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Where do i learn to write melody?
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| Sirocco |
im a technical/percussive guru but cant write melodies.
help! |
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| rb2k1 |
grab a keyboard and mess around buddy.. in time and practice youll get there.
i find that randomly writing notes on a matrix editor gets you no where fast.
Also.. look at midi files of producers you like.. and see how they compose their files and melodies.
Learning chords and such will be necessary also. (music theory)
~rb2k1 |
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| b1_ |
Try these tutorials at Laptop Studio; they're really good. The music theory series is what you want: 28, 29 and 33. I learnt piano for 5 years when I was a kid and no-one ever taught me how to construct any cord or scale from a few easy to remember principles; I was told just to memorise every one.
After reading these ('bout an hour of reading) I can construct any cord or scale off the top of my head; you need this knowledge as a solid base before tackling melodies.
Usually a good start is all the notes in a melody should be within the same scale. So the C Major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C; so what you do is just play around within these notes. When you get more advanced and you know all the scales/chords by heart; you'll be constructing a song and you'll know in your head where you want the notes to go; intimate knowledge of scales and chords will allow you to find what you're looking for quicker and easier.
And the other tutorials in there aren't too bad either.
Good luck. |
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| Etherium |
| Bring up a pad patch enter in a chord progression that moves you. Now, load up a lead patch and cycle the pad chord in the background and play with the lead patch melody. |
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| ABSYNTH |
| Some good advice there, TNX :gsmile: |
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| nickmahoney |
| quote: | Originally posted by rb2k1 .
Also.. look at midi files of producers you like.. and see how they compose their files and melodies.
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agreed.
also, nice tutorials, b1.
in addition to midi files from producers you like, try messing with some classical music midis.
i use reason, and i have an rns routed with a full orchestra, each section going to a separate mixer (strings, brass, percussion, winds). i then doubled each individual instrument with a subtractor or a malstreum with a similar but edm sound. pulling in a classical midi and you can hear it as it was meant to sound and easily hear the electro version. note the sound scapes and the subtles. one thing i know is that any good melody has been:
a) polyphonic (or as those classically trained say "harmonic chords"
b) composed BY more than one instrument
c) thought of by someone else before (whole monkey's with typewrtiers thing)
cheers |
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| dj-sean |
Do you have any understanding of musical theory?
You're not going to have much luck writing a melody unless you have some of the basics of music theory. I'd recommend that you learn a few key signatures, and the difference between a major key and a minor key. Once you know what notes make up a key you want to work in, sit at the keyboard and play around. |
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| eLe_vatE |
dont waste your time learning keys and scales, unless your tone deaf you will hear when you have added a progression that doesn't fit musically with those (chords/notes) previous.
I learn music theory but I couldn't tell you what key my tracks are in, because it doesn't matter, what matters is whether or not it sounds good, something sounding good will be achieved by experimentation, not with worrying about whether or not something fits a scale or not, and if you do put in a progression that is out of key, if it sounds good, who cares? |
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| Sirocco |
| quote: | Originally posted by eLe_vatE
dont waste your time learning keys and scales, unless your tone deaf you will hear when you have added a progression that doesn't fit musically with those (chords/notes) previous.
I learn music theory but I couldn't tell you what key my tracks are in, because it doesn't matter, what matters is whether or not it sounds good, something sounding good will be achieved by experimentation, not with worrying about whether or not something fits a scale or not, and if you do put in a progression that is out of key, if it sounds good, who cares? |
im gonna take 2 years of music theory, it would be useful to be able to identify the notes on the fly specially for remix duties without midis |
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| TranceMasterUk |
| quote: | Originally posted by eLe_vatE
dont waste your time learning keys and scales, unless your tone deaf you will hear when you have added a progression that doesn't fit musically with those (chords/notes) previous.
I learn music theory but I couldn't tell you what key my tracks are in, because it doesn't matter, what matters is whether or not it sounds good, something sounding good will be achieved by experimentation, not with worrying about whether or not something fits a scale or not, and if you do put in a progression that is out of key, if it sounds good, who cares? |
gotta agree with you there man, use your ears, and you can tell what sounds right and what doesnt. |
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| dj-sean |
I couldn't really disagree with the above posts more. Yes, obviously you're going to be able to tell if you're playing a note that doesn't fit. However, if you want to work in C# minor for instance, you're going to know that there's no D note in it, so you won't waste your time ever playing one. By knowing a few key signatures you're going to save yourself a lot of time.
And as you mentioned, for remix duties, you're going to get laughed at if some dude says "yeah my vocal is in e-minor" and you have no idea what that means or how to construct a track around that =P |
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| eLe_vatE |
its takes as much time to learn keys & then to think about which notes you can and cant add to a progression as it does to simply correct a note, besides if you construct a melody on keyboard/piano you just remember not to play certain keys (as in keyboard keys) in that tune.
I also find that originality in melodies is harder to come by when you concentrate on rules too much, youve just got to be inspired and get on a roll on the old keyboard
thats just easier for me though, I suppose I should have said that earlier really :clown: each to his own |
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