How does one make pony music?

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How does one make pony music?

Postby PictureCassette » 17 Nov 2013 17:50

Hey! I'm a guy who really wants to make pony music, but I have no idea how to remix, or make ANYTHING remotely close to pony. I have Sylenth if it helps at all.
I make shitty ambient music...
I also do new wavy kind of stuff.
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby Freewave » 17 Nov 2013 19:21

Here's a blog entry i wrote about what makes a brony musician
http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/User_bl ... 2_Musician

What I'm going to write out is about how to make PONY music. Short answer is you write music about the show in some way. If you're looking for a "how do i make music" then you're going to have to learn all elements and you'll want to look through here.

Here's a few ways to make PONY music (gonna use my own music as examples):

Show Remix: Simply a remix of a song from the show. Generally an acapella and a midi will drastically help. One of the most popular methods (just look at Eurobeat Brony's career)
Spoiler video:



Original Song Remix: Remix an original fanbase song (and hopefully in a unique way).
Spoiler video:
Can be a vocal

Or an instrumental


Original Song: Write an original song about a character, an episode scene, or a what if.
That song can be a vocal track
Spoiler video:

or (mostly) an instrumental
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby Freewave » 17 Nov 2013 19:22

Crossover Song: Take two different fanbases and mix together. Like l4d2 and ponies? Beastie Boys fan (technically an example of a mash up which is a cool style too)? Mix them together.
Spoiler video:



Fanfiction song: Take an existing piece of popular fanfiction and make a song surrounding it.
Spoiler video:



Ponified Cover: Take an existing well known song and change the lyrics to they mean something to MLP fans.
Spoiler video:

Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby Freewave » 17 Nov 2013 19:22

Sampledelic Song:
Spoiler video:
Combine show samples into a song theme

or use a mix of samples from inside AND outside the fandom to meet a theme.


Use sliced show samples within an instrumental. Look to pinkie pie swear and sgap at excelling at these and being the best models for them. Use vocal snippets as instrumentals.
Spoiler video:



Make a song about the fandom itself:
Spoiler video:



there's likely more ways but I'll try add them in a bit when i have more time and think about what i might have forgot....
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby Freewave » 18 Nov 2013 09:25

This is probably tl;dr already but the last couple things I'll toss in there are; try to make music that's about ponies but still speaks to you. If you're a shy person but want to do a song about being assertive, then do a song about Fluttershy being assertive. If you want to do a song about a friend letting you down you can do a song about RD and Gilda. In the end you want to have it relate to other people and tell them a little but about yourself through these characters. Music is that medium to do that. Hopefully most people can see a little bit of themselves in these characters anyways.

Also keep in mind when you start what type of music you want to do. Doing a plethora of styles likely isn't an advantage as people won't assign a style to a name and its easier to stick with a few genres and become experts in them. Obviously Eurobeat Brony does Eurobeat, Psychedelic Brony used to psychedelic rock, and Silva used to be the house guy. Make the music you want to and have that mapped out semi early although there's always time to change. If you'll be miserable unless you try a bit of everything then be honest with yourself and do that.
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby Injustrial » 18 Nov 2013 11:15

I've had this discussion a few times over, and I really agree with what's being said above here.
I would like to add, that the most important thing is to decide if you want to do remixes or an original song. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and I won't go into it here. If you're going for the original song route, I'd highly recommend just making something you think sounds good. After a few hours with it, you should start to hear some things. How does the track make you feel? Do you start thinking about something specific when you hear it?
If what you're feeling is something you think you can link to the fandom in any way, start narrowing it down. Is it uplifting and makes you think about soaring through the sky? Then perhaps this'll turn out to be a Rainbow Dash song, and the joys of flight.
Is it moody and lonely? Pinkamena, perhaps?

I don't have any training or education when it comes to music, so the process of making a song is very organic for me. But this is mostly how I do music, with the melodies dictating what my song will be about. Then the lyrics are written to fit.

I would advice against shoehorning in ponies, though. For instance, if your song is an instrumental, but you're not able to link it towards the fandom in any way, maybe you shouldn't. Just dropping random MLP samples and plastering a pony on the artwork is just going to feel cheap and out of place.
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby S.P.P » 21 Nov 2013 09:05

Alot of my projects (most of which never get finished..) are only subtly MLP related. It's not very often at all that I'd drop samples in other than for comedic effect or some such other reason. Take this song for example:
https://soundcloud.com/pyrelight/night-light-ft-bloo

The lyrics are not explicitly pony, but the song is subtly about Princess Luna, so there is an underlying link to the show.


https://soundcloud.com/pyrelight/the-magical-land-of-equestria

This is an instrumental inspired by the show, but there is absolutely no content in the track to suggest it is. I wanted to capture the happy vibe of Equestria through music, and so I did.


In both of the examples, there is no immediate suggestion that the songs are poniponi, and it maybe takes a nudge in the right direction either from the title, an image, or a description for people to go "oh hey, yeah this song is related to MLP". However, it has to be really obvious after said nudge otherwise your piece might be labelled PINO (Pony In Name Only); and some people might even consider the second track I linked to be PINO. Slapping on an MLP picture as the artwork and saying "HEY LOOK, A SONG ABOUT THE PINK ONE!" is not the way to go atall, but I think this method is perfectly viable. And so are the points that Injustrial and Freewave made.

I hope that helps a little. ^^
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Re: How does one make pony music?

Postby ClaviSound » 21 Nov 2013 14:24

Although it's not really about making pony music and more about being a pony musician, here's a few things I've learned throughout my year and a half here in the fandom, maybe you'll be able to take something away from it:

1. Throw any illusions about being popular out the window. The best step to becoming popular, much like the first step to becoming wealthy, is to not want it. Don't make music for anyone other than for yourself, and for music.

2. It may hurt to be criticized, and you may feel like lashing out at those who do so, but sometimes you have to swallow your pride and admit you're wrong. It's hard - one of the hardest things to do, in my own experience - but you'll never get better otherwise, neither as a musician nor as a person.

3. Enter circles as a friend rather than as a pony musician. Ponies are ephemeral; friendships could last a lifetime. (It doesn't hurt they like the same thing you do, of course; just saying that being "all business" isn't really as fulfilling or fun.)

4. Everyone's a rookie at some point. Most skilled musicians you talk to once knew nothing about the kind of music they're good at, just as you do. And one day, you will be one of those skilled musicians. And when that happens, never forget those who helped you along your way, and treat those who wish to learn from you the exact same way you'd want yourself to be treated when you were learning. It's a long path, one you'll come to respect after you walk it.

((EDIT: I understand you're probably not unfamiliar with music, sorry about that. All the same though, teach and learn with the knowledge you can never do one without doing the other.))

5. Be careful not to let big numbers cloud your judgment. If you want to work with a musician, check yourself to make sure it's because of their talent or expertise (or just because they're a really, really cool person), and not because they happen to have a lot of fans. (I'd love giving the benefit of the doubt, but I tend to warn everyone, just in case.)

6. Wheaton's Law: Don't be a jerk.

As for music, it's true that instrumentals are a bit harder to define as being "pony", although throwing in leitmotifs in the show help for more melodic work. But people like Aviators have made pony-inspired music that have been deliberately ambiguous on whether it's a series of coincidences or actually pony related.

I would say just make music, and if it happens to be inspired by pony, then it probably deserves to be in the fandom. The inspirational source, I think, counts much more than any vocal samples slapped in the song.
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