Writing music.

[Drummerpete]

This is a tutorial for writing music, and what to, or not, to do.

I use Guitar Pro, but the concepts and ideas can be carried over to other programs.

What kind of music to start out with?
I would start off with any kind of music, but try not to do something too big, stick to 3 or 4 instruments.
Depending on what style you're writing, the instruments will vary, for example; battle music often has distorted & overdriven guitars, but small cvillage tunes will have violins or flutes.

Picking a scale
There are two main types of scales; **Major** & **Minor**; **Major** is used for happy & upbeat songs, and **Minor** is used for sad songs.
In guitar pro, if you open the "guitar fretboard" it shows you al the notes in the scale you chose.

This is an example of the "C Major" scale in guitar pro.
So you would stick to that scale, otherwise things could get complicated if you're not to shiny on music theory.

I have my scale, now how do I start?
First, choose a tempo. Average speed is 120, but for this piece, something like 80/90 would be fine.

Now, choose your instruments.
As I said before, it depends on what you're writing.
In this example, I will choose a village jingle: It is going to be in the key of **C Major** and the instruments will be "Violins" for the rythym, "Flute" for the melody, "Double bass" for the bass, and "Percussion".

**First of all, write a bass line.**
When you start to write music, it's best to start with a four bar riff. Have your first bar the note c, then the next three bars any other note in the scale, ie. E, F, G, A, B, etc..
Try C, G, F, A.

**Next, Place the rythym on top.**
This is where we add a violin part.
For each bar, add in exactly the same as the bassline. Keep the first note of each bar but change a few notes. this makes it sound very nice, for example (this is the fret number of each instrument, like in GP):

RYTHYM 8–10-8--7--3--5--3--3--1--3--1--3--5--3--5--7--
BASS.. 8--8--8--8--3--3--3--3--1--1--1--1--5--5--5--5--

This is the basis of your song now.

**Now, Melody!**
This is the easy part.
Again, start with a C not, usually an octave above the rythym, and really experiment. Stay within the scale, but use any notes. It is easier to use notes next to each other, but you can skip a few, for example:

MELODY 8–8--10-13-13-12-10-10-8-10-8--7-

Or something like that. Note: _That melody line is off the top of my head, I have no idea how it would sound, it's just an example of how to write one._

Like I said, experiment until you find something catchy, or nice, depending on what you're aiming for.

**Finally, add in percussion**
Now, this could get complicated, because GP used numbers to reprisent drums, but other programs might use loops or whatever.
Now loops are fine, but I, being a drummer, preffer to write percussion myself.

For a piece like this, I would add quarter notes on the hi-hat in each bar.
Then add the bass drum on every first beat of the bar.
Add the snare on the third beat of each bar.
So far, this is the basic rock beat, which is fine, but just add in a crash cymbal wherever, and an extra bass drum here and there.
See, percussion is easy. ;)

Save, and you're done.
Yep, that's about it.
You can vary each part to have different section, but that's the basics of writing a song.

Later on today, I will write out what I just wrote, to give an example of how it Sounds.

Hope I helped, and enjoy.
If you have any questions or comments, just ask.

UPDATE
Attached is the MIDI file made with this tutorial; the rythym is one octave higher than the bass in this.

[Autlos]

This should help musicians, this is Guitar Pro #?

[Godlord]

Finally, this is what I need. Thanks a lot Desiderium! Can you write some more of these? :P

Regards,
  Godlord.

[Khachaturian]

I always tinker around with the programs till I get the hang of it
I got most music theory down though,
but if possible, learn to play an instrument, it helps a ton

good tut Dez

[Tyr]

This is awesome, always wanted to do this but never knew… how.
EDIT: i wanted to write real music, not game music :p

[Drummerpete]

This theory can be used for songs as well, not just game midis.

The principle is the same.
Bass, rythym, lead, and you can throw percussion in whenever. xD

Also, as bone said, it's great if you learn to play an instrument, because the theory of guitar is incredibly useful.

@Autlos:

> This should help musicians, this is Guitar Pro #?

5.2, I think.

[Khachaturian]

Theory of piano is good too

[Alster]

@Desiderium:

> BASS.. 8–8--8--8--3--3--3--3--1--1--1--1--5--5--5--5--

I'm so playing that now… God bless the guy who invented TAB.

[Drummerpete]

lmao..

I have no idea how that sounds, honestly; I'm writing this up now..

[L0lz]

> God bless the guy who invented TAB.

[SFMapleMasta]

too bad its not free :o
good tutorial though!!! :D

[Drummerpete]

@SFMapleMasta:

> too bad its not free :o
> good tutorial though!!! :D

Thing is, if you use software similar it can be applied anyway.

Thanks as well. :)

I was thinking of doing a more advanced music theory tutorial.. Problem is it'd be a big wall of text.

[gamerdudedude]

not much for me here though, as I already know music theory, which is basically what this is XD.

[guitarlover]

Thanks a lot for sharing the sheet music, it is really very helpful.

[ZoSo]

This isint a tutorial on how to write music..
:P, its more of a tutorial on how to use Guitar Pro.

Writing music, or any other form of art is something which cannot be learned through a tutorial..

Nevertheless this is a good tutorial, well written and easy to read. Good job anyway.

[Drummerpete]

I know what you mean.
I was really trying to focus on structure.
Might do a new tutorial soon if I can be bothered.