How to not get stuck in loops and arrange and finish songs quickly?

[dasen]

Hello,



I tend to come up quickly with chords, harmonies and melodies for songs but rarely finish them. I get stuck half-way in and sometimes at the breakdown at 1 min 30 seconds or so. I do electronic music but with length of 3 -4 min.



Any tips on how to turn melodies, loops and song ideas into songs and proper arrangements without getting stuck with them for months?

[Boone777]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=489711&hilit=Denis

[Kinh]

motivation

[vurt]

practice.
it takes time for it to become a more natural feat.
unless you just want to churn out tunes for the sake of it? what's the hurry?
enjoy the ride.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Dedication! That's what you need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-gJV_kM33M

[vurt]

Dedication! That's what you need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-gJV_kM33M

you never see tap dancers anymore.
couldn't get away from them when we were kids

[Kongru]

If you can only make loops, make songs out of loops

Apparently One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7 was composed as multiple entirely separate pieces of music and stitched together.

[Passing Bye]

Try to collaborate with an "arranger", there's even more people out there that barely have anything to do arrangements for and they actually do it with barely an bass part, so they kinda make 3-5 mins song out of wall of sound bass, drums, fx's and etc, imagine what they could do if they had actual musical content to work with.

IMO having good composition/idea is better deal than making tracks out of barely an idea, I would rather be stuck with 200 compositions, than have 200 lame tracks finished that are just barely an bass and production trickery, so take your time, that ideas you have still need developing, finding your own sound and direction, you obviously aren't there yet, so just compose and work hard on arrangements until it clicks.

Precisely what genre of electronic music you are trying to produce?

[dark_virus]

1 - Compose/program 2 song parts.
2 - Make part 1 and part 2 musically compatible and mixable
3 - Compose/program a simple break


Arrangements:

1)
intro
part 1
part 2
break
part 1+2
outro

2)
intro
part 1
break
part 1
part 2
break (slightly different from the previous one)
part 1
part 1+2
outro

3)
part 1
break
part 1
break (slightly different from the previous one)
part 2
break (slightly different from the previous two)
part 1+2
outro

To enhance the experience/keep things interesting:
- filtering
- take parts in/out like snares, kicks, instruments, etc.
- reverb/delay automations to emphasize important parts like transitions
- fills
- change instruments/patches
- try a mood change in the break: another drum sounds, another rhythm, etc.

It should be enough for a 3 or 4 minutes song.

[DJ Warmonger]

Which DAW do you use? In Ableton Session View it's easy to generate a variety of loops, then turning each instrument on and off. Usually I make a simpler or more complex variety of a loop, and multiple variations of a motiff for every instrument. Then just sit down and build a quick arrangement from these blocks.

Another option is to set up predefined macros or MIDI controls which you can use for live improvisation.

[frank1985]

Yeah it would help to know what DAW you’re using.

Applying what DJ said to FL Studio....begin with Pattern 1 and from the channel rack compose an 8 or 12 bar loop for each instrument. then copy these over into more patterns and create variations in each one. Each pattern corresponds to a progression in the song (intro, part one, break etc.etc.) Then there’s actually an option to split each loop/instrument from a pattern into separate channels, allowing you to rearrange them individually in the playlist. I was in your shoes and found this method to be the most efficient.

[Benedict]

It isn't about DAWs or technical tricks. It is all about Theme & Variation. Telling a larger Story. Once your piece is about an idea with more than one scene then you will find yourself writing those other scenes (or views of the main scene at least).

Why not look in here as at least Part 2 (and 2.5) probably have a lot of useful advice. This whole article/video series grew from this very Q popping up every so often in forums like this

https://benedictroffmarsh.com/2018/06/1 ... d-cheated/

[dasen]

I use Logic as DAW. My music is electronic music. 115 bpm electronica

[dasen]

Any good song arrangement tutorials or arrangement templates for Logic?

[ghettosynth]

Paulstretch is all that you need.