Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
How do you come up with your melodies?
Rokket
Trailing Behind Again
I play something that approximates what I am hearing in my head. Most of the time I can't because my guitar playing is pretty weak, but I get close. 99% of them start out in my head.Monkey Allen said:
The other 1% is just what I run into just jamming...
D
dangerman
New member
Record your rythm, then get really smashed on whatever it is you get smashed on then listen to it over and over until you start hearing things within the music. Then just try and duplicate what you imagined in your head on your instrument of choice. Or just mess around playing over the top of it until you make a mistake, because sometimes mistakes can be the best thing in the world. Just relax and do whatever, thinking and trying dont work well with imagining and inventing.
Rokket
Trailing Behind Again
Good point, but I don't like to record smashed. I always come back and listen and go "Oh My God! What was I thinking?!?"dangerman said:
philboyd studge
New member
Wish I knew, sometimes it's first, sometimes it's last.
A
adam_in_audio
New member
finding a good melody is almost like catching a really big fish...
it's like you're almost waiting for the right one to bite, ya know??
The best times for me to write melodies are that moment where I'm half awake and half asleep, that 'nowhere-zone', cause something happens with your brain when you're a bit tired and things come out easier. I'll just hammer away on a chord progression on guitar or piano and it'll eventually suggest a melody to me, it's kind of like being posessed in a way
it's like you're almost waiting for the right one to bite, ya know??
The best times for me to write melodies are that moment where I'm half awake and half asleep, that 'nowhere-zone', cause something happens with your brain when you're a bit tired and things come out easier. I'll just hammer away on a chord progression on guitar or piano and it'll eventually suggest a melody to me, it's kind of like being posessed in a way
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I think I would be able to come up with more and nicer melodies if I quit my job and could sit around playing my guitar all day every day.
Anyway, for me, I usually find myself humming or singing random words over chords. Sometimes a different kind of chord, one that you wouldn't usually play, can suggest a tune. I'll keep it going, over and over, building it bit by bit until it gets back to where it started. Then I suppose I make that into the verse, or into the chorus, then look for a change.
Anyway, for me, I usually find myself humming or singing random words over chords. Sometimes a different kind of chord, one that you wouldn't usually play, can suggest a tune. I'll keep it going, over and over, building it bit by bit until it gets back to where it started. Then I suppose I make that into the verse, or into the chorus, then look for a change.
M
mjareo
New member
I am in pretty much the same boat as everyone else - sometimes it comes right away before I even have a chord progression (most often while I'm driving to work - I really need to get a portable recorder), sometimes I have to play the song for weeks before even an inkling of an idea comes. I usually just let it sit if that is the case...it'll come eventually. Most often the melody line evolves at the same time as the lyrics. I have changed melody lines around completely because the simply didn't work with the way I wanted the song to go lyrically.
Like adam_in_audio, that half asleep time is also very productive for me. Phychologists and neurologists say that in the mornings, our brains are at their peak for assimilating and understanding new information, and in the evenings, we are at our most creative. That is not to say we can't learn later in the day or create a great song early in the morning, but as I look back at my songwriting history, that seems to hold true for myself. I wonder how many of us have done our best writing when we couldn't, or wouldn't sleep? Perhaps I should do a little poll about that.....
Like adam_in_audio, that half asleep time is also very productive for me. Phychologists and neurologists say that in the mornings, our brains are at their peak for assimilating and understanding new information, and in the evenings, we are at our most creative. That is not to say we can't learn later in the day or create a great song early in the morning, but as I look back at my songwriting history, that seems to hold true for myself. I wonder how many of us have done our best writing when we couldn't, or wouldn't sleep? Perhaps I should do a little poll about that.....
Aaron Cheney
Favorite Chord: C 6/9
I try to write my melodies a capella. When I'm working them out w/ instrument in hand I am more prone to falling into old patterns.
Usually my melodies just seem to suggest themselves as I'm working the lyrics out. From there I'll modify things if I see a need to ( I usually do) based on a few key considerations: singability, general appeal, and hook value.
A
Usually my melodies just seem to suggest themselves as I'm working the lyrics out. From there I'll modify things if I see a need to ( I usually do) based on a few key considerations: singability, general appeal, and hook value.
A
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
On the guitar I've had some success with thumb on the bass string and other fingers picking the light strings as the melody. It's good to counter the bass with the melody...up and down the fretboard...nothing too intricate. Also, I find getting in a groove or a solid beat is melody making. I don't know what you call it...riffing something over and over until something materialises. It's all good
tanlith
King of the Wicker People
adam_in_audio said:finding a good melody is almost like catching a really big fish...
it's like you're almost waiting for the right one to bite, ya know??
The best times for me to write melodies are that moment where I'm half awake and half asleep, that 'nowhere-zone', cause something happens with your brain when you're a bit tired and things come out easier. I'll just hammer away on a chord progression on guitar or piano and it'll eventually suggest a melody to me, it's kind of like being posessed in a way
I know that place! I call her Mary Jane!
- Tanlith -
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I call it daydreaming...or zoning out. No help required for that!
Supercreep
Lizard People
Sometimes a musical phrase suggests a melody, sometimes I just hear it. Sometimes I have to shelf bits of music for years because I know there's a good song in there but can't carve away all the bullshit. All my best songs have really written themselves and come together really quickly - sometimes it's just a natural thing.
grn
Well-known member
I listen to and learn a lot of other music. Then I allow myself to become extremely confused and mix everything I've heard together. Other times if I just feel like composing I'll just make up a simple chord progression and play a melody over top that on guitar or piano. One time I really fell in love with a song and I listened to it and "rewrote" it and twisted it around and in the end it was completely different, but you could definitely tell where the influence came from. That is what I did in the past.
I now, usually, have several melodies running through my head constantly - I'm always writing something in my head. Everything I see or do or interact with is an inspiration. Television... nature... a girl with a beautiful voice... history... a beautiful girl. Just don't force it. I don't know why but they always pop in my head. I mean... listen to one of my songs called "The end of the real world"... I was watching The Real World on MTV and when the last episode of that god-awful but entertaining television was over, it just popped in my head and I had a guitar handy. (http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=298860&T=8867)
I now, usually, have several melodies running through my head constantly - I'm always writing something in my head. Everything I see or do or interact with is an inspiration. Television... nature... a girl with a beautiful voice... history... a beautiful girl. Just don't force it. I don't know why but they always pop in my head. I mean... listen to one of my songs called "The end of the real world"... I was watching The Real World on MTV and when the last episode of that god-awful but entertaining television was over, it just popped in my head and I had a guitar handy. (http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=298860&T=8867)
M
mjareo
New member
This may not always work, but you do have to start somewhere.
I was working at a summer camp some years back and we had a music camp come through. One of the guest hotshots of the camp was a fantastic brass band composer/director/baritone player. He did this thing in a meeting where he got someones phone number, sat at a piano and played it as a melody. If you don't get what I mean, take the tonic and assign it the number "1" and go on up the scale. So, for the phone number 597-6215, the melody would be:
G D B A D C G
It can be an interesting excercise to try and force yourself to stay in a theme...and you never know. You might come up with a really awesome melody for a song from this starting point.
Besides, if you so desire, getting good at this would probably be a pretty good way to pick up girls. ("Hey baby, can I play your phone number?"....Ok....maybe not.)
I was working at a summer camp some years back and we had a music camp come through. One of the guest hotshots of the camp was a fantastic brass band composer/director/baritone player. He did this thing in a meeting where he got someones phone number, sat at a piano and played it as a melody. If you don't get what I mean, take the tonic and assign it the number "1" and go on up the scale. So, for the phone number 597-6215, the melody would be:
G D B A D C G
It can be an interesting excercise to try and force yourself to stay in a theme...and you never know. You might come up with a really awesome melody for a song from this starting point.
Besides, if you so desire, getting good at this would probably be a pretty good way to pick up girls. ("Hey baby, can I play your phone number?"....Ok....maybe not.)
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I personally find the whole idea of melody writing pretty fascinating. I mean, look at the classic melodies and read about their creation. It's really interesting. Mind you, most of my reading in this area has come solely from Beatles songs. There just seems to be a heap of material to read about their song writing methods. But on top of that, there are a shit load of melodies that are standards in music. You don't often hear about what was going through someone's head when 'that song' was written. What was Bach and Beethoven thinking when they wrote those tunes? I mean those really familiar tunes/ melodies.
John Lennon spoke about a half sleep/ half wake state. People like Jimi Hendrix talked about rhythm as the key to writing and of the beat...the pattern and the hypnotic repetition of notes that lead to a little melody. He said it opens something up...if you just get a hypnotic rhythm going. But I don't think he ever really said what that 'something' was.
One thing I reckon is that the writers of the great melodies were/ are people who either lived for music...could devote themselves to loving it..or they are people who can completely focus, but in an unconscious kind of way and can zone out or in or whatever the case may be. They can block out the rest of the world and just let the music come out.
Of course, there are those people I suppose who manufacture music and melodies in a very commercial way and very deliberately. But I'm not talking about that kind of writing.
With modern music, I thik the melody is really driven by the vocals...the things we hum..they are the bits that are usually sung. But then there are the solos too. The lead bits that are melodic. With Bach and Beethoven, I don't think htey had words/ vocals singing the melody...so I suppose the music stood alone.
I am pretty much rambling here. But in a way, it looks as though I am doing work here in the office.
John Lennon spoke about a half sleep/ half wake state. People like Jimi Hendrix talked about rhythm as the key to writing and of the beat...the pattern and the hypnotic repetition of notes that lead to a little melody. He said it opens something up...if you just get a hypnotic rhythm going. But I don't think he ever really said what that 'something' was.
One thing I reckon is that the writers of the great melodies were/ are people who either lived for music...could devote themselves to loving it..or they are people who can completely focus, but in an unconscious kind of way and can zone out or in or whatever the case may be. They can block out the rest of the world and just let the music come out.
Of course, there are those people I suppose who manufacture music and melodies in a very commercial way and very deliberately. But I'm not talking about that kind of writing.
With modern music, I thik the melody is really driven by the vocals...the things we hum..they are the bits that are usually sung. But then there are the solos too. The lead bits that are melodic. With Bach and Beethoven, I don't think htey had words/ vocals singing the melody...so I suppose the music stood alone.
I am pretty much rambling here. But in a way, it looks as though I am doing work here in the office.