https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677/river-rising

This is a short 5 track arrangement I worked on today.
Hope you like.

Track 1: BiaB drums, acoustic/electric guitars, piano
Track 2: My bass
Track 3: My keyboard; Small String Selection(A051)
Track 4: My keyboard; Riser(B093)
Track 5: My keyboard; Oooh Stereo Voices(D042)

You're moving along very quickly on both arranging and playing tracks. Cool.

Nice, but a bit repetitive.

A bit more melody would help.

Fun.
I agree with David above, there is sense that it should go other places and it seems you have ability to do so At about 1:40 seems a good spot from breaking away, when your synth walks in strong. Thank you for sharing.

Misha.

Yep, I agree . . . I need to up my game in this regard.

This arrangement is one long verse. I should probably think intro/verse/chorus/bridge etc. within the framework of vocal-free instrumental.

Can you suggest any web resources that address this subject?

This sounds cool, but I am hearing some fuzzy kinda crackling stuff about halfway through. It that a synth?

Something may have the wrong plugin on it, I dunno.

But it is coming along for sure.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, BT. Somehow you need to break out of that four-chord pattern from time to time to give your composition some light and shade, or some color to contrast with the monochrome.
I don't have any training in composition and I wouldn't know where to find specific resources that would help you in this regard. What I do is simply experiment. In this case I might take your B-C#-D-E pattern and pick style in BIAB. Maybe run it for 8 or 16 bars Then I might give it a bridge or chorus with a couple of minors thrown into the mix - perhaps Dm-Am-F-E - whatever sounds right to you. Just keep changing the pattern to find what works. Who knows, you might come up with something that really rocks.

Best of luck

Ghostgum

Yes, Bass Thumper, good stuff, but branching out will make it more interesting. You've got a good feel going. I like Ghostgums's suggestion. Experiment.

Bingo. I use “Oblique Stategies”, myself: http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html

Suggestion it just offered: “Only a part, not the whole”.

With all my heart I urge you to avoid formulas for fast, fast, fast songwriting that will have you disgorging 10 hits a day.

Ghostgum and others,
Your feedback is appreciated.

FYI, I'm fully self-taught and obviously non-gifted in music and have been playing the bass for 6 years (no lessons) just watching YouTubes and using my ears when listening to Pandora. Been dabbling with BiaB on and off for about 3 years. So no Berkeley School of Music or Masters degree in music theory here. My family wasn't musical at all, I'm basically just playing in the sandbox with my instincts. I will say that BiaB is helping my journey, particularly when I mute the bass and it's just me supporting "the band".

Song writing, composing, arranging, and mixing are a whole level beyond playing bass, so I have learning curves on top of learning curves.

Nonetheless, it's fun, challenging and rewarding when something is created from near-nothing.

A nice foundation for a little something on top.
I'd love to hear a vocalist on this.

moto