There are and will always be numerous ways to make Good Music,heck we can't even agree on what Good music is,to begin with...but we can Use one medium to set as a standard for our understanding.
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Yep,I know...it's controversial a topic on it's own but hey people cannot even agree on whether the egg or the chicken came first,so let's let this one be for now...
Good Music for the purpose of the discussion at hand, we will say is,"Music that can appeal to the Masses and be loved by those". Now how does one make bangers that will capture the hearts and translate the emotions and relate the untold stories of the listeners? What's a good melody? What are HARMONIOUS chords?
Truth is...Random sounds at no particular organised order are unbearable...You ever heard a learner Drummer? Or ever been close to a very busy noise construction site? Is that good Music? So albeit the hardship of explaining what good music is, we have an almost similar understanding of what it is NOT.
Good Music has order and organisation...Hapersat note at irregular times are most likely not to sound good.
Therefore we reach conclusion 1...to make good Music, one needs to learn or know the correct order of events musically.
- Chords are made up of Notes, at SPECIFIC intervals of each other to producer a harmonious or tolerable sound...almost all instruments follow this pattern of arragement... e.g Hitting a class at different areas producers different sounds... take a spoon and hit a glass or cups gently and listen closely... the difference in sounds is what we call NOTES.
The combination of these notes simultaneously has a different outcome according to combination as one might guess... e.g pressing Notes C E G,gives the C Major Chord but any other combinations a different sound.
How will You know which Chords sound Good together? Well the first and most prioritised option is trial and error, the reason this is the best option, is it teaches You,while also letting You try out certain combinations that are outside the box...doing it by the book is good but it kind of channels one to follow bluntantly without actually trying out the combinations theirselves and hence humpers their creativity and uniqueness.
So You have good sounding chords... what's next? The melody right? It can be argued that good chords are a fundamental to a good melody but some producers do it the other way round...And hence it is imperative as an upcoming producer to try out both ways and to find one that works for You, as quickly as possible and start chunning out those hits.
There are Several Melody making techniques, like the Lnfr method which formalizes one to have a similar melodic pattern or couple of notes at every two bars or interval of Their choosing and so forth...these methods all follow a certain formula and like all formulas,they give one answer which is all the same and unfortunately,Musically the answer is not right... https://theguyfrom74th.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/making-a-melody/
To make a unique but brilliant melody,one needs to get spacing right,velocity or the notes and timing...yes I said spacing and timing...all this needs time and a good ear...don't be fooled or intimidate by other producers on facebook or twitter acting like a good ear is some special talent, everybody can develop it with time, keep producing and listening to good melodies by other producers, eventually You will find Your sweet spot.
One other thing is Good Repetition, Unlike the LNFR stated before Good Repetition doesn't mean playing the same notes over and over but it means giving the melody a similar feel all through out...most bigtime producers do it.
Now we find the right notes for the bass...like stated before,some producers may begin by outlining the Bass...say the Basic Base notes like,C,D G and then E...or something like that,then the chords build from the same notes and then Melody...at the end of the day You just have to know WHAT WORKS FOR YOU...another method is to choose the bass from the chords,Now the thing about chords is,some are complicated and choosing the right Bass of certain chords can be challenging but the ear will always be the master tool to Use to guide You to the right destination.
The picture shows a couple of chords,with the first chord of the progression being the C Major Chord...now for the bass,Insert FL Boobass (if You use FL ofcourse or any bass of Your choosing or Daw) turn the mid and treble all the way down such that only the Bass knob stays open...and the try the different note combos mentioned above to hear and see what would be the best possible bass for this progression.
You don't need to be a professional to hear when a certain note is of...and that's the skill most needed in making good music but don't be stereotyped either certain styles of music benefit from that very off note...Arabic music for example...it is off in a harmonic* way...so at the end of the day typical ways of choosing a bass,maybe to take all the bottom notes as the bass, sometimes it's the second, third or even forth notes and sometimes it's a combination of all depending on individual chords.
All this Tricks and wizardry of Music is covered in the W. A. Production's Youtube Channel,with various Tutorials dedicated to helping You sound like a pro...Go check it out...happy viewing. http://www.youtube.com/c/Waproduction-samples
*Harmony-The using of chords,notes and tones in a way that is PLEASING TO THE EAR. ( http://www.dictionary.com/browse/harmony )
Thank you very much for reading.
Your W. A. Production team