Dec 2, 2015
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3
Moon, Bellatrix, Phoenix, Pinwheel Galaxy:, Wormhole
Moon: What are you currently studying/hope to study?
I’m currently in the second year of my animation course. I’ve only been back one week but I’m already enjoying it :> some day I’d really like to do a masters in a related area (like character animation or design for animation)
Bellatrix: Have you ever been forced to lie/keep a secret?
I probably have but I can’t think of any specific examples ^_^” sorry
Phoenix: Favourite thing to wear?
I actually really like wearing tank tops and shorts but I get cold so easy I can only wear them in the warmest part of summer. Whatever I wear though there has to be bright colour!
Pinwheel Galaxy: Would you date the last person you talked to?
The last person I talked to was my boyfriend ... so yes haha
Wormhole: What’s something you wish would happen, but know won’t?
Me being a successful artist in anyway I’m really pessimistic I think most things I want to do in future probably wont happen... but uhh one that’s not so depressing is going to Tokyo Disneyland
Milestone I - Arrangement and Composition tips
With the run up to the milestone, I thought it’d be cool to put a few thoughts down on how I tackle composition and arrangement when finishing up a track ready for mixing.
Don’t worry if you’re not really feeling ready for the milestone, there’s still plenty time, and remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect! Mixing can wait til later!
Composition
By now I expect you to have gotten down pretty much all your ideas, aside from the fine detailing and stuff, so this isn’t going to be spent telling you how to write a song from scratch (I’m not really sure I could write something that vast anyway), but more on certain key things to keep in mind, ideas to try and things you may have not thought of, composition wise.
When building the foundation of your track, you want to be taking elements from all over that you’ve already written. The build up to the chorus should have some small reference to the chorus in it, which builds the listener up a little and acts as a good lead in, similarly the breakdown and intro can share elements, and the chorus could even be a culmination of all of these bits. By sharing elements between sections, maybe using different instruments for them, or even just sharing the rhythm of a melody part with a percussion part, your track will sound a lot more coherant and consistent, with little effort. it’s not going to be the one thing that makes the track stand out, but if you can lead the listener in and get that melody stuck in their head, you’re onto a winner for sure.
That said however, a mistake I hear time and time again is where an artist will take what they have written in the verse or intro, say a beat a chord progression and a lead, and place it after a build up, making the chorus essentially the same as the intro/pre-chorus before the build. Your chorus needs something more, it needs to differentiate itself from the verse, but still have hints towards it in there to get the listener attached to the hook, be it a melody or chord progression or whatever. The chorus doesn’t just need to be a louder version of the verse, either. A lot of tracks do this, and it is effective, but a track by Camo and Krooked, ‘All Night’, shows that the key element to an exciting chorus is actually the contrast between the chorus and the intro, and it’s a very cleverly arranged and written track that shows off a lot of very useful elements.
I’m going to close out this section by mentioning a few things you should probably look up the theory definitions of at the very least, and see what you can discover:
Melody; Counter-Melody; Harmony; Rhythm; Timbre; Intervals; Triads; Chords.
I know from my time tutoring various people and giving people feedback that some of the main things people struggle with most are, in no particular order:
Keeping things in key
Writing chord progressions
Writing melodies that work with those chords
Maintaining a balance between consistency and variation
The topic’s I’ve listed above should be a really good jumping off point for you guys. I know it seems really boring, but I promise you, you don’t need to go super deep to start improving your writing skills. Learning to read basic notation will help you learn faster, but it’s not entirely necessary. Getting good at writing music takes a long time, but knowing the foundations of theory will speed that process up considerably. Once you understand the rules of music theory, you then know how to break them.
It’s also a huge confidence boost to know that what you’re doing will sound good before you play it back.
Arrangement
Arrangement is actually the topic I can cover a little more in depth, as in general, it has far more objectively justifiable rules to follow. Obviously, the best route to working out how to pace your song is to listen to other songs in the same genre. EDM in general works on multiples of 4 for the section lengths, usually 16 or 32, to make the track easily playable for a DJ. However, these are definitely not strict rules, and you can definitely bend them to suit your track. One thing I struggled with for the longest time is knowing how many times you can get away with repeating a section. I would often make my choruses only 4 or 6 bars long, when a lot of commercial tunes would play them for 16 or even 32 bars (I’m listening to a DnB tune right now that has a 32 bar long drop, if not even longer if you count the build down into the break). It’s all about very subtle variation, and again, using other tracks as a reference for this sort of thing is very helpful. At this stage, I wouldn’t worry too much about the fine detailing, but don’t be afraid to lengthen your sections if you feel they might be too short. You might find they work better when made longer!
Another important part of arrangement is knowing WHAT sections you actually need to write. Again, this varies from genre to genre, so not all of this will apply, but in general, you want to start out by writing an intro, a verse and a chorus. If you have everything set out in your mind when you start, you can write way more, but these three parts will give you the starting blocks for you to later build your entire track.
A couple more fleshed out arrangement examples:
Intro - Verse - Pre-Chorus - Chorus - Verse II - Pre-Chorus - Chorus - Middle 8 - Chorus - Outro [Pop/Rock]
Intro - Breakdown I - Build I - Drop - Breakdown II - Build II - Drop II - Outro [EDM]
The lengths of each tend to vary and you can definitely play with the order, but it’s a good baseline. It’s a balance, definitely use your instinct, and if you’re unsure, compare. Asking others about the flow of the track in general is a good idea, but the best way to do this is to just ask about that. Make sure your listener that you want critique from is only listening to how the song progresses. It’s a good idea to ask a friend who’s a music enthusiast but doesn’t know anything technical about this, their input can be just as valuable as any producer’s.
if your track doesn’t fit into a typical genre archetype but you’re still puzzled with arrangement, keep in mind the basic rules of tension and release. You want to keep the listener anticipating, keep them wanting, and then when the chorus comes, resolve everything you’ve built up to. A killer chorus or drop leaves the listener wanting to hear it again, so you can spend time building even more tension in the mid section for this. Trance does this exceptionally well, and is a really good example to learn from I feel, conceptually.
I’m going to close out by telling you guys, please don’t fret! I know a few of you are getting sort of stressed out about your tracks, still searching for the right idea. That’s totally okay! We’re not here to judge your abilites or talk down to you about your music, we want to help! The feedback from the milestones will all be geared towards helping you improve the above, and fill in any missing areas in your knowledge so you can get on with finishing your track.
Be sure to have your tracks ready for the milestone, you’ll have a few days to submit them so don’t worry if you’re not ready on the very first day. Get those questions you want answered written down somewhere, and we’ll see you sometime during the days after the 21st!
- Lavender Harmony
Romance!
Hey everyone, Lavender here!
The first milestone is almost upon us. In exactly two weeks on October 21st we will hit our first milestone.
Some of you may be wondering what the heck this is, so here’s an excerpt from our info on what milestones are all about:
Throughout the project we will have four ‘milestones’, wherein for six days, submissions will be open, and those received will be listened to by our group of tutors, and you will receive personal feedback from us on your track. Each milestone will have a focus point, so leading up to each you should have a fair idea of what aspects of the production for your track you should be concentrating on leading up to the milestone. We’ll also respond to questions you submit along with your track, and we aim to help you push forward with your track every step of the way!
So the Balloon Party team will be opening up from the 21st until the 27th for submissions, and we’re going to be focusing on your composition and arrangement. So don’t worry about mixing not being done! You’ve got plenty of time. ^_^
These submissions are not for the final album! This is only for submitting to receive feedback from our team!
Also, THIS IS NOT MANDATORY! If you don’t want to take part in getting feedback and just concentrate on making your track (or tracks), that’s absolutely fine! It won’t affect your eligibility to get on the album whatsoever. This is just there to help people focus their production workflow and get feedback on a strict basis. We feel setting these kinds of deadlines can really help motivate people, even if it’s not the final deadline. We want people to push themselves and really put their heart into what they’re making, and not feel worried about ‘getting it right’. We’re here to guide you along the way, and so is everyone else in the community!
If you’re not part of the project yet and want to be, head on over here for all the information, and remember, we have a Skype group you can get in on and connect with everyone involved and share your tracks and get inspired!!
You’ve got two weeks! Get those demo’s done!
Submissions
We’re going to be taking submissions via a simple Google Form that will have fields for you to enter all required information. Please get your tracks uploaded to somewhere like Dropbox, MediaFire or some other source, and test them to make sure they work before you submit! Don’t worry about format, .mp3 will be fine for now since we’re only looking at the composition and arrangement.
Note: If you do request feedback on the mixing in the form, for example if you’re already working on a second track please upload lossless or we won’t be able to properly critique your mix!
Finally, we’ll reiterate this when submission happens, but remember you will only get one piece of feedback per track for each milestone. Please don’t take our feedback, apply everything as quickly as possible and resubmit, we won’t redo songs.
You may discuss the feedback you get from us freely with the Skype group though, you don’t have to keep it private.
Teasers
We are going to be looking to feature snippets of your submissions for our first teaser wave from this milestone. If you don’t want to have your track featured, don’t be alarmed, there will be an option to omit yourself from being included in the teaser wave if you wish.
F.A.Q.:
Where do we submit our tracks?
We will have a Google Form for submitting your track. There will be fields for entering any comments or questions you have along with your submission that you’d like addressed.
How long will I have to wait?
We will try to get everything back to you within a week. it all depends on how many people submit, we don’t know yet how popular this is going to be! If there’s a significant backlog we’ll update you all here ♥
Who is giving me feedback, why should I trust them over the folk in the Skype group?
We have a very diverse and experienced team, some of whom have been involved since the very start of Balloon Party became a thing. This is however entirely optional, and you can choose to not submit if you don’t want to, and get feedback directly from the group instead!
Why not on the website? There was a form there before.
We currently have a ferret living in the server at the moment, we’re working on relocating the website and getting it back up and running. Ferrets come first always.
What is Balloon Party 4, how do I get involved?
Head on over here!
I’m an artist/writer/web designer/etc, can I volunteer to help Balloon Party?
Totally! Send us an email to [email protected] with your portfolio and contact information and we’ll get in touch!
🎓 せんせい
なんで
One of my favorite Pokemon to be perfectly honest.
Cotton Candy Shop, Fancy Paper Dolls, Fruits Parlour, Twinkle Mermaid
Cotton Candy Shop: If you had your own shop, what things would you sell?
I’d actually really like to have a shop (an online one) to sell my own shirt designs and other apparel some day!
Fancy Paper Dolls: What accessories would come with a doll version of you?
Probably a bunch of stationary and teeny weeny bird plushies
Fruits Parlour: Favourite fruit?
Ahh this is a tough one I love a lot of fruits. Maybe cherry or peach for most favourite but I also love watermelon, lychee and red apples.
Twinkle Mermaid: Favourite type of fantasy creature?
Werewolves or dragons. Can’t pick between the two.