Today I learnt how to actually use Ableton and make tracks and download instruments, and this is what I have so far. I have a drum beat that I am happy with and a standard bass that accompanies it. I aim to make an upbeat song with powerful drums and eventually a fast guitar.
20/11/23, My drums are inspired by Ringo Starr’s use of the tom drums, and modern rock’s use of the crash cymbals in place of something like the ride or hi-hats, making for a strong feel for the song.
1st Track WIP
This is what I have so far; drums and bass. I am trying to figure out the bass pattern so it does not become the focal point of the song, because I want the drums to eventually have a solo for the drums that I will be inspired by Ringo Starr for.
My bass pattern is rather fast even though the BPM is set to 80. I like how fast it is though as the drums are strong and they go well together. When I produce the guitar I am thinking of making it a little slower than the other instruments.
21/11/23, I have changed the drums yet again to include more toms and no hard cymbal smacking. This gives a sort of tribal groove to the kit that I am fond of, and brings pleasure to listen to. I think this is the way to go for the drums as they do not overpower the bass, but they definitely set a strong foundation for the rest of the piece, like every instrument will have their own “turn”, or in musical terms, a solo each. I also included a guitar that copies the same notes as the bass guitar, just at a different octave… because having the guitar start on c1 would be terrible.
2nd Track WIP
27/11/23, The song is finally complete and I have structured it properly. The final bounce was exported at 4:10pm and I am happy with the 34 bars that I have made.
This is all 34 bars as they appear on my screen, with a short drum intro, a verse and chorus that respectively go for 8 bars each, and then the verse and chorus repeat albeit with minor changes.
The rock guitar that I chose copies the melody of the bass and turns it into chords, where I have shifted it down a few octaves to get a “dark” and “angry” feeling from it. For non-chorus, there isn’t a particular key it sticks to, and uses notes from every key – it’s hard to pin down exactly, but in the chorus I find I am using C# Minor with drawn out power chords to give the song time to breathe, with all the short, snappy chords in the verses.
In the second verse/bridge, instead of following the two bar each pattern on both guitars, I allow the first melody to repeat three times before an abrupt switch into the other pattern, entering the chorus once more.
The drums are largely unchanged and have different sections in the song for both verse and chorus, getting somewhat busier when the chorus plays.
Final Track Bounce