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Melody Writing For Total
Beginners
Page 3
Progression
Now you
have three chords that work well together, C Major, F Major and G Major. You
need to arrange these chords somehow so they last the duration of your melody.
In this
example, we will take a hypothetical length of four bars. Three
chords into four bars? Hmmm...Which chord
should last more than one bar? The answer to that question is C, because C is
the 1st or most important note and the melody will ‘run on’ C. Therefore, C
will last two bars. The remaining two bars will be taken up a bar each by F and
G.
Arrange
the chords in order 1(C), 4(F), 5(G) and you have created a 1,4,5
chord progression.
The 4 bar
chord progression looks like this...
Which in
the Cubase sequencer would look like...
Practice
playing this 1, 4, 5 chord progression over and over in a loop. Notice how G
Major returns your ear nicely to C Major as the progression begins again. This
is the special relationship, which is known as cadence.
Melody
So how can
I build a melody from these chords?
Simply
follow your chord progression using the notes from the chords, but instead of
playing the notes as a chord progression, play them as a melody. Yes, it is
that straightforward. Let me show you what I mean by example...
Here is
the 1, 4, 5 chord progression...
Melodies
you could build from this progression might be this...
Or this...
Practice playing
these simple melodic variations, and then come up with one of your own.
Can you
see that the notes in the melody follow the path of the chord progression? Do
you hear that the bars of the melodies have the same relationship as the bars
of the chord progression?
Yes...?
Good (an added bonus to this is that you already have the perfect harmony to
compliment your melody, the chords you made the melody from in the first
place!).
In real
‘music speak’ these are actually arpeggios rather than true melodies, but arpeggiation alongside the ‘unpacking’ of chords is the
basis of great melody and from a beginners perspective this is the best way to
learn.
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