produce beats


   
    -Some tips on drum programming


I'm going to assume you understand some basic theory and know how to play a few chords. The following are some things I did that helped me get better at chords and widened my understanding.


Learn lots and lots of songs via internet, you tube or the easy to play type books, your local library is always a good resource and free 

 


This will help you understand how good songs are constructed 


You don't necessarily need to learn how to play the song that well, just understand how it fits togehter


The Beatles are a great place to start and they arguably invented popular music and there influence on music remains even today


Also songs you know and love will be fun to learn


Along the way you will come across chords you don't know how to play, if a box with the fingering isn't included then go look it up, all the while your adding to your knowledge


The thing to grasp is how the sections of the song link together:


verse to pre chorus

pre chorus to chorus

chorus back to verse

chorus to middle 8

middle 8 back to chorus


The more songs that you absorb, the better song writer you will become


You might be strumming your guitar one day and come up with something you like, two or three chords, then you want to progress it to the next section, this is where knowledge of chord progressions comes in as you will know so many that you always find a way to get something cool


Or you might find part of one song you really like that you just alter slightly and connect that to a part of another song you like, so you see you are taking that influence but evolving it and being creative with it. All song writers do this, it's well known that the Beatles took bits from classical composers, the song Blackbird for one


If you  get stuck on a song and don't know where to go:  Think about what you might do if you were in a different key, i.e if your writing on piano and your playing in Ab, transpose it for a second and think what you'd do if you were playing in C. I say C because it's the easiest key to learn because it's all the white keys, then just move it back to Ab when you've got something.


Think about steps and intervals. i.e if you know that going from Amaj to Emin (a fifth above) always makes for a fat transition into the chorus but your in a different key i.e Eb and your link chord is an F you know that a fith above F is a Cm or you can think in steps in this case seven (C is seven steps above F)