I generally find it difficult to dive straight into Song Mode from the begnning because I often have noe clue to how the final song will be structured
I only know what kind of feeling/atmosphere I want to create and have some ideas on what instruments I want to use.
Which leads me to how Block Mode is integral to my workflow:
I have found Block Mode extremely useful for sketching out ideas based on a fixed set of instruments.
- Set up a a limited number of instruments or audio tracks you want to work with
- In Block Mode sketch out several blocks with short ideas or progressions
- These first blocks I think of as 'root blocks' which contain my initial ideas
- I will then make copies of the root blocks to create more evolved blocks
- The new blocks which are based on the root blocks introduce the idea of a hierarchy
- This hierarchy I capture/document using a simple naming convention for the blocks
- Based on this I can always go back to the root or parent blocks for a full view of the initial ideas
- The further down the hiearchy the more evolved ideas
- Some blocks may produce multiple 'child blocks'
- New blocks may be based on multiple root blocks
- The naming convention I use is very simple:
- A 0 (zero) in the beginning of the block name signify a root block
- If a block name starts with 0_1 it means it is the first child block of root block zero
- A block name starting with 01_1 is based on both root block 0 & 1
- Blocks may be used in Song Mode at any stage but I prefer to to wait until I am very close to a full song
- Because my set of blocks may spawn many songs I tend to save a new Reason project when I am ready to work in Song Mode
With this workflow you will end up with multiple refined blocks based on the same instruments. This in the end may become seeds for one or more songs having the same feel or atmosphere.
This probably sounds complicated but I find the above very useful