Software to assist non-musician in composing songs?

[teehodson]

I am a singer in a local rock band. I am also the sole lyricist for the band. Sometimes when I have a song with a definite melody idea, it is hard to communicate my idea to the other members and get it down. I dont know a C from a G, so I cant communicate in their language. It gets frustrating at times. Sometimes I can hum the melody or my rifff idea and we can roll it iut. Other times its like hitting a wall.

Years ago, I had an Amiga with a software package called MED. It was a music editing program in which you could use the computer keyboard to arrange a tune. It had many different instruments, including several guitar voices. what was cool is you could play the keyboard and the screen would display what chord you were playing. Thereby, when you completed your riff or sequence, you had a tab to go by. It was incredibly cool to be able to do this. At that time I was not in a band though, and it was just a gimmicky thing to me. Now I have real need for such a program, but alas, the Amiga is no more. Does anyone know of a PC program trhat will do something similar?

[SomeGuyNamedRob]

Try a program called "Band In A Box"

 

It has lots of templates based on different styles that can help you framework a song.

[Wayrockin1]

I recommend Band In A Box, by PG Music.

 

You can type in each chord you want, and how many measures, and it will generate a five piece arrangement in any one of about fifty different styles of music. With a little experimentation you you could easily put toether a good sounding chord prorgession, with a minimal amount of theoretical knowledge.

 

Once you have the background done, you can record a melody for it too (or if you want, it will even do that too, believe it or not)

 

To me, it seems to work best for ballads and jazzy stuff.

 

Other people have told me a program called Jammer is good too, but I haven't tried it myself.

[BryanMichael]

I'll go along with BIAB and Jammer-

I've tried them both, and Jammer is much easier to use, although your results with these things can range from really cheesy, cliche-ridden arrangements with bad MIDI sounds to quite nice working arrangements. There is a learning curve with all of these packages-BIAB being the most complicated (but your end results will sound more natural). I like Jammer as a stating point-but these packages work in a MIDI framework, so there is still a steep learning curve if you have no background.

the quickest way I've found to sketch out new ideas is ACID.

you can download a FREE version of ACID (ACID Xpress) from Sonic Foundry. there are TONS of free loops, drum tracks, basslines, etc. on the internet. The best resource is (was)

http://www.samplenet.co.uk/network.asp

 

 

it's down right now, but should be up soon-

 

but there are lots of other resources for raw material.

With ACID, you just drop a loop into a track and "paint" a line with the loop in the track-

changing keys, setting differnt pitches, etc is very very simple.

 

But my REAL advice is to get a cheap personal keyboard or a cheap acoustic guitar and a book of chords-start learning basic chords!!! By simply being able to say "Hey my new song is G-D-C-G" to your bandmates, you will get much better results and you will be more productive, creative, and valuable to future projects.

That's all you really need to help communicate your ideas.

 

Peace,

Bryan

[teehodson]

Wow. Thanks for the quick replies and help. I will try out each one of these and see which is best for me. I would love to learn some basic chords, and do plan on getting a guitar or keyboard soon. Do you recommend either for an absolute beginner as being the easier to progress on? I assume that if I come in with a B,C#,F arrangement on a keyboard, it can be easily translated to a guitar? Thanks again...Tim

[Greenshoe]

To be perfectly honest, you're better off investing in a good consise music theory book that gives you fundamentals (even the Beatles, who couldn't read "traditional sheet music", had basic knowledge of chord structure and their own way of notation). Better yet, do a google search, and I'm sure someone has put up basic music fundamentals in a easily printable web page.

 

In the long term, you're better off for your own sake and your credibility with other musicians. From there, all you really need to convey ideas is a pencil and a piece of paper, which is great when you're on the road, waiting in line, etc. Fundamentals include:

 

TONES - (CDEFGABC - in between it's sharps and flats)

NOTES - how long you hold the tones - whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, 32nd, etc.); dotted notes, triplets, etc.

KEY - major or minor?

TEMPO - beats per minute (i.e. how fast or slow)

TIME SIGNATURE - basic rhythm and counting convention (1,2,3,4; 1, 2, 3, etc. etc.)

CHORDS - a group of notes played at once; chords are categorized as major, minor, augmented, diminished

 

These are basic stuff that you really should know; it may not have anything to do with 'raw talent', but like anything it is an easy, standardized and convenient way to convey ideas to musicians you collaborate with.

[BryanMichael]

As to which is "easier"-

well, becoming good at ANY instrument is time consuming and requires practice. If you are looking to just familliarize yourelf with the basics, I always felt that visually, the keyboard makes the most sense. Learning that each key is a "step" and then translating that to the fretboard was easier for me to visualize. Especially with many inexpensive keyboards offering labeled keyboards and "learning" modes. If you want to really communicate in a band setting however, the guitar is a valuable common denominator. I am not a "great" guitar player, but I did take on a couple of students a few years back-an 8 year old and a 5 year old

I brought a small keyboard with me to the first lessons-

Once I showed them how each fret on the guitar "equalled" one key on the keyboard, they easilly understood the idea of where to find notes on the fretboard. After two 1/2 hour lessons, an 8 year old could look at my little keyboard(stickers on each note) and look at their guitar and respond to the instructions:

"On the A string, show me where B flat is" "now show me a G on the same string"

I made it into a counting game...

 

Good luck,

Peace,

Bryan