production block..

Ever have a song in your head , lay down the drum pattern and being that you cant fluently play the piano its hard for the melody to come out playing the keybopard. Its like you cant speak but you know the words your trying to say.. The best you can do is paly each note one at a time. ..You can get around this in Hip hop, but for ballads and r$b its kinda hard...Any suggestions or tricks you use

I have to use the tiny little keys on a MC303 mate - I find it even harder. Like you say though I only do hip hop so it aint too much of a prob for me!

overdub!!!

sing your melodies onto a tape so you don't lose them. Then listen back to the tape and play them into your sequence in smaller pieces. build your chords note by note if you have to. it might be a bit easier to do this with a software sequencer than the MPC.

or you can just learn to play a bit better, that helped me alot

blaqsoul wrote:sing your melodies onto a tape so you don't lose them. Then listen back to the tape and play them into your sequence in smaller pieces. build your chords note by note if you have to. it might be a bit easier to do this with a software sequencer than the MPC.

nice!!

part of music theory is ear training. knowing do-ri-me-fa-so-la-ti-do wll help you lay your thoughts down on the keyboard. again just because you have software or hardware does not make you an musician/songwriter/producer. the mpc is a great machine, great for instant gradification but music is a little deeper than just the MPC.

cellphone

bboutit wrote:cellphone

co-sign

Yo beets, you're correctamundo on that, once I heard a song playing out of an old man's car and I wanted to sample it so I called my house phone from my cell phone and left the name of the song on my answering machine so I can dig for it later... never found it though. But the thought process is there homie!

If I get an idea in the middle of the night I sing it into my mp3 player. Of course this gives me a fair share of taunts from my girlfriend as well as a song idea on tape. But it works.

I'm a little bit of an oddball when it comes to my mind and music so this might be something that only works for me. But heres what I do:

1st-Draw a half*ss piano chart. All you have to have is 2 lines, one on top of the other with about an inch space. (Like so)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- l l l l
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 etc etc etc

If you have access to a piano(search: "free online piano" if you don't)play your melody slow if you have to. Write down the note of every key you hit.

Now use a foot tap to set a tempo or the Tempo tap on your MP. We all know that every 4 taps is a measure/bar.

Now, match your foot tap to the 1234 on the chart. Write in a slash ( / )
for everytime a note is played. Write the note on top of each slash. Somewhere near the chart you should even write down what type on of instrument you have in mind.

It's just like sequencing a drum beat while the metro is clicking.

I do this whenever I'm at work and I have a melody in my head. I even go as far as writing the drum part down.

Aight Aight... So I'm a weird *ss *igga. Sorry if confused you even more. I just didn't want to be one of dem members that only seek game without given + I'm all for helpin a brotha out.

Try it...Let me know if it helps

i dont use a keyboard right now, but i'm having a problem with finding a record, the melody keeps playing in my head, but i cant remember what it's from, one of those perfect sample melodies too.

"Piano for dummies" taught me basic Scales, both Major and Minor.
It definetly helps find notes in a line or melody you want.
You could probably find that $h!t on the net, but "PfD" had a CD to hear examples.

"Any suggestions or tricks you use"

When I can't come up with anything, I usually make new drum kits, work on older tracks, or (my favorite) just play around with sounds to come up with new ways of doing things. I have to be in the mood to make music, and that's something I'm rarely in the mood to do, but sometimes when you sample that perfect drum sound, everything seems to fall into place. Don't force a track to work.. your ears will get tired, and when you wake up in the morning and play it back it's gonna be like "what the hell was I thinking about!"

. ..roxstar. ..
http://www.soundclick.com/creamofbeats