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Avoiding 'cheesy' melodies

Have had success in the past putting together some decent, trance melodies... ones that can stand on their own and progress slowly (no quick and easy arpegiations). Don't always do though and am trying to put together house melodies these days.

Although I'm pretty happy with my rhythms, my melodies just seem too cheesy to my ears. I wish there was a better way to describe it, but they just sound unprofessional.

I am using a natural minor scale, and sometimes I will use the harmonic and melodic minor for approach and tension notes.

What strategies could be used to pick better notes?

Perhaps detuning some notes by 50 cents? Are there other scales I'm somehow not aware of I could be using? Of the minor variety that is... Should I be looking at blues scales for house? Trying to put together something you might find from Nikola Gala, Boom Jinx - Too Free to Follow... some sort of modern, progressive/deep house sort of music.

Certainly I've found the instrument and its expression used can help out a great deal. Layering with other instruments of course adding more resonances and harmonies. I'd like my melodies to stand out by themselves though without sounding like something's missing.

If you want to 'not' have cheese melodies then you want to avoid what professional artists do. Because a cheese melody is something that people do way too much.

For instance, "super saws" are cheese because everyone does them.

I tend not to rely on any convention, in this regard. I have a tune with super-saw in it - I found a good place for it that seemed appropriate and used it - that's it.

If something sounds cheesy/chintzy/makes me cringe, I usually get rid of it and work with the track until I find something that works. Sometimes it's just a major chord progression that needs an augmented, diminished or inverted counter-point to help create a more robust ensemble effect.

I might have pads that are playing a progression of simple 5th/7th major chords, for rhythm, but underneath, I'll follow it with inverted pads.

(RichieV - feel free to school me on this!)

Any melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch.

i dont know how 50 cent could or would help you though, hes in it for the money only. id go for more 5ths and 7ths

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja Any melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch.

I used to spend hours cycling through patches, trying to make a melody work. You're right, in that ANY melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch, but even cheesy melodies cannot be "fixed" with a great patch.

quote:

Originally posted by EddieZilker I used to spend hours cycling through patches, trying to make a melody work.

lrn2program :>

checked out wikipedia and wrote down all the scales I could find from pentatonic to octatonic, ionian to locrian, blues, jazz, arabic, etc. I'm sure with house music there is plenty of freedome allowed with scales!

That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes?

quote:

Originally posted by ClearWater checked out wikipedia and wrote down all the scales I could find from pentatonic to octatonic, ionian to locrian, blues, jazz, arabic, etc. I'm sure with house music there is plenty of freedome allowed with scales! That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes?

There are only rules in art so you can have fun with them.

quote:

Originally posted by ClearWater That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes?

does trance music always makes you down?

Not sure saying strictly minor really means anything, since there's so much variation to be had, so much colour in different chords.

Good songs have great progressions. How you move from one chord to another, and how they underpin the melody can make a huge difference on the mood.

Take a melody you call 'cheesy' and try changing the chords underneath. Add colour, variation, perhaps a different inversion of a chord will change how the melody sits.

Or just write a non-cheesy melody

A cheesy melody is usually one which is simply too melodic. You might try using a more complex scale, with more complex harmony. Or strip it back to a 145 progression and use texture to build the track for a more housy approach.

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja lrn2program :>

answer for the whole thread

i concur that cheese is in the patch, and if you're looking through patches for your lead there's your problem.

trance music being only in minor is lulz

quote:

Originally posted by EgosXII answer for the whole thread i concur that cheese is in the patch, and if you're looking through patches for your lead there's your problem.

i don't think so.. "cheesy" has more to do with melody/harmony as with the sound/patches...

i also have this problem. i always make melodies too big/too complicated (in a cheesy way) which i find easier than making simple melodies.

I believe you should not worry too much about if your melody is "cheesy" or not. If it sounds good and portrays the picture you're trying to paint with your music then by all means use it. To me the melodies are a small part of a production because i have heard so many tracks with some of the minimalest of melodies and still have a grand effect overall.

I have a producing buddy who is a music major and is obsessed with trying to get the perfect melody that is very tonically complex. Sometimes I feel he comes up with nice melodies but his music is often not very danceable as he puts so much focus into the main melody & chord progression, leaving his music like a hot chick with no personality, absolutely boring.

Sometimes i feel people (like my buddy) just need to remember that there is a very very small chance of you making something that has not been made before when it comes to melodies.

I think what is more important is HOW you use that melody rather than WHAT melody you use or how "complex" or "fresh" it is. I believe its more about the effects, layering, modulation and progression of ALL the sounds in a production that really takes the cake because I've heard some of the simplest melodies in some tracks that work flawlessly because of how the track as a whole sounds & progresses.

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift Sometimes i feel people (like my buddy) just need to remember that there is a very very small chance of you making something that has not been made before when it comes to melodies.

Bullshit.

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux Bullshit.

Just wait till you make a melody that you think is out of this world amazing & original only to find that there is a production with a closely similar melody line, if not the exact same

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift Just wait till you make a melody that you think is out of this world amazing & original only to find that there is a production with a closely similar melody line, if not the exact same

Has not happened to me yet.

quote:

Originally posted by Nightshift Just wait till you make a melody that you think is out of this world amazing & original only to find that there is a production with a closely similar melody line, if not the exact same

I have, but this doesn't mean that there aren't any new melodies up for grabs. There are beyond quadrillions of combinations.

If it sounds familiar to you, then you'll know.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle Has not happened to me yet.

maybe u just havent discovered it yet...

Nightshift: you are right.. but it's just so much easier to make a good, interesting track with catchy melody than a good track with little or no melody.

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux Bullshit.

there is some truth in what he said. Every melody you will ever think of has already been done in some genre in the last 200 years. Trust me, there is absolutely nothing you will ever think of that hasn't been thought of before. I think the only way to make something different now is the context of the melody. The production of the actual song in regards to the melody is really the only new thing you can do in music.

There is an infinite amounts of melodies to come up with.

Some melody lines will only sound cool with the right timbres, arrangement and choice of synth and effects etc etc etc...

quote:

Originally posted by RichieV there is some truth in what he said. Every melody you will ever think of has already been done in some genre in the last 200 years. Trust me, there is absolutely nothing you will ever think of that hasn't been thought of before. I think the only way to make something different now is the context of the melody. The production of the actual song in regards to the melody is really the only new thing you can do in music.

Prove it.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle There is an infinite amounts of melodies to come up with. Some melody lines will only sound cool with the right timbres, arrangement and choice of synth and effects etc etc etc...

trust me, they have all been done. There is a reason why people started exploring atonal music in the early 1900s. Tonal music has been explored as much as it ever will be. The only difference now is context. There really hasnt been any new "melodies" in any genre since the 1950s. The only thing changing in music now is aesthetic and context.

That is the reason why people criticize John Williams and pretty much every film composer because they really just repackage in a slightly different context melodies that have been done before.

But this should make you feel good that you are actually in a genre that can add something valuable to music in that production and the way a melody is presented is really what i suppose you could consider new. The actualy melody not so much.

How many melodies are there in the universe?

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