A Guide to Electronic Dance Music Volume 1: Foundations

Matti Carter

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2018
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9789515684417
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Theory & Appreciation

A guide to Electronic Dance Music Volume 1: Foundations provides the reader with basic knowledge about EDM. Here is what you get: - An overview of what electronic dance music (EDM) is- Learn about the structure of EDM- Learn about the specific parts of EDM- Study existing EDM through notation examples- Assignments to practise and improve your EDM skills

1. Introduction

1.1 What is Electronic Dance Music?

Electronic dance music, or EDM for short, has become increasingly popular during the past decade. EDM is a form of dance music that is created using electronic equipment. Nearly all EDM is written in 4/4 time, which means that there are 4 beats in every bar. Each beat is usually marked by a kick drum, which creates a steady dance rhythm. This type of beat has evolved from disco music in the 1970s and 80s. EDM is usually performed by DJs at night clubs or music festivals, but it can also be heard on popular radio stations and television. The internet is packed full of this music, and the best way to find it is to go to a site called Beatport (www.beatport.com), the home of EDM. I encourage you to listen to a lot of EDM music to get an idea of what it is all about.

The term EDM is especially used to describe dance music with a tempo in the range of 120-140 beats per minute (BPM). This includes styles such as house, trance and techno. EDM can also be used to describe other modern styles that use a completely different tempo such as breakbeat, electro, drum’n’bass and dubstep.

There are several steps in the process of creating EDM. Full dance music production requires not only music composition, but also sound design, sound engineering, recording vocals (for vocal tracks specifically), mixing and mastering. All of these areas besides music composition are part of a larger category called music technology.

A music producer (or record producer) is someone who oversees and manages the production stage of an artist’s or performer’s music. In EDM, some producers also work as the artist or performer at the same time, and perform their own music (as well as other people’s music) as DJs. In other cases, the artist or performer has a so called “ghost producer” working for him/her behind the scenes.

A music producer generally has knowledge of both music composition and different areas of music technology. Some producers like to work in several of these areas at the same time, while others like to use a step by step approach. Some producers might even have an entire team of people working in each of these areas.

For someone who is interested in working on the entire process of producing EDM from start to finish, I would recommend purchasing a digital audio workstation (DAW), which is a computer software application for recording, editing and producing any kind of audio. A DAW is useful not only for writing out the material that you have composed, but also for taking those ideas and turning them into great sounding productions.

There are many different DAWs available for both PC and MAC, but you could also consider buying a stand alone hardware unit. I recommend searching the internet and studying the options for a while before choosing a DAW that suits your needs in the best possible way. Once you have a DAW, you can start learning how to become a producer.

1.2 About this Guide

This guide should offer something for you, if you are interested in becoming a producer of EDM and have little knowledge about how it works. It focuses mainly on the structure of EDM, and it is designed to help improve your general understanding of EDM and to offer a foundation for finding out more. The guide will not teach you how to compose a song, mix a track or create sounds on your computer software. These topics are covered in separate volumes of the guid...

Table of contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Structuring EDM
• 3. The Verse
• 4. The Bridge
• 5. The Drop
• 6. Final Words
• 7. Resources