I see negative comments all the time for vocal melodies that follow the main instrument's melody. What do you guys think about following the instrumental melody as the vocal for just the hook though? I never really thought of it as a big deal, but I keep seeing people all over the net complaining about the lack of originality.
Vocal Melodies
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danny.guitar
Guest
I think a vocal melody that follows the instrument melody can either be good, or boring & corny sounding, depending on the song.
For a hook or chorus I don't see a problem. Most songs do it this way.
For example, the song "Let It Be" by The Beatles, the vocal melody is pretty much the same as the instrument melody (with some differences). Sounds good to me.
But on other songs it can sound boring. Or unoriginal. It really depends on the song.
For a hook or chorus I don't see a problem. Most songs do it this way.
For example, the song "Let It Be" by The Beatles, the vocal melody is pretty much the same as the instrument melody (with some differences). Sounds good to me.
But on other songs it can sound boring. Or unoriginal. It really depends on the song.
Yeah i've just got a few songs that the chorus sounds better then anything else i've tried when the vocal melody follows the instruments, but like I said i've noticed a lot of people are pretty negative towards that kind of thing. I think for the R&B type thing i'm doing, it fits well and like I said the verse melodies have nothing to do with the instrument melodies, so I should be good.
TerraMortim
New member
It depends. There's nothing wrong at all with doing that if it fits. I think it's more of a matter of, if you take an uninteresting unoriginal approach to the vocals, they'll sound boring no matter what technique you use.
Frank Zappa doubled instrumental lines with vocals ALL THE TIME, and he surely couldn't be considered unorginal.
Just think about what you want to stick out in the person's mind. Is there a very strong melody in the instrumentation that you want to reinforce? If not, maybe you should create a strong melody else where, namely the vocals. I find that simple, or overdone chord progressions sound really boring when doing this as well, make sure it's not the standard progression everyone has heard a million times. But really, like anything, it's not good to overuse any one certain technique. If all you did was follow the melody, it WOULD come out boring, and likewise if you try to do something different with the vocals just for the sake of it, it could wreck the "catchy-ness" of the track as well. Just mix it up, and think of the voice as just another instrument, instead of THE VOICE, when you're first crafting the parts (It may work for you, it helps me sometimes to view it that way.) =) But anyway, write what you feel, not what you think people want you to write. There are no rules, and people make huge hits, and very meaningful music all the time by basically "destroying music". You know what I mean?
Frank Zappa doubled instrumental lines with vocals ALL THE TIME, and he surely couldn't be considered unorginal.
Just think about what you want to stick out in the person's mind. Is there a very strong melody in the instrumentation that you want to reinforce? If not, maybe you should create a strong melody else where, namely the vocals. I find that simple, or overdone chord progressions sound really boring when doing this as well, make sure it's not the standard progression everyone has heard a million times. But really, like anything, it's not good to overuse any one certain technique. If all you did was follow the melody, it WOULD come out boring, and likewise if you try to do something different with the vocals just for the sake of it, it could wreck the "catchy-ness" of the track as well. Just mix it up, and think of the voice as just another instrument, instead of THE VOICE, when you're first crafting the parts (It may work for you, it helps me sometimes to view it that way.) =) But anyway, write what you feel, not what you think people want you to write. There are no rules, and people make huge hits, and very meaningful music all the time by basically "destroying music". You know what I mean?