A typical song might have a semi-hummable melody but no rhythm, or a great rhythm section with a trite melody.
And even when you hear a great melody on top of a great beat with a semi-decent chord progression, you still feel like something's missing.
Music production is a about putting all those musical pieces together. When everything is pieced together perfectly, the end result is spectacular.
I like classifying a song into four distinct parts. You could deconstruct songs endlessly but I feel like these
four elements of music production work well when analyzing a song.
Here are my four elements of music production:
1. Rhythm
Every song needs a foundation. Any production needs a solid drum beat or a rhythmic pattern to keep it grooving.
Wait, but I like a ton of songs that don't have any drums?
Exactly, but they usually have something that supplies a steady beat to keep the song going.
For instance, John Mayer's “Heart of Life” doesn't have any drums.
But listen more closely to the
rhythm guitar part and you hear how he makes the beat by slapping his hand on the guitar.
So you're right. A beat doesn't need drums, it just needs something to supply the rhythm.
2. Harmony
Here you'll find the harmonic content of the song. The chord progressions, guitar riffs or other important instrumental parts.
These riffs supply the harmonic foundation to the melody. Just like the beat supplies the rhythmical foundation of the song, the chord progressions or riffs shape the tonal structure of the whole song.
It's often the presentation of the chord progression that makes a song different.
Going back to John Mayer's “Heart of Life” for some reason, we can hear that it's a simple song, with a simple chord
progression. While many other songs have the same chord progression, it's the presentation and the special way he plays those chords that makes it unique.
3. Melody
Of course, the melody is what makes the song. Strip away everything else while keeping the melody and you can still recognize the song.
Melody is the most important part of ANY
song.
A simple song with a killer melody that gets stuck in your head is more likely to succeed than a killer production with a monotonic melody.
4. Interest
There's always that one part of a great song.
The part where you shush your friends and say,
“Listen to this awesome part!”
That's the part where all of those things come together. A tight rhythm, a great chord progression, an amazing melody and that little sweet something that takes it all the way.
The fills, breaks
and the solos are the production elements that add interest to the song. These are the guitar solos, string parts or backup vocals.
It's the sugar on top of a great song.
How To Achieve The Next Level of Music Production for Yourself?
You have to start at the beginning.
You need to take all of your unfinished songs and find out what to add to make a great production.
That's where our Pre Production Workshop comes in.
We're opening it up again for the first time since last year, and if you join this week you'll also get
my $97 Music Production Strategies course for absolutely free.
Learn how to produce your song from the start by knowing exactly how to flesh out your ideas during pre-production so that they become more than just vague ideas in your head.
Just from the introductory Music Production Analysis Cheatsheet inside Music Production Strategies you'll discover:
How you should never start with production when you're producing music (backwards isn't it?)
A breakdown of the three pillars of production: song structure, arrangement and production
The #1 thing you need to create an effective production. No amount of bells and whistles will matter if you skimp on this
A breakdown of the layers of arrangement and how you can create an effective production using just a few simple
categories
How to think about things like dynamics, contrast, unexpectedness and builds to create
effective productions.
It's valued at $97 but if you download the Pre Production Workshop with me and Lij, we'll send it to you for nuthin'!
Here's where you go to grab it:
https://www.audio-issues.com/preproworkshop/
P.S.
Have you ever wondered how much a simple 3 minute song can change your life?
It comes out of nowhere but seems to be custom-made, just for you. All the energy of the instruments and the intensity of the lyrics just
speak to you in ways that nobody has done before. It can bring back memories that were long gone. Or create new ones you didn’t even know you had.
That’s the power of a song.
It’s the result of pouring your heart out as a musician. It’s people coming together and creating something completely new, that yet still seems so familiar to you.
Something that you’ve
never heard before but just speaks to you. And 3 minutes later it leaves you changed.
If you'd like to understand the mechanics behind that power, the Pre-Production Workshop and Music Production Strategies is designed for you. But hurry, all the free bonuses go away on Friday so make sure you join today before you forget.
Click Here to get Music Production Superpowers!
