Press play above to watch this blog post.

4 minute read.

Hello beautiful person, welcome back to the blog.

My name is Chu and today we are going to be going over a simple 3 step approach for making trap melodies.

Just a quick update: The beat battle has been postponed another week because I added some insane judges, including Aiden Kenway, Larry Ohh, and BusyWorksBeats.

I also added some extra prizes for the winner, and introduced some consolation prizes as well.

Okay!

This tutorial is comprised of 3 sections:

1. The K.I.S.S. Method
   The Perfect stack
   Stereo imaging

All the drum sounds used in this tutorial can be found for free in my 4TEEN Drum Kit which you can access in the first link in the description below.

It even comes with a dope producer checklist giving you my 12 point guide on how to ethically and effectively monetize your producer brand.

God bless you, and enjoy.

The K.I.S.S. Method

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

This is something my football coach would yell at me all the time in high school when I started to overthink and freak out on the field.

Over time, I’ve realized that the concept applies to all of life and is especially relevant in music.

Beautiful music often seems complex, but this is deceptive.

The appearance of complexity in beauty is a manifestation of simplicity.

I love this quote I came up with a few years ago:
“A flower, in all of its complex, infinite beauty, does not contemplate its own magnificence, nor does it ponder on the intricacy behind it. It simply exists in it.”

You’re clearly not a flower .

But you can apply this abstract concept to music production.

Your goal as a producer is not to prove that you are the most artsy-fartsy nigga in the room.

You are always going to lose that battle to someone trying way harder - that’s a fact I'm sure you’ve realized if you’ve been doing this shit for longer than a month.

Your job as a producer is to just… produce.. Crazy right? A whole concept.

You want to produce a product, your music.

And you want to do so as simply and as efficiently as possible.

Having an artist wait on you while you pick the right Omnisphere patch simply ain’t it chief.

Okay, so to apply the K.I.S.S. Method… just find a good sounding VST, and use it.

That’s it.

No overthinking. Just go.

Remember, we want to keep things as simple as possible.

And you know what would be perfect for this?

The Kandy Keys MIDI Pack which I made in collaboration with Larry Ohh.

You can download this for free here.

THE PERFECT STACK

Here’s the simple explanation behind this.

In music, I’ve learned this: piano (or some sort of key patch) + arp + pad + plus simple top melody = fire melody every time.

It is really THAT SIMPLE.

The management of your octave ranges is key - this should be your main take away from this tutorial because it’s the key to making your melodies sound more lush and full.

It will allow your melodies to blend together seamlessly, creating an entirely new sound that can only emerge from the combination of VSTs that you’ve chosen to layer.

That’s one of the most fun things about this to me.

When you understand this concept, you can begin to mix and match ANY sounds and come up with an infinite number of possibilities!!

Here is where you get to be the most creative.

This last part doesn’t depend so statically on the octave ranges.

Just find areas where you can lay down and simple and subtle complimentary melody:

STEREO IMAGING

Don’t worry about missing out on any mixing info in this process!

I have tons of dope mixing tutorials that have helped tens of thousands of producers improve their beat mixes.

In this section, I want to briefly focus on stereo-imaging and how I view that when it comes to making melodies.

You simply want your higher melodies to have more stereo width.

And don’t be afraid to really push your width!

The exact numbers don’t matter so much as the concept does!

Again, the top melody requires you to use your ear and technique a bit more, as its performance is usually in whatever octave sounds most natural.

And just for a bit more added sauce, you can pan the pad and arp away from each other.

This will go even further in creating a cleaner stereo image for my melody.

The goal is to create the subtle feeling that there are two instrumentalists playing each melody at different locations in the “proverbial auditorium."

CONCLUSION

So there is the 3 step approach you can take to put together dark trap melodies.

With time you’ll find that you can add your own flare to it.

Thank you so much for reading!

Be sure to watching the video above to see how this process is applied!!