Making melodies

I'm a newbie and I basically just pick scale and go crazy on my keyboard until I find something that sounds nice.

How do you go about coming up with a good melody?

First I need to find the right sound or instrument - after that I usually just hear the melody in my head and play it out

I generally build up a song's skeleton before a melody falls into place (though not always). Melodies are much easier (and more entertaining) to write when they have a bit of context to exist in: drums, a chord progression or ambiance of some sort, maybe a bassline to pal around with...etc. Your approach, noodling around with scales, is also good fun. Whatever works!

  On 8/24/2012 at 1:51 AM, luke viia said:

Melodies are much easier (and more entertaining) to write when they have a bit of context to exist in: drums, a chord progression or ambiance of some sort, maybe a bassline to pal around with...etc.

Yeah, this is how I usually come up with melodies. Some of my best ones have been written out of context though. The main melody to Penguivman was written in Animal Crossing!

I vary between the piano roll and live. Sometimes my thinking gets in the way when i jam on the keyboard and I just have to program the melody.

I might start with a chord progression then loop it and record a melody over it.

Play a melody to a predefined rhythym.

Make patterns from a scale and just hope they sound good i.e. Root, one note lower, two notes higher, three notes lower etc

Start with the bass and keep layering sounds an octave higher than the last.

Play something in a minor scale then convert it to major using the same intervals. Or vice versa.

Draw a squiggly line of notes in thesys, flick through different scales until you get something decent.

If I have a bass and melody, swap them so I'm now playing the melody in the bass register and vice versa

for the most part i come up with it on the fly. but once and awhile ill have one in my head and then ill play it out. but like luke says i like to build up the skeleton before i make the melody, context helps a lot.

my process:

-i think of a beat in my head for the drums. (the sound of the drums doesn't matter right now, just as long as the rhythm is good. i can always come back afterwards to get the right kit and sound)

-next i come up with a bass line. nothing complicated. just something to complement the drums. (once the melody is made i come back to the bass to give it more depth)

-then comes the melody. for this i just loop the drum and bass patterns that i came up with and then plug and chug notes.

all of this can take about 10 mins once you know what your doing. i like to stay away from thinking "in scale" cause then im more focused on the "correct" notes instead of how it sounds. but thats me.

Scales Shmales chords shmords

I just sorta hear it all at once in my head & then write it down

  On 8/24/2012 at 3:50 AM, Cryptowen said:

Scales Shmales chords shmords

I just sorta hear it all at once in my head & then write it down

This does happen quite often for me.. I'll be inspired by someone's voice inflection while talking, or a ringtone, or a bird singing, or anything really, and then it'll get stuck in my head and build into something that I eventually try to translate into a melody.

all in my head. i like to think that the instrument is talking or singing a story.

i play notes and then a melody is born

Usually it's all in my head but as a (former) theory student I always consider things like progression and counterpoint

  On 8/24/2012 at 4:13 AM, sergeantk said:

i play notes and then a melody is born

 

 

Usually it's all in my head but as a (former) theory student I always consider things like progression and counterpoint

how would you recommend a person with no music theory background attempt progression? I try but often get frustrated by my lack of skills.

I keep patching my synths until I find some inspiring sounds and then start jamming.

If the sound is indeed inspiring, then I'll quickly come up with something. And if I happen to like that something (be it a lead or a bass arpeggio or a pad), I keep on jamming upon it.

And again and again.

You might spend countless hours seeking the right/beautiful sounds, but whenever it rings you a bell you can have a lush melody few minutes later. And if you're not succeeding in composing something satisfying, you'll still learn your synths upside down and build a huge patch library for more inspired sessions.

PS: no need for musical theory, trust your ears. If it sounds good, it most likely is.

  On 8/24/2012 at 2:17 PM, lin said:

I keep patching my synths until I find some inspiring sounds and then start jamming.

If the sound is indeed inspiring, then I'll quickly come up with something. And if I happen to like that something (be it a lead or a bass arpeggio or a pad), I keep on jamming upon it.

 

And again and again.

 

You might spend countless hours seeking the right/beautiful sounds, but whenever it rings you a bell you can have a lush melody few minutes later. And if you're not succeeding in composing something satisfying, you'll still learn your synths upside down and build a huge patch library for more inspired sessions.

 

PS: no need for musical theory, trust your ears. If it sounds good, it most likely is.

my frustration is that I can make a melody which sounds good enough to me, but when i want to string two melodies together, or maybe I mean two or three parts to a song so that it's not this constant looping, then i run into problems making the parts work together into a coherent and engaging whole. I don't know if there's advice to be had on that except to keep at it, but that's my songwriting problem.

Try to have all your melodies playing the same notes but not at the same time. Depending on how you layer those several melodies, you'll get different harmony going on.

Whenever you want to use a note that isn't in the other melodies of your track, just trust your ears, really.

If you feel that it's getting too complex, start over from the core of that problematic melody, then "complexify" it step by step.

If it's a chord progression, start with a coherent monophonic line and add notes on top of that monophonic line.

If it's an complex lead melody, start with the "skull" and fill in the gaps.

etc...

I foot have a keyboard so I tend to just put in notes, press play and keep fucking around with the placement until I'm happy. It takes ages though.

I've had this weird thing lately where I just pretend there's like a rock song playing in my head and think of someone singing lyrics and a melody comes to me. Often I'm out and about so I quietly hum it into my phones voice recorder lol

Try using arpeggios for melodies. They outline the harmony as well so, you know, two birds/one stone and all that.

CFA GEC FDB GEC AFC DFAb GEC B (or whatever)

Squarepusher uses a TON of arpeggios, usually with extensions (e.g. 7ths).

i drop random notes which generally inspire a melody

I don't know about you guys but I get into a lot of habits. Some of then are good habits, some of then are bad habits. For example if I have a root note of a# I do a lot of d and d# over it. That kind of thing.

What somewhat counters this is starting the track from a weird note I don't use very much at all, so I don't really have my bearings and end up doing things I don't normally do, melody wise.

Simple and maybe everyone already does this but its helped me get out of a few jams