ARPS, RIFFS AND SEQUENCES
In the 1980s, developments in music programming inspired a whole new way of writing and producing music. Drum machines, which had been steadily creeping into popular music for a while, were suddenly everywhere, as were sequenced melodic patterns from indefatigable synthesizers. Was this to be the death knell for homegrown, organic musicians as we knew them? Well, no actually, far from it.
Although emerging artists who embraced music programming technology at the time faced a certain amount of disapproval from their bewildered forebears (and who doesn’t?), this evolution in musicmaking methodology only gathered pace from then on. Programming music used to require you to have some form of either analog or digital hardware, but the wide world of computers and DAWs soon turned all that on its head. Today, almost every artist programs their music, mostly in a broader sense through the use of MIDI in a DAW, but also using dedicated software sequencers and arpeggiators that function in similar ways to the equipment of the past.
Most DAWs come with basic sequencers, which divide musical measures into a predetermined number of ‘steps’ and generate repeating musical patterns; and arpeggiators, which take the MIDI notes from a held chord (or single note) and play them as a rhythmical pattern. Many MIDI keyboards and controllers also have built-in sequencers that allow you to hijack practically any keyboard, synth module, or music-making software and set about programming patterns, so you can get as hands-on as you like.
In the context of your track, these patterns can either be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. Creating a repeating melodic pattern on a
