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Writing a Better Melody: Strong/Weak Notes
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| Beatflux |
Prequisite: You should know how to write a minor and major scale. You should know your scale degrees. You should know how to use google.
Each diatonic scale consists of seven notes, and each note can be classified by how much they express tonality. A note that strongly expresses tonality is called a strong note, and a note that weakly expresses tonality is called a weak note.
Of the seven notes from both scales you have the scale degrees separated like this:
Strong: 1,3,5
Weak: 2,4,6,7
Exercise: this is where you stop reading and go do something for yourself. In your sequencer or instrument, pick any major or minor scale and do the following: Play the root, play a scale degree, and then play the root again. Do this for each scale degree. Notice anything?
Each scale degree has its own pull. The root doesn't have any pull because its the center of tonality. Once you hit the root note, you're home.
If you think of tonality as a spectrum, then a melody can strengthen or weaken tonality to varying degrees. Let's say you play 1-4-3. The 4, a weak note, resolves down to the 3 and it sounds pleasant to hear that resolution. But since you aren't resolving down to the root, the melody is lacking a definite conclusion. As far as neighboring notes that can resolve each other there are the following resolutions: 2-1,4-3, 6-5, 7-1.
Write a melody while paying attention to what kind of notes you are putting down. Color code them so you can see the difference between a strong and weak note.
What does it sound like when you use more strong notes than weak notes in a melody? What does it sound like when you group up strong and weak notes together? What does it sound like when you put a lot of weak notes at the end of your melody?
Experiment with these ideas and see what you can come up with.
Once you get a sense of these strong and weak notes, everything else in music theory will make much more sense. |
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| cryophonik |
What you are essentially saying here is that the three notes of the tonic triad are the strong notes in a given key. If you are playing a tonic chord, then those would be the harmonic notes (aka chord tones), the remaining notes would be the non-harmonic notes (aka non-chord tones). That's all fine, but your approach ends there and isn't much help once you change chords. Having a good grasp on harmonic vs non-harmonic notes is far more practical because once you change to a new chord, the strength of the notes changes in a relative manner.
While the central tendency of the song is to resolve to the tonic (or possibly submediant (vi/VI)), the strength of the notes played at any given time are defined more by the underlying chord than they are by the tonic. For example, in the key of Cmaj:
I = C E G (1 3 5)
V7 = G B D F (5 7 2 4)
If I'm playing the dominant (V7) chord, the strongest notes are G, B, D and F (i.e., the harmonic/chord notes). This chord is very dissonant and wants to resolve to the tonic, but if I play a C or E note from the tonic chord over it (the G is common to both chords), they will generally sound weak and/or dissonant over the context of the V7 chord. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
the wording strong and weak is kinda weird.
I saw this because anything dissonant is more piercing and in my mind "Stronger" or more apparent.
Think of it as a rainbow. Say like Kinsey scale. On the left, you have djRyan , the prototype homo with his cocks in weird places and dubstep, and on the other side , you have say Cryophonic where if he were a planet, it would be raining . But , well this is debatable i suppose, they are both humans. Ok both primates just for posterity.
now for music. dissonance would be at one spectrum and the opposite at the other. The less dissonance, the more natural it sounds thus in a way it is less strong.
AS far as notes having pull, this would have to do with the context and the other notes playing. The root note can be part of alot of chords so its a little more complicated.I would say in general it comes down to voice leading, say V to I. the most important movement is in my opinion the 3rd of V. This and the 7th form a tritone, an interval that wants to resolve either 2 ways. The greatest tension is there and that is why it has the greatest pull .
given a collection of notes, the pull can also be arbitrary. A V7 chord, which could also be a german 6 or as the jazz fags say tritone substitution wants to go a step down in 2 second inversion.
A half dimished chord which naturally occurs on the supertonic in minor tends to want to go to V but it could also just be a V 6/5 (second inversion dom7) with a suspended 2 which wants to resolve to a triad a step avobe.
take that same diminished, raise the 3rd of the chord, and it behaves like the previous mentioned german 6.
EVery chord has alot of ways it wants to go. It is like a little girl at holt renfrew. |
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| Beatflux |
| It's not meant for chords. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
having more than 1 tone playing is pretty much a chord. SImilarly , a chord is just a bunch of tones that happen at the same time. IF you are talking about pull and dissonance, you are talking about chords in one way or another. I suppose if it is a non tonal context, pitch collections, what ever. A bunch of tones at the same time.
say your example of
c minor with a sus 4 instead of the minor 3. 4 wants to go to 3 no more than C is actually the note that is a suspension wanting to go to B making it an G dom 7 in first inversion.
of the non chord tone is the G that wants to go to Ab or A natural as the chord is an F minor/major in 2nd inversion
or the C wants to go to Db making it a half dminished in 2nd inversion or as mentioned in the other post a A db dom7 chord in 3 inversion with a suspended 2. |
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| Beatflux |
| I use these strong/weak notes when writing a melody. I can usually get the sound I want using a certain balance of weak strong notes. |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beatflux
I use these strong/weak notes when writing a melody. I can usually get the sound I want using a certain balance of weak strong notes. |
You know what they say, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, so post it and let's hear it. Otherwise, this isn't useful to anyone. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beatflux
I use these strong/weak notes when writing a melody. I can usually get the sound I want using a certain balance of weak strong notes. |
i just think you need to clarify what you mean by strong. You also only deal with diatonic note values which is rather strange. Why a dissonance of a major second but not a minor 2.Every single chromatic note can be used in a very conventional tonal way that would sound akin to pop or trance. I think you are putting a box around what you can do and that is why theory in an way is bad. Too little and you are probably worse off. |
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| Evolve140 |
| Glad I never had to worry about any of this stuff and can just write melodies. Good times. Good write though. |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by Evolve140
Glad I never had to worry about any of this stuff and can just write melodies. Good times. Good write though. |
The thing is, I don't think that most people do think about all this when writing melodies. I'd venture to say that most experienced songwriters just hear the melody and don't think much about the theory behind it. That's the way I approach it, at least. That said, having the knowledge behind it certainly doesn't hurt, except when people start making the mistake of confusing music theory with the "rules" to making music. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
i just think you need to clarify what you mean by strong. You also only deal with diatonic note values which is rather strange. Why a dissonance of a major second but not a minor 2.Every single chromatic note can be used in a very conventional tonal way that would sound akin to pop or trance. I think you are putting a box around what you can do and that is why theory in an way is bad. Too little and you are probably worse off. |
Could you give me a few examples of trance melodies with at least a few chromatics in them?
This is the book I picked it up from.
http://www.amazon.com/Melody-Songwriting-Techniques-Writing-Berklee/dp/063400638X
The book describes them as stable(1,3,5) and unstable(2,4,6,7). Chromatics resolve to the nearest diatonic tone. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
You know what they say, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, so post it and let's hear it. Otherwise, this isn't useful to anyone. |
I'll post some up tomoorow. |
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