Let’s Make an Instrumental Track

When it comes to pop and rock music, the most prominent part is usually the vocals.
Especially for regular listeners who don’t play instruments, most of them are only really listening to the singing.
Also, for people who compose music, it’s common to create songs that include vocals.

Because of that, there are probably very few people who have ever made an instrumental track without vocals (hereafter referred to as “instrumental”).

This time, we’ll focus on instrumentals and go over the steps for composing them.
In fact, the fundamental way of creating them isn’t all that different from making songs with vocals.

I’ve roughly divided it into five steps, but the method and order of composing are completely up to you.
I hope you’ll use this article as a reference and find a workflow that suits you best.

1. Come up with a story

Whether a song has vocals or not, composing music is essentially the act of expressing and conveying something from within yourself.
If the theme or story of the piece isn’t clear, you won’t be able to create a good song, and it may end up unclear what you’re trying to say.

With instrumentals, this hurdle is slightly lower.
Since you don’t need to write lyrics, there’s no need to construct the story in words.

For example, let’s say you compose based on the feeling: “On the day I’m finally meeting my long-distance girlfriend after a long time, I wake up to clear skies and my mood is at its absolute peak.”

If it were a song with vocals, you would need to write lyrics that express the situation and emotions in a literary way while also resonating with listeners.
With just this setup, it might not be enough material, and you may need to expand the story further.
And if you start with the music first, you’d have to fit those lyrics into the melody as well.

With an instrumental, you only need to express the feelings of the main character in sound.
That’s the beauty of instrumentals—you can expand a piece even from intuitive ideas or simple images.

2. Think about the song structure and instrumentation

Since you’re not constrained by lyrics, you have a lot more freedom when creating the song structure.

With lyrics, you have to consider their flow, so you can’t easily change the structure later, and you need to think about the progression of the lyrics from the early stages of composition.

Even with instrumentals, it’s good to plan the structure from the beginning, but since it’s easier to change later, you can start with a rough draft and adjust as you go.

However, the instruments you use are important, so you need to choose them carefully from the start.
This is especially true for the instrument used for the main melody.

Each instrument has its own unique sound characteristics, and melodies should take advantage of those traits.
For example, if you initially compose the main melody for a saxophone but later decide to switch to piano, the same melody might not work as is.
A saxophone can make good use of sustained notes, whereas a piano cannot hold notes for very long.

Also, the instrument that carries the main melody strongly defines the overall impression of the piece through its tone.
If you’re using synths, you need to be particularly careful since the range of choices is wide.

3. Create the main melody

For songs with vocals, you create the pitch within the vocalist’s range, and if you start with lyrics, you shape the melody to fit them. With instrumentals, however, you can compose without considering any of that.

That said, just because you have more freedom doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to play an endless, aimless solo without much thought.
It’s better to have something memorable—something that could even work if vocals were added.
One of the strengths of instrumentals is that you can use melodies that can’t be expressed through singing alone. However, if you’re not used to it yet, try imagining a vocalist you have in mind singing the melody as you compose.

You can use it as is, or if you want to expand your expressive range, you can build on it and reshape it later, so it won’t go to waste.

4. Think about the rhythm

This part is basically the same whether there are vocals or not.
If you start from the melody, the rhythm is already more or less established.

However, another common approach is to start from the rhythm instead of the melody.

For example, if you want to create a song with a distinctive rhythm like bossa nova or samba, the scale you use will naturally be influenced as well (though intentionally choosing a different scale is also an option).

Instrumentals lacking vocals often express variation through performance, so genres with distinctive rhythms tend to be chosen.

Composing instrumentals might even help broaden your musical horizons.

5. Add layers and detail

This step is fundamentally the same for both instrumentals and vocal songs.

Once the structure and melody are in place, you refine the details of what each part will play.

Where a difference emerges is in performance ability.
While it’s not absolutely necessary to have high-level technique, instrumentals often call for standout moments for the instruments.
Highlights like guitar solos, organ solos, and drum solos are things instrumental listeners tend to expect, so they’re not easy to omit.

That said, even if you feel you can’t play complex or fast solos, there’s no need to give up on creating instrumental music.

Being flashy or technically difficult isn’t what makes something cool—there are plenty of songs with simple yet expressive and tasteful solos.

You can also create highlights by making use of synth sounds, guitar effects, or loopers—even if the actual performance itself is simple.

Summary

These are the basic steps for composing an instrumental piece.
As mentioned at the beginning, there are no absolute rules for composing, so use this article as just a reference.

By the way, when I write instrumentals, they often start with the most memorable part, such as the chorus or a riff.
From there, they build the imagery and structure afterward.

Composing instrumentals offers a kind of enjoyment that vocal music doesn’t have.
If you’re a music-loving customer of Sound House, I highly encourage you to give it a try at least once.

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