How to Write Music into your DAW 

This man has more energy than my 10year old kid.

Guy is probably one of the best RU-vidrs out there that actually offers genuinely good music theory that actually helps you compose great music. His information really translates well to any genre of music and he isn't trying to work the RU-vid algorithm by offering titles and bullshit like some other RU-vidrs out there with titles like; "THIS PLUGIN IS A BEAST!" or "HOW TO CREATE A BANGER IN 10 MINUTES". His videos are all about him entertaining himself, his audience, and most importantly getting the point across in the best way possible in clear English whilst teaching you the technical terms and ways like any great teacher.

Santa Guy! Thanks for teaching me theory in your course at thinkspace! the best teacher I've ever had in music 👍🏻

2:45 Into your DAW, turn off the click 3:50 What sound will you use? 4:32 5:49 You can start with melody or ostinato 6:18 How do you improvise? 6:48 You need a certain amount of theoretical knowledge 8:22 Melody and harmony go hand in hand 11:09 The arranging stage 13:34 The happy place 16:00 Losing track of where you are 17:10 Make notes 19:30 Build it up in sequence

The greatest benefit I've gotten from your videos is that I was inspired to take up the piano a year ago. Thanks, Guy.

I allways tell my daughter when she've written a sentence, that she should read it a couple of times because then she can see the misspellings and hear when something is wrong. I do the same when composing. As I move forward after a few bars, I go back to listen it again and again. It's amazing what you can discover then. So you can change and fix it, make it better. This can take days, sometimes just s few hours. It really depends on how efficient your workflow with your DAW is, how fluently you're with chords and how much time you invest. It really helps to learn and practice those things first. After that, nice things happen. Thanks and greetings from Germany

From my experience, always starting with different, even absolutely random instrument will lead to the most original pieces. Always starting with the same cliche like piano or strings usually leads into composing very similar pieces. :-)

Holy shit this was the most helpful music production video I have ever seen.

Great video, Guy... and love the winter beard as well. Thank you so much! Looking forward to seeing what you do to develop the idea into a longer piece of music... and please use this initial musical seed when you do that! Cheers!!

Your videos and Thinkspace Education have dramatically improved my music. I was floundering before I discovered your channel and that you use Cubase is fantastically helpful as struggling to get a handle on what could be done with it. I love improvising in Cubase and use the retrospective recording feature to avoid the anxiety that came with pressing the record key.

Merci pour ta bonne humeur. Toujours aussi sympathique.

Very interesting that you should post this video when you did! I've just spent the evening getting the beginnings of a song into my DAW. I also started with Cm, had some scratch lyrics in my head, but didn't quite know how to develop it so this idea of an ostinato, as opposed to a single chord, really helped! It is definitely true what you say, knowing the diatonic chords and their inversions is very important and really does make the whole process much easier!

I love your energy you always bring a smile to my face and you give some great advice to boot. thank you for doing what you are doing I appreciate the hard work you put in to make awesome videos.

Guy, thank you very much! The whole video was not only delightful but extremely timely in addressing the issues that I’m facing right now. I feel immensely encouraged!

Very well put. Incidently that comes quite close to how I write music. All the years of practising free play in different keys while knowing the theory definitely paid of for me. Now I can play what is in my head directly into the daw without thinking to much about it. I second your message to all strugglers: Keep at it. Learn your theory and improvise everyday in different keys like hell. You will be rewarded in music heaven with ideas oozing out of your fingers.

Thanks @Guy Michelmore !!!! I've been watching your videos for a while, and they helped me out of a composing slump when a friend asked me to compose some music for his documentary!!! I think I've been using a welder's mask of doubt for too long!

Bravo! Thank you! Extremely useful -- even the simple point of starting with the click off. Really appreciate your vids!

Your videos are a delight to watch and that humor of yours always makes me laugh. Thank you Guy.

You are wonderful! What a fantastic virtual mentor! Thank you for sharing such helpful and lifting content. God bless, and wishing you all the best.

Love this video so much, very inspiring and i love your positive happy energy, thank you, what a wonderful way to start my day🌞🙏💞

Great video, Guy - I recognise in myself a lot of the common barriers you mention here and it's made me pause to think about how I can address them rather than banging my head against the same brick wall. Very keen to see that video about structure you teased too, as the hundreds of half-formed ideas on my hard drive will attest to the fact that I often struggle with that too!

Absolutely dig the beard!! 👍 Great advice, Guy. Very relevant to the musicality stumping my creations.

Thanks for another instructive and inspiring video, Guy! Years ago I started out with an entertainer keyboard (Tyros 5) and since I never sold it, I use it a lot to jam and record ideas (the auto-accompaniment helps me concentrate on melody and chords while not worrying about drums, bass line etc.). I record via MIDI to Cubase so I have everything in the DAW whenever I think “how did I do that nice sequence from 15 minutes ago again?”.

THANK YOU GUY! I am in exactly the situation you described. I'm used to writing scores in Musescore (and now Dorico). Directly performing stuff into a DAW is a completely new paradigm for me.

Thanks for sharing your processes. It's very helpful. I find my self struggling at times (since I've only been playing around with stuff for a year!) in getting started. I find myself more easily inspired by video clips than just sitting down and looking at template in Cubase. I've found that the British Drama and Contemporary Drama Toolkits by Spitfire Audio help in that you can play the presets with different velocities - they often are a good idea starter.

Guy always makes me smile!

Thank you so much for sharing!

What a fantastic sketch of practical ideas for composition. For me, I have found it easier to write on paper first because the computer always feels a step removed from raw creativity. Decide on the rough harmonic/melodic content. Then I transfer these few ideas to the daw to formalize each part, and develop lots of revisions. Once it's on the computer, it's easier to come back to when you have many projects simultaneously. Thanks for the fun intro.

Brilliant man, brilliant teachings. Thank you!

Very much appreciated this raw thought format

I love your energy, you make these videos really fun to listen to

This video was so perfect for me. I literally just wrote a piece of music with strings and all, I was improvising and did all the things you spoke about - had all the feelings. Also I am very new to wwriting this way but I came away with something I like and I learned a lot. I really appreciate this vid.

Just have to say. Discovered this channel today. This must be the most inspiring youtuber, that I have come across so far. I will probably watch all the videos in a few days. Thanks a lot.

This is excellent infotainment, and with music. Good job. The beverage, on the counter is so lucky.

Thanks Guy. I'm of those people who come from a scoring background. I still tend to compose into Sibelius and then dump midi files into my DAW. This has been really helpful and I'm looking forward to taking this new approach.

My path through music was: Wanting to play things that sounded cool to me -> figuring out music theory, thinking it was the important thing to learn -> eventually returning the importance of playing by ear and the feeling of music. There something to said about the communication of musical ideas, especially when composing for visual/story media.

This is exactly the video I needed right now! Thank you.

Dude thanks for these lessons. I'm self taught on all music and u been a huge help progressing me. Can't really actually show said improvement. Like a complete song. But I've mastered pieces. Thanks man

Good tips! Excellent thought processes. Thank you.

I am very much so looking forward to that song structure video. Thanks Guy!

Man! I needed you in my life and didn't even know, yet. I'm so motivatet after every word.

Terrifically useful and inspiring advice. Many thanks, Guy.

Nice box for sunglasses, thank you!

Really interesting as usual. When I'm improvising, to get the tempo right, I'm using the Tap button to get the close to the tempo I need and adjust it manually after. I'm starting with a piano sound but I have some difficulty to add other instruments after. In the example that same to mind, I added a cello but only played the chord progression.

beautiful beginning of an idea.

Thanks Guy. New look. Looking great.

This video is such an interesting topic. I've been stuck for ages and this is abit helpfull. I hope you make more indept videos like this one for us who who knows intermediate music theory but having trouble moving forward.

Thanks Guy. I really like your Cubase colour theme setup. I originally put mine on a darker theme, and I'd like to get it somewhere near yours again.

i learned this lesson the hard way... well done guy, really great content, valuable info here people...

Thank you Guy. All of these have been hugely inspiring. Your improvisation in daw video is how I write so was instantly relatable. As a songwriting singer I have used my Cubase 5 for the last 10 years and always needed to be able record ideas with at least a semblance of the production imagined and as/if they wake me up etc. My setup replaced a Tascam 2400/ previously Tascam 244 portastudio. My needs were inevitably greater in terms of composing and using the ever increasing available vast instruments and samples for writing with. I still have large compositional aspirations but Don’t have access or time for bigger studio facilities. I find myself limited greatly by Computer ability. ( Crunching !! ) etc. I suppose the limitation does make me think more about what I could lose in the /recording writing process but is so time consuming it often defeats me. Never mind ideas of adding any production effects or mastering. - So I just wondered what Daw specs you are using. And what your equipment preferences are for your style of writing. Bests Dunx. 🌍 Processor speed/ SSD and RAM etc ?

Always love 💕 and enjoy your videos ! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us :) You gave me lots of ideas 💡 You’re so funny 😂 Is there a Part 2 coming ?

Fanbloodytastic Guy, you have completely helped me as to why and what I’m doing wrong ! I have really not had any idea, most of the music I have tried to create has been unstructured and over complicated. So thank you Santa, loved every minute of your tuition and feel so much more confident now.

Thank you guy and Thinkspace education

Lovely video .. so cool and so simple. Many years ago a little book called “Teach yourself music” had one gem .. that each key had a very different character and feel. Which was how I learned to make better mistakes in every key. Love G flat. So this makes such sense. Wish you’d been around when I was 20 and just starting! But still learning from every one of your videos.🎹😎

Guy, exactly my thing. I have a nice idea.. until I startup my DAW. Overload of options and things to go around. I just forget the fact that I should be the creator and the DAW is there to help me build it. Not the way around :) Thanks for this one! ♥

This was your best yet. 😃

Having watched Guy's video lots and lots of times, this one spoke to me directly. Now let's see what I can do with it...

8:26-8:29 Know I finally understant thorugh this beauty of a gesture, the relationship between melody and Harmony. Someone please make a GIF out of this, But seriously, really interesting video and really apprtiate you walking us through your creative process!

Useful video again. Thanks

Irving Berlin had the piano that changed keys at the flip of a switch. Thank you!

Thank you for the great tutorial today and keep up

Guy you are a great teacher.

Very informative, and entertaining… thank you!

Hi Guy thank you for your insightful video on the improvisation challenges we all meet .On a personnel note the beard really suite you .Have a nice Christmas

Thank you for this.

YOU ARE COMPLETELY RIGHT, GUY!

I love the way you talk. I love the way you walk. I like the way you smile and make us do just that. I simply love the way you play the keys. In our plastic world, a sea breeze.

another good video. The sun glasses of doubt had me dying. Keep up the hard work

I've been using Cakewalk by BandLab's arranger feature with a 5 piano template for developing ideas. I develop sparks into ideas as sections (I name the sections the chord progressions), then when I have enough ideas (sections) use the arranger to develop the structure. I can work out the general voicing and once I have an arrangement I'm happy with, I commit the arrangement to the timeline and then copy the midi to a similar 5 sketch pianos instrument in my main template and start the instrumentation phase. ... and by the way Guy, I think your John Williams look is coming along quite nicely! 😀

That's the main thing I think, is to keep things fresh and change the way you make music. If it's the guitar that you play, change the tuning, if it's the keyboard change the software or the type of keys. Stimulate your inspiration or just listen to your favourite artist and see how they write a song. For me it's a fantastic hobby , it take me out of myself for a few moments. BTW Guy , always very entertaining and inspiring. More power to you. Paul Millington

Another excellent and entertaining video. I use the chord track effectively as a marker track it really helps when adding counter melodies, bass etc. Now why was it that when you put the sunglasses of doubt on I heard a voice in my head saying “Another bloomin’ Christmas!” 😎 Many thanks for great content, cheers Dave

Thanks I really found this very helpful 🙏🙏🏿🎩🦄

Really useful stuff. Big thanks.

I love your passion and your humour, it's refreshing from a music educator. Your recommendations could use some structure! You have suggested so many different places to start, and some of them are easy places to start, whereas others require skill and experience. When the priority is efficiency, setting up a system for how to start and how to know when we have enough is near mandatory. There is no need to be afraid that everything will sound the same when you've never written anything anyways. In fact, you can have a whole career before you ever need to start a different way. And it's okay to use the same key or multi-key chord set every song: you will have to try multiple transpositions regardless to match the range of the vocalist. I am currently working on recording vocals for 4th key for the same song after trying -5, +2, and now tonight -3. If you fixate on one key, you'll miss out on the best vocal performance. And chord sets / intervals are more important than keyboard memorization: you can use Chord Pads and Cubase will handle the voice leading.

I hope there will be a Part 2 !

by the way excellent video idea. this was very helpful

@10.10 The Best Advice Someone can give..... It is so simple that maximum people missout... I too struggled with it for many years.... You are so very Great Sir

I'm getting better at stuffing the sunglasses of doubt and freeing my creativity. Like the c minor to e flat minor, will have to play with that. 😊

Puffed chest Guy, As I have ... for a v e r y long time, always written my songs without the distraction of a click track in CB .. but I almost always have a problem when the quantize needs doing. I'm still learning from one of your courses (think space 1) so maybe it time ( no pun ) I'll get whether I should be quantizing triplet or with standard spatial resolution .. or any of the other confusing time variations ! ... Love your stuff mate as really helps ...

I like to create a sound or beat, then when something is inspiring I’ll record it then improvise after. It’s how I “write”. It’s more like receiving than writing really.

"improvisational good fortune" = serendipity 😉

Most DAWs have a way to take an improvised piece of music and create a tempo map from it, so you don't have to turn on the metronome at all for the first pass. From there you can either make it conform to a fixed tempo, or leave it with the slight tempo variations so it can breathe a little bit. Studio One is brilliant at this, but all the big DAWs have at least some support for this.

Nice Video was brilliant !!

Yes yes yes!! Make a video about structure, PLEAAASE!!! 🙏🏼

I always thought of using a chord-track as cheating, but I still do it because it takes away some of the "hunt and peck" of writing and building. Thanks Guy

Hi bro, i love your gorgeous positive and quirky personality in this movie tutorial. Greetings from Italy

I tend to find that when I am writing electronic music, or retro electronica that pads, bass, lead and percussion will nearly always work as a basic starting point for arrangement. Then, I remove the perc altogether and replace it with an arpeggio perhaps to add a liveliness, or make the percussion as minimalist as possible. I may add a very "in your face" effect to the pads, like a phaser in order to bring up the interest levels, and then, that will usually spark something else, and can the amount of phase can be altered to taste. A delay might fill in the gaps, and add yet another layer of interest. It's a very organic approach and I'm sure a lot of people will start with a basic four piece template like that. Sometimes the simplest melody ends up being the most interesting. Just ask Jean Michel Jarre!

Sei un grande Guy!!!! Anche con la barba!!!🥰

Great ideas!

When will you go full-on Santa Guy? Personally, I'm still a beginner at a keyboard, instead of playing the midi in directly, I have used the Hookpad software to sketch my songs a lot of the time. It reduces the complexity of the process and the amount of music theory you need to think about. I'm not saying that it solves all my problems, I am still aspiring to get to a point where my thoughts just flow from my hands onto the keyboard, but I also think that the intuitive design of the program gives you another angle on song design.

Thanks for the lesson! What is that bit of kit on the left side of your keyboard? Looks like a DAW controller.👍

You have an energy of a 20 year old. Very upbeat. :)) Thanks man,you're great! :))

nice work 👍👍

Fun video Guy! I would just observe, this is a harmony first approach to composition and improvising, but the same method could work on any given day with a melody first approach or even a rhythm first approach and follow your idea from there. Just putting it here for anybody that might be watching this and not feel competent in music theory enough to put that skill in the drivers seat. Also love the sunglasses of doubt! 🤣🤘

On a theme, I have sometimes kept it simple and have a group/folder called barebones , simple midi instruments (no expensive plugins) piano, guitar, strings, brass, drum nothing fancy. Before the writing to picture I have ten bars at the beginning. I do my theme and melody in that ten bars as simple as it goes. So when I am ready to write to picture I know the key, tempo and style already as I have my ten bars as my reference. I can draw from that with better plugins and instruments as I write to picture. The theory is that its ten as it gives me three bars space at either end for bridging notes, for a key change, uptempo. These three bars give you breathing room for blending the theme, and chord progression. But the barebones area is your proverbial back of the envelope, so you dont get DAW/Picture fright and panic.

Lovely! That arpeggiated intro would work great for a nice arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. ;-)

Guy I love your videos. I'm in a strange place. I recorded a song in ACID pro back in 2008. I performed everything myself guitar, drum (on a yamaha dtxplorer with addictive drums) , bass, vocal and keyboard. I love the song and I am so proud of it. I feel I will never excel beyond that song and I feel stuck creatively because I'm always trying to recreate that song. Any suggestions how to break out of that mind set?

Bodacious!

Thanks for this one Guy. As always I love your unscripted, straight from the heart, unedited approach to teaching this stuff. I find your vids can really be a much needed shot in the arm and are certainly more welcome; and possibly more effective, than other shots we are being subjected to lately.🤨

"seeing" chord shapes ans scales is probably hocus pocus for a lot of people until you have the eureka moment. but think of it as how chess pieces are moved diagonally, straight ahead, a step at a time or one forward plus one to the right/left ... YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU, HORSIE !!! if you know the most basics of chess movements , and I barely do, you can apply that to musical chord shapes and patterns and see dots and squares in a new light?