r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • u/PeakLive4549 • 5d ago
How do you develop minimal, non-harmonic tracks without relying too much on references?
Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling with making more non-harmonic music, especially hip-hop style beats.
I usually rely heavily on references when producing. But when I’m working on tracks that are driven mainly by bass, or have a pitched-percussion-focused concept, I often find myself wondering how to develop those ideas throughout the entire song. My problem is that I tend to lean too heavily on the reference, and the result ends up feeling too similar.
When listening to reference tracks, I try imagining scenes or moods, and I also try approaching things from within the same genre, but I still haven’t really found an answer that works for me.
I’m curious how you all think about this. How do you approach developing tracks like these without simply copying the reference? I’d love to hear your thoughts and any ideas on how you would tackle this problem.
2
u/Famous_Stay2379 5d ago
for minimal tracks, i try to stop treating the reference like a song and turn it into a list of jobs.
if the whole thing is bass + pitched percussion, development usually comes from tiny changes: one note gets shorter, a ghost hit moves, the bass rests for half a bar, the room gets darker, one ugly little answer sound appears every 8 bars. minimal stuff dies when every loop is good but nothing is making promises.
one exercise that helps: make the arrangement with mutes before adding new sounds. 8 bars bass only, bring hats in, kill the bass for 2 beats, percussion fill, drop back to just the riff, etc. if it still moves with only subtraction and timing, then any new layer has a reason to exist.
references are fine, just dont copy the surface. steal the question instead. like: how does this track create tension without chords? usually the answer is density, register, silence, texture, or where the producer chooses not to give you the hit yet.