Produce and Write Dance Music

The first thing you should do is to be sure if you really want to do this. Because, it might interfere with your academic, social and so personal life. But if you make sure that this is what you really want, it makes things much easier. At least you won't regret starting it at first place.

Steps

  1. Decide what type of music you would listen to. The only way to do this is to listen to a large amount of different music until you find the sound or style that you like the most. The main ones are Trance, House, Drum n Bass, Garage, Hip Hop, UK/Happy Hardcore and more. There are plenty of other totally different types of sub genres to these. Don't be limited by genres and pop charts look for new artists and experiment.
  2. Start with your beat. The beat holds the song together and controls how good the music is. To make a good beat, listen to dance music and try to pick out the characteristics of the drums only. Dance music is almost always in 4/4 such as Galvanize by The Chemical Brothers in which they throw in a 2/4 bar every few instrumental measures. Hi hat sounds good with straight eighth notes or sixteenths. Snare drum is used to accent and syncopate the beat. Try to use electronic snare and stay away from the clap, because that is used a lot in hip-hop.
  3. Devise the bassline. Dance music is based on repetition and usually starts with the catchy bassline. The bassline can also be a rhythm on a chord progression that you make.
  4. Begin layering. The farther you progress in the song the more action there should be. Usually some layers are rhythms on the chord progression, others are the same note or riff played over and over despite the progression.
  5. Listen to how the music sounds. If something doesn't sound right then it is up to you to figure out why it doesn't sound right. All music is based upon theory and the same theory has been used over 400 years ago. The reason to study theory is to learn about what musicians of the past discovered by themselves.
  6. After you feel that you have a cool sounding song then work on a change midways through the song. You can take out the drums and bass to leave a string riff or you can have a cool beat play alone. Also, you can change styles completely. Like I mentioned before this is your song. You have to be the creative one.
  7. Make lyrics if you choose to. Listen to your favorite dance songs. You may want to rap or make two lines that rhyme and sound cool to repeat in certain parts of the song. Also, you can make it in a rock format with a verse and a chorus. Finally, you can take out your 40 year old nursery rhymes or favorite Robert Frost poem and read or sing it! It's up to you.
  8. Produce the song. Find someone that can record the music or get it onto a computer unless you can do it yourself. Then make final touches just in case there are some malfunctions. Then you can get an official record label by sending some demos of songs to give to them. You need to learn the business side of music to get successful, so check out the external links.

Tips

  • Be creative and believe in yourself! Anyone can write a song, it just takes practice and time to get better at it like it does with any skill!
  • Be patient. Making progress towards a quality final product happens gradually, and does not usually occur in a short span of time. Being involved in other activities outside of production often helps in the avoidance of the dreaded "writer's block".
  • Have others listen to your music and offer their opinions and critique. Individuals who are musically-trained will usually offer the most valuable advice.
  • Criticism and praise are both valuable in assessing the strong and weak points of a piece of music.
  • Make sure you are using something more than your factory computer speakers to write your tracks. Usually even a pair of ear buds have a wider range of sound and let you correctly judge the ratio of bass to treble sounds.

Warnings

  • Don't give up. Whatever you do, don't give up. Music requires perfection and every mistake must be redone, so it may take days or weeks to get it record-worthy.

Things You'll Need

  • Keyboard (either standard PC or MIDI) (optional)
  • Recorder or flute (optional)
  • Computer
  • Software (samples/VSTs, composing application)
  • Mixer (optional)

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Sources and Citations

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