Chapters:
Intro 00:00
The Initial Inspiration 00:54
Active Listening 01:44
Recreating Songs 02:10
Music Theory 03:15
Our Example Song 04:37
Melody First 05:26
Chords that Reinforce the Mood 07:31
Acoustic Preview of the Song 08:43
The Rhythm Section 09:22
The Bass 10:06
Picking the Instruments 11:52
Subtractive Arrangement 13:12
Preview of the Instrumental 15:36
Take a Break! 16:32

How's it going, producer? Did you come up with an idea, maybe it's some chord progression, or a 4 bar loop, or a melody or even just a riff, and it sounds good, you know it could turn into a nice song. And maybe you don't know how to go from there, to finish the song, because the creativity is gone?

I've been there... many times. As producers, we have lots of unfinished ideas that we save then forget about for months, even years. We all have that folder with 200 projects we've neglected, right? Tell me in the comments how many you have right now. But there's a way to change that, and I'll show you.

The truth here is: everyone does it a different way so I'll share MY process and some tips I learned over the years. It doesn't matter what DAW you use, if you produce pop music like me or a different kind of music. It works for any style. Okay?

So, first of all, when you start your session, don't overthink. Don't loop your ideas over and over again. Just try to work fast and put as many ideas out as you can, and see where it leads you. That initial inspiration is what keeps you moving forward.

Lay out everything you can hear in your mind, all the instruments and parts. It may sound terrible, and that's OK for now.

It's also OK to delete stuff and start over. Don't spend a whole day on a loop that's not working. Not every song is going to get finished. And not every part you write has to be in the final product.

With that in mind, I'll give you three practical ways of developing your ideas into full tracks, then we'll take one of my songs as an example and I'll show you how it went from nothing to a full arrangement.

Number one, listening:

If you're short on ideas, the best thing you can do is take some time to actively listen to music, looking for inspiration. Sometimes the weirdest things will inspire you, like it happened to me when I heard this clicking sound in a song by Justin Bieber called "What do you mean".

It sounded like a clock ticking, then I sat down and wrote this whole song about procrastination.

Number two, recreating songs:

Another thing that always inspire me is trying to recreate other people's songs. First I try to replicate their sound, then I start changing things around, messing with the synthesizer controls and chords, and melodies.

Maybe you can pick a song you like that has a similar vibe to what you're aiming for and use it as a reference.

And if you love music like I do, your ideas will start flowing and take you in a different direction that's very unique and has nothing to do with the starting point.

There's this cool book "Steal Like an Artist" that you've probably heard about already. It makes you realize pretty much every piece of art is derivative. So don't be ashamed of having references and being influenced by other people's music.

Change the chords, the melody, the rhythm, change the placement of some drum beats, the tempo, the key, use different instruments, split phrases into more than one instrument, pan things differently. And you'll end up making a song that's 100% your own and no one will ever be able to tell which song you referenced.

Number three, music theory:

Another thing that people don't usually talk about in electronic music production tutorials is studying music theory. It's funny how every time I sit down and learn a new concept in music theory, or go deeper in a concept I already know, I immediately get ideas of how to apply what I just learned in my songs.

If you're trying to become a music producer and you've been told you don't need to learn music theory to be able to make music... and you're always suffering from writer's block — you open your daw sessions and they're empty or it's just a loop that never seems to go anywhere, well maybe you could use some knowledge of music theory.

It's usually one of these things: lack of inspiration that can be solved by listening to songs you appreciate or even better, recreating those songs. Or it is lack of music theory background, which can help you figure out the many ways to express your ideas and emotions through music.

Of course you know some artists that never learned music theory and still came up with great songs. But I guarantee it's not a waste of time. It's actually a huge time saver if you intend to make music for a long time like I do.

[...]

Sound good?

Cool, thanks for hanging out. Please subcribe to the channel if you learned anything today, make sure to like this video because that's a big help for me. Alright? I'm Thales and we'll talk soon.

#ThalesMatos #MusicProducer #PopMusic

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