Hi guys,

So I keep getting stuck at 128 bars in - which is ideally, where i'd like to have a breakdown + melody. I've tried the other route - making the melody first, but that way i just get stuck at the offset. I'm looking for some tips on how to go about writing a melody. So far I've been writing a chord progression, and then seeing which notes from those chords sound good in sequence. It's not working too well. Is there some theory I'm missing? Like note intervals - major/minor intervals?

Also, I find that Trance melodies today seem to be very simple - like 10 notes hit hard, with no attack, low decay, high sustain, and moderate release. As the breakdown builds, the decay gets modulated up. Is this the case?

Either way, I know I'm supposed to be creative with this. But I'm at a plateau point - just looking for some people who had similar troubles when they first started producing and to know how they got around it.

Lastly, I'm stuck on Logic's synthesizers. Apart from adjusting ADSR, the filters, and oscillators - there's not much else to do. Should I be looking at sylenth and omnisphere and the like, or is there actually more to logic's plugins?

Lots of questions I know, but I'd really really appreciate the help. And apologies if similar threads already exist - I looked around and couldn't find any!

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DJ IMPHATIK

Progressive, Melodic, Bassline-driven Tech Trance

All-time Top 5:
1. Astralis - Solar Flare (Original Mix)
2. Markus Schulz feat. Justine Suissa - Perception (Vocal Mix)
3. Dakota - Koolhaus (Intro Mix)
4. Skytech - Cardboard Box (Ummet Ozcan Remix)
5. David Barnes - Noodler (Original Mix)

Grab random loops from random sample packs, distort, cut, delay, whatever the sample as much as possible to make it sound completely different. At that point your imagination will kick in and you will start to hear particular notes you like, good progressions, a particular key or chord, a type of sound and so on.
Open a new midi track, use the inspiration to put some notes down. Add your own synth, add more effects, slot it into your track. Then do whatever you want with the original sample, delete it if it's of no use anymore.

Whatever sounds good at the end of the day. Don't worry too much about formulas.

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Arppegiate the chord progression. This should sound good by itself. Loop this and just start to jam on the keyboard. Then pick out the bits you like. Edit to taste.

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

Buy a Piano.

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Can you play the keyboard?

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quote:

Originally posted by tehlord Can you play the keyboard?

not really...i mean...i usually experiment with my midi keyboard to hear what chords sound like and what a simple melody would sound like. arpeggiating the chord progression sounds like a good idea. i'll try that tonight!

___________________
DJ IMPHATIK

Progressive, Melodic, Bassline-driven Tech Trance

All-time Top 5:
1. Astralis - Solar Flare (Original Mix)
2. Markus Schulz feat. Justine Suissa - Perception (Vocal Mix)
3. Dakota - Koolhaus (Intro Mix)
4. Skytech - Cardboard Box (Ummet Ozcan Remix)
5. David Barnes - Noodler (Original Mix)

quote:

Originally posted by Imu not really...i mean...i usually experiment with my midi keyboard to hear what chords sound like and what a simple melody would sound like. arpeggiating the chord progression sounds like a good idea. i'll try that tonight!

You could argue that expecting to be able to create a melody without any theoretical or practical knowledge is both arrogant, and also demeaning to those who have spent years learning.

But that would be forcing the point

In reality you could accidentally comeup with a decent melody but you'll get a whole lot further by learning the instrument. Even the basic scales and arpeggios would be a start.

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quote:

Originally posted by tehlord You could argue that expecting to be able to create a melody without any theoretical or practical knowledge is both arrogant, and also demeaning to those who have spent years learning. But that would be forcing the point In reality you could accidentally comeup with a decent melody but you'll get a whole lot further by learning the instrument. Even the basic scales and arpeggios would be a start.

don't get me wrong - i can play chords and scales and notes and keys etc. i just wouldn't say that i "play" the keyboard, as I'm not very good at it. I've spent about 3 years learning too...so I'm not really expecting to be able to create a melody. just looking for some advice on how to go about it. I figure if I was good enough to play the keyboard properly it would just come naturally

___________________
DJ IMPHATIK

Progressive, Melodic, Bassline-driven Tech Trance

All-time Top 5:
1. Astralis - Solar Flare (Original Mix)
2. Markus Schulz feat. Justine Suissa - Perception (Vocal Mix)
3. Dakota - Koolhaus (Intro Mix)
4. Skytech - Cardboard Box (Ummet Ozcan Remix)
5. David Barnes - Noodler (Original Mix)

quote:

Originally posted by Imu don't get me wrong - i can play chords and scales and notes and keys etc. i just wouldn't say that i "play" the keyboard, as I'm not very good at it. I've spent about 3 years learning too...so I'm not really expecting to be able to create a melody. just looking for some advice on how to go about it. I figure if I was good enough to play the keyboard properly it would just come naturally

Well then that should be enough.

Perhaps it does come naturally in part, but as with everything else to do with music practise makes perfect.

I guess it's like learning a language, the hardest part is the basic grammar but once you've got that, it becomes a lot easier. As long as you praaaaaaactise.

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To start my suggestion is; choose a scale to work with. for example: G (keys:C D E F# G A B). Different scales have different moods. Once you got a scale, play the mayors and minors triads that are included in that scale. In the scale of G, you got: G(I root) Am(ii) Bm(iii) C(IV) D(V) Em(VI) mb5(vii). Find a progression you like with these chords.

These are not fixed rules, but it can help to get started. Not entering into many detalis (circle of fifths, etc), some of the common progressions are:
I - V
I - vi - ii - V
I - IV
I - vi - IV - V
I - vi
I - vi - ii - vii
I - IV - V
I - vi - IV - vii
I - ii - V
I - vi - V

Lets say you have chosen: I - vi - ii - V. So you go: 4 bars of chord of G then 4 bars of Em, 2bars Am, another 2 with chord of D, and then its starts all again. you can then play the progression on the left hand and arpeggiate it with the right hand. You could find phrases 2 or 4 bars long for each chord change (you can use all the notes in the key, but when the melody rest (Structural Tones) is much better if the note is part of the chord that is being played.

There are lots of resources you can use to spice up your composition. Try to google some of them: passing notes, neighboring tones, appoggiatura, escape tones, suspension, retardation, anticipation, pedal point etc etc

Starting all of your progressions on the tonic gets kind of boring pretty quickly though. I know it's just an example but I don't want him to think every progression has to start like that.

I have a pretty specific process of creating melodies, I'll type it out after work.

Learning to voice chords "correctly" or just learning to voice them made my chord progressions much better. I'm now able to create nice, not so obvious movement between chords. Imo "chords don't have to be so obvious". I found out that was the first thing in music theory that really held my creativity back, doing the opposite that it should. I wasn't creative enough with chords.

Although in the process I kind of realised I would want to create a melody first and then build a chord progression around it.. Now I'm struggling with melodies myself too.

And a thing that helped me was that I made up a couple of good sounding instruments with my synth before even trying to create a melody. Good filtering / lfo applied to a good waveform can give an edge to even the simplest melody (a good example could be Lost Tribe - Gamemaster, someone correct me if I'm totally off course here).

So basically my biggest problem was thinking too complex, DOING too simple. Now that it's the other way around, things are finally starting to come together.