My only comment on the 'embracing technology' tip would be: Use technology as a tool, not a crutch. I'm a drummer, and I often sequence a drum track to act as a place holder. Then, I compose the majority of the piece. At some point, I go back and record 'my' drum tracks (playing live on my midi drums (I live in an apartment, and midi drums are pretty amazing now)). This gives me something better than a click-track to compose over, while still allowing me to add my 'real drummer' dynamics and feel later. When you do vocals, don't just bang out some garbage tracks and 'fix them in post' with autotune, try to get the best takes you can - then fix what you have to with autotune. Also, don't be afraid to not use autotune, or go light on it. A little imperfection can feel way more authentic... :)
I started appreciating the wisdom behind Tip 2: Record yourself, about 8 years ago. It was amazing how dismissive I was of anything I played in the moment, but when I just recorded something, anything, threw some basic drums behind it and just played it back my ears heard things differently than when my fingers were involved. For example you might just hear a small 2 beat fragment that locked with the drums in a certain way and you can grab that and develop it into a 4 bar riff. Something that you might've completely overlooked when you're thinking of theory and your tone and how much your fingers are hurting or whatever.
I don't play any instrument or know anything about making music, but your videos are always fancinating to watch even if I don't understand many of the things you are talking about. It's like watching well produced scientific documentaries about space ships or human body, you don't need to fully understand the topics to enjoy the narrative itself. Thanks for the great work Jake.
Thank you Jake! I’ve been watching your videos since you did that Kokomo analysis videos and now our band is releasing 3 live performance music videos. Your advice, teachings, and insights played a huge part
@@SignalsMusicStudio seriously, Jake, you’re the reason some of us are gigging, songwriting, and confidently playing music in general i have an intuitive understanding of modes because of you and now I’m on my way to developing intuition for chord extensions and jazz reharming
I have and love The Chord Progression Codex. I have already learned so much and am only half way through. It has brought me to a whole new playing field in songwriting and improved ny understanding and skill on the piano and giutar.
Good to have you back. Your channel was a part of my musical journey for a long time and these advice come at the right time for me to progress. Thank you for that great advice.
learn what you need to solve a problem you care about don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to learn an entire DAW if you don’t care about producing, but do learn how to record if that’s all you need to do learn how to EQ if that’s all you want learn about the number of inputs of different interfaces if you care about the hardware you use for your instruments learn only what you need to pick and choose to learn specific things, and the snowball of curiosity and mastery will continue to grow
Great video! For the tip number 3, people should also understand that 3 minutes is the industry standard, but there are tons of songs that doesn't fit that time. It can be a soundtrack or a song for children, the time of it can totally vary very quickly. Good criticism should give you the willingness to learn and be better, while bad criticism destroy your motivation. You also have to want to be criticized. If you get critics without wanting to, because you just mind your own business without specially wanting to improve right now, it becomes a unsolicited comment. I started as a drummer when I was 13, and when I wanted to put my exercises in a software, I accidentally discovered MIDI and musical composition with Tux Guitar then Guitar Pro 5. I had a hard time understanding chords and all, but with time and with the good videos, it's always easier! My goal is to be a professional composer, maybe for video games. I'm almost 28 and I'm starting this project... even if it's really hard finding clients!
Solid advice! Things I would add based on my own experience: - Seek music theory that relates specifically to songwriting/ composing vs performance. - Enter writing or remixing contests as a way to practice your skills. Having existing material to work from provides a different focus. But do not expect to ever win! It’s just a practice tool. - Don’t get distracted by technology. A lotta producers obsess over sound design and production quality. THESE ARE DISTRACTIONS.
Yes! Thank you Jake! I am a musician/songwriter and, for my day job, a graphic designer. And I am always saying that very same thing about creativity! Being creative means just sitting down and creating -- doing the work. If it sucks, so be it! At least I got it out of the way and out of my head. There is no "right time". The best way to start, is to just start! And I'm going to vouch for all your tips. My own experience has taught me the same exact things! ::Great minds think alike!::
Bravo. I just love your videos. I always learn so much. Make Music. Produce. Record. This is really key. The great artist Chuck Close-who worked really hard and painted daily-said, "When I look at a finished painting, I can't tell which parts I painted on my good days and which parts I painted on my bad days. I paint every day."
Tip X: Take part in composition / production challenges, either online or organized by you and your friends locally. These force you to finish songs within a given time frame and let you try out styles/instruments/software you wouldn't maybe otherwise have tried. And they teach you to accept that sometimes you have to stop working on something and say "it's good enough" and move on to something else. And if you do this regularly, you'll be probably surprised that you finished many more tracks than you did before within a given time period.
@spotlight-kid Great point! About 18 months ago, me and two mates decided to meet every 5 to 6 weeks to unveil our own response to a songwriting challenge set by one of us - we’d take turns in setting the challenge. Only one of us had written songs before, so for the other two, this was new turf. The challenge might be to use a title, or a set chord progression, a genre, a key or time signature. So far, none of us have failed the challenge. We come together and play our songs for the others. ALL OF US are getting better at our craft.
Love how you talk to camera/viewers in a straightforward way. not condescending or 'aloof', (like I find some others doing)! I'm a Frank Zappa fan, also love loads of other music too of course - Black Sabbath, Queen, Rush, SLF, CCR, GnR .... You make everything about writing/producing, even music theory(!) so clear to understand. Thank you! 😎
So glad you're back on RU-vid doing videos, Jake. You always have something useful ans interesting to say. I had to laugh at your tip #7 though. Most of my musical tastes seem to be different from the mainstream! My trouble is making myself sound different from my influences. 😄
I took his advice on tip number 10 and purchased his Music Chord Progression Codex. It’s quite excellent so far. Like his RU-vid posts, it’s very practical and down to earth. It’s really helping me understand WHY things work and why others don’t. I highly recommend it.
Cross-medium inspiration… yes!!! My girlfriend and I see a lot of contemporary dance shows (which also tend to have great experimental soundscapes). I get a lot of inspiration (both musical and literary) from dance shows. Seeing how a problem is approached and addressed in one medium can be a great way to finding a new way to approaching or addressing a similar problem in your chosen medium. My art history professor (back when I was in university almost 30 years ago) used the phrase “let paint be paint” when talking about certain art movements. This one sentence has brought more insight to my own musical practice than anything I’ve found in music itself, ever.
Great advice. Listening intently to the indivdual parts in other people's music can be enlightening but mostly it's hard to see the trees for the forest (to reverse the metaphor). It occurred to me that stem separation software is mainly used to make use of or alter parts of a song but to just hear and analyse is pretty invaluable. It beats slowing down the tape recorder for those of old enough to remember such a thing. As a PSA - Music tech tuition channel did a shoot out of stem separation software and very highly ranked was the freeware DemuxGUI. Nothing is cheating if it speeds up the creative flow and I really believe it's all about process and that has to be enjoyable above any expectations of outcome.
I love this channel I've made my first song using a daw . It took me 5 months and it was grueling but I did it Telling people to watch out for a song and not wanting to let people down motivates me to finish
I like how you occasionally have a change in the viewing when you make comments, or answer hypothetical questions. Your videos are practically an art form, and informative, in of themselves. Thanx.
I started learning about music writing recently and I'm so glad i found your channel... Thank you for doing this and thanks for your return to RU-vid 🙏
I recently analyzed 125 songs one day at a time. It taught me SO MUCH. I broke down lyrics, the structure of the song, counted out the measures, listened to the changes in each instrument. It was worth the effort. It's definitely something I will continue to practice.
One thing that really works for me to finish a song is to focus on finishing at least one small section. You might have the general idea of something recorded and all, but once you listen to a fully arranged section, that thing is going to show you the potential of the rest of the song. It will be a nice appetizer and will trick your brain into thinking "Oh this sound awesome! I want more of this!". At least that works wonders for me haha
Love that you mention Audacity. Yes, I use it all the time for my own recording/editing! In fact, I just started a project tonight with a field recording track (percussion) sized to a 60 beats per minute click track (which I later removed). Saved the project and will revisit later for the next layer. Oh, and here's a tip about Audacity: If you live outside the US and use a different language keyboard, it may cause glitches. Change your keyboard setting to "ENG". It's a life saver.
Man you've been very helpful. I really appreciate these tips. I've been trying to record, mix, and master my unfinished songs and I managed to put one "full" song so far lol. Most of my self-recorded songs are like a minute or two. I find recording pretty easy, mixing and mastering them to actually sound at least half decent is the tough part. Doing those songs for self-satisfaction only.
Great video. Learn (a little) music theory resonated. Been playing for years, always knew what to play, always knew how to play it (more or less), but never knew why i played it. Until i gotta little music theory!! Now I'm composing, recording and uploading. Love it!!
Thank you very much Jake! Thank you for helping music composing to continue existing, these days we need it most! I have you modes poster and I love it, you can't imagine how much has helped me inspiring for music theory education!🎵🎵🌈
The eagle eyed among you will have noticed that the shot of the orchestral score he showed at 4 minutes in is part of The Right Of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. This page is about half way through 'The Augurs Of Spring - Dances Of The Young Girls' I noticed it straight away as I am a huge Strav fan! Nice one Jake! X
"If you've got amazing vocal skills, I don't want you to just sing low notes sustained." Unless you're an amazing bass vocalist. These are few and far in between, especially in rock and metal, so if you are an amazing bass vocalist, definitely lean into that. There aren't enough amazing bass vocalists out there, who actually own that range. Most of them tend to stick to the upper end of their range, and sound like okay-ish tenors as a result.
Thanks Jake! I always criticise and really deep dive in what really makes a music my favourite.. that alone has made me change how I view music in general, but also make me picky about them 🤣
I purchased the chord progression codex book from Jake's website and it was totally worth it. Its the most comprehensive chord book i have. I rate it higher than the Ted Greene jazz books which i also have and use. Great atuff and well worth the purchase!
Hey Jake! Would love to see you do a video on songwriting with 7-string guitars. There are so many creative options outside of chugging away on the low B string and it would be cool to see your take on it. If I remember correctly you’ve done only one video with your 7-string. Thanks!
3:07 definitely my bests song came out this process: writing a riff/phrase/full compass, archiving it for like 1 year because I thought it was shitty, then redescovering it and thinking "wow this riff's nuts" and turning it into a full song by creating minor variations and doing basic arrangement. We need this time to look at our ideas with less negative criticism
A way to incorporate a few of your suggestions at once is to form a songwriting club. I once belonged to one where at each meeting we split up into small groups of 2 or three and were given 2 hours to co-write a song. Then the groups got together and performed their songs in front of everyone and invited critiques. Of course the songs were not polished but often the writers got back together later to finish them. A few good songs came from that club but also a lot of new friends were made.
What completely changed things for me was putting down guitar and leaving all the complicated riffs alone for a time being. I bought some cheap midi keyboard to mess around with.. And lo and behold, suddenly actual songs started coming out. The ability to play both chords and melody at the same time is very helpful. I could also record midi stuff, move stuff around and really analyze harmony and why does certain scale sound good and why some doesn't without having to split my brain in half and do this while playing, etc, etc. I feel like I finally understood music. I still had problems writing vocal melodies.. So, I recorded midi for like 100 of my favorite songs (verses and choruses) and analyzed what the hell is going on. Everyone keeps saying "simplify, simplify, simplify". And I tried to, I just needed to simplify it like 10 times more. I don't know why, but actually most melodies are deceptively simple, but don't sound that way during regular listening. Anyways, I recommend getting a midi keyboard and composing on that. Start by actually playing, then mess around with midi roll to hear how little changes impacts your song in real time.
