Arrangement Archive - Nadine de Macedo

Understanding song structures

Nadine — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 19:10:41 +0000

When I chit-chat with musicians, we talk a lot about melodies, lyrics and instruments, but we don’t talk about song structures. This is even more essential to keep the listener to the end or intentionally kick them out of their comfort zone. I wrote this article to explain some well-known structures and offer options for new ones. Song parts and their functions Listening to modern music, you may figure out that each song is constructed by repeating parts. Analyse the lyrics and chord progressions to figure out which part comes when. I grew up with electronic club music of 8 minutes length, where the length of every part has been divided by 32 or 16. In pop and rock music the structure of 8 or 16 bars is quite common, whereas blues is mostly in 12 bars or 16 bars. It’s an unwritten rule, that feels best to most listeners, musicians and DJs, but you can also try different things as long as the same parts have the same length and sound consistent. Let me introduce you do the most common song parts and their function. Intro (I) There is only one intro in a song, and it’s right in the beginning. The intro consists of atmospheric sounds, a foreshadowing of the chorus, or something completely disconnected to the song. My rule of thumb: the longer the song, the longer the intro. However, the intro shouldn’t exceed one third of a song. The function of an intro is creating an atmosphere and rises the tension. A good example of my discography is the progressive metal song “Truth” starting with ticking clocks and synthesizers. Outro or coda (O) Opposed to the intro, but following the same rules, the outro occurs once at the very end of the song. It creates an atmosphere and releases the tension. Most of the time, intros and outros are connected, but it is not a must. If you see a song as a journey, the outro could have a completely different mood. Some people also call the outro coda – but for me, a coda is a special type of outro that is directly connected to the chorus. For example, on “Fit Right In” we repeated the last half of the chorus followed by a ritardando (slow down). Believe it or not – Even the final chord could be an outro, if you’re technically precise. Verse (V) The verse is one of the main elements of a song. Usually, all verses have the same metric and melody. The main function of a verse is telling a story. Neglecting the chorus, you can read a song as a poem! A usual pop song has two verses, sometimes three. In very old songs and folk ballads, the whole song can consist of verses. The lyrics and instrumentation may change, but the harmonies and metric are the same. Chorus (C) The chorus is the catchy sing-along part that occurs at least twice in a song. It usually has a different melody and chord progression than the verse. The chorusses usually have the same lyrics, but it is not a must. There is an example below, where we used the same metric and melody for a different lyric. Solo (S) Most rock and metal songs have at least one solo. That soaring, uplifting, complex lead guitar everybody waits for, close to the end of the song. It’s often played on the same chords of the chorus, but some people prefer writing a completely different chord progression. Be careful with jazz and blues music, though lots of musicians play solos, not every part is a solo. If the vocalist and soloist have a conversation, we’re probably not in a solo part. Bridge or middle 8 (B) To avoid too many repetitions of the verse-chorus-structure, many songwriters insert a bridge (or middle 8 – standing for 8 bars) in the middle or last third of the song. Its melody and chord progression differs from the chorus and verse and creates tension. Lyrically, the bridge is characterized as the turning point of the story. In pop music – especially ballads – bridge are often used to change the key (modulation). The bridge of “Going My Way” starts with “I wanna scream out” creates a big tension by changing the rhythm. Post-Chorus (PostC) / Interlude It’s a kind of simple, catchy interlude that is intentionally after the chorus. If you listen to electronic dance music, you’ll know this sing-along synthesizer that plays nearly the same melody as the chorus. But it’s also used in other genres. Most of the time, the post-chorus is instrumental or filled with a very striking rhythm and simple lyrics. One of the most striking post-chorus I wrote is the reoccurring guitar solo on “Where does it end?”. This part is also called interlude, especially when it’s followed by the next verse. Pre-Chorus (PreC) / Mini Bridge Most pop songwriters connect verse and chorus with a pre-chorus. This section, which is sometimes also called mini bridge, usually consists of 2-8 bars and is a good place to do a modulation on key or tempo before the chorus kicks right in. “Don’t tell me if it hurts” has a very strong and pop-rock typical pre-chorus. It’s the part around “Does your heart skip a beat…”. In contrast to a verse, the pre-chorus leaves a virtual question mark at the end, that is resolved by the chorus. Drop (D) / Break Down A breakdown is a special kind of post-chorus or bridge, where a song changes completely its mood. It can be an intentional anti-climax of some bars… or a sudden drop. My former trance productions all have break downs, but I think the one of “The Awakening” is quite striking, it’s where the orchestra kicks in. It was pretty unusual in handmade music, but nowadays most metalcore songs also have break downs or even drops. The difference between these two is only the length and intensity. Drops are shorter and heavier. Usual schemes Verse Chorus in Pop Music I call myself a songwriter for pop music, because I mostly stick to the pop scheme. The combination of verse, chorus and solo is known to most listeners, easy to handle and results in a handy song of 3-4 minutes of lengths. You may notice that not every pop song has an intro and an outro, but all have the verse followed by a chorus and sometimes a pre-chorus in between. Some variations: The classical rondo The word rondo sounds like round, and this is what it’s all about. It’s a song structure from the middle ages, classical and baroque music where one part occurs more often. Some usual structures look like this: If you call A a chorus and B, C, D verses, you will get: So yes, there are some pop and rock songs in rondo form! Quitting the schemes The pop scheme is user-friendly, but boring. When you don’t care much about writing a chart topping song, you can experiment or arrange the parts in a way that it feels consistent with the message. Here are some example of my exotic arrangements. Sleepless – Open end with a solo Let’s start with an easy example, how to screw up listener’s expectations. “Sleepless” roughly follows a typical pop scheme, BUT (a) there’s a drop inside the verse, (b) the chorus sounds like a pre-chorus and (c) It ends with a solo. Everybody waits for another chorus, that doesn’t come. I decided to go this way, because the lyrics start with self-pity and then, he just lets go. This guy found some sleep, cause this song’s ending is positive. The structure is:I – V – C – PostC – V – C – B – S – O Hero – Multiple key changes and a two-part chorus Though following a rough verse-chorus pop scheme, we completely mess up people’s expectations on melodies and keys. The verse is in F-major, so the obvious pop chorus should start with a C-chord. Instead, we start with a D major chord, applying modal shifts and borrow chord weirdness. If you listen closely you will also notice that the chorus consists of two parts. Another interesting aspect is the very short intro (one chord!) and outro (part of the chorus). It was important to follow a quite usual scheme, otherwise the song would have been too complex.I – V – C1 – C2 – V – C1 – C2 – B – S – C1 – C2 – O September – Two different choruses “September” is telling a story from beginning to end. The whole song is based on 4-5 chords, but we have multiple verses and chorus with the same chord structure and metric. The lyrics tell a story, so there is no reoccuring part unless you consider the metric. Another interesting aspect is a variation on the chorus (C2) that occurs twice. The song structure is:I – V1 – C1 – PostC1 – V2 – PostC2 – C1 – C2 – S – B – C1 – C2 – O Truth – Chapters as a concept One of the weirdest song structures I created has been for our multi collab “Truth”. It has neither verse nor chorus, but reoccurring musical themes. Listen carefully to the piano theme in the intro. You will find the same theme in a different key, as flute, in another different key and the intro in the very end. This song tells a story with no way back, so why should there be a chorus?! It’s hard for me to write down the song structure, maybe something like:I1 – I2 – C1 – Interlude – V1 – Interlude2 – D1 – Interlude3 – V2 – V3 – S1 – S2 – D2 – S3 – V4 – D3 – C1 – S4 – Interlude2 – C2 – O Play around with the structure If you’re new to songwriting, using one of the usual schemes is a good way to go. But if you got stuck in a rut, play around with the structure. There are no rules in art, only best practises. The worst thing that could happen is that your audience is confused and quits the song after 30 seconds. Others may love a monumental work of progressive rock. If you recorded and documented everything neatly, you can still change the structure of a song after recording.

This post Understanding song structures was published at Nadine de Macedo.

My roles in music

Nadine — Wed, 17 May 2023 14:00:00 +0000

In the past months, I receive a lot of requests from talented musicians all over the world. Most of them result in awesome musical collaborations, but sometimes people seem to misunderstand my roles in music. I decided to write this blog post to explain what I do and what I don’t. You will notice that nearly all of my songs credit me as composer, arranger and producer. I write songs for full bands and search for vocalists and instrumentalists to record them. All songs start as a rough programmed demo with fake instruments, and will be adapted to individual preferences and ranges. Sometimes I intentionally leave some parts of the song open, that can be filled with an own solo or lyric. I also co-write with songwriters and composers, where different people write different parts or add new instruments to existing backing tracks. Things I can offer Things I don’t do I hope that this blogpost helped you to understand my roles in music. In a nutshell: composition, arrangement, production, lyrics – and sometimes helping instruments.

This post My roles in music was published at Nadine de Macedo.

Writing songs in different genres

Nadine — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 19:16:12 +0000

What are the differences in songwriting and music production in electronic and handmade music? It is impossible to write about all differences and ideas of all genres, so I’d like to stick to the ones I have the most experiences: pop, rock, metal and edm – and everything in between. Read this article, if you want to know some thoughts of a versatile songwriter and producer, who came from electronic music and jumped into handmade music. The trouble with music genres Some people guess that there might be a thousand different genre of music. Each has a certain instrumentation, feel, tempo or harmony. Some decades ago, putting songs into boxes was quite easy. Electric guitars indicated rock music; electronic music was all about synthesizers; blues was about a harmonic scheme, whereas pop became a synonym for catchy mid-tempo radio productions. These days are gone. Nearly every piece of music we listen right now is a mixture which cannot put into boxes. Still, we use genre classification tags for targetting a peer group and raising expectations. Musical background in between the genres Before having an in-depth discussion about the differences in genres, I’d like to give a brief overview about my musical background. Songwriting – creating harmonies, melodies and lyrics – has always been my delight. I started writing pop songs as a kid, but I was not able to play, sing or produce it. Piano has been my only instrument, which made it quite hard to compose full band arrangements. Instantly lacking of singers and guitarists, I started to produce electronic dance music. I learned how to deal with synthesizers, drum programming, automation, mixing and premastering, but it took years to make my dream of pop music come true. When I turned 16, I founded my internet band The Verge which has been my ticket to alternative rock and punk rock music. Until now, I’ve tried about 40 different genres in between pop, rock, metal, electronic, ambient and blues. If somebody asked me what kind of music I make, I probably say “everything I like”. My music is constantly evolving and not always compatible with the mainstream. I still stick to a pop kind of structure, but sometimes I love messing up with people’s expectations. Harmony Independent of the genre, there are plenty of techniques to write good songs. Songwriters and composers may use scales and progressions from music theory, others create music during jam sessions. I usually have 80% of my song in my head when I start with a draft. After collaborating with so many people the past years, I figured out, that the harmonies are highly dependent from the instruments used. The role of your songwriting instrument For composition, the piano is my instrument of choice. C major and G major are the easiest scales for a pianist, but they are too bright for my songwriting. In my opinion, everything is quite okay to play, except for keys with double sharp notes and weird interval shifts. Therefore, I really hate to play in f sharp major and g sharp minor. Transposing a song into another key is cumbersome because I have to rewrite and learn all chords. If you don’t care about a real performance, most digital composition tools do that with one click. On the piano you have plenty of keys, so everything which can be played with ten fingers in two or three octaves is fine. Everything else needs skilled pianists. Practising guitar, I learned plenty of 6ths and 7ths chords that were much easier than on piano. They even sounded better! People coming from punk rock or metal prefer power chords, since they are easy to play and sound nice when distorted. As a pianist, I never came to the idea, because they sound pretty awkward to my ears. But I know plenty who use them. On guitar fronted songs, I noticed an excessive use of the keys e minor, a minor and d major, because they have plenty of easy chord positions. Learning a new instrument, I realized that some melodies, that are super easy on piano can be very hard on the guitar. You easily forget about the fact that you only have 4 fingers to play a melody (except for two-handed tapping and people who play bass with the thumb). Guitar playing is a lot about fingersets – and bass, too. I envy guitarists for a tool called capodaster. It is a device you mount onto the guitars to shorten all strings at the same time and transpose keys. Thus, you can play chords in a different key than it sounds! I wish there was a tool like this for the piano! Woodwinds and brasses have a very limited range. If you want to write song for orchestras, you have to keep that in mind, and optimize the key or arrangement. Sometimes it’s better to use instruments with a different tuning or range. Speaking of this, violins, mandolines and ukuleles do not use the same tuning as guitars, eventhough they are stringed instruments! Sometimes, the choice of the harmony and chords is also limited due to technical reasons. You may write epic orchestral music hitting 16 keys at a time, which just doesn’t sound good on fat EDM synthesizers. Not every chord and inversion is performable on every real instrument. Lyrics You can write songs about everything, but certain genre have special tastes. You may not find dance music about the joy of eating. Their lyrics are mainly about love, party, despair, loss, nature or a certain feeling you have right here, right now. I don’t know why singer-songwriter and country musicians write so much about their personal lives or the cities they’ve grown up. You may find these topics in pop and rock music, too. Punk rock lyrics contain a lot of irony and political statements due to the cultural background. The good side: Love is everywhere, no matter which genre. Despite the topics, the rhyming schemes and phrasings can be very different. I noticed, that stanzas with three lines and plenty of redundancies are quite okay in EDM music but a no-go in most handmade music. The more you drift into punk or grunge the shorter and straightforward the lyrics become. Use the right words and let the rhythm give the final punch. I figured out that hip hop and rap lyrics are really hard to write due to their double and triple rhymes. You may think a lot about the emphasis of each word. Pop is just somewhere in between. You can write about everything, but it has to have the right feelings. Arrangement Of course, arrangement is the main difference in all the above stated genres. Choosing the right instruments is the one thing, but the structure is important too. Most songs need a climax and a drop to be listened to the very end. Layering and complexity Coming from electronic dance music, I was used to layering basslines and synthesizers. The melodic complexity of the arrangement decreased, but the amount of tracks stayed the same. It seems like you have to group at least four synthesizers for that aggressive main synthesizer. When I started producing pop and rock music, the arrangements were quite small. I counted a roundabout 12-20 tracks, basically, recording each instrument twice. A typical five-member-band may have 40-100 tracks in today’s arrangements. I guess one third of it are only vocal recordings for layering, and about 10 tracks are only drums. But the thing that surprised me the most, was the heavy amount of tiny blips you won’t spot in the final recording. I only knew this technique from electronic music – so how did it come into rock?! Song structure The arrangement of parts also changed a lot. I still remember the days were dance music was written in an VCVC (verse, chorus, verse, chorus) structure, now it’s more VVDCC due to the heavy drops (denoted as D). Despite of progressive genre, the song length decreased from 6:30 – 11:00 to 2:00 – 2:30. Bridges are quite unusual in electronic music, it’s all about the drop and the hookline (chorus melody). The song length of pop and rock music also decreased. I grew up in the late 90s and 00s where the radio station played 4:30 rock songs. The standard may be around 3:00 – 3:40. Inside this length some typical patterns evolved. You may know VCVCBC (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus) or CVCVBCC (chorus, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, chorus) best, but the bridge is endangered due to the decreasing song length. Funnily, pop music of the current decade stole the idea of the drop from electronic music. You may come across structures, where the bridge or pre-chorus is replaced by a drop, a complete change of the sounds of melodies. The more music you listen, the more you internalize its structures of different genres. Sounddesign Nearly every EDM producer speaks about sound design. Creating new sounds with cool synthesizers, massive layering and stacking is quite common there. If you hit the nerve, everybody wants to know how you did this or copycat. I just noticed that pop music is dealing a lot with sound design these days. The more electronic and modern parts of rock music do a lot with synthesizers, so they also use a lot of sounddesign. I also came across some guitarists and bassists who utilize sounddesign in rock and metal music by tweaking their amps and pedals. The effect chain on electric guitars can become complex. There’s also EQ, compression, delay, flanger, yes even a bitcrusher. I never expected all these effects inside an amp or amp simulation, because I knew those from electronic music. Synthetic music and rock are more alike than you think! It seems like both learned from each other by combining the very best methods. Mixing I learned mixing and mastering on electronic music. This made a huge difference because my workflow of setting EQs and dynamics is completely different from people who grew up with acoustic music. I also noticed that people who record “real instruments” care a lot about recording quality and preamps to achieve a natural sound. Digital clones of vintage equipment are on their way! But the largest difference I spotted in between all those genres were special effects like delay, reverb, stereo enhancement etc. I feel like electronic musicians do a lot of sound design here instead of going deep into physics. Just take a look into the reverb settings. Some trance vocals may be recorded inside a cathedral of glass to sound like this! These are topics I have to learn anew. Genres are more alike than you think! No matter where your musical roots lie, it is time to overcome these borders. The mixture of genre did not only lead to interesting innovations – it changed a lot in the arrangement and sound design. Guitarists shall embrace the variety of effects that came from electronic music – And electronic musicians may learn a lot from analogue vintage gear. I don’t feel like there’s “right” or “wrong” in any genre, there are only habits and techniques which are only shared inside a certain peer group. Playing around with all these different structures, melodies, effects and topics opens up a large space of possibilities. So, why should you bother matching the expectation of the crowd?

This post Writing songs in different genres was published at Nadine de Macedo.

Why music arrangers are underrated

Nadine — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 10:00:00 +0000

When people talk about a song, they praise the vocalist or a great soloist. I barely hear people discussing songwriters, composers, lyricists and producers. But there is another underrated role: the arranger. If you never heard the term: The arranger is the person who decides about the instrumentation and structure. Will the singer be accompanied by a piano or a guitar? When will the strings come into play? Should background vocalists support the main vocals, and if yes: What do they sing? What’s the difference between a music arranger and a composer? A composer writes down the melodies, chords and sometimes even the lyrics – An arranger can turn the composition into multiple different songs by changing the instruments, the articulation, the dynamics, the tuning, extending / shortening, rephrasing, transposing. It will be the same song in a completely different vibe. Even with the greatest musician and producers, an arranger can turn a great composition into a smash hit or into an odyssey of 10 minutes length. Reading the small prints in CD booklets, you may not even find the word arranger. It’s hard to believe why arrangers are so underrated, but let me tell you something: Most of the time, it falls together with the conductor, producer or songwriter. Next time you listen to a song, imagine how it would sound in a different genre or instrumentation. The special power of an arranger is knowing your people What I love about arranging music is the challenge to tailor a song for a given band. You have to know strengths and weaknesses of individual members and find the sweet spot. There are plenty of side conditions like vocal range, instrumental range, technical expertise or genre. I would never give a song and let people play it exactly like it’s written in the tabs. You could also think of an arranger as somebody who tailors a song for the audience. Especially in scoring, arrangers can make a song fit to a certain scene by changing the tempo, mood or showdown. They’re like conductors in a recording. I hope that this posts raises the awareness, that artists, vocalists and soloists are not the only important roles in music. There are many people involved in a good song – So appreciate them all 🙂

This post Why music arrangers are underrated was published at Nadine de Macedo.

How many music genres have I tried?

Nadine — Mon, 16 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000

I have been asked quite a couple of times, in how many music genres I have tried to write songs. I call myself a multi-genre songwriter and composer for a reason, but it has been very hard to give a number. I decided to start a list with different examples that will be maintained regularly. My comfort zone Being a multi-genre songwriter is hard. You find inspiration everywhere, that you’re constantly dropped out of your comfort zone. Let’s talk, what is easy for me in different roles. Please note that some genres are in brackets, because I cannot enjoy them for personal reasons. This list is from May 2024. As a producer / mixing engineer, I love moody, heavy and melancholic music. I enjoy hard drums, heavy guitar riffs and multiple styles of vocals. It’s easy for me to mix a dense arrangement with vocals, guitars, piano, bass and drums. I feel best doing:Alternative Rock, Pop Rock, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Blues Rock, Punk Rock, (Electro House), (Hard Trance), (Epic Trance) As a composer, I have tons of fun with heavy melancholic and complex music. I’m a big fan of weird chord progressions and modulations, which is best in progressive genres. But I also do pop music, when I’m allowed to escape the usual 4 chord scheme. I’m still taking a break from electronic music. I feel best doing:Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Pop Rock, Pop Ballad, (Progressive Trance), (Epic Trance) As a lyricist, I enjoy writing heavy lyrics and diving into shady characters. I don’t mind strong language or complicated words. Storytelling ain’t my thing, so I have issues with country and singer-songwriter. My way to write is quite straight and direct – I am not a poet! I only write in English. I feel best doing:Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal, Nu Metal, Pop Rock, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock My skills as an instrumentalist are inferior, so I have to rely on mid-tempo songs with easy progressions. I hope that I can catch up on that soon and try new genres. My playing is heavy, so don’t bother me with soft emotional songs. I feel best doing:Pop Rock, Alternative Rock, Blues Rock As a listener, I love heavy, fast, complex and melancholic music. This could be literally everything, but I don’t enjoy electronic dance music right now. I like listening to:Djent, Metalcore, Progressive Metal, Nu Metal, Symphonic Metal, Folk Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Industrial Metal, Grunge, Stoner Rock, Indie Rock, Swing, (Aggrotech), (Future Pop), (Electro House), (Epic Trance), (Hard Trance), (Dubstep), (Trip Hop) This is NOT for me – neither as listener, musician nor producer: Experimental, Ambient, New Age, Synthwave, Schlager, Humppa, Retrowave, Future Bass, Hardstyle, Rave, Gabber, Future House, Classical (especially baroque), Neoclassical (exept metal), Bossa Nova, Latin, Free Jazz, Neurofunk, Baile Funk, Contemporary R&B (stuff in the 90s is good though), Mumble Rap, Funk, Reggae, Reggaeton, Danceholl, Grindcore, Speed Metal – And I’m not a fan of the 70s! A brief overview My list is very long, because I tried many genres. So I decided to write it down as a table. The left column is filled with an emoji, how I feel about trying this genre again. The digit tells the number of finished songs or remixes. Some songs are not online yet, which is why I wrote the numbers in brackets. The links go to YouTube, Bandcamp or SoundCloud, where you can listen to a sample. How to interpret the emojis:😄 = I love it and want to do more.😊 = I will try again, when I have ideas.😥 = I keep on trying, but I haven’t succeeded yet.😔 = I gave up, because it doesn’t catch me (anymore)😕 = Never again. Electro I started writing electronic music in 1998 and producing in 2003. I have tried over 30 subgenres of electronic music and figured out that my home base is trance. Most trance related genre were easy for me, but I struggled really hard in genres that need sound design or rhythm. Electronic music is in hiatus, because I don’t have fun listening, writing nor producing. Fun Genre Amount Example Experience 😕 Acid Techno 2 Acid Orbit Techno made me shift my focus from melodies to sounddesign and automation. Though succeeding with two songs I don’t feel well in that genre. 😔 Acid Trance 4 Fruchtsäure However, combining acid techno with trance has been easier for me. Adding melodies is a game changer for me, but I won’t produce this genre on my own. 😊 Aggrotech 1 All Hallow’s Eve It has been fun to produce this genre, but it was harder than expected. Whenever I have a simple melody, I will try again. 😕 Ambient 1 Ambience I’m not calm and patient enough to enjoy ambient and chill out. That’s not for me. 😕 Ballearic Trance 1 Yesterday’s Past I never planned to write something in this genre, because I don’t like it. 😕 Big Room (1) tba Today’s edm music is full of festival and big room. You need simple melodies and heavy drops. Both is a challenge for me, and I don’t really like it. But I’m working on a remix. 😔 Chill Out 2 Deep Heart It took a while to produce a chill out song. Same as ambient, the focus lies on sounddesign. I love the result, but I cannot imagine doing this all the time. 😕 Classic Trance 14 World’s Future After producing trance with the sounds of he 90s and 00s for 15 years, it’s getting boring. It has been very simple for me, but not again, please! 😕 Dance 6 Hold Me Tight Starting with dance music, I realized, that I shift towards trance. So I gave up after 3 years. 😕 Deep House / / Major props for sounddesigners. It is very hard to make textures, blips and cuts sound harmonic and cool. I lost my patience. 😕 Dream House 1 Moonlight I often feel like dream house and classic trance a connected. I can produce this, but I don’t like to, because it’s closer to ambient. 😥 Drum & Bass / / Well, I was not able to program the charismatic beat with a simple bass. Maybe I try again someday, but not now. 😥 Dubstep 2 / I like the hard wobble in dubstep, but I didn’t expect the synths to be so hard to program. Rhythmic issues followed. I succeed remixing something, but I am not allowed to upload. 😊 Electro House 5 Neotokyo After leaving trance, electro house became my second home. I can go heavier and go crazy with the bassline. It’s a good style to remix, but songwriting is hard. 😥 Electro Industrial 1 Liminal Spaces Well, I tried it a couple of times, but I had issues in sounddesign. This song definitely has some influence but isn’t pure industrial. 😥 Electro Swing / / Electro swing uses plenty of old samples with house beats. I am not a big fan of sampling, so I want to write the swing arrangement by myself. This is what makes this genre hard. I am still trying! 😄 Epic Trance 11 Adagio of Life I was so glad when I found that niche in trance music. My only possibility to write weird chord progressions and gigantic arrangements in electronic music. It’s still hard for me to write the orchestral part. On hiatus. 😕 Goa Trance / / It’s been okay to program arpeggios and bass, but I don’t feel goa and psy. 😊 House 2 Lost Letter I never expected that house is connected to soul music. If you don’t feel it, you won’t create a cool groove. I need good vocals and loops to help me with the drums, otherwise it won’t groove. 😄 Hard Trance 7 Dream of You Oh yes, I enjoyed rocking out! A genre I like to continue when I have simple melodies. 😊 Indietronica 4 Dystopia It’s never been my aim to connect pop with idm and trance, but I did a couple of these. And it worked. It’s nothing I could do intentionally. 😊 Rock House 2 It Only Takes A Miracle I love rock – I love house – But getting a good riff is harder than expected. This may happen again whenever I have a cool riff – But only with real guitars, please. 😕 Uplifting Trance 25 Breathing Rush Instruments and melodies were just in my dna, but I cannot listen to this genre anymore. 😕 Progressive Trance 9 Lightyears Away Sidechain compression made me produce this genre more often than expected. And I loved it. And now I don’t like it anymore. 😕 Tech House 3 Promenade This has been very hard, because I have no idea of sounddesign. The songs I wrote here were just experimenting with knobs. 😕 Tech Trance 4 Transitional However, combining experimental techno with trance has been easier than house. But it’s nothing I’d do again. 😕 Trap 1 Weight Trap is full of sounddesign. I didn’t succeed in writing a song, and ended up with a hybrid. 😊 Trip Hop 10 Going Nowhere This seems to be my go to genre, when I try downtempo electronic music. Pop & Hip Hop I started composing and writing pop music in 2001, but only around 2005 I was able to collaborate and produce. I need vocalists and guitarists to realize these projects. This is why I see myself as composer, but I also produce and write lyrics. I love big arrangements and acoustic instruments. Fun Genre Amount Example Experience 😕 Art Pop / / What I like about art pop is the openess to weird scales and sounds. I tried it often, but I have trouble with sounddesign. 😊 Ballad Pop 6 A.L.E.X. I usually don’t listen to ballads, but they are easy to write. I have a knack for melodramatic melodies. 😥 Country / / It is very tricky to get the country sound without banjo. I haven’t succeeded yet. 😥 Contemporary RnB / / The modern version of rnb is not my favourite genre, but I just had to try it. I wrote a beat and a chorus… and now I’m stuck. 😕 Dance Pop 2 Dancing In the beginning of the 2000s, I listened to dance pop – but I don’t like to produce it. My melodies and harmonies are not happy enough. I enjoyed it more than pure dance. 😔 Folk 1 I’m not angry Practising fingerpicking on the guitar helped me to understand folk music. It’s not my favourite though. 😔 Future Pop 1 Perpetual Machine I succeeded in writing genre typical lyrics, but sounddesign is still too hard. 😊 Gothic Pop 1 Seven Days To Live Dark, soothing, melancholic pop music with a bit of electro. Just my thing. 😔 Hip-Hop 3 Darker Programming beats has been much harder than I expected. I wrote a couple of raps, but nobody was able to turn them into a song, so I trashed them. I won’t continue unless I have a great idea. 😊 Indie Pop 2 Going My Way I never intended to try this but I liked it. Even more than folk. 😄 Pop 5 Promises Writing pop music is quite easy for me, but my tendencies go to adding a touch of rock. Pop with synthesizers and synthetic beats is hard for me. 😄 Pop Punk 5 When I’m Gone I produced many songs in that direction, and also wrote lyrics, but I’m quite fresh to writing. More to come! 😄 Pop Rock 11 Don’t tell me if it hurts What I like about pop rock is the possibility to use simple hooklines in a rock arrangement. This genre is simple for me. 😊 Trance Pop 3 Daylight Means Endeavour I will continue on this when I have more ideas. Rock & Metal Since 2006, I love writing rock music. After a couple of years, the connection to metal has been given. My guitar playing and singing is not good...

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