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-- Melody - How longs a piece of string!!

Melody - How longs a piece of string!!

Hi guys hope your all well,

When making a track my biggest head ache comes from writing the melody. I could spend days and get no where. Then one day i could random boot my computer up and write a decent riff in afew minutes.

I was just wondering if this is something that get alot easier with time or is composing always going to be one of the hardest parts?

Thanks in advance,

S

My take on this is why should something worthwhile and of value be easy?
Take comfort from the fact it's hard, otherwise everyone could do it.

Imagine painting a picture was easy and like 1,2,3, quite soon painting would loose it's inherent value and would become of no more consequnce than washing a car, so it's good that it's hard.

I'm often surprised how simply a melody is, but when combines with the bass / chord changes the magic happens.

I agree with you it isn't easy to come up with a decent melody. Make Techno and you wont need one!

I find the melodies the easy bit.

It's the mixing that bores me.

i found creating tension before hand makes the melody writing proses a lot easier.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler Make Techno and you wont need one!

Or ambient. There's plug-ins that can generate ambient stuff for you automatically.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler My take on this is why should something worthwhile and of value be easy? Take comfort from the fact it's hard, otherwise everyone could do it. Imagine painting a picture was easy and like 1,2,3, quite soon painting would loose it's inherent value and would become of no more consequnce than washing a car, so it's good that it's hard. I'm often surprised how simply a melody is, but when combines with the bass / chord changes the magic happens. I agree with you it isn't easy to come up with a decent melody. Make Techno and you wont need one!

Very ture mate, just wondering if it got easier with pratice.

Thanks for the replies guys

Become a student to melodies. Listen to them, figure them out, play them on your keyboard, look for tonal and rhythmic patterns, listen for your own variations, then come up with your own melodic ideas.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord I find the melodies the easy bit. It's the mixing that bores me.

Same here.

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Same here.

I use the musician plugin

One other thing [rant mode] - learn the difference between a motif, a figure, a phrase, and a melody, if you don't already know. I can't tell you how many times I've read comments from people who listen to a 3-note pattern repeating ad nauseum in a dance track and say "yeah, great melody" Not only will it help you avoid sounding like an idiot by making those comments, it will help you better understand how melodies are made and what a melody is. [/rant]

Also you may try to pick out some tracks you like and get the midi for them, pick up an instrument and play the melodies and then try to add to them or change something.

Personally the hardest part for me would depend on the track.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord I use the musician plugin

Doesn't that require a dongle?

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Doesn't that require a dongle?

It doesn't require one, but I think it makes the process all the more enjoyable.

Yeah it's the hardest part by far, writing one that doesn't suck donkey balls requires talent, that's what makes good producers stand out.
Listen to how fucking generic most tunes are, I think that basically means a lot of people can program drums and mix decently enough but couldn't make good melodies if their lives depended on it.

The more you know about what makes a melody good, the easier it is.

This is probably one of my favorites:

quote:

Originally posted by vercetti Yeah it's the hardest part by far, writing one that doesn't suck donkey balls requires talent, that's what makes good producers stand out. Listen to how fucking generic most tunes are, I think that basically means a lot of people can program drums and mix decently enough but couldn't make good melodies if their lives depended on it.

Very interesting point of veiw mate, i agree to a cert point. Trance is really all about melody but using effects, automation, and creative arranging is also important to my things less "generic"

Trance is not melodic, it's harmonic. House, however, is melodic.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord I find the melodies the easy bit. It's the mixing that bores me.

I'm the opposite!

its probably too much an obvious question, but do you know some scales, that can help a lot. Listening too and beginning to recognize intervals can only help

Aslo im beginning to realize that for trance/progressive (as opposed to DnB which is what i used to try and make) it can be very helpful to write a track within an actual chord progression - this way you have the root note, the basic chords (add 7ths remove 5ths etc etc as you wish) and also a load of notes to use for melodies

Write a solid chord progression. There's a melody locked in there somewhere and in your head, just gotta let it flow.

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