How do you compose chords and melodies?

Do you jam it on the keyboard / guitar?

How much do you care about harmonics?

Do you sample them?

Have you learned to play an instrument and learned it that way?

I will generally split my harmonies into 3 aspects, the most important is the bass note, this defines the chord, second is the melody note, thirdly i will consider the colour i add by filling in the space between the bassnote and melodynote. In this way, i will write a bass tune and a melody tune primarily, then after i am happy with it (you can pretty much tel from these two notes what the whole thing will sound like) i will begin to add in the filler harmony. generally i will write the bassline and melody as a tonal tune, then add in my dossonance and atonal aspescts in the bulk of the chord.

i usually write melodies in my head and then try to play them or sequence them

piss about on a midi keyboard - anything that sounds good gets recorded and then edited with the mouse. rinse, repeat.

i'll usually hum the root note of it and record it and remember the rest when I hear that later. im good at forgetting the entire thing if i have no root melody as a point of reference

I write melodies as counterpoint. I don't generally punch in chords as chords.

Chorder.. Force to scale.. Let Cubase do all the work.

I loop 4,8 or 16 bars in a sequencer and draw the chords on a piano roll.

'chords' being pretty much any set of 2 or 3 notes, generally in a specific key

as it loops round I tweak it until I get an interesting progression.

(after doing this for a while, you start to get a visual feel for what sorts of intervals will work in certain places)

Then think about the pattern that has been made, copy and paste it and experiment with variations.

then split it up into different instruments and add more layers etc

but looping and tweaking are the main thing

Usually I start a song by playing around on a MIDI keyboard to build a scale, then once I have my scale set up I play around some more to think of themes... Then I record a theme, clean it up, loop it, and make the rest of the melodies based on that theme. Then I add bass lines if the song has/needs them, and make variations for the theme (if needed)...

If I'm lazy or am in a different mood I'll do all that with a piano roll and sequence it with the mouse, but I find my songs where I actually play with a MIDI keyboard are usually better. Well, most of the time...

In terms of sampling sometimes I start with a looped sample, but whenever I use a sample as part of the melodic aspect (usually metal grinding sounds, or various pads from the world, never actually another song that is sampled) it just comes in later, and is modified to fit the song.

I generally jam on 5/6 different keys on the keyboard until I get one chord that I really like, then work on the bass/melody notes that suit that chord. Eventually, more chords are come out...

Play on my keyboard until I get a chord or chords I like. Program/record them in, then play it back and keep experimenting bar by bar to find a good progression.

As for melodies, I usually get something in my head based on the chord progression, though sometimes it just takes random fooling around on the keyboard to get an idea to grow off of.

This is coming from a rather noob musician.

get steaming drunk and press random notes on a keyboard.

lately I've been doing more implied chords with a bunch of mono synths

a bass synth to drive the progression more or less

maybe a droning pad or some gated arp sound for the midrange

some squelchers up top

working with samples can produce good results too, force you to write in different keys etc

grab some violins/pianos/guitars etc... and chop/pitch/effect

then grab some synths and compose around

if i could define my technique i'd work way faster

it's mostly guessing what should come next and seeing if i "feel" it

fool around on midi keyboard, then add notes on piano roll and change velocities etc. w/mouse. same thing if i'm using a tracker, i mean add notes with midi keyb. don't like to record notes live... too many imperfections!!

recently i found it's a lot easier just to pick up a guitar (i used toplay guitar), but haven't tried that yet

I put my cat on my keyboard and hope it all works out.

Or I come up with a chord progression on guitar or uke and then translate it into different instrumentation, and sometimes a melody digs its way to the surface.

I sing. The best melodies have always come from me singing out loud, since it is the instrument where I can most easily achieve the notes I desire without getting bogged down in searching for them on a keyboard. It also allows me for some microtonal options, but admittedly, micro tones rarely make their way into my music. It's something I'm trying to work on.

Of course, I dont limit myself to one strict method of composition. Some days I'll jam on a piano for a half an hour and come out with a good progression with lots of subtle variation and a killer groove. If I want a more ostinato groove I might pick up my bass. Other times I will write the notes directly into a musical notation program or piano roll in order to get a more contrapuntal gestalt out of the piece. I guess what I'm trying to say is that inspiration comes from everywhere and by keeping things varied I am more likely to achieve a different feel by operating within a different set of parameters and playing off of their strengths.

Steal chords from famous people.

Pretend they are mine.

  Rook said:

Steal chords from famous people.

 

Pretend they are mine.

this is probably the best way.

Is actually pretty common in jazz. 50% at least is recycled chords with new melodies. It's not a bad thing in Jazz though. 'Tis a sign of respect ya.

Actually, I am ninety percent sure that chord progressions are not copywritten anyway. Just melodies and lyrics I think.

i cant imagine any nice chord proggressions are left completely unused after this long. certainly not tonal ones.

I just programmed a nice one today.

B-D-A-B,

F-A-D-E,

D-F#-B-E,

C#-E#-A#-B,

Over sixteen bars. With C# Whole Tone on top.

Feel free to steal it.

In all serious though, I usually do chords on my guitar. Unless I know what I want, then I just do them in my head. But if I have no set path, I usually do it on the guitar which makes it a lot easier. It is also fun transposing guitar parts onto synths. Most of the stuff I play on guitar is unplayable on synths, or doesn't sound right. So I often have to change it, which usually opens new doors. It's always a good idea to learn more than one instrument. You learn different things about music on each instrument.

any of the following methods

1. A tune pops in my head and won't leave. I am forced to realize it to avoid insanity

2. Scatter some notes into a piano roll, move/remove the ones that don't fit. Then add more on top.

3. Set an arp to latch and mash my elbow on the keyboard.

4. Aimlessly play keys on the piano

5. Plug in some cables, turn some knobs, let the synths write chords n melodies for me

I pick a scale in my keyboard grimiore, mess around about in it, find something that I like, hit record, go from there.

i try but if im on a fairly long studio rince, all the analog warms up and it becomes out of tune anyways.