Wow i'm seriously desperate for help.

[Anne Droid]

2months?! dude.. give yourself time!

buy a book on music theory, and practice things like scales, keys, chords, etc.... it will go a long way.

Once you have the basics of chord progression and writing a melody, it will fall into place.

stop focusing so much on getting a nasty YOI and start focusing on choosing a KEY, writing a MELODY, putting together CHORDS in your key, and how to arrange your different sections of your track and different ways of transitions

[Alistairr]

agreed witht hte abve, music is about melodies, harmonies, and u can only learn those through practise and persistence.

[acrap]

2months?! dude.. give yourself time!

buy a book on music theory, and practice things like scales, keys, chords, etc.... it will go a long way.

Once you have the basics of chord progression and writing a melody, it will fall into place.

stop focusing so much on getting a nasty YOI and start focusing on choosing a KEY, writing a MELODY, putting together CHORDS in your key, and how to arrange your different sections of your track and different ways of transitions

can i learn ALL of this in a basic music theory book? i'm reading "the complete idiots guide to music theory second edition" right now hopefully this will shed some light

[Anne Droid]

2months?! dude.. give yourself time!

buy a book on music theory, and practice things like scales, keys, chords, etc.... it will go a long way.

Once you have the basics of chord progression and writing a melody, it will fall into place.

stop focusing so much on getting a nasty YOI and start focusing on choosing a KEY, writing a MELODY, putting together CHORDS in your key, and how to arrange your different sections of your track and different ways of transitions

can i learn ALL of this in a basic music theory book? i'm reading "the complete idiots guide to music theory second edition" right now hopefully this will shed some light

lol i have that exat book sitting right here. and yes there is TONS of info in there you can use

most important imo is the chapters on:
scales/key
melody
chord/chord progression

from there you can pretty much already KNOW the notes you can play, from there it shouldnt be hard to write out a couple melodies and and chords to fill with, and then you can put all that sound design to work

[Alistairr]

welll there is reading and then there is learning... the bottom line is the two aint the same, i am classically trained, so it comes natural to me fortunately although saying this even i have issues!! lolz the key point is not to lose hope, chords are heart of ur productions, melodies the brain and the baseline the feet. u need melodies to keep people thinking about what ur walking about!

[acrap]

hey!! really awsome information on here lol i feel alot better i think the only think i'm lacking is knowledge on music theory. not to sound arrogant but i feel that i'd make an awsome producer if i could put onto a canvas what i was feeling and thinking in my mind

[Zöo Pop]

Its like picking up Call of Duty for the first time. You gotta learn the controls, the maps, and of course your favourite weapon of choice. Of course you wont have this down to a T in a couple of days or weeks, but then maybe months down the line you'll eventually know the secrets to the maps; I.E. Spawn traps, good hiding spots, and knowing where to go in that given time.

Meaning it all takes time! Your on the right track though man, keep at it.

[das_raunchy]

I tried call of duty but i couldn't hang. the spawns were way too random and the arcade style gameplay made me want to drop kick my monitor. i suggest getting on battlefield if you want to get serious.

[jrisreal]

i really dont know how to destinguish what key i'm in.

I'll help you out:

First one is in D Minor
Second one sounds like its alternating between F Major and E Major every 4 measures or so.
Third is in A flat Minor

[Gurnumsbug]

Good music doesn't just...Happen!
Some people here have been producing for more than 10 years.
Listen to some new genre's..I understand you 'love' brostep, but you need to look deeper into the music hole.
Most 'brostep' producers have worked with hip-hop prior to what they are doing now.
LEARN and LEARN!

[Airgonaut]

Dunno if I'm even experienced enough to help with this, seeing as I've only been producing for a year and a half...

You just need to practice. I had a little help with that because I've been playing instruments my whole life, but still. When I had been producing for 2 months I was still getting the hang of basic drum patterns. I wasn't even thinking of making the drops, even though I really wanted to. Dedication and focus. It may take a while, and you'll probably always strive to get better.

Don't be disappointed if you can't get it right away. Look up tutorials, read books, tweak presets, always experiment. You will get there eventually.

[-[2]DAY_-]

no what you said was maybe i should just NOT make music. if somebody has never dribbled a ball and is super passionate about playing basketball they just simply shouldn't do it because they've never done it before or arent any good?

i guess what i'm saying is if they can't throw or catch, they should re-evaluate their goals. i don't like being nasty to people but i stand by what i said. there are enough non-musicians trying to produce music as it is.

[krimson]

There are tons of websites that help with scales/chords without learning the ins and outs of music theory. If you want a crutch just google "scale finder" or something like that.

Find a few notes you like the sound of and plug them into the web app and it spits out all the scales that use those notes and what notes are in each scale. For just starting, pick a basic minor or major scale (probably minor scales for brostep) and you now know what notes you can play in the track.

[-[2]DAY_-]

i just wanna clarify i wouldn't tell anyone to stop trying or just not do it if you want to do it
if you check my post history yo'd see i always try to be really helpful whenever i can and share what i know
if you came with a specific question that i knew something about, i'd do my best to help you

all you posted was, please help. i cannot make a melody to save my life and my tracks are a mess.

if you can't figure out for yourself how to arrange those badboy synths you build into something remotely coherent, than no, i don't think you should produce. sorry.

[acrap]

Question for you guys. Whether it be obvious or not i'd like to know how relevant music theory knowledge is to the brostep genre and how greatly i should dwell into this stuff. Should i just know scales and chord progression? Because this book is all about 400 pages i need to know if its in my interest to read the entire thing. Not trying to be a lazy ass i just dont want knowledge i wont necessarily need for my goals. by the way thank you jrisreal for telling me what key my tunes are in

[extremesociety]

Man, I listened to the 3 things you posted. Most of the harmonies/melodies you're playing with are completely musically sound. I mean, there's something there, especially if these are your first tries. Now, personally I kinda loathe "brostep" or whatever, but if that's what you're passionate about, fucking power to you dude, so I'll just give you some general musical advice, some I wish my piano teach growning up or my composition teacher in music school had given me a long time ago, and that advice is: BALANCE and MELODY.

Everything in music, in my opinion, comes down to the interplay between the extremes of elements. What I mean to say is think about how every paramater of your track is positioned. How does the abrasive play with the mellow? How does soft integrate with loud? Fast with slow, duple rhythm with triple rhythm, the list goes on. I guess it all just comes down to arrangement. Think about orchestral composers as the ultimate example—they can take one theme (Beethoven's 5th for example, in which the theme is 2 notes) and stretch that to an epic symphony through the contrasts in texture and melodic/harmonic development.

As for melody, well, that's the special sauce that people who are ignorant of the ways you make tunes (read: NOT the people on this forum, but the ones in the audience) latch onto. As much as Skrillex's music isn't my thing, you can't doubt the man's ability to make that dirty wobble some modicum of melodic. There's no textbook for melody, that's completely up to you.

Just keep doing your thing, and be intent on doing it—you'll be fine.

[blinx]

i was thirteen when i started producing music with fruity loops. I didnt finish a single song REALLY until just this last year so thats 10 years of messing around with DAWS and music in general. Im not a super music genious and i was going to school/college/getting married/working a real 9-5 at a bank, in those 10 years also.

Keep cranking at it youll eventually start to find your way. But there is no single book/thread/tutorial/anything that is going to just bestow the knowlege your looking for. If your so passionate than you should be spending all the time you can researching exactly what you dont know. Music theory, synthesis,read production interviews. Start actively listening and learning form tracks you like. SLow them down to half speed if you need to and really dissect whats going on. Dont worry to much about keys of the song but ifyou pull up a soft synth you can even start figuring out what notes and in what orders the BROSTEPPERS you like are actually using to create there tunes. Really dive into music and stop asking for things to just be handed/pointed directly out to you. I understand your frustrated, but this thread sounds like some entitled BS whining of a 20 yearold who really wants to BRO like the best, but doesnt care to learn like the rest of us.

Music is music regardless what box/genre you are trying to put it into. If you are passionate about the music/brostep then you will just want to learn and absorb it all man. I even dont like music theory and dont think you need to memorize or commit everything to memory but its def. ALL worht looking into.

[extremesociety]

Question for you guys. Whether it be obvious or not i'd like to know how relevant music theory knowledge is to the brostep genre and how greatly i should dwell into this stuff. Should i just know scales and chord progression? Because this book is all about 400 pages i need to know if its in my interest to read the entire thing. Not trying to be a lazy ass i just dont want knowledge i wont necessarily need for my goals. by the way thank you jrisreal for telling me what key my tunes are in

And to that, I say, all knowledge is relevant. The people who are the best at what they do didn't get there by being ignorant.

[wub]

Question for you guys. Whether it be obvious or not i'd like to know how relevant music theory knowledge is to the brostep genre and how greatly i should dwell into this stuff. Should i just know scales and chord progression? Because this book is all about 400 pages i need to know if its in my interest to read the entire thing. Not trying to be a lazy ass i just dont want knowledge i wont necessarily need for my goals. by the way thank you jrisreal for telling me what key my tunes are in

See, you've said in your opening post that you're desperate to produce amazing tunes, but you're now quibbling over reading a 400 page book about it?

Sounds like you're looking for a quick fix to production...which there isn't. You need to put the time and effort in.

[blinx]

^^^lulz