The Finishing Touches!
In the fourth and final week of our songwriting challenge we're now polishing and re-recording all the parts to get a final song! Check out the previous installment of this mini-series here to see how we got here.
DAW?
The most common way for musicans to record songs is to use a DAW on a computer. DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation, and is essentially a recording studio in your computer! There are many many options out there, all with various pros and cons. Jonty, our producer, is using Logic Pro which is available on Mac.
In the previous installments Dan wrote and recorded the rough ideas in a loop pedal. Now we're moving on to getting a much fuller sound by introducing drums and bass too. The first thing to set up is the drum track, as this gives us a tempo to record to and a nice feel for the whole song.
Once you have the drum beat you can begin to layer up the parts! As you can see in the video the introduction of a new instrument and bring a fresh sound and some inspiration - so if you want to change your parts to fit go for it!
Slapping the Bass
Ok, so Dan's not a proper bass player, but as the instruments are tuned the same way, it's easy to find the root notes on bass and record them in to add in a really important part of the sound. If you have access to a real bass player this is a great time to ask them for some ideas! Otherwise, going for the root notes, and following the pushes and rhythm of the drums is a good place to start.
What We've Learnt
Over the course of this challenge it's become clear that there are a lot of factors that go into writing a song. Obviously you need plenty of creativitly and inspiration, but Dan has also relied heavily on combining his creativity with a fantastic knowledge of the fretboard and music theory to quickly take the song exactly where he wants it to go! In particular Dan has used the CAGED System to be able to play chords and scales across the neck, and the Harmonised Ionian Scaleto create the chord progression. Check out our those links to our free courses on both to really give yourself an edge in your songwriting!
Put In A Solo
Obviously, this is totally optional! Not every song needs a solo, but sometimes it's hard to resist! Check out the final mix and please send us your own songs - we'd love to hear them!
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