Electronic dance music production can be an intensive, often daunting endeavor. To stay motivated during this hectic period, be sure to form connections with fellow producers and industry pros in order to exchange ideas and collaborate.
Dance music offers a vast array of subgenres and genres, so it’s essential to find one that excites you. Once you do, learn how to craft your tracks so they sound exactly like that style.
Intros
The intro of a song is essential in dance music production, setting the style and tempo. Additionally, it serves to introduce listeners to what follows throughout the remainder of the track.
Dance music intros tend to be short and straightforward, typically featuring only one instrumentation element. This makes it easier for DJs to blend tracks together seamlessly in the club environment.
Professional producers often modulate their sounds throughout a song to keep it exciting and captivating. For instance, an aggressive lead patch could serve as the initial melody line, but after repeated listens the producer might switch to a mellower bass sound.
Therefore, it’s essential to consider what could serve as the opening of your next track. You could use a loop created specifically for that purpose or create an extended build-up leading up to your big drop.
Alternatively, you might consider including a sampled vocal in your intro as an additional layer. This can provide the audience with an authentic and powerful start, since the sampled voice provides that emotional component needed for success.
The major components of a dance song are the Intro, Verse, Chorus (or ‘Hook’), Breakdown and Build Up. By adhering to these basic structures, you can guarantee that your arrangement will flow naturally.
Verses
Verse is an effective songwriting tool, adding depth and nuance to the lyrical and sonic composition of your track. Additionally, it gives the piece a forward momentum that builds towards the chorus.
The verse is often the longest part of a song and where composers can tell their story. This section can make an impact on listeners and keep them invested in what comes next.
Verses typically last 8-16 bars. A bar in music refers to a measurement of time that’s four beats long.
Verse sections typically remain consistent in length, providing the piece with a sense of predictability and balance that’s familiar and pleasing to listeners. As such, many genres of dance music arrange verse sections into blocks of four, eight, or sixteen bar phrases for easier access.
Verse sections typically feature more poetic content than their chorus counterparts. This could range from simple repetition of phrases, to complex compositions with multiple lyric themes.
Choruses on the other hand can be more free-form. They might include a short hook, captivating lyric phrase or even an instrumental solo.
To create a dramatic contrast between verse and chorus, keep vocals mono for the verse and double or triple them up for the chorus. You can do this by recording additional takes manually, panning them wide, or simulating this effect digitally using a plugin like Vocal Doubler. Slight time and pitch discrepancies between layers will further accentuate this effect.
Bridges
A bridge is a brief section at the end of a song that contrasts with its verses and chorus to keep things exciting. Popular music often refers to this transitional element as the’middle eight’, serving as an introduction into the final chorus, providing additional emphasis for that final moment of the track.
When writing a song, it’s important to consider its structure. The most popular form is an arrangement with verse and chorus sections – this is the standard format for most modern pop tunes.
Verse and chorus form of a song helps it stick in your memory, as it’s the most easily recognized element. Additionally, this structure creates anticipation and excitement for what comes next in the composition.
However, this format can become monotonous if it is repeated too many times. The bridge breaks up this repetition by providing new musical and lyrical elements that differ from the chorus and verse sections.
Another approach is to switch up the chord progression during the bridge, allowing the song to take a different turn. This can add variety and contrast, but be mindful not to sound abrupt.
Other options for adding variation and contrast during the bridge include changing the key, tempo or time signature. However, this could prove challenging if listeners are already into the groove of the song.
Breakdowns
Breakdowns are an excellent way to introduce a fresh musical element into a dance music track. They add an energetic and impactful dimension to the verse/chorus structure, keeping listeners more involved and motivated.
They can also serve as a momentary pause between sections of the song, making them ideal for when the energy level of the track is low – such as after an exciting drop section.
Drum n’ Bass uses breakdowns as a great way to build anticipation before the big payoff arrives. 4004’s Fanta Club serves as an excellent example of this technique in action.
This breakdown contains three eight-bar sections, each using a unique chord progression. In the first segment, chords are reversed in order, while in the second and third they repeat one of the previous chords.
The reversed progression gives the breakdown a unique sound, yet still retains the overall feel of the original melody. This simple trick adds interest and tension without altering its melodic structure.
Metal breakdowns can be challenging to create, but they’re an effective way to bring a song section together in an inspiring manner. Additionally, they offer you the chance to change up the tempo of your track and create an atmosphere of dynamic contrast.
Rhythms
Rhythms are an integral component of dance music production. They not only enhance a piece’s quality, but they can even be used to create distinct qualities of movement.
Choreographers often alter the rhythm of dance movements to achieve a more dramatic effect. For instance, slow, even rhythm can create softness and fluidity in dance movement, while fast asymmetrical pulse makes the motion appear attenuated or uneven.
Additionally, certain genres of dance music, such as ballet, often feature strong rhythms. This is because the music must be able to propel its plot along and motivate its characters.
However, some styles of dance music do not follow a set meter. These are commonly referred to as ‘compound time’ and describe how beats are divided up into smaller subdivisions; examples would include 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8.
Therefore, it is essential for dancers to comprehend the fundamentals of rhythmic structure. This includes knowing how to count a pulse and comprehending various symbols used to denote rhythmic patterns and time signatures.
In this experiment, participants observed a point-light figure (PLF) dance in either duple meter or triple meter to an ambiguous auditory rhythm and then heard two comparison rhythms that were accented in duple meters or absent completely (see figure 3). They then judged which of these beats was more similar to the standard rhythm.
Impact
Music and dance when used with positive intentions can strengthen social cohesion, foster a sense of belonging, and reduce prejudice against people perceived as “other groups”[69]. Furthermore, these activities may improve cognition, health, and well-being.
McCrary and colleagues’ recent systematic review demonstrates the beneficial effects of music and dance participation across 17 health domains, such as social wellbeing, mental health, self-reported physical health, immune function, cognitive ability and body composition. Participants reported reduced stress levels, improved moods and higher energy levels after participating in these activities.
However, we need to gain more insight into the ways music and dance production can have an effect on our world. This could include researching how these two arts affect the brain and how this change may be linked to music’s sonic characteristics.
Studies have demonstrated that the brain is plastic when it comes to both music and dance, with long-term practice of one modality leading to changes in how nerve activation is coordinated. In dance movements, this coordination occurs via mirror neurons and may be related to emotions associated with certain movement patterns.
This was especially the case for rave music, an electronic dance music genre that emerged in the early 1990s and combined samples from many musical genres with vocals or dialogue taken from films or television programs. Compared to earlier styles such as house or techno, rave music combined a more percussive approach along with syncopated beats or breakbeats.