I might get flamed for asking this but.. (and i know its bold)

How do u guys go about making more advanced melodies, like the pumping club beat, and the nice clean trance melody. It seems like after all this work studying and reading up and practicing the music theory i can only produce simple shitty little melodies. How do you begin the melody and match it up with your drum beat? Do u just start with a synth sound that you like and start plucking at the piano roll? I'm not so much asking how to make the melody in every aspect but I'm just curious as to how you guys or girls create or start your melodies. I feel like im missing out on something that everyone else knows. I can never get my drum beat to mix or sit well with the melody. Please do not look at this topic as a "teach me how to do it all the way" i'm just looking for some tricks or tips on how I should go about it.

Really just focus on what you want the music to finally end up like. I always look at the finished product in my mind and I try to create something that leads up to it.

Hmm, well heres a piece of advice, dont use the piano roll! You probably need a midi keyboard, and then you need to practise, a lot. Like 4 hours a night might do the trick. Music theory WILL NOT help you in 99% of occasions when it comes to melody creation, maybe in other genres, not trance. Thats all the advice I can give, sorry.

just use arps? thats what i did i used to think all techno was just arps, then i realised you can just play like an arp yourself and make it more complex, so i never use arps any more :P

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ok well it sounds to me as if you have no musical knowledge...?

there is no "real" answer to your question btw.

i suggest you take private music lessons...any instrument, so long as you learn some musical concepts. it might take several years though.

it might not make sense that learning an instrument is going to help...but the instrument learning is not the point. the point is to learn how music works...

i think what he means is complex multi-layered melodies. by simple he means playing one note (or one accord) at a time in sequential order. by complex melodies i mean layering two or more simple melodies on top of each other. like this:

Synth-1: D A B C D D D C D A B C D D D A
Synth-2: B B B B C C C C B B B B D D D D

first melody is the leading one in say octave 0, second one is supporting melody in octave -1. whadda ya say?

hey can you post a sample of what you sound like now? maybe that would help?

You gotta have an idea of what you want it to sound like.

get a good chord progression and throw an arpeggio at it


/sarcastic

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i writed a song.

get midi;s from other big trance tracks that have been made and study them, throw notes around in the same keys they use.

It's not alwasy about the melody but the instrument u use and how that blends in to your mix

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Um, no, you can't just come up with 2 random melodies and "layer" them, sorry.

Learn music. Theory, instrumental, whatever, it's all good. But if you want to write music you have to know something about it, and just listening to a bunch of trance and fooling around in sequencers isn't going to get you there.

Of course that's only if you want the "advanced" melodies you're talking about. For the simple stuff you hear in 90% of commercial dance tracks, it's not really a requirement.

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Learn an instrument. It may seem like a pat answer, but it's true. Take lessons or teach yourself. Learn the scales and how to improvise. Most of us improvise when we compose melodies, that is, actually play a midi keyboard. I usually throw down a chord progression first, or maybe a bass line, then I start putting melodies on top of it. A lot of the time I'll work out a melody line in my head, then I'll play it on the keyboard. I've played lead guitar for years, so advanced melodies come easy to me. You have to pay your dues if you want to write good melodies. Don't worry about composing right now, learn how to play first.

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