there are so many factors at play that can guide/dictate what you can/should/could do

A typical trap progression is something like Em7-Fmaj7 (iii7-IV7) or Em7-Cmaj7 (iii7-I7) in the key of C major

Other progressions are just as easy or complex depending on your viewpoint

Melodies on the other hand can be just about anything (imo) if you utilise the idea that they should or could use parts of the current chord in the progression.

the difference between great and so-so melodies is one of note choice, repetition and melodic direction -
- choosing notes that are not part of the chord adds tension,
- choosing notes that are part of the chord tends to provide a sense of release or stasis,
- moving from one to the other is what makes good melodies work

some simple ideas about frequency of notes

Notes UsedFrequency
same note45%
move up or down by step
(next note in the scale)
aka 2nds
25%
Move up of down by skip
(miss one note in the scale)
aka 3rds
25%
Move by up or down by larger skip
(miss more than one note in the scale)
aka 4ths, 5ths, 6ths and 8ves
5%

note that we rarely, if ever, use skips of the 7th. the same is true of skips larger than the octave (8ve)

some other posts/tutorials that have been written that may help you

they are sequenced to provide a gradual increase in your knowledge and skills

Beginning theory ~ Practical Melody writing tutorials

Melodic design

5 elements of a good melody

Harmonise a melody

Chord Progressions in the major - some tips and tricks

Scale/mode choice affecting mood

Keyboard fingering charts - a collection of different chords

How to play the scales on piano

How to play arpeggios on the piano

Book of non standard ornaments

14 tricks to improve your melodies

enjoy
 
Okey thanks for the tips man we are gonna pick up some books about Music Theory and try to get a better understanding about music theory. And yes don't get me wrong and think we used picked up a DAW downloading some samples and think we are the new Avicii. No we are really willing to put down a big effort to this and try to get the understanding off all this and we are really not afraid to work hard.

But back to our knowledge problem is that we actually "don't have no clue" what we are doing in a DAW (we use FL). Its more that we got so many ide's in our heads but can't really write it down on paper (what I mean get our ides from our heads into melodies and chords into patterns in FL) and especially on the chord, pads and melody part which sounds very bad compared to all our other effects like our kick, drums, claps, FX's and other effects.

Thats why I feel like we getting kinda stuck in our learning progress since we kinda struggling to find a good way how to learn ad why to make Chords and melodies. And thats why I reached out to u guys was because there should be someone here in kinda the same situation when they started and what you did then when you don't understand something. Did you just picked up the right tutorial and like "aha now I get it"?.

My answer might be a bit messy but I hope you kinda understand our situation and problematics about keep improving as producers.
 
1. Learn an instrument

2. Make sure your teacher actually teaches you basic theory with your instrument-not just how to play Smoke on the Water and the minor pentatonic scale

3. Learn to play and analyze a grip of songs

4. Ear train like a mf

That's how I did it. Youtube tutorials are a waste if you don't already have a foundation in place.
 
Good points here, but one thing needs to be said, and that's no matter how much music theory you read or how good you can play a bunch of instruments - you will still sound like a 3 year old if you don't have any talent in songwriting.
Think 6-12 months of time before you can write proper melodies is long? Becoming talentful can take several years, at least if you're new to the world of music production or writing your own songs.
Luckily I belong to the ones who have written songs and played with music software since they were kids - meaning my ability to create melodies and such has simply evolved as I've grown up.
Just saying you need to be patient and have a good state of mind if you want to evolve and become talentful.
 
Good points here, but one thing needs to be said, and that's no matter how much music theory you read or how good you can play a bunch of instruments - you will still sound like a 3 year old if you don't have any talent in songwriting.
Think 6-12 months of time before you can write proper melodies is long? Becoming talentful can take several years, at least if you're new to the world of music production or writing your own songs.
Luckily I belong to the ones who have written songs and played with music software since they were kids - meaning my ability to create melodies and such has simply evolved as I've grown up.
Just saying you need to be patient and have a good state of mind if you want to evolve and become talentful.


Why cant we like posts anymore! I feel so stupid saying thanks for this. I just like it. haha
 
admins decided that they liked thanks more than they did likes

from memory it was also a part of backdoor for spammers, so it had to go
 
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