Four bars is a loop. A song starts when the loop comes back changed: the verse, then a chorus built from it that lifts.
In the studio each step is one sentence in a strip over the real controls. Its check lights when your song does what the step says; Show me opens the tool and points at the control.
Duplicating a section copies everything in it, clips, chords and markers, and pushes the rest of the song back to make room, all as one undo step. The copy starts out identical, which is the point: listeners recognise it. Then one change, more hats, a crash on the first beat, the melody an octave up, and it lifts.
The copied clips are linked copies: edit the notes of one and every copy changes, which is what you want when you fix a wrong note in a part that repeats. To change the chorus alone, right-click one of its clips and pick Make unique first, or add a new part that only the chorus has.
Marking where the verse ends matters: without that marker the verse runs on to the end of the timeline, and its copy would land after empty bars.
A section named Verse with music in it; a marker where its music ends; a section right after it with clips at the same places (so it is still recognised as the copy after you change its notes), named Chorus; and at least one difference between the chorus and the verse.
There is a marker called "Section 1" at bar 1. Rename it Verse.
The copy starts at bar 9, with empty bars before it. Undo, mark where the verse ends, and duplicate again.
The chorus's clips are linked copies of the verse's, so a change in one lands in both. Right-click a chorus clip and pick Make unique first, or add a new part.
A chorus that grows out of the verse keeps the song together. Once you hear the difference one change makes, writing a whole new part is the next step.
Anything that adds energy: busier hats, a crash on the downbeat, the melody higher, a new part such as a pad or a second melody.
No. Every lesson is done by hand, with a check that reads your song. Gusta, the studio's AI, can make an example you can study, keep or undo, but that is optional and it uses tokens; the lessons themselves are free.
Eight lessons of about ten minutes, each building part of the same song, ending with a finished file.
Next lesson: A clear mix.
Gusta Music is a free browser studio: a timeline, a note editor, a mixer and an AI copilot that edits your song with you instead of generating one for you. The lessons run on top of it, and the song you make is yours.
Start lesson 6