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Length of Melodies???
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dj_kane
Does anyone have melodies outside the 'rule'. like have a 14 bar melody or a 6 instead of the standard 8 or 16 etc?
DigiNut
I suppose you could, depending on the time signature, but for standard 4/4 music, it just won't sound right. I'd be the last person on here to advocate formulas for arrangement, but the 4*N-bar "rule" is a pretty solid one that you should follow unless you're writing really unconventional music. And when I say unconventional I mean outside the realm of trance/techno/house and really any western music at all.

That's not to say you can't have motifs, fills, or other interludes that are 1 bar or 3 bars or 7 bars - that's a good technique to grab the listener's attention. The melody as a staple of the track, though, really has to be either 2 bars or a multiple of 4.

Jazz is different, and there's a fair amount of classical music that breaks the rule, but again, if you're talking about EDM (i.e. dance-floor music) then you don't want to throw off people's sense of rhythm.
verdonsky
I've done some experimenting, and it sounds like 2*N bars is good. Any odd number of bars sounds like gross.

Conditions being that the N*2 melody has to flow nicely through to the next N*2 melody.
S-Tune
Even classical music uses very often that 4/8/16/32/...-bar scheme - so it seems to have its eligibility! :cool:

Sometimes it´s really "disturbing" how mathematical typical classical music is...

But try it... i´m really anxious! ;)
dj_kane
sounds a bit as you would expect. just doesnt flow. although i was listening to a remix of art of trance - madagascar think it was the ferry corsten remix and it seems to have a strange format. ill give a more indepth analysis when i get to listen to it on the speakers.
DJ Shibby
I have a really awesome one, that just WON'T fit into 16 bars.

I can't really write a song to 13 and a half bars, so it's just sitting there, doing the tragic prime number thing.
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