At the start of last week, I asked my email subscribers a simple question…
When it comes to your music, what are you “leaving on the table”?
I’m so very grateful for the email replies I received because it helps me help you! The chances are if you’re struggling with something, there’s someone else out there having the same issue.
So, let’s get straight into the 3 ways you can make your music even better…
1) Improve your arrangement/song structure
The question I got here was:
“How does one work on/improve arrangement/song structure?”
I love that question and I’ll always counter it with two questions of my own:
- What are you doing at the moment to improve your arrangement and song structure?
- What’s currently working and what isn’t working?
The answers I usually get are vague and that’s ok. It just highlights an area that needs a little work.
There’s a lot of uncertainty around arrangement/structure and people often feel like they’re wandering in the dark with this part of songwriting and music production.
There’s nothing wrong with skill development by trial and error but it takes a lot longer than focused learning and a methodical approach.
So, I’ll ask 3 more important questions:
- Do you make notes on what hit home and what helped you get a song finished?
- Do you ever systematise what works?
- Do you reference great artists that you love?
They’re really important questions because when you find something that works, it’ll help you develop your own sound. If you systematise what you’re doing, you’ll be able to write and arrange much faster.
The word structure is defined as this:
Sounds like songwriting, doesn’t it?
If you reference songs that you love and practice writing using a similar song structure, you’ll see progress. That doesn’t mean you should plagiarise your favourite songs but it does mean you’ll notice patterns in songs that you love and start to replicate their structure.
The most common structure you’ll find (in pop, at least) is ABABCB.
A = Verse
B = Chorus
C = Bridge
Repeat the same process for your arrangements. Focus on instrumentation and styles that you love. Then start experimenting with tempo. And on it goes…
Record what works and build a system!
2) Finish what you’ve started
If you write new ideas every day but can’t figure out which of those ideas to develop, then here’s the ultimate answer…
Develop all of them. Finish what you start.
I’m guilty of this myself but you’ll never know how good an idea or song is until it’s fully formed. You’ll also learn so much more about your skills by finishing the process. At that point, you can take things further with your songs or shelve them.
One of the emails I received was from someone with 400 ideas loosely put together and they were stuck figuring out which of those should be finished.
First of all… 400 ideas is amazing!
But if you’re in this position and feel stuck, the best thing to do is to start small and get help. Pick 5 ideas and send them to someone with ears you trust. They’ll let you know which one to start with.
That process of elimination will help you work through your catalogue and find the gold.
3) Improve your mixing and mastering skills
I’ll keep saying this until I’m blue in the face, but a great mix/master of a great song really does make a difference.
A great mix/master of a bad song doesn’t really make a difference at all.
So if you’ve got great music on your hands, do it the justice it deserves and get it mixed/mastered to a very high standard.
A lot of emails I got were focused on this and that makes sense because mixing is what I’m known for.
When people try to improve their mixing skills, they tend to go online and piece together multiple sources of information from YouTube, Google, blogs, forums etc.
They dive in, apply what they’ve learned to their mixes and subsequently learn from their successes and failures. The hope is that then contributes to your experience and increases your confidence over time.
But it’s a slow, slow burn.
Without a method that gets you results, your time and money is going down the drain.
What helped me take my mixing from amateur to professional was developing my own mixing method.
If you have no method, the first thing you should do is try to document what you do on every mix. If there’s no set process, that’s ok. Start with the very last mix you did and document that process. That’s your baseline method for now.
If you want to skip trying to do this yourself, then I have some great news for you…
I’ve got a step by step video course outlining the proper steps to help you build a great mix from the ground up. It will show you the clear path, workflow and method to get the mixing results you’re looking for in the box.
It’s called Perfect Your Mixing Method.
By applying everything I teach in this course, you’ll get consistently great mixing results every time you sit down to mix.
That’s because I’ll show you when, why and how to do everything in the proper order. You’ll follow all the step-by-step processes a professional engineer/producer takes during the mixing process.
You won’t skip any steps that you’ll have to fix later in the mix or in mastering.
The course will show you how to create your very own method and how to perfect it.
It’s the clear, reliable path to help you get great mixes and avoid inconsistency.
The beauty of having your very own mixing method is that it frees you up to be more creative, experimental and actually achieve the results you want.
Great mixes can make or break a song, so don’t wait and click here to join the course.
Don’t just take my word for it… here’s what some of my students have said about the course:
“Awesome. The mid side eq is so insane. I never knew you could do anything like that.” – Kashif B.
“Enjoying the course so far – wish I’d seen this before signing up for an audio production course I did in Dublin last year! Looking forward to the next class. Nice one!” – Pete D.
“First, thank you so much Stephen. I now grasp better understanding and efficiency with my daw Logic Pro than ever before. Before starting the first module I didn’t know what RMS, Integrated LUFS, dBFS vs dBVU, samples, ms, and so much more meant. Using a BUS no longer feels daunting and training my ears to hear phase issues is now something I look forward to. I was already writing down my process by the time you mentioned it and I’ve just finished creating my own mixing template. Looking forward to module 2.” – Jovanni J.
How frustrating would it be to continue doing what you’re doing for the next 6 months while others are getting these great results?
Don’t do that to yourself and sign up today.
professional sounding mix every time...
Leave a Reply