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Seven Steps To Writing Memorable Melodies – Part 2

Seven Steps To Writing Memorable Melodies – Part 2

Jon Smith on Jul 28th 2010 with 6 comments

Welcome to the second part of this mini-series. If you missed part one, I recommend reading that first to get a better understanding of what is going to be covered in the following steps in this tutorial. You can read Part 1 here.

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Seven Steps To Writing Memorable Melodies – Part 1

Seven Steps To Writing Memorable Melodies – Part 1

Jon Smith on Jul 14th 2010 with 12 comments

One of the most common questions I get asked by my students is ‘How do I come up with a really good melody?’

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Beginner’s Guide To Songwriting – Part 3

West Latta on Feb 3rd 2010 with 7 comments

This is the third tutorial in a series focused on showing complete beginners how to write a simple song. This series will focus predominantly on the process of writing a song, rather than the specific software and hardware techniques, skills and applications you might need in the recording, mixing, and mastering of that song.

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Beginner’s Guide To Songwriting – Part 2

West Latta on Jan 13th 2010 with 8 comments

This BASIX tutorial is the second in a series focused on showing complete beginners how to write a simple song. This series will focus predominantly on the process of writing a song, rather than the specific software and hardware techniques, skills and applications you might need in the recording, mixing, and mastering of that song.

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Popular Posts this Month

Improvisation Basics: 12 Bar Blues & the Blues Scale

Joel Falconer on Jan 9th 2010 with 5 comments

A while back we took a look at the most basic lesson in guitar improvisation: the pentatonic scale. Today we’re covering what many would consider the second most basic lesson, and an excellent practice sandbox before you move on to more complicated techniques — the 12 bar blues and blues scale combo.

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Creating Guitar Tabs with Logic Pro 9

Joel Falconer on Jan 2nd 2010 with 8 comments

In a music world where less and less people are bothering to learn to read and write “proper” notation, more easily grasped formats such as tablature are very popular—particularly in popular music where the nuance of rhythm can be derived from feel and instinct more easily than, say, classical. When composing in Logic, you can provide your guitarists with guitar tab instead of notation if they can’t read it. Here’s how.

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A Beginner’s Guide To Songwriting – Part 1

West Latta on Dec 16th 2009 with 31 comments

This tutorial is the first in a series focused on showing complete beginners how to write a simple song. This series will focus predominantly on the process of writing a song, rather than the specific software and hardware techniques, skills and applications you might need in the recording, mixing, and mastering of that song.

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An Introduction to Cadences

Ryan Leach on Dec 2nd 2009 with 15 comments

The cadence is a critical element in any harmonic progression. Cadences will often come to you naturally without you being aware of them, but understanding how and why you are using them (and how you can avoid using them) will give you more sophisticated control over the dramatic shape and direction of your music.

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Improvization Basics: The Pentatonic Scale

Joel Falconer on Oct 30th 2009 with 8 comments

When I was thirteen years old, I decided to teach myself guitar because I loved the way that modern-day guitar heroes (by which I do not mean your chubby ten year old playing with a fake guitar and an Xbox) improvised what seemed like complicated lead pieces on the spot. After hearing the guitar solo Slash played in Sweet Child O’ Mine, I all but forgot to practice chords in search of the ability to play like that.

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iTunes for Composers

Ryan Leach on Oct 19th 2009 with 5 comments

iTunes is a straightforward and simple application for organizing and listening to music. You probably don’t need someone to explain to you how it works. But there are a few unique features of iTunes that a lot people don’t take advantage of. If you’re a composer/producer/songwriter with a lot of music to keep track of, getting the most out of iTunes can vastly improve your workflow.

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