Hi all,
My friend and I are producing an album together and it looks pretty good. I do vocals and write lyrics, she takes care of most of the instrumentation; it's going well. The problem is that neither of us can write a good melody.
Does anyone have any tips or anything?
Good melody
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milo
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Re: Good melody
So what exactly is going well?
Also, give us more info. What genre are you working in? There are some genres (rap, for instance) where you can almost do without melody entirely. But if you're trying to write show tunes, then you won't get very far without a good melody.
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PieterPenninckx
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Re: Good melody
Cheat! Steal! ... I mean: recycle! Take a melody from somebody else. If the composer is dead for more than 70 years, you can use his/her melody or create your own variations on it. Many great classical melodies are based on folk music. Modern music can also be based on classical music.
My personal approach for coming up with a melody is to start improvising, but you don't know upfront what's going to come out of it.
Anyway, good luck with your album!
My personal approach for coming up with a melody is to start improvising, but you don't know upfront what's going to come out of it.
Anyway, good luck with your album!
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TAERSH
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Re: Good melody
Thumbs down!
Thumbs up!PieterPenninckx wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:25 pm My personal approach for coming up with a melody is to start improvising, but you don't know upfront what's going to come out of it.
My Music:
https://soundcloud.com/user-633698367
The Seventh of Eight Vol.2:
https://soundcloud.com/user-633698367/s ... ight-vol-2
https://soundcloud.com/user-633698367
The Seventh of Eight Vol.2:
https://soundcloud.com/user-633698367/s ... ight-vol-2
Re: Good melody
The first thing I do is think "what do I want it to sound like". It may be thinking about styles, sounds or specific song references. I try to identify what it is that gives that kind of sound I'm looking for.
If my reference is a particular song, how they play with the rhythm of the lyrics, etc. If it is a style, the type of scales, the way to play them, etc.
In short, I try to aim for something and create a "framework of rules and ideas" on which to start improvising until I have something that I like.
Another option that is also super interesting and perhaps more direct and straightforward is to use software for that. Get something like Helio Workstation, choose a key and scale that sounds like what you're looking for, make a backing track with some chords, add a track for melodies and try putting notes on the grid. Vary some notes, their duration, etc ...
I hope it helps. Show us the melodies you get!
If my reference is a particular song, how they play with the rhythm of the lyrics, etc. If it is a style, the type of scales, the way to play them, etc.
In short, I try to aim for something and create a "framework of rules and ideas" on which to start improvising until I have something that I like.
Another option that is also super interesting and perhaps more direct and straightforward is to use software for that. Get something like Helio Workstation, choose a key and scale that sounds like what you're looking for, make a backing track with some chords, add a track for melodies and try putting notes on the grid. Vary some notes, their duration, etc ...
I hope it helps. Show us the melodies you get!
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Nachei
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Re: Good melody
Something that works for me is starting by singing unisons with the fundamental of each chord, or sticking to what the bass is doing, something simple like that...
With time, being the creative person you are, you start to get bored, or distracted, or maybe you need to hammer down a long word that requires an extra note... that way variations start to appear naturally.
It is important to give it the required "cooking time", leaving enough time between the iterations, to regain perspective. Sometimes, after the time out period, you listen to the song again and have like an insight, "what I really meant was..." In my case, the change means most of the time taking out a lot of unnecessary notes...
For me this technique comes from the times when I was in a band and the songs were perfected through iterations in the rehearsal space. We were a punk band, so sometimes the melody didn't have to go too far away from the chords...
Just an idea that might work for some people. Of course each musician's process is different.
With time, being the creative person you are, you start to get bored, or distracted, or maybe you need to hammer down a long word that requires an extra note... that way variations start to appear naturally.
It is important to give it the required "cooking time", leaving enough time between the iterations, to regain perspective. Sometimes, after the time out period, you listen to the song again and have like an insight, "what I really meant was..." In my case, the change means most of the time taking out a lot of unnecessary notes...
For me this technique comes from the times when I was in a band and the songs were perfected through iterations in the rehearsal space. We were a punk band, so sometimes the melody didn't have to go too far away from the chords...
Just an idea that might work for some people. Of course each musician's process is different.