Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Mizuno K
Music's Rule of Three. The idea is to have only three musical phrases playing at any one time in your song. Going beyond three or four elements at once can crowd your track, making it harder for your audience to connect and recall your composition.
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Read More »1. Swap | This music production technique is a lot like wrestling. Your song is the ring and your instruments are the wrestlers. Your “wrestlers” play off each other, they team up, and they tag in new wrestlers waiting in the wing for their moment to lead. Now enter the ring, the vixen of vocals. Don’t look now, here comes the bad boy of bass. Watch out! It’s the doomsayer of drumssss. With each transition to a new part of the song comes another swap of instrumentation. For example, a song opens with horns, bass, and drums. Then, the horn player tags out and the vocalist tags-in, continuing the melody where the horns left off. Rather than adding more and more “wrestlers” to the ring, swap-out parts to add new energy. Each new combination of leading instruments will re-engage your listener at every turn. This technique is the foundation of many popular songs. “I love combining a simple vocal and bass line — this can be really effective. Listen to the latest Rihanna and Drake records — there are barely any chords in there, yet the songs sound full.” — Morgan Page, Grammy Nominated Producer 2. Stack | When two or more instruments play at the same time such as drum and bass, the brain records it as one element. Stacking instruments like this can add texture and volume to your sound without overcrowding your song. Try having the bass play at the same time as the kick drum. Or have your guitar play a melody in concert with your vocal. The Beatles stacked their vocals with guitar and piano in hits such as Here Comes the Sun, Norwegian Wood, and Martha My Dear. Stacking two or more elements can add weight to your track without the “fat.” 3. Solo | Isolating an element of your track can make an opening, bridge, or break really compelling. Instead of introducing a whole new part, recycle or remix a familiar musical phrase from the verse or chorus. It’ll stand out and reinforce the memorability of that melody which appears multiple times throughout the song. Repetition is your friend. “One golden rule for me is ‘if you can’t hear it, delete it.’ If you have a significant sound/hook make sure that you really hear it in the mix. Don’t be scared to have things in the mix that really stand out.” — Max Martin 4. Silence | When you’re mixing, listen for parts that drag down the energy of your track. The space you create by muting non-essential elements can add volume to the whole. For instance, mute that airy synth that’s fighting a vocal lead. And once you’ve paired it down, boost the volume of the remaining elements.
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Read More »5. Paint | Pulling back extra layers that clutter your track may dull some sections of your song even after boosting the remaining tracks. This is when you can pull out your sonic paintbrush to add some color. Try adding texture to your instrumentation with effects like reverb, distortion, and delay to fill in gaps. 6. Filter | To avoid overlap between your instruments, try using low or high-pass filters that create space and sharpen your mix. Filters act like road lines keeping each instrument in its own lane. Filter out the low-end of your piano so that the low frequencies of your bass melody can pass through the track unimpeded. Or try filtering out some of the mid-frequencies from your guitar or synth chords that seem to be fighting with your vocal lead. These subtle and simple cuts can really sharpen your overall mix.*** 7. Carve | Another way to carve out some clarity in your song is by using side-compression. Side-compression uses the frequencies of one instrument to create space for another. Side-compression works like a see-saw — as one instrument goes up in volume, the other ducks down. It takes a bit of practice, but once understood it can effectively help you carve out some space for your vocals or lead instrument while adding dynamic swing to your sound. And in a creative misuse, side-compression can be used to produce volume swells, common in EDM and Hip-hop. Why should you design within the confines of Music’s Rule of Three? Well, are you looking to create music that’s catchy and singable? The prevalence of the practice among pop music is no accident. Music that’s refined by the rule packs a potent punch.
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