Tell A Story With Your Music: 4 Practical Prodiction Tips (Day 10: Production Challenge)

So you have the basic elements of your track: chord loops, bass drums etc. But how can you make them tell a story that takes the listener from start to finish using only music and no lyrics? In this video, I give you practical production tips on how you can achieve this in your tracks.
Welcome to Day 1 of the 12 Days of Creativity! A production challenge crafted to empower and inspire music creators to make more music! The giveaway & track submissions are now closed, BUT you are still welcome to do the challenge whenever you feel stuck with your creativity! Just check the below link for structured guidance, and whoever finished the challenge still gets some nice gifts & freebies.
➢ SIGN UP & EXTRA MATERIAL: www.lnamusic.com/challenge-pa...
➢ MY ONLINE MUSIC PRODUCTION COURSE: www.lnamusic.com/challenge-pa...
➢ Listen to the finished track "More Time" I made during this challenge: distrokid.com/hyperfollow/lna...
➢ I was just thinking - KZbin channel: / @iwasjustthinking
➢ My Important Links (Music, Socials, Merch, Patreon): linktr.ee/liina_music
➢ 12 Days Of Creativity Playlist: • 12 Days Of Creativity ...
➢ Sign up to DistroKid with 7% off your first year of membership: distrokid.com/vip/LNA
➢ Check out Baby Audio here: babyaud.io/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:43 What is storytelling in music production?
01:12 Tip 1: Copycat Technique
02:40 Tip 2: Call & Answer
04:16 Tip 3: Layers & Harmonies
07:23 Tip 4: Rhytmic Instrument
09:06 Using Audio Effects & Automation To Support Storytelling
10:47 Daily Inspo: How making a music challenge monthly can improve your skills

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

The giveaway & track submissions are now closed, BUT you are still welcome to do the challenge whenever you feel stuck with your creativity! Just check the below link for structured guidance, and whoever finished the challenge still gets some nice gifts & freebies: ➢ SIGN UP & EXTRA MATERIAL: www.lnamusic.com/challenge-page/12daysofcreativity2023 ➢ MY ONLINE MUSIC PRODUCTION COURSE: www.lnamusic.com/challenge-page/AbletonLiveTrackFromStartToFinishCourse ➢ Listen to the finished track "More Time" I made during this challenge: distrokid.com/hyperfollow/lna3/more-time

[@edwinbrown9951]

Love it!

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

So glad! 😊

[@sardarbelal3114]

Nice ❤

[@djterhinator]

These tips call for blowing up the project once again! 😅

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

Boom! 😂

[@potterb39]

Boom click Boom Boom Clap! 😮

[@MrPeteybee]

Great ideas :) *jumps back on Ableton*

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

Have fun!

[@musicadigama]

Mindblowing 🤯🤯🤯

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

🤯❤️

[@justjoannec8399]

These are some very helpful ideas! I like what you did with harmonies. I think I have been doing some of these sorts of things for a long time but I didn't know WHY I was doing it. I just knew it sounded right to me. I think another tip I would add is the presence of silence. I feel like in a track where a lot is going on, it is good to have breaks where people can have a chance to process and think before you go on to the next idea.

[@justjoannec8399]

Okay I see it now. You do this. It's just you call it something else. I think you call it the drop? Is that right. Anyway, it's the same thing. I think I might come back to this video. Maybe more than once!

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

OK, this is the only option of social media I'm on 😀. I entered the challenge page, but there was no sharing function, so here I come. I think I have four themes: I have to start with confessing I left the step-method used here almost from the start. Not deliberately, but it happened. Generally I use this method indeed to test new plugins, play for fun etc. However, this challenge makes me raise the bar a bit higher, I use my inspiration. But for the second time in a row I derail. Why? Just like last year I heard an inspiring sound, in this case a guitar player playing a simple riff (last year it was the jungle rhythm of my washing machine, caught by accident in a recording). So I thought the riff would create the beat, and we're in step 1. But that didn't go as planned. And this time I realize it is a fundamental issue, I think. I wrote songs before, composing in guitar. However many (of my) riffs and lyrics don't fit in nicely in a four beat measure. They often start on the 3, or the 4, or in between. They are/use syncopes. So, say, 20% of the riff is in a measures 1, and the rest is in a 2. But the riff is nicely 4 beats. So you need two bar for one bar of sound. Just like last year it takes a lot of effort to get the basic hook of my track in the grid. Apparently my skills don't suffice to get that (natural) riff nicely on the beat. So I take it 'off the grid' (so it doesn't 'jump'), I thought last year I got the skill, but in the end there are (tiny, mean) settings that ruin things (I must have changed the preferences, concerning warping samples). So I have figure put what this 'off grid' mean for the other tracks. Everything I move won't snap. So, there's two options: be very skilled, know all about clip editing, moving clips (today I found out you can't copy clips when 'automation' is 'on'), or stay nicely within your measures (never exceed 1, nor 4 or 8). Another issue is to have good discipline in naming your versions of your set (as a side note: this year I decided not to try new things in my main set, but in a set apart, and copy a satisfying result to my main set. That's a skill of its own. You also better be very organized in naming, saving clips, and keep a tidy administration of folders. A name that says it all to me late at night is an enigma the next day. Consolidation and saving samples tidy will make you work more smoothly, but will interrupt your creative eruptions. Does we all know how the sample folders are organized and where/how to find them? Last year I used the Vocoder and that went wonderfully well. So why not do it again now? Apparently it was a lucky shot. The result are very poor wit another instrument. Great results can be a coincidence. Magic numbers: this year I played and fooled around a lot in session view. There I regularly (stupidly) struggled when chords, basslines and melodies didn't stay in sync ( but at the start they do). Of course they have to be multiplies of a same basic number, probably 4. For a bassline of 4 measures will run out of sync with a melody of 6. But also 4 and 8 might go wrong. By now I believe apart from basic simple drum parts one should never start with 4 beat-clips, it is a recipe for stuckness. Being aware or having guidelines will save you a lot of time (and frustration). This is not to complain 😉 , but the idea of the challenge is also sharing the experiences in the workflow. These are my experiences on workflow level. I learn a lot, again, like last year, but it is exhausting too.

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Oh, some more ruminations 😁: I figured out: last year you played 3 minutes of the selected entries. To prevent being played incompletely I did some calculation. My track was 126.65 BPM *), so three minutes means about 94 bars. Make that a multiple of 8, and you get 96. so I can divide my track in four parts of 24, or six of 16. You can make some general decisions what kind of music you want in which part. You where to start things ans can keep parts open for later ideas. I do think the best inspiration comes from outside your tools. And then you bring it in. for example you hear or think of a sentence, for example: Tomorrow I will change my life. That has a nice rhythm. OMG, again, the MO in tomorrow has to go to beat 1. Which shows, such a sentence will not come when you are fiddling in a DAW. Like in computer programming, the best ideas come when you're AFK. Neither do your best song come when playing a chord progression on a guitar and try to find lyrics that follow those chords. Stoytelling: I cut and pasted two samples to a Q&A. They nicely had two colors, the Qs and the As. After consolidating however all parts had one color 😭Try to fit that on the beat 😉. *) OK, I took my riff from a YT-video. The sound is a long sample, and when you cut a part from it it is (musically) a short sample. But without consolidation, is it stil a long sample? Ableton has separate settings for short and long samples. Concerning those settings it is relevant whether you import samples that have steady beat (created with beatmachines, DAWS etc) or samples with a natural/human (non-steady) beat. This is a forest you haver to know the trees of.

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

For completeness' sake, this is not a request for advice, but sharing in the sense of (as I perceived it) the challenge. Last year I considered becoming a patreon, but since I felt rather drained after finishing my track and since I'm easily challenged monthly challenges seemed a bit of a risk/overload to me.

[@jessus3923]

"Sound of a train" -> Toto - Africa rhythm section coming through😅 Ja tuosta biisistähän tulee bangeri!❤️

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

Kiitos! Se tulee ulos nyt 18 päivä 😊

[@davidmarshall5665]

Still too scared to do the social media bit.

[@LNADoesAudioStuff]

Not a requirement to join the challenge :)

[@CHONK-Music]

It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there. Don’t worry if you’re not ready for it