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Argh.

A big criticism of my tracks amongst others is that they have no melody. I think if I nail the melody it would improve my tracks.

So how is melody created effectively? Leads... chords.... I gather...but is it best to have an alternate melody to the bassline (but manage to keep it in key) or have one following the bass, but say at a higher octave?

Arpeggiators play a big part I gather also...but I struggle to get the right sound.

Any bros got examples of good melodies, and how they were created?

Many thanks.

J.

Punk rock's great for this, the song's and production are so simple the only thing to focus on really is the melody (whether it be vocal or lead guitar)

Some bands to listen to:

Rise against
Billy talent
Green day
Blink 182
Sum 41

Really quite poppy and commercial stuff but if you are looking for catchy melodies then there they are

Hit random keys till it sounds good

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Learn some chord progressions, they're usually a pretty good building block for melodies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_progression

DZA wrote:Hit random keys till it sounds good

+1


it's easy to hear what works and what don't


also, perhaps hitting the same notes diff octaves.

read this: http://ravenspiral.com/rsg2mt/rsg2mt.pdf

particularly the bits about scales and chords. it will make your life easier.

gravity wrote:read this: http://ravenspiral.com/rsg2mt/rsg2mt.pdf

particularly the bits about scales and chords. it will make your life easier.

nice one

jaydot wrote:Arpeggiators play a big part I gather also...but I struggle to get the right sound.

Arpeggiators sound as naff as the 90s imo

jaydot wrote:Any bros got examples of good melodies, and how they were created?

Many thanks.

J.

Every James Blunt song ever, say what you want about the man, he writes a good tune.

Thomas Newman writes some amazing melodies.

Bon Jovi, Toto, Boston, Journey. All write great melody lines - most of them just use the same hooks over and over again in every song too.

Was gonna link the raven spiral guide, but I see somebody else has, read it, it's fantastic.

lowpass wrote:Punk rock's great for this, the song's and production are so simple the only thing to focus on really is the melody (whether it be vocal or lead guitar)

Some bands to listen to:

Rise against
Billy talent
Green day
Blink 182
Sum 41

Really quite poppy and commercial stuff but if you are looking for catchy melodies then there they are

I've got to say I totally agree with this, listening to those kinds of bands when I was in my early teens definitely helped me wrap my head around writing guitar melodies and catchy pop riffs.

Jaydot, from what I've heard of your tracks your really working from the ground up here. Some of your tracks have had sections playing together that were out of tune/key with each other and even though the patterns (rhythm of the notes I mean) were ok the notes that were played really ruined it. Basically the most important thing for you to learn is to be able to tell if something sounds in tune or not by ear. That way you don't have to learn years of music theory to be able to think "hmm now I need to play a Dm diminished to keep the eerie feel I got going.." you can just hit a few notes and hear exactly what needs to come next. Unfortunately the only way to get this is by listening to music a LOT and lots of different types of music too. Be more of an active listener when things are playing rather than a passive one. Even if it's just the top 40 on the radio, focus on it a bit more and listen out for how all the different elements are working together and what kind of progressions the artists are using.

Hope that helps a bit

Learn basic chords, then go into some chord progression, keep the track moving. Melodies can be easily brought about from chords.

( I think it find it hard to listen to music without melody, personally.)

Has anyone tried writing (fairly cheesy / predictable / cliched) lyrics, then coming up with a tune to sing the words to, then ditching the lyrics and playing the tune on a synth?

That sometimes seems to help: the rhythm of the words gives you a shape to build the melodies around, as well as a bit of a feel to work with as well.

Learn how chords are put together. Invert 'em, add 7ths, 6ths, 9ths whatever. Play the chord spread over 3 octaves. Create your own chords. Once you understand chords you'll understand melody, because you'll instinctively know which notes work where and why.

Or not, I havent slept for 2 days and just walked 11 miles in subzero temperatures. Mad shit.

But seriously, learn chords and shit, its useful and fun.

most heavy dubstep i hear has no attempt to use any sort of melody at all. it's a great thing to learn, and i think a producer who isn't passionate enough about music to learn the basic fundamentals of it at some point in their life is a sad one.

gonzodj wrote:most heavy dubstep i hear has no attempt to use any sort of melody at all. it's a great thing to learn, and i think a producer who isn't passionate enough about music to learn the basic fundamentals of it at some point in their life is a sad one.

Just because the melody is really basic doesn't mean it isn't there. Playing a 3 note riff over 2 chords is still a melody, no offence to the OP but he has trouble with the fundamentals so it makes it hard to even do that.

EDIT: Though there is some heavy dubstep that has no melody, but it's unbearably shit. It pains me when I hear something that sounds clean and well produced but all the musical elements are shamefully poor. The easy targets like Datsik, Doctor P etc all at least write poppy melodies for people to enjoy. That instantly puts them years ahead of the people not paying any attention to the musical elements of their songs at all. A lot of Caspas stuff feels like this to me, lions roar especially...

Oh and whoever mentioned singing melodies, I beatbox quite a bit so often beatbox the outline to a tune before putting it down on the computer.

paravrais wrote:

gonzodj wrote:most heavy dubstep i hear has no attempt to use any sort of melody at all. it's a great thing to learn, and i think a producer who isn't passionate enough about music to learn the basic fundamentals of it at some point in their life is a sad one.

Just because the melody is really basic doesn't mean it isn't there. Playing a 3 note riff over 2 chords is still a melody, no offence to the OP but he has trouble with the fundamentals so it makes it hard to even do that.

i don't count that as a melody even though technically it is

boring, no evolution

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Comp ... 1598635034

or

http://www.amazon.com/Composition-Compu ... 1598638610

assuming you are into books.

learn a scale is.
now make a tune only using the notes in the scale.
you really can't go wrong, it's easy once you know how.

have some sort of hook (melody and/or rhythm) BEFORE you write a song. hum things to yourself, leave yourself voicemails, sit down to punk out melodies and arrange rhythm bits rather than work on a "song."

Now that everything's digital and the filters of label/record store/etc are gone, the really standout tunes are harder to find, but the ones that DO stand out have some sort of hook. There's tons of dubstep tunes that are short on proper "melody," but have some sort of hook that gets stuck in your head (ie, left leg out). The key is to find/create that hook and write a song around it.

A good idea of some jazz melody (dubstep ish)

I don't hit random keys as such, but I play certain note combinations which sound good. I have no clue of scales etc. But as long as it sounds alright....do you need to learn as much theory as you guys say you do? I am not saying you don't for a second....but.... how much does it improve melody?