Ok so i've been playing around with house for a while lately. and i'm still not sure on the real structure. As anyone i've tried to map other songs that influence me and so forth but they all come out different. some have a 64 bar intro with nothing but drums and a bit of effects while others have a building 32 bar intro then a break followed by something complete new.

so i just wanted to see if anyoune could share with us a complete break down of the structure of a typical house song.

Thanks


P.S. There aren't too many manuals out there on EDM structure (or maybe i had a rotten luck finding them) but wouldn't it be kinda nice to write some simple, or complex, ones and put them up here?

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Manuals for how to write music?

I think you have slightly the wrong idea. There are no rules. There is music theory which is a framework but the more you study music, in particular some of the classics, you start to find that many of these artists have found very good ways of smashing all of those theoretical rules to peices. Ideally thats the stage we all wantto get to.

Of course you need to know the rules before you can break them otherwise you are just flunking your way through the whole process. Which can sound alright or it can sound like you blatently dont know what you are doing. The point is you dont have that much control over what you are writing.

There are bajillions of music theory resources available on the internet and in print. The point isnt to slavishly follow everything that is printed. Music structure and theory is descriptive. NOT prescriptive.

My advise is to not think of music exclusively in terms of bars and breakdowns and fills at the end of every bar. If you were to do that, you would make incredibly predictible, incredibly boring music.

Just google music theory. Or search this forum for it. Learn the rules. Learn to recognise what rules are applied in your favourite songs. Whats sounds 'right' to your ears and when to use it.

Then learn how to break those rules, because music that has a mathematical and structural basis in every aspect, is not music. Its maths. And we dont listen to music for its mathematical accuracy...

house music is pretty versatile, at least it doesnt realy matter how many bars you use (you should stay within your 16 bar structure of course). if your beats and synths sound like house it is house.

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative

not manuals to write music i've alot of experience with classical for example and it's completely different from "dance" music. mainly because 8 and 12 bar blues music, made for dancing also follows a certain pattern, especially since it was made to dance. What you think is "Classical" changes key and harmonizes in a way that neither rock nor rap certainly nor EDM could do.

it always follows a structure in our scene. whether it is Intro, Part A and then B and then A and B and then breakdown C and than B A A B whatever outro there's also a similair pattern.

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A new style is born because somebody didn’t follow the rules and went against the norm in music making.
There are thousands of people making the same music with the same structures and sending the same music to record labels.
And they wonder why the record labels dont like their music? It’s because they hear the same music day in day out.
Break away from the rules and do your own house in the way you think it should sound. Its doing something different that makes the labels take notice and makes people copy your sound.
What will be the next style? Someone mixed this sound with that sound and made a new genre!
Do the same things until you get something that sounds different? If you do any crazy frogs I will just have to kill you!

quote:

it always follows a structure in our scene. whether it is Intro, Part A and then B and then A and B and then breakdown C and than B A A B whatever outro there's also a similar pattern.

I agree. Now write music along those lines.

Actually the whole point of studying classical music is to show you how often certain composers consistantly break these rules and these patterns and still manage to sound good. The idea is not to make copy/paste creations that have the same repeating patterns and intervals as every other classical piece.

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Originally posted by Derivative I agree. Now write music along those lines. Actually the whole point of studying classical music is to show you how often certain composers consistantly break these rules and these patterns and still manage to sound good. The idea is not to make copy/paste creations that have the same repeating patterns and intervals as every other classical piece.

"classic" music and EVERY single other kind of music is differenebt because everything else was made for dancing. therefore it is based on the 8 or 12 bar blues structure that is crucial in any sort of modern music. no matter if ur doing something "different or not". ambient is not dance music, neither is certain experimental stuff.

hence, if you're working on house, breakbeat you always follow certains rules whether you like it or not.

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There is no basic structure in any music genre, i think. Regarding EDM, its about creating an energy in your mix that makes people wanna move thair feets

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quote:

Originally posted by Lepanto "classic" music and EVERY single other kind of music is differenebt because everything else was made for dancing. therefore it is based on the 8 or 12 bar blues structure that is crucial in any sort of modern music. no matter if ur doing something "different or not". ambient is not dance music, neither is certain experimental stuff. hence, if you're working on house, breakbeat you always follow certains rules whether you like it or not.

About the only thing that is common to all house music is that incessant four-on-the-floor kick beat. Other than that, it really depends on what you want to sound like. Oldschool House tended to be very simple, with a one or two bar syncopated baseline in a Dorian mode, then go through a laundry list of TR-808 sounds doing spastic rhythms. Something of an A - B - C - D and however many more different rhythms you can think of. Other forms of house have completely different layouts. Progressive house, for instance, follows a layout somewhat similar to trance, building layers over a repeating bassline.

But seriously. There are no defined layout rules for house. Just go with what moves you.

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Keep it simple with a few catchy riffs and a good bassline, and then just try to make a bunch of clever edits to keep it interesting for 6-7 minutes. Breakdowns can be anywhere from non-existant to huge, depending on what feel you're going for and how clever you are =P

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quote:

Originally posted by thoughtlessjex About the only thing that is common to all house music is that incessant four-on-the-floor kick beat. Other than that, it really depends on what you want to sound like. Oldschool House tended to be very simple, with a one or two bar syncopated baseline in a Dorian mode, then go through a laundry list of TR-808 sounds doing spastic rhythms. Something of an A - B - C - D and however many more different rhythms you can think of. Other forms of house have completely different layouts. Progressive house, for instance, follows a layout somewhat similar to trance, building layers over a repeating bassline. But seriously. There are no defined layout rules for house. Just go with what moves you.

house has alot of structure how on earth are you going to say that it doesn't? house definatly has that bassline, which could be or not the driving force behind the whole track, or it could be layered with sampled instruments like trumpets, jazz/wah wah guitar, etc. the kick is constant but so is the 2/4th beat snare. and offbeat high hats.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sean Walsh Keep it simple with a few catchy riffs and a good bassline, and then just try to make a bunch of clever edits to keep it interesting for 6-7 minutes. Breakdowns can be anywhere from non-existant to huge, depending on what feel you're going for and how clever you are =P

that's a bit more like it.

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