New Producer - Questions on Melody

[theDisciple]

Hello there, I'm new to making dub step and was wondering how other producers go about sorting out the melody for a track. All the melodies that i write never seem to work correctly and don't seem to fit together with the drums and other feel of the track. Is it just a matter of becoming better acquainted with my keyboard and get a better understand of music theory or am i just not getting the types of melodies that are need to produce a dub step track...

[wub]

Reading up on your music theory would solve this. Check out the Ravenspiral guide - http://ravenspiral.com/rsg2mt/rsg2mt.pdf

[theDisciple]

Cheers dude, taking a look now.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

Yeh, basically get more acquainted with theory. Do things like:

listen to tracks you like and de-construct the melodies

Learn actual theory from a decent source (wub sorted you out there)

play about till you find a good lick/hook. (less is more!!), keep it simple and catchy, the next step would be to develop that motif, switch up notes leading into the repose at the end of each measure, develop harmony through pads/accompanying leads, arpeggios are handy sometimes...

Rhythm is AS important in a motif as melody.

Experimentation, practice and patience, learning how to work an initial small idea out into a developed motif and structuring progression about that central idea.

[theDisciple]

Thank you for the for all the help guys, DSF is a good source of wisdom and help

[B-Frank]

Hello there, I'm new to making dub step and was wondering how other producers go about sorting out the melody for a track. All the melodies that i write never seem to work correctly and don't seem to fit together with the drums and other feel of the track. Is it just a matter of becoming better acquainted with my keyboard and get a better understand of music theory or am i just not getting the types of melodies that are need to produce a dub step track...

Few little tips for you (none of them are substitutes for reading up on music theory mind you).

1 - A nice little tip is changing notes on drum hits. This isn't a rule to ALWAYS stick to but it helps build up a relationship between the drums and the melody.

2 - A lot of dubstep is dark. Depending on genre playing minor scales or playing the minor keys will help you attain that feel.

3 - A REALLY REALLY REALLY useful tip for you s you are a FL studio user (this may be a little long but it is definitely worth sticking with).

Go to the piano roll, in the top right hand corner where you select the just above the piano keys there is a drop down menu, click it, go to helpers and select ghost channels... After this select an instrument or a redundant channel, turn the volume down on this channel completely, go to the same drop down menu I told you about in its piano roll and go to chord, here you will find chords and scales, the scales are on the right hand side, click one of the scales, for example minor or diminished and click on whatever you'd like your root note to be for example F. This will play you every note in the entire scale, select them all, and drag them for as long as you want to right a melody for. Go back to your original piano roll and you will notice that there is faint notes (that don't play, these are the ghost notes) in your piano roll that indicate an entire scale. Now its time to create a melody, make sure you stick to the ghost notes and you will find your melodies will most probably improve.

Sorry for the wall of text, can't work out how good your grasp is of musical theory and FL studio so I dumbed it down a bit.

[theDisciple]

Thanks for the replies guys, moving on with the music theory well. B-Frank your advice on using the minor scales to get a darker feeling has also worked well and made my tunes feel deeper.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

Hey there, glad to hear you're getting along well with your music theory. I've decided to come back and help a little by providing an example of what I was talking about previously and go into it a bit more by explaining what I did in the example and why.

There are a few techniques that are good to know. Progressions based around the tonic, mediant, dominant and octave will always sound strong. you can use notes next to these as passing tones to lead into these notes. Melodies should repose back to the tonic or dominant at the end of a phrase unless you are leading into a change in tonal emphasis within a measure.. You can also use what is called 'octave spreading' which is spreading out a basic chord or tonal relationship over one or more octaves. I'm applying all of these techniques and a few more in the following example. I'll explain more in a second.

Soundcloud

The clip is actually arpegiated across 3 octaves which is something I'll get to in a minute but as for keys I'll explain the actual melody first.
In that clip I've written a melody using the scale A Natural Minor (also known as A Aeolian as its the Aeolian mode of the C Major scale). First what I did was start on the tonic, which is A and played that for the first 3/4 of a bar, for the last 1/4 I played D C B C one each beat but one octave higher. I did this because C is the mediant in the scale of A Minor, it forms the middle tone of the first chord in the A Minor scale along with the tonic and the dominant so its going to sound very consonant in relation to the tonal centre of the melody (A) and a good point to emphasize in the melody. Though instead of simply playing that note after the tonic I lead into it from the subdominant (D), crossed it to the supertonic (B) then returned to it to repose upon it at the end of the bar. It just gives it more character and reinforces to Mediant's tone in relation to the tonic.

Playing this last half an octave higher makes it stand out from the A note a little more. Also it creates a call and response relationship between the long drawn out Tonic, and the much quicker and higher in pitch last quarter of a bar.

For the second bar I begin with the same note A for 3/4 but this time played C B G in the last 1/4 an octave higher. This time beginning on the Mediant, again strengthening that note as a tonal focal point, falling down to the Supertonic (B), moving over the actual tonic to the Subtonic (G). This gives the melody a falling character and a quite sombre feel. Which leads perfectly into the note F for the first bar of the second measure.

The note F is played in the same octave as A was originally, it's 2 notes below A meaning its again the mediant but this time its the mediant in the first chord of the A Minor Scale in its second inversion (D F A). Its also the root note of the first chord in its first inversion. It strengthens that falling character to the melodies journey that began in the last quarter of the end of the first measure and strengthens that sombre feel, adding quite an emotional jolt to the melody.

(F is also the superdominant on the A Minor scale, Its touching on the dominant but this melody is leaving alone the particularly consonant relationship between the tonic and dominant as its clean character would subtract from the flavour of the melody. Its use would theoretically come into play at the end of an entire section where the melody would repose very cleanly and strongly into a finality, until that point though it is wise not to use such a harmonic tonal relationship, touching upon it though, and enticing the listener surely adds flavour to the melody.)

This is again repeated for the third bar except I move back up to the subtonic in the same octave for 1 beat at 2/4, just to add a little bit of variation and keep the melody moving. remembering that there's still the octave spreading following the same motif throughout the melody with the call and response between the beginning and end of each bar.

The last Bar also begins on F but this time for 2 beats, then I play (F)A F G B G; - A to the tonic, F to the SuperDominant again, then up one (G - Subtonic), beginning to climb now, offsetting the falling solum character beginning to climb back up to enter some form of repose, then (B) the super tonic again, implying and strengthening the tonal center (which is A) and finally back to G, again, tracing a big pointer round A playing notes either side of it. The last 2 notes of the phrase are also played an octave higher to create more of a contrast between the end of the phrase and the beginning of the new one.

Also to note, I end the phrase on G which is the subtonic in A Minor, A's leading tone. The repetition of the motif will connect perfectly with this note as it begins on A and ends on the note that leads into A.

The second phrase is pretty much a copy of the first except the rhythm has been altered in places and a few passing tone note orders have been inverted to add a variance in contrast to the first phrase. Again this is another type of call and response, this time the entire second phrase responding to the call of the first phrase. Little things like this is the magic dust that keeps tracks interesting, tiny alterations of elements. This way you can repeate motifs enough to breed familiarity within the song, but keep it interesting enough to entice and surprise the listener.

The melody is also arpegiated across 3 octaves, the basic formula is (in half beats) lower octave, normal octave, [space] normal octave, lower octave, lowest octave [space][<repeat]. This pattern along with spaces (and changing of note lengths in different bars/measures) in the melody creates the other really important element of a motif, Rhythm. Its too fiddly to try and explain the innards of the rhythm here, but listen closely to it and try and pick it apart. Rhythm creates movement in the melody, there's a massive difference between a single note, and that same note played in a variety of different rhythms within the bar, depending on how you place the rhythm will alter its relationship to the drum track. Each variation will have its own character so try different melody rhythms out and find the one that adds the best character to the tune.

The octave spreading on the arpegiation adds an increased level of melodic content to the melody, it spreads it out further and makes it feel fuller.

Finally, the Stereo delay glues the melody together and gives it considerable more punch, Its just a simple stereo delay thats been high passed to only echo the higher notes, but it really fills out the tune.

think about how simple the actual melody is. It's not chordal so has no harmony with anything else, it only uses a few notes. Its a simple motif, a melodic expression, an idea, that's been slowly developed through the phrases and had a group of concepts applied to it.

Remember, keep it simple, keep it catchy and develop melody in a way that will strengthen and support the central tonal concept, this one being A the tonic, the mediant of A Minors first triad, and the same in its second inversion through a falling pattern. The dominant points of the melody, as defined by their place in the time signature of the track, have always been these notes, the other notes were used to support, imply, define and strengthen those dominant notes while other 'would be' dominant notes were left out so not to distract from the character.

Hope this helped man. Glad to be of service