The 4 basic elements of how to make electronic music

Lets get straight into it shall we?

The 4 basic elements of electronic music are much the same as any other type of music.

You have your;

1. Drums or The Beat

2. The Bass line

3. The Melody

4. The Vocals

Now just to get one thing straight, A LOT of DJs/producers don't sing in their songs, (probably because they can't sing, like I can't hehehe). Some get guest singers to sing but most just don't do any vocals at all so don't give up straight away because you can't sing! In this article, I won't discuss the vocal aspect of electronic music. If anyone would like me to though, please feel free to put in a request

An Alesis DM5 Electronic Drum Kit

Lets start with the Beat.

Almost every electronic song has a beat in it of some sort. Whether it be house music with a straight beat, or a breakbeat with different combination's of different drums and cymbals, sequenced together to create a beat. A great beat can turn a mediocre song into a great song, but a mediocre beat could turn a great song into something not so great. I personally spend just about most of my producing time making sure that I'm happy with the beat.

Depending on what style of electronic music your making, generally the 2 main drums to consider are the bass drum, also known as the kick, and the snare drum. These 2 drums are the driving force behind a beat and they are then filled and polished around the edges with things such as percussion sounds and cymbals.

Electronic music usually runs in counts of 4, with the kick drum falling on the 1 and 3 and the snare falling on the 2 and 4. Some electronic music like house, trance, tech, and numerous others which use a straight 4 beat, have the kick drum fall on all 4 counts. Other styles like hip hop and break beats have different combinations of the kicks and snares and other sounds falling on different varieties of counts, but always counting in 4's.

The bass line is considered by many many electronic music producers the most important element of an electronic song other than the drums. Some people even think its MORE important! You can easily have an awesome song with just drums and bass, but its kinda hard to make an awesome song without any bass or without any drums. There is even a genre of electronic music called Drum and Bass!

It is that low, deep sound you hear in any song. Be it hip hop, trance, house music, or any style at all, the bass is the underlying vibration of the song. Sometimes it is so low it more of a vibration and are actually felt throughout the body as well as heard through the ears.

A killer bass line is an integral part of a great electronic song. There are many different ways to make a fat bass riff. It all depends on the software you use. A lot of people hear the bass and think it was created using a bass guitar. Believe it or not, more often the bass line in an electronic song is actually written on a keyboard rather than a bass guitar. So you don't need to go out and buy a bass guitar! Let alone learn how to play it! Learning how to play a bass guitar is a whole new league of its own!

Believe it or not, trying to learn how to make electronic tunes, using real instruments like a bass guitar, would require vast amounts of musical knowledge. Where as, if you were just using software on your computer, like the software program on How To Make Electronic Music (see links below), you would just need a love for great electronic music, and a willingness to HAVE FUN while learning!

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