Simpler is almost always better.

In my 4 years of music production, I’ve heard and made alot of songs that are overproduced. To make a catchy tune, simplicity is the key. Whether for melodies, or for the actual production, the simpler it is, the easier listeners would vibe to it. Obviously, catchiness is subjective, but there is an art to it.

Let’s take a listen to I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic.

If we strip it to its most basic components, its only drums, guitar, bass, whistling, vocals, and some ear candy. Ryan Tedder and the writing team made these instruments interesting enough for the listener to keep them listening.

Now, lets take a listen to Out of My Mind by Orange Purple and Shaped.

Take note of the melody. A catchy melody should be simple and singable, as is the case here. Because of it’s simplistic melody, you have to make that up by making the rest of the parts in the song interesting, whether it’d be making the lead fuller, or filling up the empty space with the bass and chords.

But then we can run into the problem of overproduction.

Overproduction happens when you add too much elements, and because of it, they clash together and make something… messy. This can happen in a project you’ve been working on for months.

For example, my song Crystalized from the Crystalized Fanalbum by the Realm of Harmony.

In an attempt to fill in the empty spaces, I added waaay too much arps and chords to the project, which resulted in the mix being messy as hell, with way too much highs, and almost non-existent lows.