zoo04u

I understand that these questions may seem silly to more experienced composers, but there's a reason I started a thread called "Some Basic Questions". If you're not prepared to actually answer such basic questions, why waste your own time adding a snarky response to a discussion that has been very helpful and constructive so far? You "sincerely hope" that I'm not ten years old? I wasn't aware that everyone past a certain age was automatically expected to have a certain level of musical knowledge. Everyone has to start somewhere, and some later than others. There's no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid answers.

I have another question: Does everything have to be in harmony with the other parts at all times? Can things purposely be out of harmony (I suppose for the purpose of building tension or suspense)? And if so, is this what's called "dissonance"? I'd like to clarify what brings this question up: I was listening to "Love Comes Quickly" by the Pet Shop Boys. There's what sounds like strings (possibly a synth) that starts at 1:40 and seems to end around 2:18 (its kind of high-pitched and in the background). Now, what confuses me about this, is the fact that it seems to be the same note droning on that entire time (from 1:40 to 2:18) while the rest of the song just continues to moves along. Is it really in harmony with the rest of the song that whole time?

This is extremely helpful so far. Thank you for your replies. This is my next question: I made something simple that has a basic 4/4 "four-to-the-floor" beat. The problem is that my bass isn't completely in sync with the beat. When I put the bass on solo and hit play, it sounds the way I want it to. And I think it even sounds fine with the beat, but when I look at the timeline they're not completely together. I can explain it better with screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/Dko5w Okay, so the first five beats are together with the bassline, but when you get to 6 and 7 its out of sync. Like I said, it sounds fine when I listen to it. I'm just wondering if this is technically correct? Is it okay for it to be outside of the beat like that? And just to clarify, this isn't an isolated part of the song, its a main portion that pretty much repeats throughout.

Hi, I've recently started making music using Apple GarageBand. I have only a minimal musical knowledge, so I have a lot of questions that might be pretty basic. This is mostly in the context of rock/pop type music, but it probably applies to classical too. So, lets say I have a bass guitar and a lead guitar. Should they be playing the same notes? (Obviously, it would be at different octaves) For example, I recently made something simple that at one point goes D, C, D, F. I have the bass guitar and the lead guitar playing the same notes at the same time. That just seems really simplistic, but if I had them playing two different things at the same time it wouldn't sound "right", would it? Its kind of hard to explain, but basically I guess my question is this: How does a lead guitar "get along" with a bass guitar? What should they be playing in relation to eachother? And on top of that, what about all the other parts? What is each instrument (essentially everything but the drums) playing in relation to the others, so that everything doesn't just sound like a bunch of noise, and actually "fits together"?