House Music Ideas

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Creativemind
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Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

06 Sep 2018

Hi All!

I have a house music track I've just started. I'm struggling to know what to do with it though beyond the main piano hook, drums and bass line.

This is generally the case with most of my house tracks. I've tried to imagine things i my mind like a white noise woosh or anything else etc

With guitar based music it kinda writes itself and it's not hard to know what structure to use and what instruments to add.

With house for me it's hard.

So any tips here?

Thanks!
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Timmy Crowne
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06 Sep 2018

Try to listen to as much house as you can, both 80s/90s stuff and the more modern pop-EDM stuff. When I’m doing house I try to think less like a songwriter and more like a DJ, alternating between more melodic 8 bar sections, and classic 1 bar loops for other sections. Standard notes are cool, but pitch bending is your friend too! Most of the interest comes from changes in frequency spectrum and rhythm, less so from harmonic structure.

Hauser+Quaid
Posts: 147
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

06 Sep 2018

Depends of course on exactly what vibe of House you're going for but generally if its dance floor stuff the key is actually to keep it simple. Like Timmy said, the interest comes from variations in frequency (opening and closing filters for example) or rhythm like adding small variations in hi hat patterns every 8 bars and simple cuts like taking drums out or high-passing the kick for a bar etc. Simple string lines to keep it moving always work too, and the addition of synth stabs playing chords are always an easy fall-back.

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Adabler
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06 Sep 2018

After reading Timmy and Hauser I thought of this classic song:



It does almost all the the tricks of that time period and I think it shows that you can do a lot with little structure-wise,
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minilog
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Location: California

07 Sep 2018

Think of your loop as the climax that you are going to build up to. Don't start with all of the elements. Introduce smalls parts of the hook throughout the body of work and then all of the parts should play for 8 or 16 bars.

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demt
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07 Sep 2018

with beginning middle and end its difficult to remember those few simple tricks make all the diffrence
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EdGrip
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08 Sep 2018

Timmy Crowne wrote:
06 Sep 2018
Standard notes are cool, but pitch bending is your friend too!
The little wonky bends from 2 minutes into Escape Velocity still fry my noodle <3
If they weren't there, it wouldn't be as good, to a degree of magnitude larger than the sum of that little part.
It's a track that exemplifies another thing I keep telling myself to remember: Take your time. You haven't got to be in and out in 3 minutes. Those 16 bars you think are too repetitive are fine; just add little sprinkles of spice.
Your audience has no interest in time. ;)


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Timmy Crowne
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Location: California, United States

08 Sep 2018

Adabler wrote:
06 Sep 2018
After reading Timmy and Hauser I thought of this classic song:



It does almost all the the tricks of that time period and I think it shows that you can do a lot with little structure-wise,
what. a. GROOVE.
EdGrip wrote:
08 Sep 2018
The little wonky bends from 2 minutes into Escape Velocity still fry my noodle <3

...Those 16 bars you think are too repetitive are fine; just add little sprinkles of spice.
Your audience has no interest in time. ;)
That's a masterpiece.

A mistake I made early on was trying to build this kinda stuff following the rules of functional harmony. Most of this stuff is more modal, or even completely atonal. Now my rule is: The less easily you can replicate the song on piano, the better!

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minilog
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Location: California

09 Sep 2018

Timmy Crowne wrote:
08 Sep 2018
A mistake I made early on was trying to build this kinda stuff following the rules of functional harmony. Most of this stuff is more modal, or even completely atonal. Now my rule is: The less easily you can replicate the song on piano, the better!
Same here. Although parallel harmony or writing a progression with a sampled chord works wonders for house music. I don't think of that as traditional theory though. I think standard basic theory is good for trance music and dissonance even more in techno. Ring modulation is fun.

tibah
Posts: 903
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

09 Sep 2018

The secret to house music is to be as creative as you can be in the same framework that has been around for decades now. It's not a secret to be able to reproduce a certain amount of bars for an intro, little breaks, mid energy, break, climax etc. It's about what YOU do in this set of "rules". Be creative. Change signature. Reverse a whole section. Make variations. Embrace or destroy loopitis. Always great to stand up and actually try to dance to your tune, because in "producer" mode you often overdo things, because you are getting bored, which work great for the environment the music is aimed for - a club. If you're aiming for the "listener that enjoys music for the club in his chair" you should ignore all sort of rules anyway and just do whatever you like. ;)

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