Back in the day, composers would write out musical scores by hand. They would write out parts by hand. Every instrument was played live, acoustically, by hand, foot, and mouth. Back in the day, doing things by hand was popular.

Today, songwriters compile audio tracks with their laptops. They generate parts automatically with intelligent software. Many instruments are sampled and reproduced with keyboard MIDI inputs. This isn’t everyone, mind you, but think of how many songs can you listen to on pop radio and identify a real instrument with complete confidence. This includes vocals which are enhanced and beats which are (at best) pads. Guitar is the best bet of authenticity, and even that is questionable nowadays with realistic Garageband-style programs that do all the heavy lifting.

So what’s going on here?

Essentially, the beauty of modern technology has transformed who can produce music, what music sounds like, how long it takes to put together a new song, and how easily said new piece can be shared via the internet. Some of us still might not feel prepared to go out and be our own maestro, so lets go through some tips that the pros follow to write hit songs that make real money real fast:

1. Write a melody.

Honestly, this is the only part where you have to be a little creative, although with new, wildly popular, minimalist pop artists emerging, such as the Chainsmokers, even this part of the writing process doesn’t have to be very exciting. Pick a note you like, any note will do. In fact, if you pick a particularly obscure note, such as a B double sharp, on which to build the rest of your song, audiences and some theorists will draw presumptuous conclusions about your actual ability; “what a daring choice” they might say, thinking your knowledge of theory surpasses its actual capacities. You have free choice of where the melody goes after that first note. The Chainsmokers’ style dictates that once you get to the chorus, you use no more than three notes in the melody with a clear favorability of one note. Other pop styles consistently utilize no more than five notes out of the seven in any major scale, being 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. These notes have unique properties with little to no melodic momentum (the need to resolve tension) and complete composite harmonization (they all sound good together, no need to plan ahead). Oh yeah, words are cool and all, but as long as they fit together, meh.

2.  Harmonize your melody.

Once upon a time, this took a lot of effort. Today it’s actually the easiest part of the process. Chords are built by assembling “triads” or groups of three notes. They work similar to the melody, and in some cases ought to be decided simultaneously. For our purposes I’ll recommend using chords built off of notes 1, 2, and 5 of whatever key you’re in. From the selected note, play it and every other note in the scale (three for a standard progression, four for jazzy sounds which might sound a little too complex for todays pop music). Arrange the chords in a predictable pattern of four and make sure they fit the melody.

3. Add a beat.

Don’t think too hard, this is really easy. Pick your style (trap, rock, jazz, funk, R&B) and choose a preset beat pattern from whatever software you’ve elected to use. If you don’t have any presets, the age-old “Boots ‘n’ Cats” will do fine for just about any style.

4. Touch-ups.

Press that magic button that corrects any rhythmic or pitch errors. Dynamics are negligible. Fade out.

5. Have someone else write it for you.

There you go! That’s everything you need to know to write ’em like the best! See you on the Billboard!