Melody

[john]

hi guys

how do you work on the melody for your songs? Do you use music theory much, or do you just jam it out? How much do you work the melody?

I changed how I work on melody a number of years ago. I used to jam out a melody with an instrument but I found that often I was more attached to the chords than the melody and the melody was compromised. It limited my creativity.

So I changed. I now switch into writing melody as soon as I can in the songwriting process, often first now (though not always if a song happens to be born while exploring a riff). Sure the melody and chords evolve but I decided to emphasize the work on the melody as it is one of the (if not thee) most important parts of a song by working on melody acapella, ie unaccompanied.

Now any riffs rarely change the melody, more often it is the other way around. As a result the melodies have been a lot stronger.

This may sound obvious if you already worked that way, but I have noticed many instrumentalists (especially guitarists) who get their chords together, their riffs, and then go for the easy melody that goes with the chords they have. What I do notice is that for most people who work this way the melodies are unadventurous, often staying within 1 octave for the majority of the song.

Where theory does work in for me is in how melody maps to the song structure, the use of cadence etc. It's not so much a conscious thing, though there are times it is.

Likewise I changed when editing lyrics. I now more commonly adjust the lyrics to meet the melody, instead of the other way. If the rhythm of the melody changes I am more willing to go back and adjust the lyrics to work with the better melody, trusting that I can adjust the lyric to do so. Yet again I used to get attached to the lyrics very easily, and that forced the rhythm of the melody.

Writing is an evolutionary process, and all things do change. I guess I'm interested in the emphasis of that evolution for you.

I just wondered.

Cheers

John

[Pretense]

I always tend to focus more on the music (primarily because I'm terrible at writing lyrics), so more often than not, I'll start a song from some random riff or progression I come up with (or something I grab from the "riffs" folder). Once I polish what I have, I try to imagine how it should develop and then kinda go on from that. After that, I used to write a melody "on top" of the music, but it rarely came out right. Nowadays, I just finish the music track and then forget about the melody (and the music) "untill I write some lyrics for it".

I used to do an exercise where I went to some lyric site, picked an artist and song at random (obviously, not one I know or ever heard of) write music for that and then... erm, throw it somewhere "untill I write some lyrics for it". But the melody lines came out pretty good.

The ideal process as far as I'm concerned is:

1. concept

2. musical draft to fit the concept, structure

3. lyrics to fit the structure

4. fiddle with both untill you have a melody

5. rewrite all music around the melody

It's a beautiful theory, kinda like communism. And much like communism, I'm dying to try it on actual human beings.

[roxhythe]

Good question. I'll try. As usual, I guess, I'm approaching it a little differently--livin' proof (as Hank Jr. would say) that everybody's not the same.

I hear the melody. That's what I can't get out of my head, that will grow words (lyrics). I have not at this point written anything down, or tried to play anothing on the guitar--that comes later. Sometimes the song structure will be obvious right away, and sometimes it takes a while. I will be able to sing the song long before I've tried to play it, because I'll have been singing along with the melody in my head while the words are growing.

I usually won't consider the lyrics "done" until I've vetted them on one of the writers' sites I subscribe to, and seen what people think and what suggestions (if any) they have for changes. *Then* I'll pick up the guitar.

I know enough about music theory to know that each of the notes in that melody I've been hearing is in a chord, and I know what notes make up chords, and I'll search for what I think are the right chords. Since it will probably be country music, I'm looking at fairly predictable patterns and relatively few chords. Means my job will be easier. But I want chords that go along with that melody. I will find them.

I want chords, because I will end up performing the song live at some point (probably some point soon), and I will end up doing it solo. I can't do just notes. As I envision myself standing in front of an audience, I'm going to be distracted by singing (and trying to remember those words)--I don't have mental whatsis to be doing fancy things with my hands at the same time.

Finding the chords will not usually affect the melody. *Singing* the song may change it slightly. It may also change the words a little. Since the song is going to be performed, what will govern is what comes naturally when I'm performing. Sometimes I have to work hard on memorizing certain turns of phrase, inflections, &c., that *don't* come naturally, because they're important to the song.

And *then* it's done, and I'll record it. If it's just me (and it often is, doing the recording at home), I'll do a lead on the guitar that attempts to express that melody I started with. Since I'm not great on the guitar, I'll inevitably end up deviating from it a little when I play--but there'll be enough of the "real" melody in there so people will think the deviations are just me being fancy, and that I really do know what I'm doing. (Hah.)

That help? Told you it was going to be different.

joe

[Mazrocon]

I never really learned about what music theory is. I never really read any piano books I just learned enough to know what the notes were. When I write music I unintentionly use the full 5 octaves on my keyboard. It seems to make the song less repetitive and even if it's a slow piece it can still go through the octaves alot Not that staying in the same basic area is a bad thing.... most of the songs I listen to are like that (atleast I think). I've never heard of Instrumentalist before. It's a cool word... does it mean a musician that just makes music without singing or lyrics? If so that's probably what i'd be called. Not all songs can be this way but if I can I like to have songs that don't have a main melody. It's all equally distrubuted into the song making the whole song the main part. I usually just goof around on it until I find something that works. Probably the hardest thing for me is making chords that make it less repetitive and add depth. Thankfully I know someone that makes music as well. We think about music differently so we make a good team

~TIMOTHY~

[JHubbard]

I usually add melodies last. This is because I write on an acoustic, then record the riff and write lyrics to it. Then, after all that's done, I'll go back and fit a melody (or melodies) to the music and vocals. Most musicians tend to write unadventerous melodies because they haven't quite learned to think outside of the box yet. But then again, it all depends on what you consider normal or unadventerous. I have a strong Latin influence on guitar, so something that's normal to me may be completely mind-blowing to other guitarists. It works the other way around as well. For example, my band's guitarist has a lot of jazz influences and he'll throw in passing tones that would usually sound VERY out of place, but they work. I use your approach a lot if I'm writing with someone else, though. A friend of mine may pick up a guitar and start playing a progression and I'll start picking out a melody to it and we'll jam that idea out, sometimes for hours, until we're convinced we've explored every possible road in that particular progression.

[Alistair]

All of the above!

However, sometimes I write songs where the progression or riff does not change much when moving from the verse to the chorus. There may be a pre-chorus section but the musical backing returns at the chorus to how it was in the verse. Sometimes this works really well and it would be incongruous to change the chords just for the hell of it. But the challenge is always to find a different melody at the chorus compared to the verse - blues forms sometimes overcomes this, and using a refrain ghets round it too (THAT old chestnut). These are the times I find myself working on the melody most.