SONGWRITING

WITHOUT
INSTRUMENTS
Create realistic songs with just your computer and a
bunch of free software

Andrew Milner
 Copyright © 2021 Andrew Milner

~ Revised And Reedited ~

First published online by Andrew Milner in 2021

Text and illustrations copyright © Andrew Milner 2021.

The author / illustrator asserts the moral right to be identified as the author / illustrator of the work.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of Andrew Milner.

Visit my website at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AndreiLM

Find me on Instagram: @andrewmilnermusic
Even more about me: https://linktr.ee/AndrewMilner
 CONTENTS

Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1 – Introduction and environment setup
1.1 What this book is about
1.2 Environment setup
Chapter 2 – Musical notation and technical terms
2.1 Musical alphabet and scientific pitch
2.2 Understanding MIDI
2.3 DAWs explained
2.4 VSTs explained
Chapter 3 – Introduction to Reaper
3.1 Creating a project in Reaper
3.2 Creating a custom plugin folder
3.3 Downloading and installing our first VSTs
3.4 Creating a track in Reaper. Adding effects and instruments
3.5 Theme configuration in Reaper
3.6 Writing MIDI notes in Reaper. Introducing Piano roll
3.7 Humanizing MIDI notes
3.8 Setting up our project
3.8.1 Installing some more plugins
3.8.2 Creating our bass tracks. Track grouping in Reaper
3.8.3 Adding the remaining tracks
3.8.4 Tempo, time signature, master track effect and song length
Chapter 4 – Writing our song – Tundra Atmosphere and Autoharp
4.1 Writing the Tundra Atmosphere parts
4.2 Writing the Autoharp parts
Chapter 5 – Writing our song – Pedal Pads and Soft Piano
5.2 Soft Piano
Chapter 6 – Writing our song – Piano Pads and Percussion
6.1 Piano Pads
6.2 Percussion
Chapter 7 – Writing our song – Bass Guitar
Chapter 8 – Rendering our track
Chapter 9 – Songwriting theory and tips
9.1 Musical motifs explained
9.2 Musical phrases, phrase groups and periods
9.3 The 2-motif songwriting trick
9.4 General songwriting tips
Appendix A – Free VST Plugins
Appendix B – Premium VST Plugins
Appendix C – Music Theory
1. Tones and semitones
2. Accidentals and enharmonic notes
3. Music Intervals
4. Musical Scales
5. The circle of 5ths and key signatures
6. Triads and chords
7. Musical sheets explained
8. Note lengths and time signatures
9. Tempo
Appendix D – Musical Form
1. Binary Form
2. Ternary Form
3. Five-Part Form and Rondo
4. Arch Form
5. Seven Part Form
6. One-Part Form
7. Through Composed Form
8. Chaconne
9. Sonata
10. The verse-chorus form
 CHAPTER 1 –
INTRODUCTION AND
ENVIRONMENT SETUP
 1.1 WHAT THIS BOOK IS
ABOUT
Hello there and welcome to this book on songwriting without instruments.
By the end of this book, you’re going to learn how to create a song using
only your computer. No physical instruments will be involved
This book is divided into 9 chapters. Chapter 2 of this book will be
dedicated to talking about MIDI. In chapter 3 we will talk about Reaper, the
main aspects of writing and recording music using it, and we will be setting
up our project.
Once we are finished with that, we will delve into the actual writing of the
song. We will be using only free plugins for this book, most of which being
created by a company called Spitfire Audio. Specifically, we will be
focusing on the LABS instruments from Spitfire Audio, which are all free
and really, really fun to use.
The song we will be creating is a new-age electronic one, featuring a bunch
of synths, guitar-like instruments, piano, and many more.
We will also do a very basic amount of mixing and mastering, since this
isn’t really my specialty. Nevertheless, the virtual instruments we are going
to use are pretty good by themselves, so the processing should be minimal
anyway.
At the end of the book, I will also be providing with you with two lists, one
for more free instruments that I recommend you try out and one with
premium tools which will help you get more advanced and better sounds.
Throughout the book you will also be learning a lot of technical terms like
VST, MIDI, DAW, etc. They are fairly easy to understand and we will get to
each of them when the time is right.
That covers it for this section. Up next, we are going to be setting up our
computers so they allow us to actually write music. That means we’re going
to install Reaper, which will be our main place of work from now on.
Reaper itself works similar to WinRAR, in that it is free for 60 days, then
you have to buy a license, but they don’t cripple your functionality if you
don’t buy it. If you have some spare cash lying around, I do recommend
buying it (it’s like $60). I myself have bought it because I do use it a lot.
 1.2 ENVIRONMENT SETUP
For this book, we’re going to need one main program called Reaper. Later
on, we’ll be adding some external plugins to it, but we’ll discuss that when
the time is right.
For now, go to the link below, then download and install the following it:
Reaper - https://www.reaper.fm/download.php
Note that I will be using Windows as an OS throughout this book. Reaper
should work fine on both Windows and Mac, so you’re good to go. If you
are on Mac, I know there is a really cool DAW you can use instead of
Reaper called Logic Pro X.
So, get to downloading and installing and I’ll see you all in the next chapter,
where we will be reviewing an important aspect of musical notation while
also discussing some technical terms we will be using a lot throughout this
book.
CHAPTER 2 – MUSICAL
NOTATION AND
TECHNICAL TERMS
 2.1 MUSICAL ALPHABET
AND SCIENTIFIC PITCH
The musical alphabet consists of 7 different notes. They have multiple
names, the most common ones being the first 7 letters of the alphabet and
a series of Latin-based names. More often than not, we’ll be using the
alphabet notation, since it is used in scientific pitch notation as well.
Therefore, throughout this course, we will be referring to those seven notes
as A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
Now some of you may now be wondering how we can actually do anything
with these notes since there are only 7 of them. And while it’s true that you
only have 7 different note names, each of them can be played at a higher or
lower pitch.
In order to understand pitches, let’s talk a little bit about some sound
science. Each and every sound you hear has a frequency between 20Hz and
20Khz. And while the actual values for each sound aren’t important, what is
important is that the higher the frequency, the higher we hear the sound.
This is wrapped around in a simpler term called the pitch of a note.
Basically, the higher we hear the note, the higher its pitch.
In order to compute the frequency of a note, we need to understand that
each sound you hear can be drawn as a sine wave. Here is a drawing of an
A4 note, which has a frequency of 440Hz:
As you can see, the visual representation is a sine wave which has various
places where it either hits a maximum value, 0, or a minimum value. And as
you can see, I’ve labeled an area as a wave cycle. Basically, a wave cycle
begins at the place where a sine wave hits 0 and then continues its
ascending towards the maximum value and ends in the place where the
wave once again hits 0 after rising from the minimum value.
Why are wave cycles important you ask? Well, the number
of complete wave cycles a sine wave makes in a second gives us
the frequency of that wave. And frequency is the measuring unit which
helps us quantify a sound pitch. Frequencies are measured in Hertz (Hz).
Given the frequency interval from above, we have a total of like 10 and a
half octaves worth of notes. An octave is the distance between a frequency
value and the place where that frequency either doubles or halves. The
octaves are numbered and they start from 0 and go all the way up to 10.
Technically, there are some notes below the 0 octave, but those aren’t really
ones you can actually hear in a song. They’re more like static noise.
So, why are we talking about all of this? Because we need to understand
what scientific pitch means. Scientific pitch is a notation which consists of
the note name (C, D, E etc.), followed by the octave of which the note is a
part of. Examples of scientific pitch notations are C4, G5, E3, D2 etc.
Before we finish this, we also need to talk about the middle octave, which is
octave number 4. If my memory serves me correctly, it’s named the middle
octave because C4 is the note located in the exact center of the piano
keyboard:
I’ve also labeled the A4 note since we mentioned it earlier. Note that the
white keys on the piano will also play unaltered notes from the musical
alphabet (i.e. C, D, E, F, G, A, and B). Black keys are for altered notes.
We’ll get to that in this chapter.
You don’t need to worry about remembering the frequency values for notes,
as I have already mentioned. But it’s important to understand why you hear
some notes higher than others.
Anyhow, that about covers it for notes and pitch. Let’s move on to talking
about MIDI stuff now.
 2.2 UNDERSTANDING
MIDI
MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Some
might say it’s way too fancy a definition for digital instruments, but this is
not entirely accurate. MIDI information, like many other things, is usually
stored in a file.
Such a MIDI file (or track, if you are in a DAW, more on that in the next
section) contains data that specifies certain musical instructions such as:

Note pitch
Note length
Note velocity (which refers to the volume of the note)
Vibrato and panning
Clock signals that determine tempo
There is more to it than this, but it’s out of scope for this book. If it helps
you, you can think of a MIDI file as an abstract representation of a
musical piece, that can be understood by a computer and subsequently
transformed into music. Because your computer will look at the MIDI file
and say something like: oh, this is a C4 note that is a quarter note and is
meant to be played at a medium volume, and based on the clock signals, it
needs to be played at this speed.
Panning refers to where the sound is going to be heard in your speakers
(left, center, right, anything in between) and is not something I
recommend you configure in your MIDI file. Vibrato is something that
some VSTis will take into consideration and some will not, based on their
complexity and price, usually.
Now that we know what MIDI is, it’s time to figure out how we can
produce it. There are three major ways in which you can accomplish this:
 Using a MIDI instrument/controller
Programming it directly in a MIDI track in Reaper
Using an external music writing software like Guitar Pro,
TuxGuitar, MuseScore, etc.
We’ll be using the second way of dealing with MIDI since it doesn’t rely on
any tools other than your computer’s keyboard and mouse.
And with that, we conclude this section. In the next one, we are going to
discuss DAWs.
 2.3 DAWS EXPLAINED
A digital audio workstation is abbreviated as DAW. In essence, it is a
program that allows you to record songs using your computer. The process
of recording actual instruments is out of scope for this book, since we will
be using MIDI.
Throughout this course, as already mentioned, we will be using a program
called Reaper. If you skipped the intro part for whatever reason, then you
can download Reaper by using this link:
https://www.reaper.fm/download.php
Like I mentioned before, it’s free to try for 60 days after which you have to
pay a license (though it functions like WinRAR in that you can still use it
after the 60 days with no performance issues). If my memory serves me
correctly, the license lasts forever and it gives you free updates for up to 2
versions. So, with Reaper being at version 6, you will receive free updates
up until version 8 is released (so for versions 6 and 7). You may read the
licensing details on their website.
Other DAWs that people often use are Cubase, Ableton Live, Pro Tools,
Audacity, Studio One Prime etc.
What I want to make extremely clear is that the concepts we have learned
and continue to learn are DAW agnostic. What I mean by that is, while I
will be using Reaper, you can use any DAW you like. What I do in Reaper
can be done in any DAW that allows you to work with MIDI.
And with that, we conclude another section. Up next, we are going to
discuss VSTs. See you then.
 2.4 VSTS EXPLAINED
VST is an acronym for Virtual Studio Technology and it is basically a way
of having access to various instruments and sounds effects without having
to actually have a physical effects processor or instrument.
In this book, we are going to focus more on VSTi, which stands for VST
instrument which, as you may have guessed, is a specific subset of VST
that refers to instruments. We will be using a non-VSTi plugin or two for
the mastering phase as well. I’ll be referring to all plugins, instruments or
not, as VSTs since it’s easier and a bit more common.
There are two types of VST instruments

Fully sample based – these VSTs are usually very large in size
and rely solely on sampled instruments to produce the sound;
what this means is that, in order to produce the sound, the note
has been previously recorded from a real instrument and
shipped alongside the VSTi
Partially sample based – these VSTs also rely on a bit of
sampling, but rather than have all the possible sounds the
instrument can create, they have only a few sound samples
while the other sounds are created synthetically based on these
samples
The second type is more common, since they have a reduced size and you
can usually find them for free. Fully sample based VSTis and VSTs are
usually not free and can become very expensive, depending of course on the
number of samples and their quality.
We will be downloading and installing some VSTs in the next chapter,
because we also need to configure Reaper’s settings a bit.
But that about covers it for this chapter. In the next one, as already
mentioned, we are going to configure our Reaper project so we are ready to
start writing. See you then.
 CHAPTER 3 –
INTRODUCTION TO
REAPER
 3.1 CREATING A PROJECT
IN REAPER
When you first open Reaper after just installing it, you should be greeted
with an info screen about how much you have been using Reaper for and
for how many days. After about 5 seconds, you will be able to dismiss this
window.
Note that once you get a license, that window will no longer appear. If you
have just installed Reaper, then after dismissing the window mentioned
above, you should have yourself an empty project and your Reaper should
look like this:

Note that once you have used Reaper and have saved a project, by default,
Reaper will try to open the last project you saved. If you want to start a new
project from scratch, you can go to File > New Project or press Ctrl + N
(or Command + N on a Mac).
A couple of things to notice here. On the bottom left, you will have what is
known as the master track, which is the track that contains all the audio
info for your song. Basically, all the instruments that we will be adding will
then be routed to that main track, either directly or through another track.
We will be using only direct routing, so don’t worry.
Just above that track, you will notice you have a Play button and a Record
button. They will come in handy when we want to play back what we have
written. And on the same level, but towards the right side, you have your
tempo and time signature information. By default, the tempo will be set to
120 BPM and the time signature will be set to 4/4. We will leave it like that
for now.
The upper area contains some controls which we will discuss only if we
actually need them so don’t worry.
Let’s move on to configuring a plugin folder, which we will use to install
our VSTs.
 3.2 CREATING A CUSTOM
PLUGIN FOLDER
Now, let’s have a little bit of fun and configure ourselves a custom plugin
folder. Go ahead and create a folder anywhere on your computer, say
something like D:\Reaper\Plugins.
We will be using this folder to install the plugins from this book, so make
sure you remember it. In order for Reaper to actually be able to know that
we have VSTs there though, we need to let it know.
And we do that by configuring some of our preferences.
In order to do that, the first thing we need to do is go to Options >
Preferences, like this:
In the window that opens, scroll down to Plug-ins > VST:
You will notice a text field on the right, which refers to the VST plug-in
paths. This is a place where you can put as many paths to folders that
contain plugins which can be used in Reaper.
Note that if you are not using Reaper, you’ll have to find the way to do this
for the DAW of your choosing. It should be something similar for all other
programs, so don’t worry.
Now we need to add the path to our folder.
Scroll all the way to the end of the text in that field and add the path to the
folder you just created. Make sure your paths are separated with a
semicolon, otherwise Reaper might not function properly. Also make sure
there’s no space between the semicolon and the path:
 3.3 DOWNLOADING AND
INSTALLING OUR FIRST
VSTS
Since this feels like the right place, I think we should go about and
download ourselves some VSTs. Go to the links below and download them
(I suggest going for the 64-bit version whenever possible on Windows):

LABS Autoharp - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/autoharp

When clicking on Free Download, you will be asked to install an app
called Spitfire Audio. Go ahead and install it as this is the place where you
will be managing all LABS related installs. It will ask you to create an
account, so go ahead and do that. Once that is done, you can navigate to the
LABS tab, which will show you all LABS instruments and whether or not
they are installed on your computer:
Then, install the Autoharp instrument, which is one of the many ones we
will be using in this book. It will ask you where you want to install it. Make
sure Download is selected and please make sure you select the folder you
created in the previous section as the place where you want to install it.
Click Download and wait for it to finish installing.
Once that is done, in Reaper, you can go to Options > Preferences >
Plug-ins > VST again and click Re-Scan. It should show you that it is
attempting to add something called LABS to the list of available plugins.
And with that, we end this section and this section. In the next one, we are
going to add a track in our project and add an instrument to it.
 3.4 CREATING A TRACK
IN REAPER. ADDING
EFFECTS AND
INSTRUMENTS
In order to create a track that hosts audio in our project we can either go to
Track > Insert New Track or press Ctrl + T (or Command + T):
A new track should appear in your project and it should look something like
this:
In order to add VSTs to a track, you need to click the FX button on the
track. Two new windows should open. Go to the VST3i (or VSTi tabs,
always try for VST3i first though) and select VST3i: LABS (Spitfire
Audio) and click Add:

Once that is done, your FX window should look like this:

As you can see, there’s a keyboard in the lower part of the window. They
areas that are greyed out signify that the notes in that area will not produce
a sound for this VST instrument. The other ones work just fine. You can
actually click on the notes with your mouse to hear the sound they produce.
If it doesn’t look identical in terms of knobs or anything, don’t worry about
it. In fact, you can play around with the knobs to see how it changes the
sound.
Also, if you feel the sound is too low, don’t worry about it. We will be
fixing that issue shortly.
You can close the FX window for now, and if you want, you can re-open it
by clicking the FX button again, which as you can see, is now green,
because we have added a VST there.
If you take a closer look to the track, you’ll notice on the left part there’s a
red button used for when you want to record stuff. Next to that button,
there’s a black area which we can use to name our track. Double click on it
and enter Autoharp as its name (or LABS - Autoharp):
 3.5 THEME
CONFIGURATION IN
REAPER
Some of you will have noticed that the image above has two things that, by
default, are not displayed on tracks in Reaper. Let’s fix that so there’s no
confusion.
Go to Options > Themes > Theme adjuster / Color Controls:
Make sure you cycle through the tabs until you see Track Control Panel in
the upper area. You will se a bunch of controls there. Record Arm checks if
the track is armed for recording (meaning that, if you start recording, then
audio info will be record on that track). Monitor is used only when
recording to detect the audio levels of the recorded audio. Track Name is
used to name the track and so on.
In order for everything to be displayed as you’ll see in some of these
images, the values for each column inside Track Control Panel should
look like this:
This is an auxiliary step but I feel it will be useful in the long run for you to
have the Route and Panning tools available at all time.
 3.6 WRITING MIDI NOTES
IN REAPER.
INTRODUCING PIANO
ROLL
Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to take a look at how we can
actually write and program MIDI notes in Reaper. Click on the Autoharp
track in order to have it selected (the grey area of the track from the left of
Reaper).
In order to be able to write MIDI notes, we need to add something known
as a MIDI item on the track. For that, we need to go to Insert > New
MIDI Item:
Your track should now look like this:

As you can see, this MIDI items spans a total of four bars of our song. We
will most likely want to extend it longer than that, which can be
accomplished by dragging it with yout mouse. But, if you try to extend it, it
will do something weird. Basically, instead of adding length to the item, it
would repeat it. So, if you were to add notes in the first 4 bars, they would
be repeated in the following ones.
However, there is a fix for this. You need to right-click the MIDI item (so
not the track) and go to Item Settings and uncheck Loop Item Source:
Now, if you want to drag the MIDI item so it lasts longer, you will be able
to do it successfully. We’ll get to what your actual item length should be a
bit later in this chapter, so don’t worry.
Now, it’s time to actually start adding some MIDI notes. So, double-click
on the MIDI item and a new window should open:
This is what is called the Piano roll view. This is the place where you will
actually add notes. You will be able to add notes only in the light grey area
and you do that by double-clicking on the note you want added.
But, before you do that, let’s discuss the options on the lower left area.
You’ll see something called Grid and a value. In the image above it is 1/64
and the value there refers to the length of the note that is added when
double clicking on it. I usually like to keep it a 1/16 so it adds 16th notes.
You can also extend the note length once you add it, but note that you can
increase and decrease the length only in increments of whatever value you
have set in Grid.
As you can see, the piano keyboard on the left also displays some C notes
in scientific pitch notation. Go ahead and mess around a bit so you get
accustomed to it.
We’ll be adding all of our notes in Piano roll when writing the parts for this
song, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice writing and editing
notes in there.
Note that you can also zoom in and out to increase or decrease the number
of notes displayed.
 3.7 HUMANIZING MIDI
NOTES
One aspect you may find yourself forgetting when writing music using
programmed MIDI notes is the fact that it may end up sounding a bit
robotic. There is an easy solution for that though, which I will show you
just now. Let’s add some notes on our Autoharp MIDI track:

Note that the colors of the notes in your project may be different. And that
has to do with the velocity (or volume) of the note. The redder the note,
the higher the velocity/volume. The maximum velocity is 127 and the
minimum velocity is 1.
Very low velocity notes will have different shades of blue, while medium
velocity notes will gear towards shades of green.
You can modify the velocity of a single note by right-clicking on it and
going to Note velocity:
You can select multiple notes and edit them all at the same time by right-
clicking and holding outside of any note and dragging your mouse over
all the notes you want selected:
Finally, you can select all the notes from a track in Piano roll by using Ctrl
+ A (or Command + A).
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s go back to humanizing your
notes. Ideally, you’ll want to do this with all your notes once you figured
out what velocity you are fine with. So, will the notes selected, you will
want to press H.
A new window will appear, in which you can edit 3 properties. The window
that appears should look like this:
I usually leave it at Selected Notes, but you can do All Notes if you like,
because you can skip the note selection process.
Now, the 3 properties you can edit for humanizing are:

Timing – when raised above 0%, it makes sure that MIDI notes
start just before or after the beat in a measure, similar to how
you would record a live instrument; I usually go for 5%-10%
Velocity – similar to timing, except the changes impact the
velocity of notes, again similar to how you would play the
physical instrument; each note would have a different volume; I
usually go for like 20%-30%
Timing Bias – I don’t think I have ever used it, but it refers to
the bias of the timing (starting before or after the beat); I usually
leave it at 0
Once you enter the values, press OK and you’ll see that the notes have been
modified.
 3.8 SETTING UP OUR
PROJECT
Alright, we are finally at the last section of this chapter. And in this one, we
are going to be organizing the project so we have everything labeled and
grouped accordingly. We shall be creating a few more tracks, installing
some more plugins, and then save the project. So, let’s get this started.
 3.8.1 INSTALLING SOME
MORE PLUGINS
About 90% of the plugins we will be using in this book are from Spitfire
LABS. Autoharp is but one of them. So, you can open up the Spitfire
Audio app, go to the LABS tab and install the following instruments:

Autoharp (if you haven’t done that already)

Bass Guitar
Pedal Pads
Percussion
Piano Pads
Soft Piano
Tundra Atmosphere
Now, aside from these, we will be needing the following plugins:

TSE BOD Audio - https://www.tseaudio.com/software/tseBOD

(an overdrive pedal for bass guitars)
George Yohng W1 Limiter –
http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html (a VST that will
help us make our track a little louder without having to turn up
the volume)
Youlean Loudness Meter 2 Free – https://youlean.co/youlean-
loudness-meter/ (a plugin that tells us how loud our track is)
(only for Windows) Reaper ReaPlugs –
https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ (improved versions of certain
plugins we will use on tracks)
The first 3 from this list should be easy to place in your plugins folder if my
memory serves me correctly while the 4th one should get automatically
installed in a location which is already visible to Reaper.
 3.8.2 CREATING OUR
BASS TRACKS. TRACK
GROUPING IN REAPER
Now that we have everything installed, it’s time to start adding instrument
tracks. And I decided to start with the bass guitar because there’s a neat
little trick that goes along with it. And that trick is called track grouping.
Track grouping is a process in which you take one or more child tracks and
group them all under one parent track. This trick is especially useful to
save CPU on your computer since the child tracks automatically inherit all
the effects and instruments from the parent track. Of course, not all VSTs
support this, but you will find that most of them do actually allow you to do
this.
With this in mind, let’s create 3 tracks in our project. And let’s name them
as follows

1st track should be called Bass FX or Bass Parent

2nd track should be called Bass Main
3rd track should be called Bass Distorted
Here’s how this should look like:
Now I want you to select the Bass Main and Bass Distorted tracks. Click
on Bass Main, hold down Ctrl or Command, and then click on Bass
Distorted:

Now, start dragging the two tracks to the right until the track number area
(where it says 3 and 4 in the image above) goes a bit to the right, and then
let go:

Now, everything you put in the FX folder of Bass FX will automatically get
applied to Bass Main and Bass Distorted as well. With that in mind, let’s
add the LABS Bass Guitar instrument on the parent track (Bass FX):
You have 4 possibilities there for your instrument. But for this instance,
select either the Warm Bass – Amp or Classic Bass – Amp sound. The
Amp in the name signifies that the bass guitar notes produced are from a
bass that is also plugged into an amplifier.
DI stands for direct input, which means that the bass notes are directly
from the bass, plugged into an interface and recorded directly without an
amplifier.
In rock and metal tunes, mixers often use the DI track in conjunction with
the amped tracks to create a huge sound, but we don’t need to focus on it
too much.
Now it’s time to add some effects and plugins to these tracks. Let’s start off
with the Bass Main track. Go to the Add FX screen, go under Cockos and
select ReaEQ (ReaPlugsEdition) (Cockos) or ReaEQ (Cockos) if you
don’t have the first one.
After that, add the ReaComp (ReaPlugsEdition) (Cockos) or ReaComp
(Cockos) plugin. Now it’s time to actually add something to them.
The ReaEQ plugin should look like this:
By default, you should have 4 bands, so you will need to add one by
clicking Add band. Let’s check out the values and type of band for each
band:

Band 1 – 50Hz frequency, Gain: 0dB, Type: High Pass,

Bandwidth: 2
Band 2 – 140Hz frequency, Gain: 5.0dB, Type: Band,
Bandwidth: 3
Band 3 – 1700Hz frequency, Gain: -2.0dB, Type: High Shelf,
Bandwidth: 2.5
Band 4 – 2500Hz frequency, Gain: 0dB, Type: Low Pass,
Bandwidth: 2
Band 5 – 800Hz frequency, Gain: 3.0dB, Type: Band,
Bandwidth: 0.5
These numbers are not exact science. It’s what I found to work best for me,
but you can modify the as you please.
ReaEQ is known as an equalizer plugin. Equalization is the process in
which you modify certain frequencies of an instrument in order to make it
sound better in the song.
Next plugin is called the ReaComp, which is a compressor plugin.
Compression is the process in which you even out the differences between
the louder notes and the more silent ones.
There’s more to this, but I highly recommend researching the topics more
on your own if you want to get a better understanding of these two
concepts.
Anyhow, here’s how I configured the ReaComp plugin:

Now, let’s move on to the Bass Distorted track. This time, we’ll be using 3
plugins. First off, the TSE BOD plugin from the VST tab in the effects
window:
Next up, another ReaEQ instance:
Here are the bands:

Band 1 – 300 frequency, Type: High Pass, Gain: 0db,

Bandwidth: 2.00
Band 2 – 5000 frequency, Type: Low Pass, Gain: 0dB,
Bandwidth: 2.00
And finally, the ReaXComp plugin, which is a multiband compressor:

Here are the values that need to change for each band. Only the first 3
bands are impacted:

Band 1 – Top Freq: 190Hz, Threshold: -9.2dB, Ratio: 2.00,

Attack: 15ms, Release: 50ms
Band 2 – Top Freq: 1000Hz, Threshold: -19.8dB, Ratio: 2.00,
Attack: 15ms, Release: 150ms
Band 3 – Top Freq: 5000Hz, Threshold: -33.8dB, Ratio: 3.00,
Attack: 15ms, Release: 150ms
The final thing we can do now is add some color to those tracks. So, go
ahead and select the 3 bass tracks, right click on them, go to Track color >
Set tracks to custom color… and select whatever color you like (I usually
use yellow).
And that about covers it for the bass. Let’s move on to the next steps.
 3.8.3 ADDING THE
REMAINING TRACKS
Now that we got the bass done, all that remains is to add a separate track for
each LABS instrument we installed earlier. So. you should have a track for
each of the following instruments:

Autoharp (set to Plucked)

Bass Guitar (set to whatever amp variant you like)
Pedal Pads (set to Ethereal Wurli)
Percussion (set to Percussion)
Piano Pads (set to Radio)
Soft Piano
Tundra Atmosphere (set to Atmos)
Now that that’s out of the way, we need to do the final bits of configuration.
 3.8.4 TEMPO, TIME
SIGNATURE, MASTER
TRACK EFFECT AND
SONG LENGTH
Now, in terms of song tempo, we are going to set it to 90 BPM while the
time signature is going to remain at 4/4.
For the song length, we are going to have each MIDI track last a total of 72
bars. The bar number appears in the upper part of Reaper. Basically, extend
each track until they end where bar 73 starts.
Now, adding colors to these tracks is up to you, but what I would suggest is
naming them, ideally naming them based on what instrument is playing on
each track.
Finally, it’s time to add two plugins to the master track.
First up, the George Yohng W1 Limiter, located in the VST section in the
FX section:
This plugin actually brings up the overall loudness of your track, without
you having to increase your speaker or headphone volume too much. We set
the Ceiling to -0.1 dB so our overall volume doesn’t go over 0.0dB,
because then it would sound distorted.
And finally, Youlean Loudness Meter 2, located in the VST3 section:
This plugin actually measures how loud your song is. The ideal integrated
value should be somewhere close to -11 LUFS or higher (-10 LUFS) and in
order to increase loudness, you actually have to lower the threshold from
the limiter. The values I left there should be fine for the song we will be
writing.
Note that you can modify these values if you like, but for now, I do
recommend leaving them like this.
And that about covers it for this chapter. We are now ready to actually start
writing our song, which we will be doing from the next chapter.
CHAPTER 4 – WRITING
OUR SONG – TUNDRA
ATMOSPHERE AND
AUTOHARP
 4.1 WRITING THE
TUNDRA ATMOSPHERE
PARTS
Just so you know what everything should sound like, here’s the song we
will be writing.
So, it’s time for the fun part. The Tundra Atmosphere instrument plugin
should be set like this:

Basically, we have it set to Atmos so we have some nature sounds to work

with. Now, here’s the first part you need to write. Keep the Piano roll grid at
1/16. These are bars 1-12:
I left the velocity at 127 because I felt it sounded best at louder velocities.
Let’s move on to the second part, bars 13-20:

That’s about it for the Tundra Atmosphere part. Now, don’t forget to
humanize it if you like.
 4.2 WRITING THE
AUTOHARP PARTS
The Autoharp instrument should be set like this:

It should be set to Plucked, that is the sound we’re looking for.

It’s important to understand that the Autoharp is going to be the main
melody instrument for this song. We’ll discuss some songwriting aspects in
another chapter but I just wanted to let you know that this will be our main
driving force of the song. As you’ll see, the melody isn’t overly complex
and we repeat it throughout the song, enhancing it in different areas with
other instruments.
Now, here’s the first Autoharp part, which you should write at bars 5-12:
As you can see, I left the velocity at 127 for now, as for me, it sounds the
best like this. Make sure to change it if you like. Let’s move on to bars 13-
14:

Don’t worry about the line you see there in the middle of the last note of bar
13, it doesn’t impact the note in any way, it’s just the cursor placement.
Note that you may see some note lines in the Piano roll that seem to be
between two white keys. That just means you need to add the black key in
between the two white keys.
With that in mind, let’s move on to bars 15-16:
Now, bars 17-18-19 are going to be identical to bars 13-14-15, so go ahead
and copy and paste the same notes in the Autoharp section. As for bar 20, it
will look like this:

Alright, now we should be good to go to finish this track. So, we are going
to create a group of 16 bars using notes we have already written, as follows:
 Bars 21-22 will contain the notes from bar 13; so copy the
notes from bar 13 and paste it in both bars 21 and 22
Bars 23-24 will contain the notes from bar 14; so copy the
notes from bar 14 and paste it in both bars 23 and 24
Bars 25-26 will contain the notes from bar 15; so copy the
notes from bar 15 and paste it in both bars 25 and 26
Bars 27-28 will contain the notes from bar 16; so copy the
notes from bar 16 and paste it in both bars 27 and 28
Bars 29-30 will contain the notes from bar 13; so copy the
notes from bar 13 and paste it in both bars 21 and 22
Bars 31-32 will contain the notes from bar 14; so copy the
notes from bar 14 and paste it in both bars 23 and 24
Bars 33-34 will contain the notes from bar 15; so copy the
notes from bar 15 and paste it in both bars 25 and 26
Bars 35 will contain the notes from bar 16
Bars 36 will contain the notes from bar 20
Now that we have that out of the way, we need to copy bars 21-36 and
paste them 2 times so that it ends at bar 68. Finally, bars 69-72 look like
this:

And with that, we conclude the first two tracks and the chapter. Let’s move
on to the next one.
 CHAPTER 5 – WRITING
OUR SONG – PEDAL PADS
AND SOFT PIANO
5.1 The Pedal Pads track. Creating a fade-out
Here’s the setup for the Pedal Pads instrument:

Basically, you need to set it to Ethereal Wurli. Writing this track is going to
be easy, as there is a group of 8 bars that is repeated throughout the song.
These are bars 21-24:
And now, let’s take a look at bars 25-28:

Basically, what you need to do now is copy these 8 bars and paste them
until you reach bar 68 (it should be a total of 5 times).
Then, bars 69-72 look like this:

Now if you were to play back this part you’ll notice that the notes do not
fade out on their own for this particular track. We’ll have to do that
ourselves.
So, with the Pedal Pads track selected, press the letter V on your computer
and a green area will appear under the track. This is where you can add
volume automations. Basically, this is how you can alter the volume of
certain parts of your track without having to alter the volume of the entire
track.
We are going to create 2 points on that green area. The first one will be as
close as possible to the beginning of bar 71. Holding down Ctrl or
Command, click on the green line at the top of the green area once. If
multiple points appear, just hit Ctrl + Z or Command + Z and try again.
Now, repeat the process for the end of bar 72. Then, drag the point from
bas 72 down till it reaches -inf dB. It should look something like this:

This is how you create a fade-out for MIDI tracks in Reaper.

 5.2 SOFT PIANO
The Soft Piano instrument should look like this:

This one’s fairly simple to configure as you only have one sound for it.
The part for it is actually very short. It’s an 8-bar part that starts at bar 29
and ends at bar 36. Bars 29-30 are identical and play the following notes:

Bars 31-32 are identical and play the following notes:

Bars 33-34 are identical and play the following notes:

Bars 35 and 36 play the following notes (1st image is 35, 2nd is 36):

The final step we need to take here is to extent the note lengths for all notes
except the last one from bar 36. To do that, press Ctrl + A or Command +
A to select all the notes from the Soft Piano track in Piano roll and then
press and hold Ctrl or Command and click on the last note from bar 36 to
deselect it.
Now hover over the end of the penultimate note from bar 36 until the cursor
changes, something like a single half of a square with a bi-directional
arrow, and drag to extend each note by 1 16th note (so 1 grid element, since
your grid should be set at 1/16).
I find this step necessary to make the instrument sound better, otherwise the
notes sound a bit weird and interrupted. The end result should look like this
for a bar:

And yeah, that about covers it for the Pedal Pads and Soft Piano as well.
Next up, piano pads and percussion.
 CHAPTER 6 – WRITING
OUR SONG – PIANO PADS
AND PERCUSSION
 6.1 PIANO PADS
The Piano Pads instrument needs to be configured like this:

You need to set it to Piano Pads: Radio. The Piano Pads section is fairly
simple as well, what with this instrument being a synth-like one. We’re
going to have one 8-bar section that plays in two different parts of the song
and a 4-bar chord at the end of the song.
First up, the 8-bar section, which will play at bars 45-52 the first time.

These are bars 45-48:

And these are bars 49-52:

This whole 8 bar section repeats itself again at bars 61-68. And then the
song ends like this on this track:
And finally, make sure to add a fade-out in a similar fashion to the Pedal
Pads track.
 6.2 PERCUSSION
The percussion consists of 2 different sections. The first one consists of 8
bars, which are essentially formed by playing the following section 4 times
between bars 53-60. The image below is for bars 53-54 and you repeat it 3
more times afterwards:

Next up are bars 61-68, which consist of bars 61-62 repeated 3 more times
after bar 62:

Finally, the track ends with the following section at bars 69-72:
The velocities of the greener notes are something like 80 while for the
louder notes it should something like 96 in this track. Fiddle around, see
how you like it best.
 CHAPTER 7 – WRITING
OUR SONG – BASS
GUITAR
When it comes to the bass guitar, we are actually going to have the same
notes playing on both the bass tracks we configured earlier. Your bass
instrument should look like this:

The bass part is pretty simple. It consists of an 8 bar section that repeats
itself throughout the song. It starts at bars 37-40 (1st image) and bars 41-44
(2nd image) with the following notes:
Now you need to copy the 8 bars from above and paste the section 3 more
times until bar 68. Finally, bars 69-72 look like this:

Note that you need to have the same notes playing on both bass tracks. You
can delete the MIDI item from the empty bass track and then copy it from
the one you’ve written it on.
All that is left is to add a fade-out on the parent bass track. If for whatever
reason the fade out does not work, add separate ones on each bass track.
Volume wise, I have set the following values for each bass track:

Parent bass track – right click on the volume knob and enter
-10.0dB as a value
Main bass track – right click on the volume knob and enter
-4.0dB as a value
Distorted bass track – right click on the volume knob and
enter -10.0dB as value
Fiddle around with the values to what you find likable, but make sure you
don’t leave it too loud, otherwise it will overpower everything.
 CHAPTER 8 – RENDERING
OUR TRACK
Now that everything is written for our track, we need to render it.
Rendering is the process meshing together all the tracks into one single file,
usually a WAV or MP3 file.
I usually stick to WAV files since they are preferred for when you want to
upload your music to Spotify et al but if you want to keep the song for
yourself, MP3 is also fine.
First off, make sure your project is saved. Now, to render the track, we need
to go to File > Render:
Once you click there, a new window should appear that looks like this:

There’s a bunch of stuff there but the most important things to note are the
following ones
 File Name – the name of your song
Source – Master Mix is the default option and it means that it
will render the master track, which include everything you’ve
written for your song
Bounds – Entire Project should be the default option, leave it
like that; it means it’s taking everything from the project
Tail – refers to the amount of ms of silence you want at the end
of the song
Sample Rate – default should be 44.1 kHz (or 44100 Hz),
which is CD quality; I like to use 48000 Hz, because is should
produce a higher quality
Format – select WAV
WAV bit depth – 16 bit PCM should be the default one, which
is CD quality; I usually go for 24 bit PCM for the same
reasoning as the Sample Rate
Once you have everything set up, you can click Render 1 file and voila,
your song is done.
 CHAPTER 9 –
SONGWRITING THEORY
AND TIPS
 9.1 MUSICAL MOTIFS
EXPLAINED
A musical motif is basically a musical idea, which characterizes a section
of a song. It consists of a number of notes. Usually, you should consider
using something between 2 and 8 different notes or chords in your motif.
There are two distinct types of musical motifs:

Rhythmic motif - this is basically comprised of the beats of a

certain motif, without actually having any notes played; think
of the famous The Sound of Silence song intro; the rhythmic
motif refers to the way the notes of the lyrics are played,
without playing the actual notes
Melodic motif - this is the rhythmic motif from before, but
with actual notes played on it; the notes can be either single
notes (usually done for melodic lines such as guitar solos or
lyrics) or chords (which make up the harmony of your song)
Notice these two terms, melody and harmony. These are the two main
components of your song, musically. The harmony consists of the chords
that are being played in the background, while the melody is the leading
part, which is usually played louder and is meant to capture the listeners’
attention.
With that in mind, let’s discuss the 3 grounds in music:

Foreground - this is reserved for the main melody of the song,

the one that is meant to capture our attention; think lyrics or
guitar solos
Middle ground - this is reserved for stuff that is meant to be
heard, but not be the main attraction point for the listener; think
 rhythm guitars and any and all solo guitar done while lyrics are
sung
Background - usually reserved for instruments that bring the
piece together like basses and certain drum parts
Each instrument can play one or more motifs. It’s important to remember
that complex pieces are fine, in that you can have each instrument play a
different motif, but you need to make sure not to overdo it, because it might
be tiresome to listen to. It’s perfectly reasonable to have the bass guitar and
rhythm guitar play the same motif, albeit with different notes.

That covers it for this one. In the next section, we are going to discuss
musical phrases and what happens when you group them.
 9.2 MUSICAL PHRASES,
PHRASE GROUPS AND
PERIODS
What do you think you get when you put 2 or more musical motifs
together? You’ll get a musical phrase. Musical phrases usually last 4 bars,
though they could be longer, and there are 3 types of them:

Continuity phrases - these ones give you the impression that

there is more to come, like the section of the song is not over
yet; such a sensation is obtained by either having fast-paced
notes at the end of the phrase or by ending the phrase on a
weak beat (in a 4/4 song, the weak beats of a measure or beats
2 and 4)
Temporary rest phrases - these ones usually play the role of a
comma in speaking; their role is somewhat similar to the
continuity phrases, in that they invoke a feeling of something
coming up; but rather than using notes, they use rests to
accomplish this; the rests of course are placed at the end of the
phrase
Finality phrases - these phrases are meant to tell the listener
that this particular section of the song is over; this is most easily
accomplished by ending your phrase on a strong beat, usually
the first one of a measure to cover all possible time signatures
Here’s an example of a continuity phrase:
And here is an example of a temporary rest phrase (these ones also go by
the name of temporary repose):

Finally, pun intended, here’s an example of a finality phrase:

So now that we know what happens when you group 2 or more motifs
together, let’s learn what happens when you group 2 or more phrases
together. Well, things can go two ways here. You can either get a period or
a phrase group.
A musical period consists of 2 musical phrases, the first of which is a
continuity or temporary rest phrase, and the second one is a finality
phrase. This is quite honestly the easiest way you can write your songs
because you can easily delimit your sections since the period ends with a
finality phrase. Here is an example of a period:

A musical phrase group consists of two or more phrases which do not

follow the rules of a musical period. Basically, you can put together
phrases in whatever order you like. Usually, phrase groups are very
common in rock songs, since the riffs only make use of a single motif, most
of the time.
 9.3 THE 2-MOTIF
SONGWRITING TRICK
You know how I mentioned something about periods and how using them is
the easiest way to create a song? That’s because it’s incredibly easy to both
create variety in your riffs and to also delimit your sections effortlessly.
I like to call this the 2-motif trick, since we’re basically using 2 different
motifs, in various forms, to create a section. Here’s an example:

As you can see here, bars 1 and 2 make use of a certain motif, while bar 3
has a second one. We then go back to motif 1 in bar 4. The phrase then
restarts at bar 5 and goes the same up until bar 8, where we end on a whole
note, to signify that that section is over. So, as you can see, we have a
continuation phrase in bars 1-4 and a finality phrase in bars 5-8. These
two together form a musical period.
Note that the first phrase of the group can be ended in a different fashion,
meaning you can alter the first motif, either by speeding up the final notes
or by using some rests.
This way, you can add a bit of variety to your phrases and not play the same
thing over and over again. Whatever you choose is up to you, since the end
result will be the same. Though, as an honest opinion, I find that phrases
that end with rests help build up the hype more, if that’s what you’re
looking for.
Here's the two ways in which we can alter the first phrase. First off, using
rests:

And now, using faster notes:

And yeah, that covers it for this trick. I like to use it a lot in my songs, it is
not compulsory. Rock musicians use it from time to time, but not always.
 9.4 GENERAL
SONGWRITING TIPS
Possibly the most important thing to remember when writing guitar is the
following: the guitar is not a piano. Meaning that you cannot play 2 notes
on the same string. And when playing notes on different strings at the same
time, it’s important that the difference between frets isn’t too big, especially
when playing chords.
Basically, when playing chords, you need to make sure that the distance
between frets is no greater than 3. So, if your lowest fret in a chord is 3,
then the highest should be 6. Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to play.
When playing solos, you can jump longer distances because there are
techniques that allow you to do so.
Honestly, the best thing you can do is take your favorite song and look at
the tab. This is a good way to understand how guitars function and what
you can do with them so that is still sounds realistic.
When it comes to drums and bass, the same thing applies. You need to listen
to a lot of songs and read a lot of tabs to see exactly how they function.
There are dedicated books on how drums and bass function so we can’t
really cover everything in this small section.
But a good rule of thumb is this: if you think it doesn’t sound realistic, it
probably needs a bit of reworking.
That’s not to say you can’t have unrealistic things in your songs, if you like
it, but people are going to catch up on the fact that it was done…artificially,
in that it can’t actually be played on a real instrument in a live concert.
But hey, if it worked for the chorus in that song Gold by Kiiara…why not,
right? I myself prefer that things be as realistic as possible and as close to
what I can play as possible. It’s more of a thing that makes me feel honest,
if you will.
 APPENDIX A – FREE VST
PLUGINS
As promised, here’s a list of a few free VST plugins which you can use:
Drums

LABS Percussion - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/percussion

LABS Drums - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/drums
Steven Slate Drums 5.5 Free -
https://stevenslatedrums.com/ssd5/#SSD5FREE
MT Power DrumKit 2 - https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
Electric and Acoustic Guitars

Ample Guitar M II Lite -

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2233/ (very good acoustic
guitar plugin)
Ignite Amps Emissary Amp Head -
https://www.igniteamps.com/#emissary (a very good amp head,
to be used in conjunction with an amp cab like LeCab2 from
below and IR, which is short for impulse response)
LABS Electric Guitars - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/electric-
guitars
LABS Moon Guitar - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/moon-
guitar
LePou Guitar Plugins - https://plugins4free.com/dev/258/
Bass Guitars

Ample Bass P Lite II - https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2505/

LABS Bass Guitar - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/bass-guitar
Pianos and Keyboards

LABS Glass Piano - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/glass-piano

LABS Soft Piano - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/soft-piano
LABS Tape Piano - https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/tape-piano
Keyzone Classic - https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2848/
Darksichord (Harpsichord plugin) -
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/3149/
Synths

LABS: https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/?types=synths
Strings and Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra:

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-
orchestra-discover/
LABS Strings instruments: https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/?
types=strings
 APPENDIX B – PREMIUM
VST PLUGINS
As promised, here’s a list of a few premium VST plugins which you can
use:
Neural DSP Guitar Amplifiers

Archetype Nolly - https://neuraldsp.com/plugins/archetype-

nolly
Fortin Nameless Suite - https://neuraldsp.com/plugins/fortin-
nameless-suite
Soldano SLO-100 - https://neuraldsp.com/plugins/soldano-slo-
100
ML Sound Lab

Amped VX30 - https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/amped-vx30

Amped Humble - https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/amped-
humble
Amped ML5 - https://ml-sound-lab.com/products/amped-ml5
EastWest QuantumLeap

Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition -

https://www.soundsonline.com/hollywood-orchestra-opus-
edition
Hollywood Choirs -
https://www.soundsonline.com/hollywood-choirs
Forbidden Planet - https://www.soundsonline.com/forbidden-
planet
Ministry Of Rock 2 - https://www.soundsonline.com/ministry-
of-rock-2
APPENDIX C – MUSIC
THEORY
 1. TONES AND
SEMITONES
Much like how cities are separated by distances measured in kilometers or
miles, so too are notes separated between one another by tonal distances.
And we have two types of tonal distances, which are of course the tones
and semitones we named the section after.
Tones and semitones may also be known as steps and half-steps and
function as follows.
A semitone is the smallest tonal distance between two notes. It basically
means the distance between two consecutive notes. On your guitar, such a
distance translates to 1 fret. On a keyboard, it’s the distance between two
adjacent keys, be it the distance between a white key and a black key or
two white keys.
A tone is basically a group of 2 semitones. There’s really not much more to
say about it than that.
Tones and semitones do come in handy when musical intervals and chords
are involved, two concepts which we will discuss soon.
So yeah, that about covers it for this one. Let’s move on to accidentals and
enharmonic notes.
 2. ACCIDENTALS AND
ENHARMONIC NOTES
In music, accidentals are used to alter the pitch of a note. There are like 5
different ones, but the most common 3 are the following ones:

♯ (sharp) – raises the pitch of a note by one semitone

♭ (flat) – lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone
♮ (natural) – returns the note to its regular, unaltered state
Accidentals can be used either as part of the key signature, a concept
which we will discuss in a future section, or next to a note. One thing you
need to remember is that when an accidental is placed next to a note in a bar
(e.g. G ♯ ), unless stated otherwise by the use of a natural accidental,
throughout that measure you will need to play the G as G ♯ , should it be
repeated. Basically, an accidental used in a measure alters the note for the
entire measure.
Some of you with a keen eye will have noticed the following scenario. If
you put a ♯ next to a C note, you get a C♯ note. And if you place a ♭ next to
a D note, you get a D♭ note. But aren’t those notes basically the same? And
the answer is yes. While this will become clearer when we discuss scales, C
and D are consecutive notes in the C major scale and between them there is
only a single note.
But if there is a single note, how come we got two of them? The answer is
enharmonic notes. Enharmonic notes are notes that have different names
but the same pitch.
We are going to revisit accidentals in a future section when we talk about
scales.
Still with me? Good. Let’s move on to music intervals.
 3. MUSIC INTERVALS
A musical interval refers to the difference in pitch between two notes. There
are many musical intervals in music and they can be grouped into two
major types:

Simple music intervals, which are intervals between notes

located in the same octave
Compound intervals, which are intervals obtained by putting
together two simple music intervals and span two octaves
In this section, we are going to focus on simple music intervals.
A simple music interval has two important components

A number, which refers to the total number of different notes

located between the two notes we are using to form the interval.
This number includes the notes themselves, along with any
other natural pitch in between (meaning regular notes, without
accidentals)
A quality, which determines the level of consonance the
interval has. To us though, this quality will become quite
helpful when we discuss chords. The quality has three possible
values: major, minor and perfect
There are a total of 8 different simple musical intervals. We’re going to use
the notes from the C major scale to exemplify them. The C major scale
contains the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
The first one is the prime, which consists of a single note. Basically, it’s the
tonal difference between a note and…itself. Primes are perfect.
The next interval is the second, which contains a total of two notes. It can
be either a major interval (when the distance between the two notes is a
tone, i.e. C-D) or minor (when the distance between the notes is a semitone,
i.e E-F).

Our next interval is the third, which consists of 3 notes. Basically, you have
the two notes you’re using to form the third and one in between. Like the
second, the third can be either major (when the difference between the start
and end notes is two tones, i.e. C-E) or minor (when the difference between
the start and end notes is 1 and a half tones, i.e. D-F).

The fourth musical interval is called the…fourth. It’s a perfect interval and
it consists of two tones and one semitone (i.e. C-F). Of particular interest
here, if you want to create a somewhat sinister atmosphere in your songs, is
the tritone, which is basically a fourth that has 3 tones in it (i.e. F-B).

Our next interval is called the fifth. Like its predecessor, it is a perfect
interval, which consists of 3 tones and a semitone (i.e. C-G). This interval is
particularly used in rock music to play power chords.

The next one is called the sixth. Sixths can be either major (which have 4
tones and one semitone, i.e. C-A) or minor (which have 3 tones and 2
semitones, i.e. E-C).
Our penultimate interval is the seventh, which can also be either major or
minor. Major sevenths have 5 tones and 1 semitone (i.e. C-B) while minor
sevenths have 4 tones and 2 semitones (i.e. D-C).

And finally, we reach the octave, which is basically the difference between
a note and the same note an octave higher or lower. Octaves are perfect
intervals.

We will revisit musical intervals when we discuss chords and scales, with a
bigger focus on them in the chords section. But for now, focus on
understanding these intervals. What may help you accomplish this is if you
try to play these intervals in a music writing program such as Muse Score,
which you can download at musescore.org for free.
With that done, it’s time to move on to scales.
 4. MUSICAL SCALES
A musical scale is fairly easy to understand. It is an ordered set of pitches,
which are located in the same octave. Scales can be played in an ascending
or descending fashion.
And while there are many types of scales out there, we are going to focus
on major and minor scales. These scales contain a total of 8 notes, with the
first and last being the same note in different octaves (so 7 different notes).
When I was but a wee lad, I did learn about an over complicated solution to
figuring out if a scale is major or minor. In time though, I’ve learned about
a much simpler way of doing this.
But I digress. Major scales have the following formula:

T-T-S-T-T-T-S
What this formula defines is the difference in pitch between consecutive
notes. From left to right, this tells you that the difference between the first
two notes of a major scale is one tone, the difference between notes 2 and 3
is also a tone, the difference between notes 3 and four is a semitone and so
on.
Let’s revisit the C major scale. As you know, it goes C D E F G A B and C.
And if you take a look at the difference between consecutive notes, you’ll
notice that they follow the exact formula from above. C and D are separated
by a tone, D and E are also separated by a tone while E and F are separated
by a semitone and so on.

Minor scales function in a similar fashion but with a different formula,

which looks like this:
 T-S-T-T-S-T-T
If we are to take the A minor scale, which goes A B C D E F G and A,
you’ll notice that, just like before, it follows this formula. The difference
between A and B is one tone, the difference between B and C is one
semitone and so on.

That covers it for this one. Up next, the circle of 5ths and key signatures.
 5. THE CIRCLE OF 5THS
AND KEY SIGNATURES
The C major and A minor scales are good and all, but there may be times
when we want to write songs in a different scale. To aid us in this quest is
the circle of 5ths.
This thing is actually a diagram in the form of a circle which helps us in
forming major and minor scales.
Let’s take a look at the circle of 5ths:
(photo source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circle_of_fifths_deluxe.svg ,
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en )
As you can see, everything starts with C and if we go to the right of the
circle, we get new scales or keys with sharps. And if we go to the left, we
get new keys with flats.
Next to each scale name there is something called a key signature, which
refers to the sharp notes or flat notes that scale has.
These key signatures force you to play the notes in their altered state, unless
stated otherwise by the use of a natural accidental. For example, if a song is
written in the key of G major (or E minor), your F notes will always be
played as F#, unless stated otherwise.
And if you’re wondering why it’s called the circle of fifths, it’s because the
movement on the circle is done in fifths, either in an ascending or
descending manner.
When we go to the right, we are raising the first note of the scale (called
the root note) by a 5th each time. First, we move from C to G, which is a
fifth, then we move from G to D which is a fifth and so on. Similarly, when
we go to the left, we go from C to F, which is a fifth, but a descending
fifth, since we go to a lower note, and so on.
Before we leave, it’s also important to discuss relative scales. Each major
scale has a relative minor scale and vice-versa. In order to figure these
relationships out, you have to do the following:

For major scales, you simply need to play the notes that are
part of the major scale, starting from the 6th note (e.g. for the C
major scale, if you start on the 6th note, you get the A minor
scale)
For minor scales, you simply need to play the notes that are
part of the minor scale, starting from the 3rd note (e.g. for the A
minor scale, if you start on the 3rd note, you get the C major
scale)
And with that, we conclude this section. Next up, we will discuss chords.
 6. TRIADS AND CHORDS
In music, a triad is a group of three notes played at the same time. And
while there are many ways in which you can play these notes, of particular
interest to us are 4 particular triads:

major triad - a triad consisting of a major and minor third

minor triad - a triad consisting of a minor and major third
augmented triad - a triad consisting of two major thirds
diminished triad - a triad consisting of two minor thirds
As you can see, these triads revolve around the third music interval. Triads
may also be referred to as chords, because technically, you need at least 3
notes to form a chord.
These 4 particular triads are important because they are the basis of the
most common chord types. Well, three of them anyway, since augmented
chords aren’t used that often.
As a result, the 4 basic chord types are the following, in order of let’s say
times they are usually used in songs:

major chords
minor chords
diminished chords
augmented chords
Since this is a beginner chords lesson, we’ll only be focusing on the most
basic way of playing these chords, which is playing their corresponding
triad (major triad for major chords, minor triad for minor chords and so on).
And since examples are worth a thousand slides, let’s take a look at what
chords can be formed on each note of a major scale, using the C major scale
as an example.
That covers it for this one. Next section, we are going to discuss musical
sheets. See you then.
 7. MUSICAL SHEETS
EXPLAINED
A musical sheet is the most common method musicians use to write their
music. And this method is a universal one, meaning that it doesn’t matter
what instrument you play, you can always write your music on a musical
sheet.
Musical sheets have various elements inside them, used to designate
the tempo of the song, the key of the song, the time signature and of
course the notes of the song (organized in what is known
as bars or measures). Worth noting is that the areas in which the notes are
actually written are called staffs and they consist of 5 horizontal lines, each
having an empty space area and that notes are written on either the lines or
the space area. More on that below.
Musical sheets can have multiple staffs. The example I am about to use is a
sheet containing what is known as a grand staff, which is used to write a
piano song. This type of staff actually contains two regular staffs, one for
each hand. Other musical sheets can also contain multiple staffs, but most
of the time each staff is dedicated to a different instrument.
These types of sheets are extremely useful for conductors, who are required
to follow several instruments at a time and need to know when each
instrument starts and stops playing during a song. And there are of course
sheets that contain a single staff, dedicated to a single instrument.
So, let’s take a look at a musical sheet:
Quite a lot of stuff there. Let’s break it down:

The tempo section is used to tell the musician how fast a piece is meant to
be played. Now there are two ways in which you can specify tempo:

using a number and a note duration, like in this example

using an Italian tempo word such as Andante, Allegro etc.
In our case, the tempo is read as quarter note equals 120 or 120 beats per
minute (BPM).
Next up we have the time signature. As you can see, it consists of two
numbers. The number at the bottom represents the note duration used to
measure a beat in a measure while the number at the top represents
the number of beats in a measure. In our case, the time signature is read
as four quarter notes. We will learn about time signatures in more detail in
a future tutorial.
Up next is the key signature. This is used to tell the musician what key (or
scale) the song is written and played in. In our case, it is a variant of the F
minor key (scale) called melodic F minor. We will discuss this as well in
more detail in a future tutorial.
The next aspect is that of clefs. Clefs are important because they designate
the octaves in which you are supposed to play the notes. On the top staff we
have what is known as the G2 clef. It’s called the G2 clef because its
starting point is located on the line where the G note is located, which is
the second line of the staff (hence the G2 name). More often than not
though it can be referenced to as the G clef or treble clef.
Notes written on the G2 clef staff usually pertain to the fourth octave or
higher. As you remember, the fourth octave is the one that starts with
the middle C note and is also known as the middle octave. As a general
rule, notes with medium and high pitches are placed on staffs with the G2
clef.
The clef on the lower staff is called the F4 clef for the same reasoning as
above. Notes written on this type of staffs are usually the ones with lower
pitches (or bass notes, if you will). Usually the notes on this clef are from
the third octave or lower. Also, this clef can also be referenced to as simply
the F clef or the bass clef.
As you can see, note placement is different for these clefs (e.g. the G note is
on the second staff line for a G2 clef and on the 4th space area for an F4
clef). However, two rules are available for both. First,
the higher the pitch of the note, the higher its position on the staff. And the
second rule to remember is that each note has its very own position reserved
on the staff, be it a line or a space.
The only time this is not true, in a sense, is when you use accidentals but
even then, the notes are different, though based on the same one. We’ll get
to that when the time is right.
And finally, let’s talk about measures. Measures are closely linked with
time signatures in that you cannot have more notes in a measure/bar than
the time signature allows you to. A measure is used to delimit a section of a
song and it usually contains what is known as a musical motif (which is
basically a group of notes that wants to transmit an idea, expressed by using
notes instead of letters).
Measures are separated by a vertical line called a bar separator and the
end of a song (the last measure of the song) is designated by a special kind
of marker, as you can see. The terms bar and measure can be used
interchangeably.
Since this section in particular is more about reading notes, let’s take a look
at our good old friend, the C major scale, written in both the G2 clef and the
F4 clef versions:

As you can see, we have notes both on the 5 lines of each staff and outside
of them. This is of course allowed and we can write notes outside of the
designated 5 lines by using ledger lines in the places where one would
expect a staff line. Also, worth noting is the alternation between lines and
spaces. Two consecutive notes are located on a line and on a space area, or
on a space area and then on a line, be it a staff line or a ledger line.
When it comes to the G2 clef, the notes on the lines are E, G, B, D and F,
while the notes on the spaces in between are F, A, C and E.
When it comes to the F4 clef, the notes on the lines are G, B, D, F and A,
while the notes on the spaces in between are A, C, E and G.
You may also notice that the notes have different lines. These are specific to
their duration, meaning how long the note is played. In our particular
example we have 16th notes on the G2 clef and whole notes and quarter
notes on the F4 clef, which also has what is known as rests in the
beginning. We will detail all of this in another tutorial.
One final note is with regards to places where you see notes on different
positions on a staff but on top of each other. That tells the musician that he
needs to play all the notes at the same time.
And that about covers it for this section. Next section we will be taking a
look at note lengths and time signatures in more detail. See you then.
 8. NOTE LENGTHS AND
TIME SIGNATURES
The length of a note determines how many beats that note lasts in a
measure. It works in conjunction with the time signature in that based on
said signature you will know how many notes of a certain length you can
put in a bar/measure. In order to better understand this relationship, we’ll be
using a four four time signature to explain note lengths, since it will be
easier, as you will see shortly.
The most common note lengths are the following:

Whole note – in a song written in four four, such a note lasts 4

beats
Double note – in a song written in four four, such a note lasts
2 beats
Quarter note – in a song written in four four, such a note lasts
1 beat
Eighth note – in a song written in four four, such a note lasts
half a beat
Sixteenth note – in a song written in four four, such a note
lasts a quarter of a beat
32nd note – in a song written in four four, such a note lasts an
eighth of a beat
As you can see, there is a bit of equivalency going on there. A whole note is
equal to two double notes, 4 quarter notes, 8 eighth notes and so on. A
double note is equal to 2 quarter notes, 4 eighth notes, 8 16th notes and so
on.
See what I mean when I said it’s easier to understand if we use the four
four time signature for this? That’s because note lengths kind of function in
multiples of 4.
If we were to spice this up a bit, let’s consider a six eight time signature.
When using such a signature, you’ll immediately notice that we could never
use whole notes in such a song, since in each bar or measure we could only
put a maximum of 6 eighth notes. And whole notes last a total of 8 eighth
notes.

Note lengths can be altered by using dots. If the dot is located next to the
note on a music sheet, it’s called a dotted note and the note length is
increased by half of its original value. So, a dotted whole note would last 6
beats, a dotted double note would last 3 beats and so on.

If the dot is located under the note, then it’s called a staccato note and that
means that the note length is reduced by half of its original value. What
that means is that a staccato whole note lasts 2 beats, a staccato double note
lasts 1 beat and so on.

Note that for staccato notes, even though the notes last half as long, in a
measure they still occupy their entire original length, as opposed to dotted
notes, who force you to use less notes in your bars.
We will be using music sheets in this book for the theoretical side and we
will switch to tabs when writing the song, so there’s no need to worry if
some of this feels a bit much. I mean you can use them in Reaper, but it’s
optional.
Before we move on, let’s also discuss rests. Rests are periods in a song
where nothing is played. Length wise, you have a corresponding rest for
each note length. Here’s how they look:

We start off with a 4-beat rest. Then, in each and every other bar, we have a
different type of rest, which corresponds to the length of the notes played in
the same bar. In the second bar we have a 2-beat rest, then a quarter rest,
then eighth rests and so on.
Rests are important to understand because there may be times when you
want certain instruments to take a break from playing. And even though you
are playing fewer notes, you still need to fill the bar all the way to the end.
Rests are also useful a bit later down the road when we discuss musical
phrases. But that comes later.
Let’s move on to time signatures. Time signatures are used to define how
many beats there are in a bar (or measure) of a song. On a musical sheet,
it’s usually located at the beginning of a song. Of course, it’s not set in stone
and it can be changed throughout your song.
Let’s take a look at a music sheet and all its components again. Notice the
time signature in the beginning.
Some of the more common examples of time signatures are four four,
three four, six eight etc. As you can see, a time signature consists of two
numbers.
The first one determines the number of beats there are in a measure while
the second one determines what note length is considered a beat in a
measure.
For the examples above, things would work as follows:

In a four four time signature, each bar/measure can have a total

number of 4 quarter notes worth of beats; this is important
because certain note lengths last more or less than a beat
In a three four time signature, each bar/measure can have a
total number of 3 quarter notes worth of beats
And finally, in a six eight time signature, you can have a total
number of 6 eighth notes worth of beats
Some of you will have noticed that the last two time signatures seem oddly
similar. And you are somewhat correct. Mathematically speaking, you can
fit the exact same amount of eighth notes or quarter notes in songs written
in three four or six eight. The main difference is in how many beats are to
be counted in a measure.
Counting is very useful in order to understand when you’re supposed to
play the next note. Here’s a simple example of how you are supposed to
count the note lengths we discussed.

And with that, we conclude this section. Next up, we are going to discuss
tempo. See you then.
 9. TEMPO
The tempo of a song determines how fast a song is meant to be played.
More often than not it is specified in something called BPM, which stands
for beats per minute. That means exactly what you think it means. Such a
measurement determines how many beats of a song are to be played in a
minute.
By beat, we understand the note length used to as a measuring unit. And
since I did mention something about time, let’s try and look at an example.
If we were to consider a song written in four four and a tempo of 60 BPM,
then that means that each quarter note would last a beat. And since the
tempo is set at 60 BPM, that means that we have 60 beats for each minute
of a song.
In other words, in each minute we would have a total of 60 quarter notes.
Which means that a quarter note would last 1 second in such a scenario.
When using other time signatures, there may be times when you need to
adjust the tempo so as to not make it too fast or too slow.
The tempo of the song is defined at the beginning of the piece, but it’s not
set in stone. You can change it throughout the course of the song as many
times as you want. Though songs with too many tempo changes tend to
become tiresome to the listener.
APPENDIX D – MUSICAL
FORM
 1. BINARY FORM
A song written in binary form consists of 2 distinct sections. Let’s name
them A and B. In classical music, the two sections are usually repeated, so
the song goes AA-BB. I prefer not repeating them when using this form so
it’s up to you.
The most common 3 types of binary form are the following:
- simple binary – the 2 distinct sections also have distinct themes;
what I mean by that is that the motifs used in sections A and B are
noticeably different, though section B can reuse certain themes and
motifs from section A
- rounded binary – the idea behind this is that you end section all or
part of the motifs from section A appear at the end of section B
- continuous binary – this one gets a bit complex in that it can occur
either when section A ends in a different key than the tonic key or
when section A start in a certain key (let’s say C major) and ends in
the dominant key (G major in our case) and then section B starts in
the dominant key
Some songs that use binary form are the following:
- French Suite No. 2 in C Minor by J.S. Bach – simple binary
- Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D Major by W.A. Mozart – rounded
binary in the 3rd movement
- Oh Susanna, a traditional folk song
 2. TERNARY FORM
A song written in ternary form consists of 3 sections. It’s basically an
evolution of the binary form, in that you have 2 distinct sections, A and B,
which are played like this: A-B-A. This time around, the sections aren’t
usually repeated.
The 2 sections need to have a contrasting design. What I mean by this is
that they have to be different from one another in the key they’re written in,
but also in either tempo, dynamics in volume and anything else you can
think of.
Section B is written in a related key to the one section A is written in. What
that means is that section B can be written in the dominant key, the
relative key or the parallel key of the key from section A. A parallel key is
the key of opposite quality (C minor is the parallel key of C major for
example).
Note that you can add certain parts to the second running of the A section,
in which case the ternary form is written as A-B-A1.
Another interesting form of ternary is compound ternary, where each
section of the song is written by using a binary form.
Some songs that use ternary form are the following:
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- The Trumpet Shall Sound aria by Handel
- Andante in E♭ major by W.A. Mozart
 3. FIVE-PART FORM AND
RONDO
The five-part form is one way of writing a rondo. A rondo is basically a
song that starts of with a certain section, which is repeated in the middle of
the song and at the end of it. In between these repetitions of the section
(which can also go by the name of chorus), you have 2 other distinct
sections called episodes.
Thus, the formula for this song is A-B-A-C-A. In classical music, the A
section is usually written as a rounded binary, though it’s not compulsory,
while sections B and C are written in a dominant or relative key.
Some songs that use this form are:
- Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 7, 3rd movement by Maria Hester
Park
- Symphonies 2 to 5 and 7 to 9, slow movements by Anton
Bruckner
 4. ARCH FORM
The arch form is basically the five-part form, with a bit of a twist. The
formula is A-B-C-B-A. The rules of writing the song are the same as before
when it comes to the keys.
Yeah, not much more to say about this one.
 5. SEVEN PART FORM
The seven-part form is an even more advanced version of the rondo which
has the following formula: A-B-A-C-A-D-A. Sometimes, section D is
replaced by section B, but played in whatever key section A is written in.
As you can see, there are a lot more sections here and this is probably one
of the most advanced ways in which you can write a song, second only to
the sonata. In fact, I think I’ve heard people refer to this form as a variant
of sonata as well (named the sonata rondo).
The rules of how to write such a song are the following ones:
- If section A is written in a major key, then:

Section A uses the tonic key of the song

Section B is written in the dominant key (you know, the
one formed on the 5th note of the major scale)
Section C is written in the subdominant, relative or
parallel key to the one from section A
Section D (or the second appearance of B, depending on
your choice) is written in the tonic key

- If section A is written in a minor key, then:

Section A uses the tonic key of the song

Section B is written in the dominant key or the relative
key
Section C is written in the subdominant or submediant
key to the one from section A
Section D (or the second appearance of B, depending on
your choice) is written in the tonic key
Some songs that use this form are the following:
- Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, last movement by W.A.
Mozart
- Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, last movement by W.A. Mozart
- Piano Sonata, Op. 27, last movement by Ludwig van Beethoven
 6. ONE-PART FORM
This one is possibly the easiest one to understand. The one-part form
consists of the same melodic line played over and over and is usually used
in songs with lyrics. The best examples I can give you of this one are the
following:
- Silent Night
- The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel (and Disturbed, later
on)
 7. THROUGH COMPOSED
FORM
This one is also easy to understand. The through composed form consists
of a number of different musical sections that are different from one
another. Yeah…you just create a bunch of different sections and put them
one after the other without repeating any of them.
Here's a reasonably well-known song: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
This one right here is the perfect example of how to effectively use this
form. I mean yeah, since it’s strophic, there is a bit of repetition in the
beginning where the first verses occur, but hey, it fits the description.
 8. CHACONNE
The chaconne is a bit of a combination between the one-part form and the
through composed form. A chaconne consists of you using a certain chord
progression that doesn’t change and creating various different sections for
your song using that chord progression.
The most famous example of this form in a song is Canon in D by
Pachelbel. This is also probably the most famous song that uses the I-V-vi-
IV progression in its conception.
 9. SONATA
Finally, we reach the most complex of them all, the sonata (though I think
classical music concertos that last 45 minutes should take the cake but…
technically they are just very complex sonatas so yeah).
The sonata is basically a very large piece of music, consisting of 2 to 4
movements, but more often than not the magical number 3 is used for
number of movements. A movement is basically a section of the sonata. It’s
important to remember that this form is used to tell a story by using music
and as a result, it needs to have a sort of structure that is written in those
movements:
- Exposition – this part of the sonata is used to introduce the primary
and secondary themes/motifs of your song; the primary theme is
written in the tonic key while the secondary theme is in the dominant
key (if the tonic key is major) or relative key (if the tonic key is
minor), though the dominant can be used in this case as well; the two
themes are linked together via some transition bars
- Development – this part, written in the dominant key (for major
tonics) or relative key/dominant key (for minor tonics) is used to
expand on the themes introduced in the exposition; a lot of key
changes can occur in such sections
- Recapitulation – this part is written in the tonic key and is used to
recap the exposition; note that this time around, both the primary and
secondary themes need to be written in the tonic key
Now that we know about the structure, let’s discuss the movements. The 1st
movement is usually the one that contains the exposition and is often fast-
paced. As for the musical form to use, it’s really up to you, I don’t think
there’s a general rule about it or I haven’t noticed it.
The 2nd movement is used for the development phase of the sonata and is
usually written in ternary form. The 3rd movement, usually written in
rondo form, is reserved for the recapitulation phase.
There’s a bunch of good sonatas out there like: Moonlight Sonata and
Piano Sonata No.14 by Beethoven, Piano Sonata No.8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16 by Mozart and many, many more.
 10. THE VERSE-CHORUS
FORM
This is one of the most common forms of music and is basically used for
every song you hear on the radio.
As its name suggests, this form is based on the idea of having 2 distinct
sections, which repeat themselves a number of times. The first part is of
course the verse part, which usually consists of one or two verses, more
often than not having 4 lyrics each.
In between the verse sections is something called the chorus, or the hook,
which usually contains the title of the song and the main idea/theme of your
piece in its lyrics.
The chorus usually doesn’t change lyrics, though there are many bands who
choose to have at least one chorus section with different lyrics, either by
modifying them or by extending the section with extra lyrics. Verses usually
change lyrics and are used to expand the themes of the song. You can repeat
them if you want, though it isn’t really a common technique to do so.
This particular form of music can have extra parts as well, like an
instrumental intro which sets up the song, or a pre-chorus section which
builds up to the chorus. Other common extra parts are lyrical bridges, which
usually occur in the middle of the song, after the 2nd chorus and act as a
link between that chorus and the next section of the song (which can be
either an instrumental section, a verse, or a final chorus). You can also have
solos, interludes (which are small instrumental sections between verses),
and outros which end the song.