Today I show how you can take a simple idea with some potential into a bigger concept and eventually a song by trying a few simple production techniques, arrangement ideas and creativity hacks. This video is aimed at beginners who are not familiar with arrangement and song structure. I start with a simple chord loop and try to arrange it into a structure and add some variety to the song.

The video covers 3 topics:
1) Finding a theme for your song
2) Filling out the song with rhythm and tone
3) How to arrange your music into a structure that makes sense

Time Stamps
0:30 The original loop
1:00 Improvising to form new ideas
3:30 New chord ideas and humanizing the loop
4:00 Song structure
4:50 Adding rhythm and tone
6:30 Adding a synth to keep the tempo
8:00 Adding a bass to match the song
9:10 Drums
10:00 More synths!
11:00 Strings
12:45 re arranging the song (using multiple playlists)
14:30 Transitions
16:00 Recording some guitar

You can see from the video that I am not getting into the mixing and mastering as I create a song. This is after a few years of taking the mixing far too seriously in the early stages. Some prefer to mix everything as they go but I have found that it kills the creative energy for me! I try to match sounds well so that I don't need huge amounts of EQ and Compression right away. There are no rights and wrongs when making music.

Common Structures for a song include:
Intro (4 Bars)
Verse (8 16 Bars) + Prechorus (Optional)
Chorus(8 16 Bars)
2nd Verse (8 16 Bars) + Prechorus (Optional)
Chorus (816 Bars)

Sometime pre choruses are used depending on the genre, in my case I don't really have a pre chorus but in many genres it's essential to create build up and energy for the Chorus/Drop.

Hopefully it helps you out. Should I make more advanced videos about arrangement and structure?

Let me know in the comments below :)