How to make a Pop Song: Part 1

To start with lets see what the Experts have to say:

Tips For Upcoming Writers
From Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins

You can either be a lyric writer or a melody writer or a music writer.
The most important thing in writing a song is having a strong melody first.
Then write the lyrics to the melody. A song should usually have 2 verses,
B section, a bridge, and most importantly, a chorus (hook). The hook is the
most important part of the song because it is the part of the song that
repeats over and over again. Therefore it has to be the most catchy part.

Songwriting is so crucial because songs will last forever. A song equals 100%.
There is a 50% lyric portion and a 50% music portion, which equals a full
composition. Be sure not to use someone else's melody or lyrics or you
will be sued.

Concept writing is very important for writing songs. A great song needs a
great concept behind it. Be sure that melodies and lyrics compliment the
tracks and vice versa. And make sure you copyright all material written
or created by yourself

(c) copyright 2002 by Rodney Jerkins. All rights reserved.

My Music Setup

I've been thinking for a while that those big expensive music studios you see on tv with the massive mixer desks with all the knobs are perhaps a waste of space - for a one person to make music with, that is. The more I experiment, the more I realize that this is so and that one is perfectly capable of creating industry level music just on your computer.

I just have my trusty G5 and a Digidesign Mbox and I'm busy creating music that (I think) stands up to professional music you hear on the radio.

Software
Digidesign Pro Tools 6 (comes with Mbox) - Audio/Music Recording/Editing
iLife 04:
Apple GarageBand - Easy to use Loop based music creation
iTunes - Ultimate MP3 Music player and organizer


Ever since Apple's Garageband came along, I use it almost exclusively to come up with ideas for songs - it has an awesome library of studio quality beats, samples and software instruments that are all intelligent and adhere to the tempo and key of your song. Then, just to enhance the song even more, I usually export all the tracks out of Garageband and import them into Pro Tools (at 24bit 48KHz) so that I can mix them a bit better and maybe replace some sounds with higher quality ones. For sound quality and professional editing functionality, Pro Tools is the industry standard.

1st Post

This is a Blog devoted to Music and making it.