Musing on the Melody

[guitaristic]

Soooooo is it just me or do some of you people also have quite a bit of trouble coming up with a good melody for songs? I guess it's just a lack of creative vision on my part, but I struggle a lot of the time with keeping the melody fresh when it comes to the melodic rhythm and/or actual notes themselves. Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[Armistice]

Assuming, because of your name, you're a guitarist -> try alternate tunings on your guitar - although you may not actually write songs in them, you will uncover other melodic structures simply because the relationship between the strings changes... these can be translated back to standard tuning, if you wish...

 

[Supercreep]

Any tips?

The only tip I know that's worth a damn you already know: Practice.

 

[guitaristic]

Haha I guess I just get stuck in a lead vox rut sometimes!

 

[gruemungus]

Don't write yourself into a box as the chords dictate what the melody can be. Learn intervals asap.

 

[grimtraveller]

I think I struggle with my melismatic melodies. Until very recently pretty much every {with maybe 4 or 5 exceptions, maybe not even that} song of mine began with the music, be it a chord progression if written on guitar or a ramble if written on a bass. So melodies were always a big challenge for me because my progressions were anything but standard or predictable. So I really had to work hard on melodies. When I'd get my friends to sing them, they were almost always complimentary about them. They might laugh at the lyrics or baulk at the music but generally they thought the melodies were OK. So I kind of got to like them. Now I'm quite confident that I can come up with a melody for a song, even if it takes me a year.
And Super is right, practice is honestly the quickest route home. Alternative tunings are also worth exploring. A song I had in standard tuning, I decided to rework but in double drop 'D' tuning. It changed the entire melody of the original piece. Suddenly, it was all out of tune so I had to refashion it. It was challenging.
You'll know that you're on the right road when you come up with a melody and reject it because it's not unique enough.....

 

[guitaristic]

Don't write yourself into a box as the chords dictate what the melody can be. Learn intervals asap.

Oh yeah, I've got those down good. I guess it's just a lack of focus on practicing! I've been trying to do a lot of other stuff lately!
Thanks for the advice though!

I think I struggle with my melismatic melodies. Until very recently pretty much every {with maybe 4 or 5 exceptions, maybe not even that} song of mine began with the music, be it a chord progression if written on guitar or a ramble if written on a bass. So melodies were always a big challenge for me because my progressions were anything but standard or predictable. So I really had to work hard on melodies. When I'd get my friends to sing them, they were almost always complimentary about them. They might laugh at the lyrics or baulk at the music but generally they thought the melodies were OK. So I kind of got to like them. Now I'm quite confident that I can come up with a melody for a song, even if it takes me a year.
And Super is right, practice is honestly the quickest route home. Alternative tunings are also worth exploring. A song I had in standard tuning, I decided to rework but in double drop 'D' tuning. It changed the entire melody of the original piece. Suddenly, it was all out of tune so I had to refashion it. It was challenging.
You'll know that you're on the right road when you come up with a melody and reject it because it's not unique enough.....

Thanks grim! Good stuff right there.

 

[metalbeatle5]

grim is cool

 

[jameslondon69]

Less is more but hey, there are no rules. But for starters, if your in a creative jam, try starting on the Tonic (I)or Dominate (V) note of the key. Try to use stepwise motion in your melody, meaning try moving one or two "piano notes" at a time. Also focusing on parallel motion-- example, if you go down from Am barre chord at the 5th fret to an to an open G Chord, try going up with the melody note --and vice versa. Assuming I have a chord progression in mind I try and pick just a few notes in the key to focus on them first, keeping it very simple. Try picking just 3 or 4 notes and work inside of that "box" or "cell". Of course, don't get stuck in one particular pattern but use some of these techniques to spur an idea. That goes for rhythm as well, sometimes I try playing half note rhythms and switching melody notes on quarter notes. Triplet's add variety and I find myself using them at the end of a phrase. You can always vary tempo, key, time signature, etc for brainstorming purposes.

Sometime I record a guitar/paino lick over a progression, then try and emulate that with a vocal line.

When in doubt, deconstruct it to its simplest form and then build it back up.

 

[ryguy76]

I'm not an advocate of scientifically building a melody using theory based blueprints. There's nothing artistic about that process. Use your ears. Some people write lyrics first and then pair it with a melody, some write the melody and pair it with words. There's no right or wrong way of doing it, but just trust your ears and be objective when coming up with melodies. Do it line by line if need be, but continuously ask yourself if it's something that YOU'D listen to if it weren't your own. If the answer is no, keep trying. Don't settle for schlock.

 

[grimtraveller]

I'm not an advocate of scientifically building a melody using theory based blueprints. There's nothing artistic about that process.

I'm not an advocate of those kind of blueprints either, but it's not true that there's nothing artistic about it. There are literally so many many ways of writing songs that any which way is cool. Even writing random words and random notes on paper, cutting them up, chucking them up in the air and however they land, construct from that ! Any ridiculous method really. They all work for somebody. For me, the only concern is not getting stuck in one way, be it a 'theoretical' one or a 'let whatever comes come' one. Whatever we've learned, learning something different need not be detrimental to one's health. Mix and match.

 

[ryguy76]

...but it's not true that there's nothing artistic about it.

Debatable...

 

[SEDstar]

since I fail miserably with lyrics, and I make instrumentals, there;s nothing else for me to start with BUT the melody. I took a shine to contrapuntal melody technique. It allows me to start with a "bubble gum" melody, and slowly piece together the undermelody to go with it, or vice versa.... if its working decent, I end up with a complicated "dual melody". allowing for many options...

1) I can easily switch the undermelody and the over melody, and it sounds same but vastly dfferent.
2) f it comes off REAL well, I can play them in and out of time and get vastly dfferent sounds each iteration of it.
3) I can take either the overmelody OR the undermelody (or both) and melodically invert them...
4) when all these possiblilities are exhausted, I still have the "retrogrades"... doubling and quadrupling the "different, but closely related" different melodies...

5) all from the startng "bubble gum" melody.

6) later on, i can "pass" the undermelody or the overmelody, out of time of course, in the IV or the V chord (with respect to what chord I'm IN at the time...) theu the system. when you add i the melodic inversion and retrogrades of THAT, you get literally millions of possibilities to pick thru so that no two passages sound alike, though they are all based on the same simple bubble gum melody...

PS - I dont know why, but, its taght to start with the underelody, as I call it... the cantus firmus, I wanna remember... and to buld UP the overmelody from that. For some weird reason, I do better starting with the overmelody (bubble gum simple melody...) then getting the bass off of that.

also, just for sh!ts and giggles, the undermelody can be used handily as a bass line... and ts guaranteed to be completey different from the main higher melody you "hear", yet mesh perfectly.

the main thrust of making a melody system this way, is that you get zillions of options to try out, all from the starting point. note that "chords" are formed this way by PASSING individual tones to make portions of chords, rather than just hammering away at the basic chord structure...

for me, it seems to work best in pent minor scale.

this is hardly a "soul less" cookie cutter convention, whereby any "rules" are followed... rather, it opens the door suddenly to millions of possibilities to pick from, by EAR by the way, which are most pleasing. SOME of the permututaions sound quiet, soft, jarring, slightly scary... winding up or winding down... you just have to move the stuff around with mouse clicks and let your ear let you know which to snag up and make use of... by hte time you are stacking the various chord lines (I, IV, sometimes V...) you get numerous instances of major, minor, diminished, etc etc... chords. SOme at regular intervals, some at quite novel timing points...

then, yet another possibility once the system is seeming to bear fruit, I can try different cadences for the main start out...


another trick to try is to just force yourself to use an unfamiliar scale you normally dont use. or to pick a KEY you almost never try out... heck, I usually start with teh bubble gum melody, then try it out in C#, D, etc etc... until one strikes my fancy, then go from there... if I want to be weird, I will do DOWN instead searching, rendering me a base key I would optherwise rarely use.


but, that contrapuntal thing I use... GOD, i could take the same exact 4 or 5 measure "bubble gum" one finger melody... and write 2 pieces from it, from scratch, and both sound like they were written on different continents...

 

[grimtraveller]

but it's not true that there's nothing artistic about it.

Debatable...

Ryguy, I think what happens when people analyse and discuss what they do and more specifically, how they do it, whatever the 'it' is, is that the process looks alot more contrived and thought out than it may be. So when people talk about putting this chord under that melody or arrive at this melody by taking those notes in the chord, it seems cold and clinical. But the reality is it's often alot more instinctive when actually being done. In a way, it's like the difference between a biologist actually making love and reading a description of all the bodilly changes taking place while making love. The scientist may be aware of all the changes they're going through because their knowledge dictates that. But I doubt whether the woman being kissed thinks "ah yes, the blood is now flowing to my labia......" or the bloke "that's right, all the penile tissues are being engorged......"
Some science have artistic aspects to them while some art is quite scientific. But in the end, however you get to the melody and the eventual song, it's interesting to discuss and take cues from, but it's not crucial to songwriting.