Author Topic: Song structure & arrangement  (Read 47645 times)

Kenny Troy

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 138
  • Honor: 20
    • KennyTroy
    • TheKennyTroy
    • View Profile
    • Kenny Troy
Re: Song structure & arrangement
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2016, 10:52:13 pm »
Arrangement can be tricky, I myself certainly struggle with it.

On a similar thread I created I was discussing a quote from D.O.D which said all the promos he receives sound very "generic" - and by that I thought the typical big room house song arrangement. Very predictable, follows a similar structure and you can often see it in the waveform and instrument progression.

1-8 > intro
8-16 > intro + percussion + snare roll,
16- 24 > Impact fx, pluck/filter lead melody, raise filter
24-32 full lead, drums, supersaw/chords
32-40 melody + pre-drop build up
40-56 drop

I think that is a very typical song arrangement. An example -> Hardwell and W&W's "The Dance Floor is Yours"



My biggest issue when making electro/big room house is that I DO NOT want this generic arrangement that is so typical of this genre.

I try to create new arrangements, and yes, it is fucking difficult. The reason being is because the "big room arrangement" works well

> I will provide some tips and tricks I try to use in a little while, but similar to you I really struggle with my song's arrangement.

Take a look at Showtek's 'Slow Down', I think that did an excellent job of staying away from the typical arrangement and proves that many different arrangements are possible.

Focus on what you want to create rather than what others what to hear.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2016, 06:13:39 pm by Kenny Troy »

deathy

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 53
  • Honor: 7
    • deathy-1
    • View Profile
    • deathy's FB page
Re: Song structure & arrangement
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2016, 01:31:34 am »
As you work on improving your composing skills (and I am deliberately using that term), start seriously trying to work Verse and Chorus structure into your songs, even if you don't have lyrics.  A pattern or two (8 bars for the most part, but your genre might vary) of "verse," where you do your wild stuff, and then a return to a pattern or two that is repetition helps to really cement the song in the mind of your listener.


I've written my own DJ software, part of what it does is mark the tracks up for intro, verse, chorus, bridge/drop, "tags" (i.e. just musical bits that are neither verse nor chorus), etc., etc., etc.  In the styles I work in, it's the tracks that have verses and choruses that the crowd really reacts best to.  Tracks that don't have such a structure tend to be just one long build... they do OK, don't get me wrong, but they don't have the same memorability.


That's not necessarily important for all genres, trance is all about the build (though even trance can benefit from this)... but it is certainly something to experiment with.


Variety, then Reptition, then Variety, then Reptition... lather, rinse, repeat... throw a few bridges in there, an intro and an ending, and you got a song that will burrow into people's ears and lay eggs for later.
If the truth can be... told...
so as to be... underSTOOOD...
it will be... belIEVed.

- Terrence McKenna

producer_chick

  • Guest
Re: Song structure & arrangement
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2016, 02:24:30 am »
With all the great replies already there isn't much else to say, except for how I found the easiest way for me to structure my tracks.

I always start off writing the section that follows the intro. This will give me an idea about what my main theme will be. From that point on, I can progress adding new elements all the way to the break, as well as stripping it down in order to write the intro/outro. After that, I write the break, then the main melody which I will also introduce earlier on in the track, and the main part.