I often get asked how I can write, record, mix, and master so many strong songs so quickly.
The honest answer to that are a few different components.
1. I put in the time when I was younger practicing sometimes up to 8 hours a day.
2. I also put aside time during those days to write my own music. So many musicians spend so much time learning other people’s stuff and never write their own pieces. One of the best ways to get started is to pick an artist you like, and write something similar to what they have done. Learning song construction and melodic hooks from other artists and twisting it to be your own is something that all songwriters have done for years. This became very apparent to me in my guitar teaching days when I would hear similar chord progressions and grooves by numerous artists. The trick is to take an idea and build upon it.
Get in the habit of writing a song everyday.... don’t worry if it doesn't sound like a hit. Over time your songs will start to consistently good...if not great. Also delve into styles that are foreign to you.... you will learn so much from this. One of my most popular songs was a Hawaiian track that I created. I knew nothing about the style other than you used a Ukulele and a slide guitar.I sat down and listened to various Hawaiian artists and was able to get a feel for the style and painstakingly recorded it bar by bar...but in the end it sounded great and was used on both "Lost" and "Hawaii Five O".You can check it out on my
Cutting edge stock music site http://www.directcomposer.com.It is located in the world/classical category.
In the music production world writing is just one of the important aspects.
In the next article we will discuss my opinion on important music gear and plugins used to create music today.
Cheers,
Andrew Oye
Cutting-edge stock music
