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Avoiding 'cheesy' melodies
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| ClearWater |
Have had success in the past putting together some decent, trance melodies... ones that can stand on their own and progress slowly (no quick and easy arpegiations). Don't always do though and am trying to put together house melodies these days.
Although I'm pretty happy with my rhythms, my melodies just seem too cheesy to my ears. I wish there was a better way to describe it, but they just sound unprofessional.
I am using a natural minor scale, and sometimes I will use the harmonic and melodic minor for approach and tension notes.
What strategies could be used to pick better notes?
Perhaps detuning some notes by 50 cents? Are there other scales I'm somehow not aware of I could be using? Of the minor variety that is... Should I be looking at blues scales for house? Trying to put together something you might find from Nikola Gala, Boom Jinx - Too Free to Follow... some sort of modern, progressive/deep house sort of music.
Certainly I've found the instrument and its expression used can help out a great deal. Layering with other instruments of course adding more resonances and harmonies. I'd like my melodies to stand out by themselves though without sounding like something's missing. |
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| cronodevir |
If you want to 'not' have cheese melodies then you want to avoid what professional artists do. Because a cheese melody is something that people do way too much.
For instance, "super saws" are cheese because everyone does them. |
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| EddieZilker |
I tend not to rely on any convention, in this regard. I have a tune with super-saw in it - I found a good place for it that seemed appropriate and used it - that's it.
If something sounds cheesy/chintzy/makes me cringe, I usually get rid of it and work with the track until I find something that works. Sometimes it's just a major chord progression that needs an augmented, diminished or inverted counter-point to help create a more robust ensemble effect.
I might have pads that are playing a progression of simple 5th/7th major chords, for rhythm, but underneath, I'll follow it with inverted pads.
(RichieV - feel free to school me on this!) |
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| mysticalninja |
| Any melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch. |
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| palm |
| i dont know how 50 cent could or would help you though, hes in it for the money only. id go for more 5ths and 7ths :D |
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| EddieZilker |
| quote: | Originally posted by mysticalninja
Any melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch. |
I used to spend hours cycling through patches, trying to make a melody work. You're right, in that ANY melody can sound cheesy with the wrong patch, but even cheesy melodies cannot be "fixed" with a great patch. |
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| mysticalninja |
| quote: | Originally posted by EddieZilker
I used to spend hours cycling through patches, trying to make a melody work. |
lrn2program :> |
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| ClearWater |
checked out wikipedia and wrote down all the scales I could find from pentatonic to octatonic, ionian to locrian, blues, jazz, arabic, etc. I'm sure with house music there is plenty of freedome allowed with scales!
That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes? |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by ClearWater
checked out wikipedia and wrote down all the scales I could find from pentatonic to octatonic, ionian to locrian, blues, jazz, arabic, etc. I'm sure with house music there is plenty of freedome allowed with scales!
That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes? |
There are only rules in art so you can have fun with them. |
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| palm |
| quote: | Originally posted by ClearWater
That said, trance music is always strictly minor yes? |
does trance music always makes you down? |
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| pho mo |
Not sure saying strictly minor really means anything, since there's so much variation to be had, so much colour in different chords.
Good songs have great progressions. How you move from one chord to another, and how they underpin the melody can make a huge difference on the mood.
Take a melody you call 'cheesy' and try changing the chords underneath. Add colour, variation, perhaps a different inversion of a chord will change how the melody sits.
Or just write a non-cheesy melody |
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| kitphillips |
| A cheesy melody is usually one which is simply too melodic. You might try using a more complex scale, with more complex harmony. Or strip it back to a 145 progression and use texture to build the track for a more housy approach. |
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