Music Making Tips - Tip 4 - Set a Clear Goal Before Starting a Track

When asked how they start a track many music makers will reply that they are going to create a beat first, then add a baseline and will grow it from there. However, what's not being said is that this approach can lead straight to getting stuck in a 8-bar loop for forever. Just check how many articles are written about breaking out of the loop. Unfortunately, breaking out of the loop is only tackling the consequence rather the cause. Set yourself a clear goal before beginning a tune to avoid that kind of situation in the first place. The most common goal or  a "mission statement" I will set for myself is "I am going to make a vocal track using an acapella". You can call it a remix or remake project.

Acapellas will give you guidelines for your song key, arrangement, and structure. An acapella in itself is a song meaning that it will most likely have intro, verse, bridge, and chorus. Find an acapella you love (the most difficult part) . Next, identify its key, a dedicated software like KeyFinder can help here. Now add it to your DAW and go creative!

Try adding or recording different beats to it. Try different baselines, synths. Play them in key with your acapella until you're happy with the harmony. You will discover that lyrics have a massive impact on your sound selection too. In a sense, the acapella is going to determine what sounds to choose for you. Your synths may suddenly come alive when you have tweaked them to accompany the human voice. You can choose to use just certain phrases or slices of the vocal if that's enough for you to keep  going with the track.

As soon as you you're done with the instrumentation for one part of the acapella, move on to the next, and so on until you've made music for the entire acapella. At some point, you can even remove the vocals altogether and leave it instrumental.

One of the best sources for noncommercial acapella's on the attribution license is ccmixter.org. By the way, you will achieve the same if you use own vocals and lyrics. Maybe it's a taste thing but songs with a human element always sound better than one's with just synths, especially if it's virtual synths.

Have you got any music making tips to share? Please share them in the comments section!