Writing Melodies

[euterpenc]

How does one write an interesting and dynamic melody? What are some common or important components to a worthy melody? Are some intervals more effective for certain sounds than others? Examples?

I have never really tried to write a considered melody before, only played randomly in or out of scales until I hit something I liked. Better methods?

[stuck]

Use your voice. Most melodies are composed around the human voice. You've probably listened to 10 billion songs by now, so you'll have a natural idea of how the contours could go. Just imitate something you like.

[Hexchild]

I've made up little fuzzy guidelines for myself to follow that contribute to making my music sound a little better. Creating a melody is one of the things that has almost completely eluded my ability to do so. Occasionally I wake up from sleep while hearing a new melody in my dream. And sometimes I just notice that I happen to be hearing a melody in my head that I don't recognise from anywhere. But creating one from scratch through sheer, conscious thinking power, that's something I still haven't got the hang of. I tend to resort to the random method described in the OP.

[asperger]

Use your voice. Most melodies are composed around the human voice. You've probably listened to 10 billion songs by now, so you'll have a natural idea of how the contours could go. Just imitate something you like.


I think that is good starting advice. I can't sing but I can hear myself sing in my head. In terms of analytics one should look first to the highest and lowest points in the line. In non-trivial compositions setting the contour and the lowest and highest points and their approximate temporal positions in the melodies of each phrase, at least somewhat in advance, can be very useful.

[euterpenc]

I will try this. I've sort of done it before, but I tend to come up with riffs more than melodies. It is also difficult for me to make sense of melodies without considering the interplay with the chord [progression]. Perhaps it will take some trial and error.

I'm trying to understand the melody to Otherside by RHCP, since it is very simple and yet very catchy and sets a real mood. Lots of their songs are like this, but the melodies are ridiculously simple. What makes them so great?

[stuck]

Maybe the best way for you is to create some riffs with two or three parts- structure them out kinda like a song. Record them, and then move on. Do that like 20 times. Then, when you're feeling melodic, go back and listen to them and record the first melodic ideas that come to your mind. Do not edit, do not critique yourself. Record them and walk away.

That's kinda how I work with writers sometimes, and it seems to be the best way. A whole song is sometimes a difficult thing to tackle head on, and it helps to have the whole surrounding landscape kinda penciled-in.

The chili peppers are not reducible- it's about the guitar sound, the drums, the bass, and the mixing as much as it's about the yaowling.

Also, it makes a tremendous difference what energy you put behind a performance. That's something to always think about, and it'll change the meaning of a melody 100%. You can make something very simple very complex emotionally.

Basically, stop intellectualizing the process, at least at first.

[euterpenc]

Maybe the best way for you is to create some riffs with two or three parts- structure them out kinda like a song. Record them, and then move on. Do that like 20 times. Then, when you're feeling melodic, go back and listen to them and record the first melodic ideas that come to your mind. Do not edit, do not critique yourself. Record them and walk away.

This is pretty much what I do now. I'll keep working on it. I just rarely find anything that strikes me emotionally, but maybe that is another issue that's not musical. My best melodies and playing tend to come spontaneously so it's hard to capture a particular moment or feeling.

I'll try singing more too. I just tend to get nervous about it more than playing an instrument, since in a way it's more personal cause it's my voice. And I think, even I successfully sing something neat, it is expressive of myself and then leaves me vulnerable. I find that everyone's a critic, even of quality material.

[stuck]

My best melodies and playing tend to come spontaneously so it's hard to capture a particular moment or feeling.

record yourself doing the spontaneous thing for 30 minutes every day. listen to it later on and catalogue the good parts.

[euterpenc]

listen to it later

I'll have to do this. I have a ton of material recorded but there is just so much, and so much of it is not worth keeping.

Do you analyze your melodies/ know what is "theoretically" going on with them? Any motifs you use often, presumably as a mark of character or style?

[Justinsideyou]

I've been wanting to start writing music for years now. But I don't have a clue where to start.

[stuck]

Do you analyze your melodies/ know what is "theoretically" going on with them? Any motifs you use often, presumably as a mark of character or style?

I usually know what's happening theoretically with my music, but not always. If I happen to stumble across something that sounds great and I don't understand what it is, I tend to keep it. I don't bother to figure things out unless I have to.

I have a lot of motifs I like- they're usually related to jazz or classic r&b.

[mthomps]

A melody is just a succession of notes. You literally have twelve of them on western instruments. What matters is what note you choose at what time combined with it's place in a rhythm along with it's sounding and octave within a rhythm. Along with the notes harmonizing it at any given time. Then you literally can just find chords that have that note in them, whether that note is the 13th or the 3rd or the root note and harmonize that melody whatever way you like for whatever period of time. That is merely what music is.

Generally I am fond of angular melodies where the note you might expect sounds but it might be an octave above or the note that comes next is not anticipated at all. I like time signatures in 5's and 7's for those but I also like simple blues based and diatonic regular major scale melodies with a simple yet beautiful chord sequence along with tight predictive percussion playing the rhythm. Good is good.

[mthomps]

I would actually say if you like writing melody just take the diatonic scale at first and harmonize your melody with it. Don't get a theory book and follow the rules. Just remember this: There are only three chords, the tonic, the sub dominant and dominant which is really 1 2 and 5 chords of a major scale. The tonic can be a 1, 3 or 6 chord and the subdominant a 2 or 4. The dominant is either a 5 or a 7. That's every chord in common practice harmony which is honestly old as shit but still 90% of what it used still today. So just start experiment doing those things. Don't worry about crazy scales like shit you hear about lydian dominant and super locrian blah blah. You are better off, if you want a crazy sound to try to find some sort of midi sheet music of your favorite band to play back and then learn on your instrument or figure out what scale the notes are after you made the melody without learning about scale . Start by trying to make beautiful shit with the basic stuff and don't worry about how it fits in theoretically.

[mthomps]

Anyways if you wish me to elaborate for you if you don't already know what a 1 chord or a 5 chord are let me know and I'll tell you whatever you ask.

[mthomps]

More random shit from me but if you are a keyboard player don't bother learning to read music or what not you are just trying to write some melody right? I would literally do just this: Learn where every note is on the keyboard (remember there are only 12 and they keep repeating) and then learn major scale chord theory. Basically 7 notes and for each chord you take a note then skip a note then take a note then skip a note then take a note. That equals a chord built on thirds and that is what Common Practice classical and most modern music is based on. Learn EVERY inversion of the chord by heart. That means root as the lowest sounding note then the third of the chord as lowest etc. If you play a guitar do the same thing. If you can find a random chord anywhere on the neck of a guitar you are automatically twice as good as an average guitarist and I mean that.

[mthomps]

I reread your initial post and took into account you were looking for examples. Well I suck at melody but I know I can tell you is taking a degree of a scale then skipping up a third than down a second works. For example the 1 than the 3 then a 2. That type of shit flows nice with common chord progressions.

[Thirsty]

Melody writing has a lot to do with genre unless you're well versed in music theory. I'm not. I play around with the penatonic scales until I find something...

I'm into bluesy stuff.

[euterpenc]

mthomps: Thanks for your input, though I know most of what you've told me. I think my original question was sort of an artistic question in a broad sense, or I may have been looking for some sort of intervalic patterns to play with. I think learning every note on the instrument will be difficult or useless unless it's put into context. If I know what note is F, but I don't understand the relationship of F to G, the me knowing where F is will help little. Of course, knowing where F is is important, I just don't think learning the notes in isolation is the best route. I tried this with little success. Once I started learning scales then playing them in various patterns, and understood the scales and the chords for them, I could place the sounds better, and so the notes gained more significance, which thereby reinforced my memory of their locations.

I'm pretty into music theory and find it immensely useful. Where I am now theory is starting to fuse with technique, and I think 'theoretically' with my fingers. I see the intervalic relationships and chords and chord changes. As I develop my rhythm, I've been experimenting with various intervalic combinations within some simple progressions, noting which ideas I like.

[mthomps]

Good stuff man. Ya I love music theory I eat up everything I can find on it.I tend to ramble a lot too. Sorry about that. Haha. You mentioned F to G. That's a major second interval, which you probably already know. One thing I do a lot more now than ever is take melodies I like and study the interval relationships of the notes in succession. Figure out what intervals are used in succession and on what beat they fall. Figure out what the more important notes of the melody are and then find the interval between those notes. Then relate them to the chords used under them and then reharmonize the melody.

You learn so much this way and it's actually really fun.