how many squence's

i 'm just curious how many squence's do you guy's use in a song ?

and about how many tracks do you use in asong?

i use up to 25 squence's and sometimes i use about up to 15 tracks ,i can seem to put out what i'm thinking in my head, i've been at it at least three years now but i can seem to make my music sound like a song ,it sounds more like a loop or something .

if i get asked to play my music out, i would probably get sh!t thrown at me and boo'd off the stage or out the place.

i'm in a rut right now ! i need some help or some tips on my music.

any feed back will help, thanks guys
(and girls if there still in here)

on average... about 12 sequences
on average about 7-12 tracks
.
.

dj e.d.e wrote:
i use up to 25 squence's and sometimes i use about up to 15 tracks... but i can't seem to make my music sound like a song ,it sounds more like a loop or something .

Damn, that's a lot of sequences to only sound like one loop!

The only thing I can tell you is listen to more music besides hip-hop (like jazz, funk, soul, OSTs), listen closely for the arrangements, and then turn on your mpc and practice. FYI, I like Curtis Mayfield for that sort of thing.

i listen to it all , if you listen to my music you can hear what iwas in to that day,i don't really listen to hip hop any more,don't get me wrong i still listen to it but not all the time like i use to, i like 70's funk and oldshool. this weekend was listening to steve miller band,i got a killerdrum loop. no not EPMD sample.

yah I also have moved away from listening to hip hop, I started as a scratch dj, but as I get more into beat making I just find that:
#1 I realize how whack new stuff dropping is (dont get me wrong I knew cash money and all these fools were whack b4, but now that I have an appreciation for the process of making beats its sickening "oh, yay! Nelly loaded up patch 123 on his triton and layered it with sounds from the mo phatt, yeah!"-I can recognize sounds from different gear for instance)

#2 That the basic, "8 bars in, 16 bars, break, hook, 16 bars" isnt that creative, and the guy who posted "my music sounds like loops" maybe this is why. The "formula" for hip hop tracks is this (basically) and it does lend itself to making it sound repetetive.

I try to focus on classical, if you want to get a solid grasp on composition, nobody does it better then classical. Listen to it and how the strings interact, its not the whole section playing a set of notes, one part plays a low E (or whatever) and then the viola's play a chilling High E , High F, C transition, then the cello drops the low end E, F repetition, the parts alone sound loopy and whack, but together, it sounds like a compositon, like an orchestra playing.

Listen to the horns and the woodwins, its the same thing, one thing I can say about making tracks, "you should have more tracks then program changes (when using midi) IE, there should be multiple uses of the same instrument set, not just "orchestra patch, play notes E,F,G" there should be that "layering" to create a lush sound.

ANother thing to listen to for this if you want a more modern approach is Phil Spectors "wall of sound" style, it does this WELL, blend all these sounds.

basically, aa song should"
1-build up to a climax (Creshendo) where the "whole" song is revealed for a moment (EG the Creshendo) then it slips back into "parts" of the main idea. good example, - Camina Burana by Orff (the song from exacalibur that nas sampled for "hate me now" with the cool chior voices)
the song builds with the "ah ha ah ha" as the "bit" of the main idea then it drops into "ah ha ah ha, ha haaaaaa, ahhhhhh, ha haaaaaaaa" etc. that is the "creshendo" the song has used small elements of the creshendo to build to it, then it drops (like the Break in a song in hip hop terms) and is gone leaving you like "mane, that was tight" that is always the goal, have tight track build until they think its as tight as its gonna get, then drop it on them.

meanwhile, during the main part, the strings are playing "C,C,F,E" but when the break/creschendo comes, then the strings switch and the CCFE pattern goes to the chior, and the strings switch up to a "G, F, E,D" pattern. In short, the "main strings" contain elements of the Creschendo so that when it comes its not a sharp sudden change (like a total switch in the beat) so we have heard all the "elements" of the creschndo in the main parts of the song, just "mixed up" so that it can "come together" for the creschendo/break.

that is what makes a song "good" show us little glimpses of the main breakdown thru the song, then hit us with it and then go back to the main song parts, thus if you follow the rules (using elements of it throughout the song to ease the transition, and keeping the song to a Theme, and a well constructed creshendo that "reveals" the whole song to us for a few bars then goes away) your songs should stop sounding like little loops real fast.

pz

PS I love this game.......

look at it, most songs keep to the "theme" that only has 4-5 notes in it.

hey FOO that was very insightfull you can tell you been at this for some time.

thanks for that, man

i just need to learn to read and play music cuz all that about c,f,e g, i dont now all that,

if you some place on the net i can learn this music stuff as to read and play some notes, iwould really appreicate it.

thanks FOO

"there are good people in this world"

dj e.d.e wrote:hey FOO that was very insightfull you can tell you been at this for some time.

thanks for that, man

i just need to learn to read and play music cuz all that about c,f,e g, i dont now all that,

if you some place on the net i can learn this music stuff as to read and play some notes, iwould really appreicate it.

thanks FOO

"there are good people in this world"

the easiest way to get it is off a keyboard since the notes are laid out in (basically) alphabetical order and its pretty easy to use, (ie you dont need to learn how to breathe properly like a horn or how to control strings) get a keyboard overlay, that tells you all the keys and then get into it, notice what progressions of notes sound good, not just up and down skip a note or two and come back to it, get a grasp of melody (i started on piano a long time ago, and now Im 100% glad my mom made me do it, funny I hated it back then now I cant get enough of playing).
then move on to learning chord structure and progression. It can be self learned, it just takes time to do it. Once you know melody and chord structure, you can simply say "ok, I want this to be an "E" heavy track and you will know all the chords that sound cool and be able to develop a melody that goes with it (harder then I make it sound) but some practice will make perfect. I cant think of place online now, but I will look in my links at home and send you one to get you going.

PRACTICE that is the key. Even if you are bad and it sounds like a cat is dying, keep at it, that second when, without thinking, you drop a cool melody and some cool low chords behind it, its like hitting a golf ball for the first time, you are hooked.

oh, and 1st thing I would do is learn to read music (its not hard and its invaluable so you can start to learn what goes with what reading sheet music on the net.

thanks bro