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Melody Writing For Total
Beginners
Page 5
Making Things More Interesting
These
melodies are a little boring, but there are many ways of making a basic melody
much more interesting.
Stacking Boring Melodies to Get Better Melodies
Layer some
of the things you have programmed already.
This is a quick way to come up with more interesting results. Go back to
the original C Major scale for this example.
Say you
take this 1,4,5 progression...
...this melody...
...and
this melody...
...and how
about throwing in the two bar C Major scale just for
the heck of it...
...all
pretty dour on their own, but stack them all in the sequencer like this...
...and you
get something that when sent through a quality synth, a couple of delays and a
reverb could sound pretty good. You see, the chord sequence automatically keeps
everything together. Remember, this is the result of me following a basic
progression and playing any old melody with zero emphasis on rhythm. Imagine
the results you could get if you started taking time over the positioning of
the notes, their velocities and length.
Adding Other Notes
Use the other
notes around the notes of the chords to create ‘tension links’ between them and
make things sound more interesting. At this point, things become more difficult
and explaining this properly would mean going too deep into music theory for
this short tutorial (I might write a more advanced composition tutorial for
this site if I can find the time). Nevertheless, just to show you what I mean
and point you in the right direction...
From the C
Major 1, 4, 5 progression...
...you
could write a melody like this...
...and add
tension, yet still keep the relationships working.
Try
playing the example...
Can you
hear how the main notes (in red) ‘drive’ the melody while the lesser notes (in
purple) act as linking notes? The linking notes make things sound fancier, but
it is the notes of the chords that hold the melody together.
Note Length and Position
For these
examples, I have used uniform note lengths and positioning so you may concentrate
on note pitch. However, when writing your own melodies you must pay attention
to the lengths of your notes and their position in the bar to make things more
interesting. These two factors create style and contribute to rhythm.
Obviously, you want to write your melodies in a rhythm that works well for your
own style of music. This is where playing along or ‘jamming’ with your tracks
really helps.
Velocity
The
velocity of your notes can have a great deal of an effect on the character of a
melody. Make sure to fine-tune the velocity to your taste.
Using Octaves
You can
add interest to a melody by simply transposing parts of it to higher or lower
octaves. Try it out.
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