>>20256540slowly but surely. i am also invested in the production of edm. i've been trying to focus on the compositional aspect to extract more rich harmonies to spice up my songs. lately, i've found that there is a wealth of harmonic potential in the parallel minor. chords like the flat two, flat three, minor four, flat six, and flat seven chords are basically like a dlc expansion pack to the common chords found in the major scale. this, on top of chord substitutions, such as the altered dominant, make for some rich hamonic potential previously unavailable to me. it is as though a new level of composition has finally revealed itself to me after ages of simple 2-5-1, but even this 2-5 movement has revealed itself to me in different ways, like how the minor four, to the flat seven is still just another 2-5 movement in a different key, but still manages to make sense within the context of the tonic key. i am very excited to see how my compositional style matures because i've stagnated for a long while with no real direction, other than brute forcing progress, even though all that results is a reinforcing of old habits, rather than the advancement of ability.
i'd give you some tips, but most of what i use is based on personal preference, and everybody has their own way of doing things. if anything, something universal that everyone seems to use is automation, whether automating volume, pitch, panning, or even bpm. the possibilities are mostly endless, but bpm is especially a good choice for automation because you can choose how slowly or quickly your song plays. say for example, you want a way to end your song, then you can automate the bpm and slow it down. it'd be a good idea to look up a tutorial, but it's just an idea to play around with, you likely have a general idea of the creative vision you'd like to actualize. these are just tools you can choose to use or not cause everyone has their own way.
