Ayyee thanks for the CnC my friend. Yeah one of my bros just told me about making it a bit more unique, which is what I did with this one beat I just cooked up.
After listening to that beat for awhile I did notice that the Gross Beat on the Melody didn't correspond with the 2nd part of the song whenever I added it to it.
I'll make sure to see if it all sounds well now.
CnC preciated!

https://soundcloud.com/ricktick/heat

Programs Used : FLStudio 12

Well, the notes aren't really placed myself, that was an arpeggio and apparently some of the arpeg notes were just off. When ever I played it back I'd hear the correct notes play sometimes and then it'd miss a note whenever i'm trying to listen for something else. Not sure how to really fix, I figured that the missing notes and off key notes would add a little uniqueness to it but yeah I can see where you're coming from.

The only place where I place the notes is at :53 lol and that's for the 1/3 beat delay effect.

Never really intended to use little off key notes. But i'll make sure to not do it much in the future I guess lol.

I don't really know if i'm gonna get serious about it. But If it's something that I have potential in then I'll try to go with it.

I'll pm you some contact info just in case I need any help my guy. Thanks again for the CnC.

On the contrary, there is truly no such thing as an off or wrong note! Only when things are judged through the theoretical framework of ideas of "good sounding" music from over a hundred years ago are they wrong or off.

Theory is only useful for explaining things, if you're not trying to set up perfect counterpoint or a quintessentially boroque chord progression (lol) do you need to perfectly follow a scale. If you put down a note and decide it sounds good, there is absolutely 0 reason to remove it just because it doesn't fit with whatever scale you're writing in.

I think it actually sounds pretty cool. The arpeggio has a really interesting sound to it, but its not so dissonant that its jarring. To me, it seemed like more of the parts that were a little jarring were meant to be, and it captured my attention for each new part well. That gimmick would eventually get old though, so make sure to explore new ways to catch the listeners attention.

I'd also recommend you try out writing with more active voices, because it can sound a bit thin at times where I expected it to really sound heavy and mean, but that's, again, merely a recommendation.

Form might be an even bigger part of writing music than functional harmony, though, so another recommendation would be to introduce novel musical ideas throughout the piece and periodically alter them to keep things interesting. That's something I think a few of your voices could have benefited from. In general though, you did a decent job at this.

I think you have me on discord if you wanna hmu. I know a good bit of music theory as well and if you have any questions for stuff like that Id love to try to answer them

Before you start your song decide what key you want it to be in. Google 'notes in E minor' (or whatever key you want), then stick with those notes. When you're writing the song, if you feel that it sounds cool to incorporate an off-key note or two, go ahead.

On your track, I reckon there's gotta be a bit more melodic variation. It's just the one same melody through-out (granted you do some kind of staccato breakdown with it), towards the end I felt it getting a bit tedious.

Might be worth investigating how to create risers, as I feel this song would certainly benefit from their addition.

Also, add a bassline.

Ayyy my boy pouffy, thanks for the feedback g.

I don't have you on discord my g, but I can send you my skype in a PM if you ever want to talk about some shit. Thanks for the info, will take into consideration.

And Ele, I never usually pick a key I want it to be in, I literally open a piano and create a nice sounding melody with keys and try to flow with that idea. Then change the instrument to something else to give it a vibe.

And does it not have a bass line? There's an 808, kick, and snare lol.

Yeah that's what I do whenever there's to many low frequencies and things start to clash. I usually add a high pass filter on the instrument. And when I said snare, I just assumed it went with a bassline because you know, boom-clap.

My skype crapped out so I just uninstalled it lol. Discord is the best way to get a hold of me now.


Wrong notes do not exist in and of themselves. Music is a pyschoacoustic phenomenon; If even one person thinks a particular arrangement of notes sounds good, then it isn't wrong. It may be dissonant. Hell, it might be extraordinarily dissonant, but never wrong. If someone writes something that sounds bad to you, but sounds perfect to them, your dislike is simply a symptom of you not understanding it. It doesnt matter what the mass of people think if people are chasing their inner muse while writing music.

Another point, theory merely gives us the vocabulary to talk about scales. It can't and shouldn't tell us to religiously follow them, it just explains them. Just like how it explains why many non-scale tones sound great (or consonant or act as a resolution or whatever more objective vocabulary you want to use).


Maaaaaaan, how pretentious do you think I am that I intentionally listen to music I dont think is good just so I can escape the humdrum of indistinguishable music.


I'm not saying he shouldnt learn theory, I'm saying he should step into it in a way where he doesn't feel constricted by it (stick to only one scale) in a way that damages his creativity. It's good to have a greater understanding of something, but its better to be able to apply your understanding without arbitrary restriction.

I'm right now trying to find a formula to provide a rough map of consonance & dissonance and I've spent months looking into temperament theory to learn enough to attempt it - so trust me, I know the value of theory and the light it can shine on music.


Something you might want to try is laying out some different sequences of notes (e.g. C - E, C - G, C - #F), find which intervals you like the most, and practice approaching them in different ways (e.g. C - F - G, C - #D - E, C - D - #D - G, etc.) listening for what you appreciate best. Then use those patterns in your music. Start in C (using mostly nonflats and nonsharps), then later practice moving into different keys using the same patterns.

I encourage you to look into scales and tonic, but you don't need to force yourself to apply them.

Well I haven't really looked into theory and chords and notes and stuff yet. Just haven't put the time into it yet. Just wanna see what I can do so far without learning anything to try and self teach myself or something lol. But i'll eventually get into it.

I reckon you should jump straight into the theory. An old lady once told me that while yeah, you can do well on your own without knowing any theory, but if you do know theory, then you'll just be even better. What is theory? It's knowledge. The more song-writing knowledge you have, the better off you'll be.

There's informed practice and uninformed practice. You'll get a lot better a lot quicker if you understand everything about what you're doing.