Help! Advice on arrangements/compositions

[ON-OFF-ON]

Thanks so much for the advice everyone. Sorry this will be a novel of a post. I type like crazy when I’m passionate about something

Adamjay that fields tune you posted was superb!

Some really useful ways of looking at it. It feels really comforting to know that I’m not the only one struggling with arrangements.

I actually tried a few new things on the weekend and it really opened up my mind and my play style. I also learned something about myself and the way I write/play music.

First thing I did was turned off all the synths and went upstairs into my living room where the acoustics are really nice because of the high ceilings and I started playing my acoustic guitar. I sort of loosened myself up and played an unplugged version of a melody I’ve been tooling with. Hearing how it sounded through a natural instrument played with my fingers was inspiring and reinforcing. I left it alone and didn’t play again until later that night. Taking a break to let the music “breathe”. Far too often I try and force things to happen. (HAHA sidenote: while I was playing my 2yr old son drew on the floor with crayon OOOPS!)

Second thing I did was erase patterns I was working on on the A4 ON PURPOSE haha byebye Fun!

I decided if something is taking SO much effort its not worth it. Delete it and start again with a blank canvas. I have to remember that good basslines, melodies, grooves, beats etc stick in your mind. If you erase them and start again either the good ones will come back or they weren’t worth a damn.

A few patterns I spent about 4 or 5 days dinking around with still weren’t sounding good, but the sound design on the bass, lead, and pads were good. I kept the kit and the next session I sat down to write (last night) I belted out a whole new melody, bassline, pad atmosphere and arpeggio in a single 20 minute sitting. BOOM success.

Now my next challenge which I want to conquer this week is play through live arrangements just totally made up on the fly and record them for later self-critique. I realize by reading all the useful info here and looking back at years of trying to come up with good electronic music that: You should never plan. Planning makes things less fun and things that aren’t fun don’t sound good ! I’ll post my results soon!

-peace
Walter

[vos]

Thanks for the info guys! When you put it that way, it looks like the only real issue i have is related to a change in the way an arrangement is conceptualised.

But change is scary…

YEs it is - and it’s maybe programmed in our survival instinct, but it’s very interesting to become aware of our fears. and by doing so we might find out that emotions can change, not by effort, but by watching them carefully. This can lead us to accepting changes and thus discovering new worlds, techniques and different ways of approaching ourselves and others. Without change life would be meaningless and we would only become specialists in 1 technique, never giving birth to something new.
For something to be scary we need to have an image in our emagination, We can’t be scary for something completly new, as it is impossible to emagine something totally.unknown. There can only be fear of the known. So the fear we all have about changing comes from our thoughts who emagine the consequences. Not from the truth wich can only be experienced ones the change happens.

[rex_mundii]

[quote=“rex_mundii”]Thanks for the info guys! When you put it that way, it looks like the only real issue i have is related to a change in the way an arrangement is conceptualised.

But change is scary…

YEs it is - and it’s maybe programmed in our survival instinct, but it’s very interesting to become aware of our fears. and by doing so we might find out that emotions can change, not by effort, but by watching them carefully. This can lead us to accepting changes and thus discovering new worlds, techniques and different ways of approaching ourselves and others. Without change life would be meaningless and we would only become specialists in 1 technique, never giving birth to something new.
For something to be scary we need to have an image in our emagination, We can’t be scary for something completly new, as it is impossible to emagine something totally.unknown. There can only be fear of the known. So the fear we all have about changing comes from our thoughts who emagine the consequences. Not from the truth wich can only be experienced ones the change happens.[/quote]
That’s seems to be a pretty good way of looking at it - gonna try to remember this.

[vos]

[quote=“vos”][quote=“rex_mundii”]Thanks for the info guys! When you put it that way, it looks like the only real issue i have is related to a change in the way an arrangement is conceptualised.

But change is scary…

YEs it is - and it’s maybe programmed in our survival instinct, but it’s very interesting to become aware of our fears. and by doing so we might find out that emotions can change, not by effort, but by watching them carefully. This can lead us to accepting changes and thus discovering new worlds, techniques and different ways of approaching ourselves and others. Without change life would be meaningless and we would only become specialists in 1 technique, never giving birth to something new.
For something to be scary we need to have an image in our emagination, We can’t be scary for something completly new, as it is impossible to emagine something totally.unknown. There can only be fear of the known. So the fear we all have about changing comes from our thoughts who emagine the consequences. Not from the truth wich can only be experienced ones the change happens.[/quote]
That’s seems to be a pretty good way of looking at it - gonna try to remember this. [/quote]
Well I’m good at explaining … The practical part AIAIAI !!!