Music Technology almost ruined my music
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- I think most of us can relate to creating a sequence or loop we really like, then proceeding to listen to it over and over with no idea where to go next. While this is often blamed on writer's block, I actually don't think that's to blame. Today I'll talk about some really old composition techniques that helped get me out of the 4-bar rut.
FREE Practical Guide to Composition eBook:
bit.ly/FREEcom...
FREE Synthesis Video Workshop:
bit.ly/synthwo...
My Sample Packs: store.fracture...
My Music:
Spotify: bit.ly/JNJSpotify
Apple Music: bit.ly/JNJAppl...
Bandcamp: bit.ly/JNJBandcamp
///////
Socials and Stuff:
/ jamesonnathanjones
/ jnathanjones
Video Equipment and Stuff:
Main Camera: amzn.to/3Y6KF2q
Other Camera: amzn.to/3I12Xwl
Wide Angle Lens: amzn.to/3HD3NOD
35mm Lens: amzn.to/3x0jL0n
SD Card: amzn.to/3JLurYu
Camera Tripod: amzn.to/3HDuYJh
Synth Table: amzn.to/40wZ8X0
Quick Release Camera Mounts: amzn.to/3X8g03u
Overhead Camera Arm: amzn.to/3Yu1Fj6
Overhead Tripod: amzn.to/3HDhyNo
Green Screen: amzn.to/3E7T4Ll
Ring Light: amzn.to/3JHhbUr
Organizer Shelf: amzn.to/3JLrWoY
RGB Floor Lamp: amzn.to/3l8cSY9
Desk Chair: amzn.to/3lfLd7v
Mic Stands: amzn.to/3Yqr4dt
Floor Edison Lamp: amzn.to/3YaxvBB
Thank you. I am a 73 years old amateur composer (I started when I was 64) and this video has helped me enormousley. Especially your notion of using improvisation as a mining expedition.
Many thanks and greetings from Finland.👍👍👍
going mining for treasures.
Love how you break it down to brass tacks and waste no time. Super inspiring, thanks for this !
A lot of good points, and extremely useful. Theory vs composition. Mine your improvs. Question and answer melodies. And your own compositions and playing - breathtaking. This is great.
this video is a masterpiece! Only listened to the audio my first time playing the video, and I could clearly receive the densely packed ideas delivered at the same pace that the backing music reflects the topic, like the words are being rendered into the music in real time. I'm hooked!
Really appreciate that! Thank you 🙏
4:46 is really beautiful. - luv it so much
Thank You. I'm way too much of a selfish control freak to use "industry loops" and "Pro Level Chords" and I do not like to share in Royalties.
An interesting video. Thanks for sharing the ideas.
I think having the self discipline to put restrictions on the space you work in is a big difference between composers and players. One self imposed limitation I grasped lately was, when focusing on melody, to limit myself to a piano sound even if I am certain it will eventually be a synth. For me, synth sounds and all of their wonderful textures often get in the way of writing a stronger melody.
That piano piece is stunning, love the lower octave jumps and the arpeggios! ❤
I appreciate your take on electronic music coming from a classical background. I realize there are a lot of non-musically trained electronic musicians out there that create beautiful music that I love, but I sometimes feel frustrated when there isn't any depth beyond the desire to want to make music and convey an emotion from those producers. I'm not trying to gatekeep, those factors alone are probably the most pure and non-elitist factors for someone to create art. That said, now with the insane volume of music tutorials on RUclips, music theory tools and plugins, I feel by and large the curiosity to create is more for the desire to replicate the sound of the most popular sub-genre at the moment to a detriment of composition, song structure, dynamics, etc.
There's way too much generic, predictable, "business techno/electronica" out there IMO-a few artists I like that blur/push boundaries are: Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Brian Eno, William Basinksi, Nils Frahm, Tim Hecker, Jon Hopkins, Max Cooper, James Blake, Aphex Twin (drukQs), Squarepusher, Autechre, Floating Points, Oneohtrix Point Never, Marina Herlop, Ólafur Arnalds and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. I grew up playing cello, then when I thought that wasn't cool for some reason I started playing guitar as a teenager. Much later I ended up realizing my mistake and a few years ago picked it up and started playing again. I also recently purchased a cheap used piano for $250 because I've always wanted one and I find it helps me to find ideas faster than clicking a mouse in a DAW or playing with hardware.
Like you said though, it's about personal preference, improvising, noodling, and refining ideas no matter what the technology you use.
Huge. Thank you.
From a very early age, I was repelled by dogma. That was not the same as having a mind that couldn't cope with musical notation and a musical ear.
I have assimilated all kinds of music, been in rock banda, worked with early midi devices, attempted to play along with music history and technoglogy and I agree wholeheartedly with your open minded approach to music making. Most notably,cthe terror of too many possibilities.
I found you channel through searching for help with Maschine Plus for which you made the most lucid of introductions, although I think it was, for my own purposes a little too condensed.
I would very much like to develop my often simplistic musical ideas with a connecting tissue for which I don't currently have a vocabulary and I am finding that some of the features of the Maschine family very helpful in overcoming the chasms in my knowledge and dexterity. Having the confidence to move out out the genre ghetto promoted by tech manufacturers is as hard now as it was in the 80s with big Pop and then the emergence of "House" for which I still harbour a vengeful loathing.
Just as in the real world, i cannot keep things in a tidy order, I have so many duplicated tools in chaotic order, far more than I can use or ever master and I had hoped that a standalone instrument would enable a kind of discipnline in the ordering of ideas which I lack. The available virtual space is almost limitless and the temptation to stuff it full of NI sound packs is fed by a continual barrage of advertising.
Being a dabbler all my life has been enormously pleasurable and I have had experiences which I could never have approached if I had persisted in smashing my head against the music business. I get by with the satisfaction oof making music without the need for an audience for it and although mostly lost, the catharsis of writing, lyrics in particular, has been of great comfort just when it was needed with the added bonus of feeling a kinship with the makers of the music I admire.
If you'd like to dig a little deeper and see some musical examples of the things I talk about in the video, I made a Free eBook you can download here: bit.ly/FREEcompositionguide
Great video. I find that I need to impose some limitations on what I do - it's easy to be 'blinded by possibilities' in electronic music. I had a friend who used software and he had something like 300 kick drums alone. "Which to choose?" - I thought. I find it easy to be overwhelmed. That's why I like to start with an idea and try to shape the sounds to suit that idea.
Thanks again for the great video.
Tune the piano.
Love the video James - will be watching a few times. I noticed that the channel seems to have a particular focus on synthesizers and piano insight - do you see yourself experimenting with other instruments in the future? Thanks again.
Why am I unable to read your terms of service or privacy policy before giving you my email? It seems perfectly reasonable and fair for me to give you my email for you to use for self promotion in return for the eBook but I don't want it passed on to third parties. Currently I can't make an informed decision.
The trap of most electronic musicians. The four bar loop.
wish I could hit like multiple times, loved this. Really reinforced my current trajectory, not musically trained! Great video.
I learnt the solfege with a yamaha PSR 340 with wich i had to use the sequencer with only the triolets and so on, no visual on my compositions and it was amazing. It litterally forced me to learn music. But i can't write it. But i KNOW it. Then the DAWS came out. ( Or do we say D.A.W.S ? ) and it completely ruined my music. those blocks, those structures forced me to adapt me to it, and not the opposite. My PSR 340 unfortunately didn't work with any DAW and i had to abandon it as its sounds began to be really old. I really hope one day Yamaha produce a new PSR 340 that allows you to compose music just with your mind and notes rather than clicking on slots. I am thinking of getting a komplete kontrol S series, the only keybord that is close to my old yamaha. RIP.
If ever you read my comment and know an hardware that works like how the psr 340's sequencer was working, but modern, don't let me down and tell it to me, because i could have become more famous than hanz zimmer if my old yamaha keyboard didn't let me down.
Everything music is fun. NEVER be limiting on your musical interests. I will try EVERYTHING, different instruments and technology. Dive in, swim in musical opportunities!
Writing a 16 bar chord progression was the best thing I ever did in my life.
You clearly have no life.
it's so satisfying because it gets easier :) keep going guys
i got scaler 2 for quick and nice chord progressions......listened to all 200+ chord presets and there is not one progession with 5+ different chords that i like
@@snubdawg1386 go to the channel Musician Paradise he has free chord progressions for a free chord app called Rip Chord amazing progressions in various genres. Also works for the MPC Live.
@@snubdawg1386 You know I'm gonna say do it yourself ;)
I have a bunch of techniques to escape loop hell:
- Improvise on top of the whole song and keep/improve parts that fit!
- Hum melodies on top of the whole song!
- Mix patterns with various lengths! Don't avoid odd lengths! They'll simply loop over a longer time.
- Stand up and move to the beat while working! This one probably makes the biggest difference.
Thank you. Just took a screenshot of this
Great tips, thank you! The one about humming over the top of a WIP is something I do constantly. Melodies that are lyrical and singable are not always the goal, but when they are, this is a really useful way to develop them.
Excellent excellent :) thanks
Absolutely yes! I sometimes take a break and do something else and then a random variation comes into my head & I quickly get that down sometimes even replacing my original idea
The humming sounds like a Keith Jarrett influence 🙂
As a musician who has spent the last 15 years or so languishing in the 4-8 bar loop hell, thank you for trying to save others from this creative purgatory.
Same. Almost exactly 15 years ago, I bought FL Studio (aka Fruityloops)and began slowly filling up folders with 4-8 bar "songs". Some I kinda liked and attempted to stretch into actual songs, but most were abandoned.
My theory was that it just got too easy to make loops. You spend 45 minutes kinda jammin out and it comes together so easily, that the next step of stretching it out feels more like work than fun. I think it also hurts that the very nature of a loop is that it resolves back into itself and doesn't always have a logical place to go.
Back in the day, when I was recording stuff on a 4 track, you had to do the hard work up front and have the overall outline of the song somewhat fleshed out. You could easily spend hours working on a song before ever recording anything.
@@applebutter4036 That's an interesting point. I wonder if there is an opportunity out there for a software developer to create a tool that makes the "stretching it out" portion of the composing more fun
@@maxrice6990 Could be and I love the idea. It doesn't even have to be fun. Maybe just a tool with a handful of parameters that can instantly lay out whatever patterns/samples you have into a basic song structure.
Don’t feel bad brother, you’re not alone, actually most of us are down here.
@@applebutter4036 All good points. It might also be that people who get lost in loops and seqs don't play an instrument. Pop music these days avoid middle eights/choruses/bridges, as we all know. I think because it's even hard to do for the pros let alone non-players.
I am a classically trained bassoonist, and a jazz saxophone player, along with guitar for fun and various other hobby instruments. Got my bachelor's degree in music 9 years ago and have found myself stuck in the 4-bar loop rut for years inside my DAW. Recently I've made it a point to map out, at least roughly, the different elements of a track before fully fleshing out the "drop" or the "chorus", etc. I have this horrible tendency to start with the main part of the song and then scrutinize every little minute detail of those 4-16 bars until I'm sick of hearing it and realize I don't have a song nor a vision for one anymore.
my advice for people who can't escape the loop would be: don't be scared of something that doesn't immediatly sound great. just sketch out all of your ideas and refine them when the time has come. you'll notice when that is
you are everywhere!! love your content, its cool to see you around
thank you :)
I've found this helpful to me. Music technology allows me musical vomit on the DAW and then clean up later. The action of creating and refining is different brain functions that work better individually.
YES YES A MILLION TIMES YES. This is life saving advice.
Yes, please more content about composition. Very interesting to understand how a classically trained pianist compose electronic music.
As an amateur music creator, who still has a lot to learn with my instrumental skills and production, this video has been incredibly helpful. It’s easy to get lost in production and forget about the direction I’m trying to go in, and this video really inspired me at a low point 🙏
Thank you! Glad it was helpful :)
Okay, rewatching this one already. It's fantastic. It fulfills a real gap in the synth community - addressing composition, not from a purely musical theory boring approach, but in the sense of taking an idea from an initial strong loop or segment and actually taking it that next step. No one is really talking about this, but it's what makes something like your track "Could" so great. It's not just a nice repeated jam where you open and close the filter on your synth. You actually composed something.
The biggest obstacle - this is work. Most of us have day jobs, use synths to relax. And yet if we really want to express ourselves, we have to do this work.
Do you find it to be effortful as well, or does the composition process also feel as playful as the initial idea? Do we just have to grind our way through it or is there a way to breathe excitement into it?
Can't wait to see where you go with this.
Thanks Michael!
It’s definitely work - just like any discipline that’s really worth doing, but it does become easier to generate stronger ideas the more you do it. The more practice you’ve put in, the more tools you have in your toolbox. There’s no ceiling on learning though, so when you get better I certain areas, new challenges reveal themselves.
My advice would be to not get frustrated that it’s difficult, but to enjoy the process as you get better at certain things. You can enjoy the cool things you come up with while also realizing there’s always room for growth.
@@JamesonNathanJones Great advice! Thank you.
I have a day job, too, and working on music is my time to relax and set my mind - or what is left of it! - free.
If it's work for you without fun, just find another hobby or be contempt with opening and closing filters on a synth, alternatively reevaluate what you consider fun and practice enjoying activities with delayed rewards.
@@terryriley6410 I was specifically talking about the composition aspect. Go back and reread my comment, and what I said about being willing to embrace that. It seems you misunderstood.
"It's that idea about giving someone a fish vs teaching them how to make their own fish idea" LOL. Amazing. Not only did you provide lots of fantastic musical inspiration and direction, but the dry jokes were on point. Thank you Jameson!
yes!! I completely agree!! tell that to whoever it was, a few weeks back, who couldn't resist taking a sincere dig at doctor jones's jokes as he complimented the over all content of his vids. ("you call him doctor jones, lady!!")
The computer is it’s own class of instrument. The best producers play the DAW instead of “playing in the DAW”
I see the problem. There's at least two generations of people that grew up on loop-based music. This type of music comes with an aesthetic that's almost hostile towards key changes, complex melodies, changes in tempo or time signatures. The way the majority of daws work reinforces the idea of working towards making 4-bar loops. It's hard to break away from that. I find myself working out ideas in my head or on a guitar (for instance) before even switching on the computer.
Sorry, but that "melody" was the least melodic thing I've ever heard 😕
Thanks for sharing this- and also showing your pianist side. Those little playing moments gave the video a really warm and honest feeling and - in a positive way - are a counterpoint to the "standard" RUclips music production style. It reminded me of how I sometimes listen to music from let's say the 70s or earlier and feel like "oh wow, those people actually used composition and songwriting" compared to the loopy/more sound based style of today. I think it would be awesome to hear more about you transforming from a classically trained musician to an electronic one, especially your observations on how to integrate your "old" experiences into the new territory. I feel like it's quite a challenge to find a good balance between being instrumentalist and producer, although in theory it feels like it should give you so many advantages. Your channel is really inspiring, thanks 💚
Hell yes, more please! The "theory of composition" rather than "theory and composition" (if that makes sense) is absolutely my jam, and you discuss it in a really great, accesible and entertaining way. I am excited for what you do next, whichever direction you go in :)
“Music composition in my masters… and I worked at men’s warehouse for awhile while waiting tables.” Lol
Oh yes please! More about composition is definitely needed. Very good video, and the analogies were illuminating.
I've been writing music professionally for almost 20 years and my number one tip is to use anything you just come up with. My (in my opinion) best music comes from singing random stuff when I do something completely unrelated like cleaning, making food, walking the dog etc. Just record it on your phone, even if it's stupid. And then visualize (if you can) in your head how the drums go, how the bass line works with the beat and add stuff from there. Don't rush it though, because often you keep getting stuck. Make sure you have at least a line for a chorus or a verse and usually everything just falls into place.
One of my songs landed on the Japanese billboard and it started out with the line (translated from Swedish to English) "your parents are brilliant at convincing you that they loved you while you were wearing bracers".
That is a good tip. I started doing this recently, and it helped a lot. I’d come up with a good idea (for me) in the car or somewhere random and just started recording myself humming it out it different ways, as if it was just any song stuck in my head.
It took me a while to realize that an idea I had might be fleeting and never come to me again. The practice of simply recording when inspired really kept a lot of creative doors open that previously were lost to forgetfulness.
Unfortunately, many of my potentially best ideas happen in places like the shower where I haven’t yet figured out how to record effectively before I towel off and lose it!
@@JayM928 Waterproof phone 😉
Did it make No 1 in the Japanese charts by any chance ? I can't stop humming it to myself now !
GREAT , GREAT STUFF !!!!! 😊😊 the FACT is using loops or Creating loops is NOT evil or wrong.....but what comes next !!! I thing......Composition and understanding SONG STRUCTURE is very important !!! This will inform a lot of decisions. How do you Intro and why....Outro and why....❤❤❤ I love this STUFF EXCELLENT !!! Oh and PLEASE REMEMBER TO HAVE SOME FUN !!!! don't burn out life and art is meant to be enjoyed by all.....😊
I learned how to make music on youtube via FL Studio tutorials starting 15 years ago. This is one of the first videos regarding music I have watched in many years that didn't feel introductory or shallow. You didn't insult the viewers intelligence and you recognize that different musicians approach things in different ways. You introduce a concept via narration and then immediately perform a demonstration to communicate with musicians who lack the composition vocabulary to engage with the spoken content. You didnt flex gear or name drop or grandstand. You'd think I would love music youtube considering my background but beyond a certain level of music experience finding engaging content becomes near impossible. Im glad I stumbled into this video!
Subbed! i rlly look forward to what you post next
I appreciate that! 🙏
top tier feedback we need more if you
This concept of "question and answer" structuring is also called "binary structuring" and "periods." It's the cornerstone of great songwriting and I learned a lot of valuable information from the book "How Music Really Works" by Wayne Chase
Trap and Hip Hop Producer here. Who is also a classical pianist from a young age. And this is exactly what I needed right now.
Incredible video. Just what I needed to hear! Thank you Jameson
Thanks Ricky! Means a lot!
It's really simple. Do not buy hardware or software unless you need that piece of hardware or software to accomplish a goal you have. This way the technology is serving your creativity, and not the other way around. Too often people buy new hardware believing if they just get more gear, they'll be able to make better music. This is mostly inaccurate. You'd be surprised to know how much stuff you have access to for free these days. The only real exception to this, are gear limitations. Sometimes you really do need to go out and buy a piece of hardware or software to accomplish a specific goal, and nothing else in your studio can do that. This is a pretty rare exception though. Most of the time people are just buying stuff with the expectation that buying new gear will "bring the creativity out of them". While there are certain pieces of gear that will definitely tap into your creative side, most of the time it doesn't. I've seen people buy 10 different software synthesizers that more or less all do the same thing.
Thanks youtube for this gem of a recommendation. And thank you for this gem of a video❤
i have stopped trying to write with a DAW altogether cause i kept getting locked into loops and coming up with weak music that i lost interest in. ive been having much better results by writing everything on guitar, recording a lose demo on tape, and then translating that tune onto the DAW.
basically, i separate production and songwriting, then i restrict myself pretty heavily in the writing process and de-restrict myself as much as possible in production.
i'll have to listen again when i'm asleep to truly form an opinion.....however, i really enjoyed your piece at 6 m.
4 bar loop is the worst. If you listen to oldschool hollywood filmmakers, it blows your mind how fluent yet nimble compositions can be. Barely anyone can compose like that these days.
Thanks for making this video. I definitely fall into that ‘trap’. I’ll make a catchy segment, then immediately want to add other instruments to create a nice ‘sound’. But then it makes it difficult to go back and progress that initial segment. What’s been working for me recently is recording myself humming. The progressions flow much easier for me than banging away on instruments.
Do you have the original vid for your original piano composition in 0:49? Need the sheet music
I envy people when they express their ideas this freely. Because it means they reached a deep understanding of their craft or knowledge. Its not like the shallow knowledge when you just skem over a subject that you found interesting. Its always great to watch content from people like you.
knowledge have many levels from its basic fluid form till it refined and crystallized form.
And in it crystallized form in my opinion knowledge become a form of art.
Thanks for the kind words! Verbalizing things in this way is an excellent teacher as well, and I’ve really been enjoying delving into these topics again lately. A lot of it I often need to remind myself.
Video felt like a conversation, not an essay. Contrary to comments I'm seeing, it doesn't seem like it gave me any information or tools to think about, it only brushed upon "develop a question/answer", which is totally doable with 4/4 loops anyway. And not worth 13 minutes.
If the main message is "give yourself limitations", why is the thumbnail about escaping the limitation of 4 bars?
Not a viewer, so this is blind feedback, honest and hopefully not rude.
I used to find my creativity flowed better pre-DAW, e.g. when playing natural tempo changes and pauses...now I have to mess about with flex time and play to a click bla bla, it's taken some of those organic changes out.
I think technology does the opposite for quality at times. Digital will never be a replacement for analogue in terms of quality. For example, say you have a classic car from the 60s vs a Tesla... Or a Rolex watch vs just looking at your phone. One is timeless, the other is thin, and soulless.
that piano example was amazing
So......you're saying I need to get a pair of shorts......?
Subliminal message accomplished 🩳
I have made over 60 songs in chiptune style. I have found the limitation of using less tracks, and being stuck to certain sounds... quite freeing to me.
Love this. This is the first video I've found of yours. I share a similar path -- classical (and jazz) musician who later found an interest in modern music technology. Thanks for the helpful tips!
Also, just a fun thing -- I found your piano composition around 4:45 a little "Bartok-like" in its melodic simplicity, structure, and harmony -- which I mean as a big compliment! Loved it!
I got stuck in the 4 bar loop for years and still do at times, but I've found that improving my understanding of music theory and working from the perspective of arrangement has helped break out of that habit. I will basically take a synthesizer vst (or a piano vst) and create a song in MIDI before doing anything else. So if I don't have a song that has a beginning, middle, and end then it's either keep trying to scrap it and start again. The hardest part is creating a melody and harmony that either leads into a chorus (or drop) or creating a melody and harmony that takes you out of the chorus (or drop). So now I try to think in a linear fashion from start to finish focusing on melody and harmony instead of thinking in terms of depth and creating a 4 bar loop with tons of layers and a repetitive melody or chord progression. The problem with the world of electronic music is people tend to learn about EQ and Compression before they learn about actual music - rhythm, harmony, melody, counter-melody etc. I made that mistake and now I'm really good at mixing but suck at creating actual interesting music.
what exactly do you mean by working from the perspective of arrangement ?? Any resources u have I could use to learn about what you're saying ??
@@KaylinB what I mean by working by arrangement is you focus purely on music composition from start to finish. Forget layering, mixing, sound design etc. Just focus on building melody and harmony for one section, then focus on doing the same for the following section. Essentially you're figuring out where you song is going by learning how to blend each second so that the melody changes or you add or remove certain melody or harmonic elements. You're basically writing a song from start to finish rather than just focusing on the chorus or drop and then trying to figure out how to build up to it or where it's going next. You can literally just use a piano vst for this, and then just apply the sounds you want to each melody or second.
Reason has this blocks feature that helped me move beyond the 4 bar loop
I try not to go to the DAW before I have a concept for a song. Otherwise, I'll just be cobbling together little riffs and it goes nowhere.
I like loops and repetition, you can make subtle changes. Simplicity and repetition are not bad things per se
That's how u get a groove goin...something people can sink their teeth into
popular bad, simple bad, only use I(#5)/6# 7(add b11) chords instead of major. Me music good, what people enjoy bad
@@maxwilson3531 ??
@@abrahamromanmolinos9274 yeah what
Me again - your new sub. Love the dry humour in your videos.
And yes more on composition philosophy. I think that's what's missing in a lot of electronic music. I watch videos of folks who mastered their DAW, know intricate details of sound design etc, but when checking out their music, it doesn't connect. That's where the tried and tested musical theories come in, as you said. Storytelling with music.
what a great video and awesome music. I hit the bell for sure, thanks for sharing, cheers from France !
Such a good channel. You have a breadth of knowledge. Please don't sacrifice that quality for views! Only reason I say that is because other RUclipsrs have done that! Protect this man at all costs!
And there's me : Making random stuff, experimenting where I want to, saving useless projects... But I still manage to find new things. Takes time but I'll make my way out the cosmos
Thank you for this. I appreciate you.
Thanks, Excellent video.
I'd love to learn how to make fish? Love the video.
I should say, after 15 years on youtube, never got subscribed so fast to a channel
likewise
Haha thanks so much, and welcome :)
It's actually a completely different perspective to those composers who learned to compose music THROUGH midi/sequencers rather than the classical approach of writing to sheet. But I'm at a point where I feel as if I begin learning to write in sheet rather than in midi, alot more new ideas will flow for me, for example writing in musescore rather than a traditional DAW
100%… thanks i’m not alone in this; finally i’ve realized that sequencing inside hardware boxes often limits a development of longer sequences, variations, as chaining these patterns and sequencing over them (on hardware) is endlessly tedious hence it forces a musician into the “loop trap”.
Entertaining and intelligent content. Subbed!
great video. that piano is beautiful
Totally agree. Too many options tear your music apart. It stops to be musical, it starts to be more technical and leads you to nowhere. Eventually I return to a pencil, a paper and piano sound.
If I don't see JNJ playing piano in all future videos, then I'm un-subing.
😬
A crutch when used correctly at the appropriate time of need is actually a pretty useful tool. Jokes aside another stellar vid with lots of thoughtful info.
The problem is when someone with otherwise healthy legs uses a crutch so much that their legs atrophy
Very nice Debussyesque licks there ! 👍
I've been producing and composing for 13 years now. I started at 17 and now I'm almosr 31. It's been my full-time job for 7 years. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve on how to complete ideas before getting tired of my ideas. I use a lot of filters and transpose the scales while mixing and then before the final day of mixing I go clean and mix every individual instrument until it's "good". I still might be very used to the song but I'm so excited about sharing it I've gotten used to pushing through. Completing projects is also a skill just like writing songs to begin with. I also started with composing mostly melancholic piano pieces before heading into the world of electronic chillout and melodic bass music in 2012 :)
This is a terrific video.
Thanks!
u should make samples for hip hop producers
Back in the 90s when I only had 4 channels in Protracker I used to bang out tunes in 6 hours, simply because there was only so much you could "tweak" - as trackers evolved into multichannel trackers like FastTracker2 - so did the number of channels, sample bitdepth,frequency, panning, after touch, up to 32 channels tunes started to take longer. I was still completing tracks but the more I learnt about mastering FT2 the longer it would take until I was making more 64 bar loops than finished tunes. If I stay away from writing music for a decent amount of time (I'm talking 2-5 years) when I come back to a tracker I can bash out a tune, but only one as I start before I start to remember all the tricks. There are so many knobs and variables to twiddle.
And... - In the 30 years since trackering, I came to own a piano which I find more creative because its just you and the piano and can sit and jam for hours.
Thanks for this! The point on limiting yourself to focus your creativity is something I hadn’t considered. If I may offer criticism, I dislike the camera switching to the side of your head while you’re speaking. I think it’s very awkward. If you feel your face is lingering for too long (which isn’t really a problem), switch to a topic-related video or image instead. I think this would be much more interesting to look at.
Funnily enough, I decided not to use that angle, and only after it was uploaded did I catch that I had left one in. Lol I would fire my editor, but he is already working for free…
For a practical example, I usually refer to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. When I ask people to listen to it, I don't mean just the first movement, or first couple of minutes of it, but the entire thing start to finish. It all revolves around that very simple idea that gets it going and almost everyone knows. To me, it is the perfect representation of self-limitation that erupts into absolute genius.
(Genius not guaranteed; offer void in CA, MA, and certain suburbs of Ft Wayne, IN.)
He was a master at developing themes, no doubt!
I have found my composition style to be going further and further into the realm of "through composed" as I get older. While I still use loops, instead of going the verse chorus verse route, the sections tend to either not repeat at all or after several parts it ends where it began. This style does not garner a large audience but the challenge is personally satisfying.
The amount of electronic music made by non musicians...I could hear it gaining traction around after 2000ish when VST's and plugs like Rebirth and Reason allowed easy and cheap (or free/pirated) access to thousands of dollars worth of sounds, modulators, effects, sequencers etc that were previously unnatainable to the bedroom producer.
Thank you for both this video and the little composition guide. They were just what I needed. Since retiring I decided that I now had time to devote to music and my little home studio, as opposed when I spent time on software specifications and hanging around in planes between meetings. So far so good. I love music, and I also love technology. That's why I became a techie in the first place. So I have fallen down several music technology rabbit holes since then. While technology is fun it's pointless if it's not used for making music. I love my soft synths, not to mention my software pianos. I just love the piano sound and feel. Combined with a full 88 key, weighted, keyboard it kind of feels like the real thing. I have done some online courses in piano, and read plenty of music theory. Some of it is slowly starting to settle in my brain. I have done plenty of improvising, but never been able to remember the good stuff long enough to reproduce it. Plus I have kept up ending exactly in the place you describe. With a nice loop, and no idea of where to go from there. Thanks to you I have slowly been able to make some progress. I have tried to use the piano roll in Ableton Live, but I have never been able to become friends with it in a way that I could use it to jot down my ideas and work on them. I have also never been schooled in music notation, haven't learned how to read notes. But the music theory literature and music lessons seem to have finally given me a place to start. Inspired by you I figured I should give it a try, using Muse Score. A pretty simple, free, notation program, that's more than enough for me at my current level. It also has playback of your notes. I have found that using that I am actually able to take notes of my ideas and save them for later, and work on them. It's a whole new world. I don't think it would have happened without your help. I have watched a lot of other videos. While a lot of them have been very good and instructive none of them have talked about this stuff in a way that I could actually comprehend and use. Thank you.
Best thing I ever did for my music, was getting over my laziness and actually developing my music, even small changes can make a big difference, it turns it into an actual song instead if just a loop repeating over and over. My music now is so much freaking better than it used to be because I actually have progression in it and different parts that are musically distinct but also related. It took a long time to get here though, probably hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of practice.
how do u learn how to make a progression throughout
As a person who loves creating music, this is probably one of the more helpful videos I’ve seen about this subject
Nice video. Well explained and great playing.
Thank you 🙏
I hate the 4 bar loop, it makes a good idea into shit lol
More stuff on composition would be great. Really like the fact that you’re classically trained but make modern music.
Loops ruined music.
I would say this relates also to the "N-times clip copy&paste abyss" that gives me (us?) the wrong feeling of "oh, listen, I have put down a cool piece in 4 hours".
Some questions: where can I find your 2 compositions (at 4.47 and at 9.47)? And is the first piano piece by Chopin or anyway which is that?
The last piece is the title track from my album, "Somewhat the Same." The other piano pieces are from a set of pieces I wrote a while back but haven't released yet. Hopefully coming soon!
@@JamesonNathanJones looking forward!
as someone who drafted with paper and pencil up through grad school and since then has made more music via a DAW than otherwise, I completely relate to looking back and feeling that my composition chops were stronger back then. lately, I've been trying to balance the strengths of both approaches. this really resonated with me!
This is a WONDERFUL video...! No nonsense, to the point, and useful suggestions. Bravo, sir! 🙂
I've played guitar for 35 years. Improvisation came natural to me on it, and I have extended that to playing piano and synths. I know I then need to take an idea that came out of my improv and form that into a composition. That is the tough part. I can do it, but man it is not something I get excited about doing. But the end results of a full song are awesome and I am happy I spent the time composing. Thanks for your insights into the process.
First time seeing your channel. I really enjoyed the video and am subscribing. I find a lot of great dance music utilizes the question and answer, but in the shorter phrases of call and response. They can be something as short as a two bar loop. I have been trying to make two separate sequences that I can switch back and forth between in real time for my improv jams so I can kind of get the best of both worlds. Someday I will have the patience to really flesh out ideas in the way you outline in this video. I will have to revisit this video then.
Amazing stuff! I would love to see more composition videos, thank you so much. I've started not so long ago to make music. I feel a consistent improvement since I've started (and received some positive feedback from people much more skilled than I am) regarding sound design and mixing, even though I still struggle a lot with composition. I've never played an instrument and during last year I spent a lot of time digging into music theory: while I understand the concepts I read about and then try out, I still struggle to get ideas on developing an interesting musical composition. Whether I take it to a point where I destroy it or I get lucky pretty soon while randomly applying music theory concepts or with basic sequencing :( thank you again!
Interesting and down to earth.
It's easy to get lost among all the new sounds.
It is a liberation when you finally sit down and take hold of your chord progression and take it further on a journey that you rarely know how it will end. There is a lot hidden in a single chord. Four chords can be a treasure chest.
Having formally studied music years ago (then later going back to school to study engineering), I’ve been one that has leaned into the analytical side of it all. When it comes to composition, it’s really been a true “paralysis by analysis” for me. Even when I do go “mining” and find something worth developing, I find myself getting stuck worrying about “why” it works instead of letting go and allowing myself to develop the story. Anyway, the RUclips algorithm just landed me here and it looks like you’ll be talking more about composition - looking forward to more of it!
Oh, and my primary instrument is guitar - for whatever reason, theory “clicked” for me on that fretboard. And as such, I do love minimalist voicings - my instrument of choice kinda’ forces that constraint on me. Ignoring the root, it’s often just two notes defining the voicing for me (often the third and seventh - maybe one more if want to throw away any ambiguity and make it clear it’s diminished or augmented).
Man what a great balance between talent, editing, and content. Great ideas, thanks for this
yeah more composition videos please ! Even if I do love synth xD
I still love synths too, so I guess I have to do both now 😅
I play the theremin, NO FOUR BAR LOOP EVER. I'm an ARTISTE!!!
No, don't play the swan, too conventional.
What is the name of the syndrome of excess technology? Technophobia?
Yes, that is a problem when we accumulate many plugins.
I deleted them all, I kept the ones from my DAW and the access virus, which is what I use the most, and the audio plugins I only use from Logic Pro.
Thank you so so much. I’m completely new to music, in my 40s with next to no theory and you’re completely unlocking my music creating potential. It will probably never be of any significance to anyone else, but I will benefit from the enjoyment this creativity brings. Thanks again, and please keep your excellent advice coming. Great presentation and I enjoy your style and sense of humour very much. 😊
Great stuff here!