Ways To Improve Composition Skills Part 1

There are some ways that you can craft highly competent composition skills, both on a music and a production level.

• Listen to close harmony singing - You should take time listening to classic close harmony groups like The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel. These groups are particularly good because of the wealth of harmonies and melodies combined from very simple tunes. You can pick out particular harmonies and melodies and learn the craft of arrangement in tunes.
• Listen to a variety of different rhythms - You should also invest time in listening to a range of rhythms from around the world. With Cuban Music you have a lot of polyrhythms i.e. two separate rhythms played at the same time. Irish jigs have 6 beats to every bar. The waltz is another very distinctive pattern, played in 3/4 time. Listen to complex rhythms in jazz genres. This is only a small description of the huge cornucopia of rhythms to listen to.
• Listen to different genres for production techniques - dance music is particular sub-bass heavy, with some variation between subgenres. Pop music has very up-front vocals, and folk music has a much more natural production style. Rock and metal is very guitar-heavy and a lot of vocal music has very sparse and little arrangement around the vocals. After careful listening you'll develop important distinctions between different genres and between different artists.
• Find common chord progressions - You'll find a lot of websites that list common chord progressions ranging from classical to popular music. This is a very easy method to writing initial tracks or compositions, and is the perfect platform to build your own sound and arrangement on.

These methods are predominantly listening-based, as this is the only way to learn an instinct and instantaneous technique to write music.