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[originally posted to cohost]

So! We’ve solved one problem with loops: how to avoid the inherently blocky nature of loops. Now to solve the second problem: creating interesting large-scale forms with short loops.

I’m sure we’ve all had this problem: you’re in the zone, adding more and more layers to a loop till you’ve got a killer four measure loop. Maybe you get ahead of yourself and start mixing it. But uh oh! You’ve only got four measures! You wanted to make a 4 minute track, but you’ve only got 4 seconds!

Good news, bud! You can easily turn those 4 seconds into a glorious 4 minute piece of music! But how!?

“oh that’s easy! i’ll just start with one loop, and stack more loops on top one by one…”

WAIT!!!!! Before you do that, there might be some more interesting solutions!

Think about it: how many of your favorite songs follow that form? Not a lot! Could you still do that and be successful? Maybe! But give me a chance to change your mind.

***

This is probably my 5th attempt at writing this; it kept turning into a general discussion about composition, which is fine, but I wanna talk about LOOPS and loop-based music specifically, not traditionally phrase-based music and harmonic/melodic development. 

Who better to use as an example of loops than the legendary Hideki Naganuma?

Naganuma is a master of sampling and making long tracks out of a few short ideas! In this post, I will explore Naganuma’s Boarder 70 (Somethin’ Jazzy for Your Mind Mix) from the game Ollie King to find out how he develops short loops into a large-scale form in lieu of traditional melodic and harmonic development.

STEP ONE: Choose Good Loops

Before we can build a song, we have to have a good selections of loops, and there are two aspects we should look for: function and cohesiveness.

To start, here’s a list of all the loops/one shots I could find in Boarder 70:

First, let’s talk about function. 

Generally in western-style popular music, music is built off a “band” heirarchy: 

– lead instrument(s) or vocalist(s), usually the main focus!

– chords, to support the lead, whether it’s soft pads or chugging guitar

– bass, to serve as a rhythmic and harmonic foundation and fill the lower frequencies.

– drums/percussion, to define the groove/time and color the music (like with cymbals and fills)

Consider how your loops will function in your song. Keep in mind, parts may fill multiple roles. For example, the bass becomes fulfills a lead role at 0:20 in Boarder 70. 

There are also smaller sub-categories within these categories: you can have countermelodies playing against your leads, and you can split drums up into kicks, snares, cymbals, and other percussion.

It’s very easy to layer a bunch of loops until you just have a big messy texture, so understanding each loop’s function allows you to create hierarchy and control the listener’s attention. Note how there’s only ever one bass sound playing at once (too much bass leads to muddiness!), and how when multiple drum loops are layered, they strengthen what’s there or add a something that isn’t already there.

Next, let’s talk about cohesiveness.

If you are composing your own loops, then you probably will end up with cohesive loops naturally. But if you’re using pre-made loops and samples, it’s harder to make them feel like they’re part of the same song! So how does Naganuma choose a bunch of samples from various sources that fit together like they’re one song?

– Key and Tempo: this one is obvious! You might have to transpose and time stretch your loops to fit, but many DAWs do that automatically. 

– Rhythm/Groove: To avoid clutter, it helps if everything follows a similar groove, or counters it in a pleasing way. Notice the the orchestra/brass stabs, open hi-hats, upright bass, electric piano, acoustic, guitar etc. all follow the accent pattern of “something for your MIND, your body, and SOUL” Other elements, like the claps, snare drum, and organ/guitar lead fill in the gaps between those accents in a pleasing way.

– Sound Palette/Limited number of loops: While you can definitely blend loops and samples from many sources, notice how Hideki has two main influences here: funky guitars, brass, and drums and samba/bossa guitar, bass, and percussion. A cool juxtaposition of chill and high-energy stuff! Naganuma also only uses 25-ish loops for the whole track, and 13 are just percussion!

You could layer every loop in Boarder 70 on top of each other and it’d probably still sound good (maybe all the drums loops would sound busy, but you get the idea). Yet, notice that Naganuma practiced restraint and only used certain loops for specific sections. That way, he could create a healthy amount of contrast without going too far off from what’s been established. If he just used every loop at once from the get-go, there’d be no where else to go!

Also notice how almost everything is introduced before we’re even half way through the song! Naganuma teases the secondary “Keep steppin’…” idea (1:20), and the guitar chords actually play quietly behind everything (1:09) super early on, so when they become the main focus around 2:12, it’s not as surprise when we get such a drastic change.

Side note: one thing I love about Naganuma’s sampling is how he makes even spoken word match the key of the music! The “Something for your mind” part of the sample sits on an E, which fits in the track’s A minor-ish tonality! The orchestra/brass stabs outline the pseudo-melody of the spoken word as well. 

Check out how Naganuma uses the natural pitches of the spoken word in The Concept of Love from Jet Set Radio Future.

Now that we have a good selection of loops, how do we develop them into a full-length track?

STEP TWO: Think PHRASES not LOOPS

Okay so this is the point where I would go on a really long talk about compositional structures, but I’m gonna keep it brief!

***

When it comes to creating large-scale music, it helps to break it into smaller pieces. Just like how this post can be split into words, sentences, and paragraphs, we can break music down into motives, phrases, and “paragraphs”. So first, here’s a quick explanation of those three things:

A motive is the smallest musical unit that defines a piece of music. For example, think of the “duh-duh-duh-duuuuuuh” in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Everything in the first section of that piece is built from that!

We can extend motives into phrases. A phrase does four things: it clearly states its ideas, develops, comes to a peak, and has a clear ending.

Loops tend to fall somewhere between a loop and phrase. in *Boarder 70,* they tend to act mostly as motives.

Finally, we can group multiple phrases into paragraphs, and those paragraphs can be put together to make a whole FORM.

***

Got it? Good!

So the first step to making our loops come to life is to create phrases.

Even though *Boarder 70* consists mostly of two-measure loops, Naganuma uses these loops to create eight-bar phrases. Here’s an example of how one phrase is constructed:

At 0:10, we start with a clear statement of our idea: the vocals state “Something for your MIND, your BODY, and SOUL.” The idea develops and comes to a peak, as Naganuma repeats, “Something for your MIND your MIND your MIND” and brings it to a conclusion: “your body and soul!” Notice how on this final repeat, “soul” is spoken more stately and slowly. 

Naganuma uses the repeating your MIND regularly to punctuate phrases. If there’s one thing you take away from this section, it’s to punctuate your phrases! Punctuation is a good way to tell a listener, “hey, that was the full idea, and now we’re gonna move on to something else.”

There are many ways to create punctuation: cadences, resolving melodies, slowing down, just stopping, etc. Punctuation is also a big topic, but try listen and observe to see what makes a phrase sound like it is ending!

Notice how good punctuation can justify big, sudden changes, like at 2:11, where he changes to half-time drums and the spoken word says “and we’re going for auto-sequence start” (a literal end to a phrase + a literal way to say “hey we’re moving on now).

Finally, take note of how Naganuma applies spackle and paint: using the ends of drum loops as brief fills, giving the bass and lead some pick-up notes, extending the electric piano loop to end cleanly, etc. The punctuation also serves as a way to break the loop as well!

So yeah! That’s phrases! The final step is to combine phrases to create paragraphs and form.

STEP THREE: Creating FORM

FORM is a very big topic in composition. But long story short, form can be anything you want! But let’s start with the building blocks of form: paragraphs (aka sections).

Musical paragraphs/sections tend to focus on a single idea/group of ideas, just like text paragraphs! If I have a paragraph about monkeys, I’m not going to suddenly start talking about late-stage capitalism in the same paragraph!

We create new paragraphs/sections by exploring other ideas, or developing the same ideas in a new way. We can label these sections as A, B, C, etc. We can put these in any order we want, really! ABA, ABACABA, AABA, ABCA, ABCDEFGBA, etc., etc., etc. If you put your A idea at the start and end of your form, you’re already on your way to create a cohesive listening experience.

So, in Boarder 70, we have two main ideas:

The A idea is defined by:

– “Something for you mind body and soul!”

– Orchestra/Brass Stabs

– Organ/Guitar Melody

– Electric Piano

The B idea is defined by:

– Samba/Bossa chords

– “Keep stepping at your own pace”

– Guitar Solo

Thus, you can define the form of Boarder 70 as ABABA. Here’s a more detailed break down; note that each section is not the same length:

– A (0:00–1:08) – Intro, Vox sample comes in. We strip back to bass and build up the layers to a peak.

– B (1:08–1:30) –  A brief introduction to our B idea. The guitar solo becomes the focus and the samba guita plays quietly. We tease “Keep steppin’…” in the pauses in the guitar solo.

– A (1:30–2:14) – We kinda return to the intro, but we build back up much quicker, and introduce the electric piano. Naganuma also cheekily sneaks in a “Keep steppin’…” and teases the half-time drums right before the acoustic guitar comes in.

– B (2:14– 3:19)- We strip everything back and bring the guitar to the front, letting out B-idea shine while slowly building back up. Naganuma juxtaposes the electric piano loop and bits of “something for your mind…” to help lead us back to the A section!

– A (3:19–4:30) – We get a lil halftime breakdown with the space launch samples before the A-section hits us at full force and comes to a conclusion.

As stated before, hypothetically, all the loops could fit together, but Naganuma reserves loops for certain sections to create contrast.

***

Another note about punctuation: usually the strongest punctuation is reserved for the ends of sections/paragraphs, while weaker punctuation defines phrases. Think of it as commas and periods for sentences versus line breaks and chapters for paragraphs/sections!

If you’re having trouble exploring form, the best thing to do is to just steal it. After all, that’s basically what all the classical composers did (Sonata form, Rondos, Minuet and Trios, etc.). Most pop music follows the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus form too!

step 3.5: getting the most out of your loops:

There are a few ways the Hideki Naganuma develops his loops into new ideas:

– Recombination – exploring different combinations of loops. different drums loops are helpful for defining sections (e.g. fast v. half time drums).

– Reharmonization (or Un-harmonization?) – Even though the orchestra/brass stabs work over our B-section chords (Am-D7-G-C), without the acoustic guitar chords, they seem to imply a different progression: Em-D-Em-Am! But then, the upright bass comes in and just sits on A minor, and that totally recontextualizing the harmony again! Pretty genius, imo.

– Fragmentation – Cutting loops down into smaller parts, re-sequencing them, like when he repeats “something for you mind your mind your mind…” 

– Juxtaposition– Pitting ideas from the same or different sections against each other, creating interest as our attention shifts between contrasting sounds, or hearing sounds contextualized in a new way, like how the “something for your mind” sample is cut between the guitar solo at 2:47.

– Transposition – Naganuma mostly uses this to make loops fit better with other loops, like with the upright bass under the guitar chords; or to create new chords/change the ends of melodies, usually for punctuation

A good piece of advice I hear for building new sections/ideas is to bring something that’s been a background element and bring it to the front. And Naganuma does that! The samba guitar has been playing quietly, but comes to the front half way through. The “auto sequence start” vox have mostly been used to signal transitions, but becomes the focus at 3:30.

Conclusion

So that’s how Hideki Naganuma creates a four-minute track out of a bunch of 3-6 second loops! He takes a purposeful selection of loops, creates longer phrases, and explores different combinations to create sections of a larger form. I hope this helps you turn your short loops into something greater!

If you haven’t already, check out the rest of Hideki Naganuma’s stuff! It’s all crazy good! If you want, here’s a lil work sheet to guide you through some *musical analysis~*

This took a couple days to write, so if you made it to the end and found this helpful, consider leaving a tip or buying some tunes 😉 

Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/paperaviator

Bandcamp: https://paperaviator.bandcamp.com

Thanks, and happy creating!

[originally posted to cohost]

Hey! Remember when I talked about the common form of “loop thing, keep adding stuff” in the last post and how it’s usually boring? Well actually, I have a good and captivating song for ya that does just that: Reconte-Moi Un Histoire by M83. It’s a very cute song that I bet will make you smile :]

But what makes it work? Well, the things I talked about in [part 1](https://cohost.org/paperaviator/post/5339089-how-to-use-music-loo)! Analysis time baby B)

Here’s the song! << It’s a link because youtube won’t let me embed it 🙁

Spackle!

– Some elements fade in, like the soft arpeggio around 0:30, or the synth motif at around 2:35.

– The bass at 1:06 has a simple one-note pick up to lead the ear, and the higher guitars are strumming a little bit before the downbeat as well!

– There’s a lot of layers, but notice that even when they don’t fade in, they don’t really punch you in the face! They have a soft attack/aren’t too drastic.  Most of the song feels like a warm crescendo. Or in the case of the beginning, the sounds are all short, plucky, mid-high range instruments, so it’s not too dramatic. The drums also do not use the full kit immediately.  

– At the end, there is a big cut off, but notice how we can hear the reverb and the guitars tailing off, and of course the 2-note motif and the kick drum from the start

Paint!

– 2:06, there’s a short little cymbal roll to lead us into the climatic section.

– Bass line fills! Aw yeah.

– Lots of reverb helps soften the entries of different elements, like the vocals at the end.

– The reverb also builds up at the end (and maybe there’s a low sweeping sound?) to lead us to the end.

Not really much other than that! While sweeps and other similar sound effects are nice, they can be tiring and predictable when overused. Imagine if they happened constantly in this song. Wouldn’t be very fun!

Break!

Not everything is a 4-bar loop! We grow in scale as the song progresses: 

– We start with just a one-beat loop (or 2 beats, depending on how you feel the tempo… I’m sorta feeling in at like, 90 bpm)

– The guitar comes in and somewhat establishes a 4-bar structure, with a two chords playing for two bars each. It’s not super prominent though; it’s not really until the bass comes in that we really feel it.

– The vocal melody has a length of eight bars, consisting of two four-bar phrases.

…

– While the little motif that appears around 2:35 does loop after 4 measures, it’s built on a three-beat idea, so it doesn’t neatly fall in the 4/4 grid most of the time, leading to interesting syncopations. This element also seems to fade in and out freely! 

…

– The bass and the vocals are probably the only things that aren’t a strict loop. The bass feels very improvisatory, changing grooves ever now and then and using fills at the end of loop points. The spoken word is, well, spoken word, and its inherently uneven structure helps guide the song and make it feel more organic.

– Major changes (additional instruments and parts) are made every 8 measures, which is actually pretty long (about 10 seconds)! With the addition of the spoken word, you can lose track of when changes will happen, unless you’re counting along. A perfect balance of predictability/unpredictability!

I love how longer and more intricate elements are slowly introduced, organically leading us from something cute and little to something huge and majestic. Longer elements tend to engage us more; the shorter loops become ostinatos (fancy word for short, unchanging, repeating stuff) and feel more like background elements. Notice that we don’t get the long melodies or the more active bassline until the spoken word stops.

Conclusion

So that’s a real-world example of how you can build up your loops more effectively! M83 was able to take very very small structures—less than a second at the smallest scale, 10-20 seconds at most—and stretch it out into a 4-minute song! And it does so in a way that is captivating and doesn’t get too irritating. 

Remember: something that was is “bad” music theory-wise in one piece of music is probably perfectly fine, if not praise-worthy, in another piece of music

See ya next time when I talk more about creating form with loop-based music!

[originally posted to cohost]

Loops get a bad rap for being “basic” and “boring” and “easy,” but they are a highly effective tool for crafting music! I just think the wrong kinda advice gets thrown around (i.e. the same one piece of advice…). Effective Loop Usage is something I think about often, but I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about (maybe people do talk about this… idk, hopefully this is still helpful tho!), so whether you are writing your own loops, using premade ones, or using a mix of both, hopefully this can help you!

So what’s the common advice I hear? Something along the lines of:

a quick and easy way to build a song is to take a lot handful of loops, layer them, and add an remove them every 4 or 8 measures! something should always be changing every 4 or 8 measures!

– a lot of music tutorials

A common thing many beginners do is to start with a single loop, and keep adding loops till you reach a “peak,” then remove them one by one until you return to where you began, creating a sort of “arch” form. 

Is this a wrong way to make a song? Not at all! Is it the most effective? Not always. Music built this way tends to be:

• Predictable – if you’re just adding something new every 4 measures, it’s very easy to predict what will happen, more or less. There’s not really much in terms of a journey; we triumphantly peak without any obstacles, then just… revert all our progress?
• Stagnant – there’s only so many combinations of muted/unmuted tracks you can do. Excess repetition isn’t always bad, but not something you always want (for example, house music playing the background doesn’t need to develop as much!). Adding and removing tracks is a great way to imply form, but there’s not much movement in terms of harmony, melody, or rhythms.
• Jarring –  it’s scary when the drums just come in without warning! It can be exciting a few times, but grows tiresome after awhile (imo). This might also lead to your music feeling disjunct and disconnected.
• Lacking focus –  if you just keep layering stuff, you can easily lose any sense of focus or subject; every new loop becomes the many focus! Eventually, it becomes so busy you can’t tell what you’re listening for! Not all music *needs* a melody or focus, but a lot of good music does!

Music that has these characteristics tend to feel… “amateurish?” “Not as good?” It’s not *always* bad (hey if you like it, you like it), but maybe there’s some more interesting options!

So, how do we use loops in a way that feels organic? Has a sense of direction? Is less predictable/cliche? And how do we do this without just… writing a bunch of new stuff?

There’s two parts to this problem: 

1. The clunky nature of simply adding and subtracting loops.

2. A lack of form/heirarchy

For now, let’s just address the first problem! All it takes is three easy steps!

1. Apply Spackle

2. Add some Paint

3. Break it up

STEP 1: APPLY the SPACKLE ♡(>ᴗ•)

If there’s on thing you take away from this it’s APPLY the SPACKLE.

This was advice that my composition professor passed on to me. Just as you use spackle to hide breaks and holes in a wall, it helps to blur the lines between sections in a composition. Sure, jarring transitions are still fun sometimes, but smooth transitions are usually more satisfying and lead to a more cohesive piece of music overall. 

While this advice was mostly referring to the gaps between sections in a large-scale form, I find this advice works well on a smaller scale (i.e. loops!).

How do we apply the spackle? It’s easy!

1. Make the changes happen before and after the transition points. Both sides of the transition point should be balanced, more or less.

2. Make changes happen at different times.

Just as spackle is applied on all sides of a crack or hole, your changes should happen around your transition point!

Here’s some quick examples to explain!

“Building Layers” example

Here’s an example of how we can layer loops one-by-one in a more effective way.

In the “no spackle” example, everything just comes in on the down beat. Not bad! But feels kinda stiff.

In the “with spackle” example, the bass and the melody have a little pick up, and the drums have a lowpass filter to make them sorta fade in. Feels way more organic, almost like a band playing together (how often do band members just abrutly start/stop playing?). Notice that the “spackle” doesn’t even have to be much (it can just be one note sometimes)!

“Sections/Form” example

This example is more like the sections in a song, where many changes happen at once: the drum loop is added, the keys are removed, the lead instrument is changed, and the bass starts playing something different. Then it returns to its previous state.

Note the difference between this straight “hard cut” and the “spackled” version. The “cut” version feels a bit disjuct; not horrible, but not great. The “spackled” version is buttery smooth, and all I did was add a few things before and after the cut. No noise sweep required!

For the “spackled” version, note how nothing changes at the same time: the drums fade in and out with a filter. The keys trail out and fade back in; the second lead has a short pick up and also holds a long note past the second transition point; the bass introduces faster and slower notes a bit before it starts playing something different.

STEP 2: Add some PAINT °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Here’s some extra “paint” you can add on top of the metaphorical spackle to make it pretty and help lead the ear!

Here are some ways to dress your transitions:

– Noise sweeps, reverse cymbals/notes, risers, etc. – probably the easiest option! These sounds naturally build anticipation with their rising pitch and volume; we’ve come to understand that they mean change is coming! Just don’t overuse ’em!

– Effects Automation – Filter sweeps, adjusting reverb wetness, etc. are more ways we’ve been conditioned to anticipate change! They are also effective as “spackle” and are more interesting than simply fading in and out.

– Fills – similar idea; when instruments do a fill, we know change is gonna happen! We’re breaking away from the pattern; something’s gonna happen! Drum fills are the most common; bass fills are underrated! Explore fills on all instruments!

Here’s an example!

Here, I’ve added some sweep-y transition effects, a subtle drum fill (just took it from a separate drum loop), cymbals, and a tiny piano melody to bridge the gap when there’s not a lot of melody playing.

STEP 3: BREAK it UP ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ

Probably the worst part of that overshared advice is to make things change every 4 measures. Let me just say: stop!!!!! Your music will become instantly more interesting if you break away from this! Here’s some ideas:

– VARY the RATE of CHANGE – you don’t actually have to break away from powers of 2; instead of doing every four measures, maybe switch it up between 2, 4, 8, etc.

– REPEAT the last one or two measures – a good way to say “hey! this section is ending!” by reiterating an idea + disrupting the pattern.

– SKIP a measure or two – The opposite of the last one! Just skip some measures and move on to new stuff! Maybe not as common, but you can do it!

– POLYMETER (and stuff) – If your song is in 4/4, what if you layered it with a loop in 3/4? The loops wouldn’t alight, and you’d have 12 unique beats of music! 

– Different LOOP LENGTHS –  You could even just have a four-measure loop against a three-measure loop! That’s 12 unique bars of music now! Add a five-measure loop? That’s like 60 unique measures!!! (Might feels a bit same-y, but it’ll be clear that it’s subtly evolving. Great for background elements!)

If you’re using audio loops, remember that it’s okay to chop ’em up if you need/want to! 

Here’s the last example!

I added two extra bars before it switches to a new section. The first transition is just a little break—a palette cleanser if you will!  It’s a bit more surprising, but way more satisfying that jumping head-first into the new section, in my opinion.

For the second transition, I repeated the last part of the phrase, as though to say [in a posh voice] “Yes, I said what I said! Now go away!”

I also added a little ostinato that’s three 8th notes long, so it doesn’t line up neatly with the bar, just for a nice bit of texture!

Conclusion

So! That’s how you make loop-based music feel a bit more interesting without just like, writing longer loops lol. Hopefully this has helped you, or at least you just found it interesting! Remember:

1. Spackle!

2. Paint!

3. Break!

Also remember, repetition is your friend! Loops are your friend! While a big goal of in music is to avoid monotony, repetition is how we establish our music’s identity! It’s all about balance, baby!!!!!!!

Listen to music! Study how they imply structure and switch between sections!

I feel like this would be a good video, so maybe I’ll do that. so until then… DON’T STEAL THIS (or at least ask me first lol let’s work together). If you steal it I’ll send hbomberguy after you or something idk.

If you have any questions, go ahead and ask em!

Thanks for reading! I’m gonna write Part two sometime! Go make music! Okay! Bye! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ