If you’re just getting started you can play around with something like Garage Band, but as you get serious you’ll want to invest in a program that has a vast library of high quality recorded sounds.


You also want a program that will make your life easier as you proceed with your arrangement. Ableton Live and Bitwig are two popular options.
 The beat powers the song and controls how danceable the music is. To form a good beat, try to pick out just the drums from a piece of dance music. Dance music is almost always in 4/4 time, but there are exceptions, such as "Galvanize" by The Chemical Brothers in which they throw in a 2/4 bar every few instrumental measures.


High hat sounds good with straight eighth notes or sixteenths. You can use snare drum to accent and syncopate the beat. Hip-hop uses the clap, so you may want to try to use electronic snare instead., Rather than choosing just one prerecorded drum sound, try laying two different ones over each other. This will create a new and unique sound that you can add to your music. The sounds blend together so if you really like the attack of one beat but prefer the body of a different beat you can combine the two.The attack is the very beginning of a drum beat.
 Dance music usually starts with the catchy bassline and elaborates based on repetition.The bassline can also be the rhythm of a chord progression that you make. The bassline does not necessarily need to have a bass playing it, but you should choose an instrument that has a lower tone. These lower tones sound good when they are establishing the rhythm.
 Trust your ear – there’s no exact way to do this. Understanding the sounds that work well together is an art. Don’t throw sounds together that immediately sound dissonant and expect them to sound better later on down the road. If it doesn’t work, ditch it.


Choosing the right sounds at the beginning is much more important than tweaking levels later on. Pick something that gels right away. Otherwise you may end up rebuilding your track from the ground up later., Most dance music has a typical structure. This structure is Intro, Verse, Chorus, Breakdown, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, and then Outro. The Breakdown generally ditches percussion as you transfer from the first chorus to the second verse and the Bridge is another transitional section popular in pop music.Consider the arc you want your song to have. Do you want an interlude, a big drop, or a build up? Try charting our how you want your song to sound on a piece of paper before you start building it.
 Generally the farther you progress in the song the more action there should be. Usually some layers are rhythms on the chord progression, others are the same note or riff played over and over despite the progression.
 You may want to rap or make two lines that rhyme and sound cool to repeat in certain parts of the song.Alternatively, you could go for a rock format with a verse and a chorus. You can even take out your favorite poem or nursery rhyme and read or sing it! It's up to you.


Some sort of rhythmic phrase can add a whole new component to your dance music.
Download a digital audio works program (DAW).
Start with your beat.
Consider cooking your own drum beat.
Devise a bassline.
Choose sounds that gel.It’s important that choose sounds that go well together.
Visualize your structure.
Begin layering.
Add lyrics if you choose to.
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