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what inspires or motivates you in creating a song?


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im new to logic pro and being a composer as well..im young and im barely getting a set up going and everything...at the moment i have a midi keyboard a mac laptop and logic pro 9

 

my big question can be asked after my story...im always getting the chance to get on the keyboard after i come home from a long day and im just dead..i get inspired so much to create music and everything when i listen to songs and all..but when im sitting behind my computer and keyboard im just dead?

 

so my question is, when you guys are starting from scratch..whats the first thing you guys do?

 

the more detail the better!!

 

thanks guys and i look forward to hearing !

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Do you play an instrument? I find that when I'm not inspired it's much easier to get inspired by picking up a guitar, a bass, or seating behind the piano (even though I'm not much of a piano player) vs seating behind the computer. Maybe load a cool sound and start just playing for a while.

 

When all else fails and I can't seem to be creative at all, I use my time differently: start learning about that new synth, or start creating some patches, doing some sound design, etc... sometimes it sparks my creativity, sometimes not, but either way I have a bunch of new sounds ready for next time I feel creative.

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Do you play an instrument? I find that when I'm not inspired it's much easier to get inspired by picking up a guitar, a bass, or seating behind the piano (even though I'm not much of a piano player) vs seating behind the computer. Maybe load a cool sound and start just playing for a while.

 

When all else fails and I can't seem to be creative at all, I use my time differently: start learning about that new synth, or start creating some patches, doing some sound design, etc... sometimes it sparks my creativity, sometimes not, but either way I have a bunch of new sounds ready for next time I feel creative.

 

 

niceee thats smart and plan on doing that. i get inspired by listening to music and getting a little pathway..but when i want to create a song (havent even been able to make my first one or even start it) im just dead and dont even know where to begin! its frustrating but im really into music and cant give up haha., i play the keyboard. but im fairly new to the keyboard itself and Logic Pro, any advice or tips for someone like me who is really new to this and wanting to compose? thanks ! :D

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I try and rest before. Just relax, eat something, Breath. Then I just try and visualize an idea first, then go to my setup.

Other times I read the paper, magazine, LPH or anything of interest. It's amazing how many times I've read something

Here and get inspired.

 

what instruments do you use?

and whats your first approach when you have the idea in your head..whats your first initial step?

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This is going to sound like self-advertising, but I would suggest you start by reading my book (link in my signature) to get your basic chops on music production. Then, you're saying you get inspired by listening to music - that's great, I do too. An easy way to get started is to try to replicate something you like, or to try to do something similar. Before you know it you'll be wanting to do it slightly different, or change a note here or there, or change the tempo and use different drums, etc... and it will soon become your own composition.
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This is going to sound like self-advertising, but I would suggest you start by reading my book (link in my signature) to get your basic chops on music production. Then, you're saying you get inspired by listening to music - that's great, I do too. An easy way to get started is to try to replicate something you like, or to try to do something similar. Before you know it you'll be wanting to do it slightly different, or change a note here or there, or change the tempo and use different drums, etc... and it will soon become your own composition.

 

I'll look into it and do my best, Thanks!

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Do you play an instrument? I find that when I'm not inspired it's much easier to get inspired by picking up a guitar, a bass, or seating behind the piano (even though I'm not much of a piano player) vs seating behind the computer. Maybe load a cool sound and start just playing for a while.

 

Big +1

 

Noodle around and just have fun jamming on whatever instrument for the heck of it, and to improve your chops. A little idea which you can build upon will soon emerge.

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I play drums, guitar, bass, keys and sing. But I just try to here the song in my head first. I'll sometimes just sing and record it in one pass

a la beatbox kind of. This is really cool, fast and easy. No real work phisycaly, nor the technical limitations of

Instrument proficiansy. Just pure improv. Then I'll try to dissect it and figure out what the f*%@ just happened. Crap will come out,

But its a good mental exercise. To me, visualization is very important. The brain is responsible for most of our actions,

So by visualizing you start the creative prosess where it counts.

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im new to logic pro and being a composer as well..im young and im barely getting a set up going and everything...at the moment i have a midi keyboard a mac laptop and logic pro 9

 

my big question can be asked after my story...im always getting the chance to get on the keyboard after i come home from a long day and im just dead..i get inspired so much to create music and everything when i listen to songs and all..but when im sitting behind my computer and keyboard im just dead?

 

so my question is, when you guys are starting from scratch..whats the first thing you guys do?

 

the more detail the better!!

 

thanks guys and i look forward to hearing !

 

I too am interested in this question, except ...

 

You see, I recently purchased a new toaster and I have no clue what to make. I page thru food magazines and see all the wonderful dishes prepared by world famous chefs. After a hard day of songwriting and mixing, I get hungry, go down to the kitchen, pull out the new toaster, and stare at it hoping to be inspired to cook up a nice meal. After a while, I give up and settle for a bowl of cereal.

 

I thought about enrolling in a cooking class so that I can do wonderful things with my new toaster, but I wonder if it will be worth my time and effort. I mean, after all, I have a new toaster and no cooking skills ... isn't that all I need to work with? I have watched all the latest you tube videos about cooking and I have the latest subscription to cooking digest. I just feel like I made a mistake by purchasing the toaster. :cry:

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I too am interested in this question, except ...

 

You see, I recently purchased a new toaster and I have no clue what to make. I page thru food magazines and see all the wonderful dishes prepared by world famous chefs. After a hard day of songwriting and mixing, I get hungry and go down to the kitchen and pull out the new toaster and stare at it hoping to be inspired to cook up a nice meal. After a while, I give up and settle for a bowl of cereal.

 

I thought about enrolling in a cooking class so that I can do wonderful things with my new toaster, but I wonder if it will be worth my time and effort. I mean, after all, I have a new toaster and no cooking skills ... isn't that all I need to work with? I have watched all the latest you tube videos about cooking and I have the latest subscription to cooking digest. I just feel like I made a mistake by purchasing the toaster. :cry:

 

That's why you just need to put anything in the toaster; cheese slices, raspberry jam, fish paste, Golden Grahams, your shoes, your cat... And one day something will pop out of that sucker that tastes fantastic, and you can outsell Jamie Oliver in the Christmas hardback cookery book charts, then you'll have a mansion in Beverly Hills and a solid gold Hummer, and Snoop and Dr. Dre will come round with the kids for Thanksgiving every year...

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I too am interested in this question, except ...

 

You see, I recently purchased a new toaster and I have no clue what to make. I page thru food magazines and see all the wonderful dishes prepared by world famous chefs. After a hard day of songwriting and mixing, I get hungry and go down to the kitchen and pull out the new toaster and stare at it hoping to be inspired to cook up a nice meal. After a while, I give up and settle for a bowl of cereal.

 

I thought about enrolling in a cooking class so that I can do wonderful things with my new toaster, but I wonder if it will be worth my time and effort. I mean, after all, I have a new toaster and no cooking skills ... isn't that all I need to work with? I have watched all the latest you tube videos about cooking and I have the latest subscription to cooking digest. I just feel like I made a mistake by purchasing the toaster. :cry:

 

That's why you just need to put anything in the toaster; cheese slices, raspberry jam, fish paste, Golden Grahams, your shoes, your cat... And one day something will pop out of that sucker that tastes fantastic, and you can outsell Jamie Oliver in the Christmas hardback cookery book charts, then you'll have a mansion in Beverly Hills and a solid gold Hummer, and Snoop and Dr. Dre will come round with the kids for Thanksgiving every year...

 

 

 

http://gratis.startpagina.nl/prikbord/addon.php?830,module=embed_images,url=http%3A%2F%2Fi297.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fmm211%2FGiftofWolves%2Fwildcats%2Froflmao.gif

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sometimes I just go through factory sounds in the es2 or ultrabeat..trying to make my own kits or patches , then I will hear something that catches my ear and I’ll make a little bassline or a little 4 on the floor drum beat..then all of a sudden the ball starts rolling.....or I will eat some of my delicious cat that can fresh from the toaster
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What started me off composing was being involved in composing a song. One of my friends wanted a pianist for his composition, and we jammed with a drummer and spent a month figuring the song out: jamming, playing, fighting, arguing, creating, listening to music, and eating marshmallows. We even switched instruments, called others and experimented with amplifiers and whatnot. (We plugged a bass into a guitar distortion, and then the keyboard. :D )

 

And then when it was over, I had the urge to compose and now I'm hooked.

 

Basically jamming and composing in a band starts you off easily, because you're in that creative atmosphere and you get into the mood. Then you spend time with a real instrument at home, noodling around and improvising on scales/chords, and you're sure to come up with something.

 

sometimes I just go through factory sounds in the es2 or ultrabeat..trying to make my own kits or patches , then I will hear something that catches my ear and I’ll make a little bassline or a little 4 on the floor drum beat..then all of a sudden the ball starts rolling.....or I will eat some of my delicious cat that can fresh from the toaster

 

I spend hours doing that. Also whenever I get a new plugin.

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I too am interested in this question, except ...

 

You see, I recently purchased a new toaster and I have no clue what to make. I page thru food magazines and see all the wonderful dishes prepared by world famous chefs. After a hard day of songwriting and mixing, I get hungry, go down to the kitchen, pull out the new toaster, and stare at it hoping to be inspired to cook up a nice meal. After a while, I give up and settle for a bowl of cereal.

 

I thought about enrolling in a cooking class so that I can do wonderful things with my new toaster, but I wonder if it will be worth my time and effort. I mean, after all, I have a new toaster and no cooking skills ... isn't that all I need to work with? I have watched all the latest you tube videos about cooking and I have the latest subscription to cooking digest. I just feel like I made a mistake by purchasing the toaster. :cry:

 

 

 

I Love the Analogy you made there. THANKS !! :D

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Emulate pop music. Why? Because it follows easy to write standards and is often quite repetitive. Dance pop like GaGa or Ke$ha, or terrible 'rock' music like Nickelback or Daughtry should be fairly easy to emulate.

 

One way to start would be to choose a note on the piano roll for a multi-timbral instrument like a Logic piano or EP (perhaps just scroll through and pick a note that 'feels right' on the piano roll), then go ahead a measure and try to find another note that 'feels right'. Do this until you have four measures, each with one note in them. Listen to the whole thing, and see if it 'feels right'. Then, start adding in the fifths for each note (seven semitones/notes up). Once you've done this, add in the thirds- either major or minor. Minor will usually be sad, major happy. For a major, add in a note four semitones up from your first note; three for your minors. Listen to the four measure loop again, and see if it still 'feels right'. If not, adjust the third from major or minor in the spots where it 'feels wrong', and re-listen.

 

If you learn about keys, this task will be far easier, as besides for your initial note you won't just need things to 'feel right'- the key will do it naturally for you.

 

Once you've got your four chords down, create a simple rhythm. Try using one of the default ultrabeat kits, using the built-in sequencer. Put a kick on every 1/4 note. Then, put a clap or snare sound on beats 2 and 4- every other quarter note. You'll get a rhythm being kick-clap-kick-clap. Perhaps add in a closed hi-hat sound on every kick, and an open one in between every kick. You'll get an untz-chh-untz-chh sound typical of dance and it's mother disco, but also used commonly in todays pop tunes. Perhaps add in some fun things like a cymbal crash at the start of a measure, or bongo drums, or anything else that adds to the rhythm.

 

Next, time to experiment! Add in a bass sound playing the root notes of the chords you made earlier, using a fun rhythm. Straight eighth notes (half the time it takes for your next kick to come in) can be fast and fun. Perhaps vary between eights and quarters, and even use silence to your advantage. In the future, once you've mastered cheesy pop composition, you may want to humanize this, or learn about triplet rhythms to use. Sometimes you'll even but the bass at weird times, like on the eighth after the kick drum- this is common in genres like Trance to keep the drum and bass mixable together. (Mixing is getting the dynamic you want out of a mix- think soft/loud- while not clipping [causing distortion from having too much volume]. However, you do not need to focus on this much at all at this stage)

 

Perhaps, on top of what you already have, add in what's called an arpeggio- an instrument playing the notes of your chords (your root, third and fifth) sequentially instead of at the same time. Make sure it's not in the same octave as your bass notes, or too close to your chorded instrument. If you like the arpeggio, you may be able to remove the original chord instrument entirely, as the arpeggio will keep your chord structure moving.

 

Alternatively, you could change your chord instrument to something known as a pad- a soft, in the background sound whose purpose is to fill the space of the music, hold the chord structure, and add texture to the music. A string section works well for this using organic instruments, but often times a synthesized sound fills it in well too. Logic has presets for both.

 

Using Logic's region loop feature (by clicking in the top right of the box where your notes are stored), loop out what you have so far, so that everything lasts 16 measures total. Experiment by adding more loops of other instruments- perhaps a piano playing the chords rhythmically instead of on every measure, a synthy blip sound on your eighth notes following a chord note- experiment! Perhaps instead of looping your drums, add in small variances to every measure, like having a clap/snare hitting two times at the end of one, or changing up the rhythm of bongos and hats subtly.

 

Now, here's the important part- coming up with a catchy melody! In non-instrumental music, a melody is usually the role that a vocalist fills, but you could always have a guitar or synth lead fill the role if you want. I find the best way to come up with a melody is to listen to your 16-measure loop, and hum along. If you hum something good, try and figure it out with your MIDI keyboard or the piano roll. If you intend to sing it, you could always just sing it in now without a need to figure out the notes. Finally, a tool like Melodyne can be helpful in that you can sing or hum in your melody, then have it tell you what notes you did. If you don't hum or sing on-pitch, or use a lot of portamento/glissando (slurs between note pitches), notes can be off though- in cases like this, it's very helpful to know your keys in relation to the root note of the song to fix it!

 

Finally, arrangement. Duplicate the loops you've made, putting 16 to 32 measures of space in between. Now, fill in the space, and vary something up- make it less powerful, as these will be the verses of your song. Perhaps change the drum rhythm a bit, create a different melody, and have some other instruments disappear or play something different. The initial 16 measure loop you made will now be your chorus. Make your verses the same as each other and choruses the same as each other- then, once you like them, you can make slight changes in each individual verse or chorus to make the song less repetitive and (often at the end) more powerful. Once you've got a nice verse-chorus structure, slide everything over to make an introduction, and figure out a way to end your song.

 

You now have your basic pop song! Following a method like this can really help set a basis for producing songs later down the line. It's in an Intro-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Ending type structure, which you'll usually only find in pop music- but composing this way early on can help set a foundation for more complex composition later. This is just scratching the surface of composition, and won't produce anything of commercial importance (save a RedOne song), but it'll definitely help get you started.

 

There's still a lot to learn- voicing notes, arranging a song to be mixable, making it interesting throughout with variations, special parts of arrangement like refrains or breakdowns, perhaps synthesis if you intend to make electronic music, chord arrangements by theory rather than ear, and a lot else. But, knowing the basics and the rules is a fantastic way to get started- and knowing the rules definitely helps when you want to break them later.

 

Cheers!

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im new to logic pro and being a composer as well..im young and im barely getting a set up going and everything...at the moment i have a midi keyboard a mac laptop and logic pro 9

 

my big question can be asked after my story...im always getting the chance to get on the keyboard after i come home from a long day and im just dead..i get inspired so much to create music and everything when i listen to songs and all..but when im sitting behind my computer and keyboard im just dead?

 

so my question is, when you guys are starting from scratch..whats the first thing you guys do?

 

the more detail the better!!

 

thanks guys and i look forward to hearing !

 

 

Maybe you telling yourself to write a song there and then and it doesn't happen. Sound design is pretty much always the first thing I do, I find sparks off creativity, sit down, don't "write a song" just make a noise and sometimes wonderful things happen other times you will just write one from beginning to end in an afternoon without thought. Its just the way it goes.

 

I have also noticed a few things that stop me being creative and that is being tired or my wife constantly interrupting me (that really annoys me!!), actually if you have a wife or girlfriend never ever play them your music, it will put you on a downer, even if they say they like it you will see straight through her !!

 

Also getting caught up with technical stuff (don't decide to set up studio gear or logic templates etc the same session as writing) and also stuff on my mind, I find its better to just read about production during these times.

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  • 1 month later...

im new to logic pro and being a composer as well..im young

 

so my question is, when you guys are starting from scratch..whats the first thing you guys do?...

When I was young and new to composing ... what I did ... ahem... well.... I just started blabbing. Lots of blabbing. Then some more. I got lots of these.. :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

My friends helped me take the uh...er... substance of it and shape into something. They also encouraged me to not over judge myself and just do it.

 

The first thing I do now is relax and get set to enjoy the ride.

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As far as I can remember, I started writing a song way back high school, though I did not let my classmates nor anyone hear my songs- cause they were typically brought about by 'desparation'.. Whenever I feel bad , sorry, depressed, I turn to my guitar and let my emotions 'cry over' the guitar's tune..

As the years went on, 'inspiration(s)' motivated me to compose friendly, and inspirational songs..but since life never gets too smooth and savy, i still compose songs motivated by depression , loneliness, and desperation..

During the times when I miss my friends, or have heard that there are quarrels going on between them, I make songs 'wearing others' shoes'..

Right now, I still create songs from those reasons, but I am now more inclined to add technicalities / music theories..as I wanted to apply what I learn and still learning 'theoretically'..

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  • 8 months later...
When Im stuck staring at a screen the first thing I do is load a ghost track, a track I really like the sound of and try emulate it and, it always evolves into your own track after you change keys and even get ideas from the arrangement etc, but you can always be sure it will be your own original when its finished, its really just to get your creativity going when stuck in a rut.
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Get rid of your filters.

You know the ones that tell you what song should be, how it is structured, and what it's purpose is.

(The best piece of advice that was given to me was in art school.

"You don't need to create pictures for walls")

 

The freedom and power we have with the tools that are now available to us in order to create sound is staggering.

Pick up that brush and make a few strokes. Don't anticipate an outcome, or in literary terms, let the characters determine the plot.

 

"Put all your fingers on the black notes

Anywhere you want to"

 

Then and only then, put the fish paste in the toaster.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I'm a new user of logic pro and I'm quite happy that I was finally introduced to this technology of making good music. When it comes to creating songs, I must say that when I feel depressed, that's the time I can create good songs. It's my way of expressing my emotions because I don't really have much friends to share my feelings with.
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