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4.01am
7 November 2022
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@Beatlebug – Should I move my other post into this thread?
Now today I find, you have changed your mind
4.05am
26 January 2017
Offline Sea Belt said
@Beatlebug – Should I move my other post into this thread?
I think that a mod (like beatlebug) could do that for you if necessary. I’d leave it alone for the time being.
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5.31am
7 November 2022
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I’ve had an instinct to follow the advice of McCartney (even before I read about it) in writing a melody: namely, that the melody should be different from the bass line and also should try to resolve away from the tonic note of whatever chord it’s in (example: avoid singing the note A when playing A major or minor, D when playing D major or minor, etc.). This avoidance doesn’t have to be 100%; sometimes it’s okay to sing the tonic note. The point is to try NOT to most of the time.
I think most songwriters probably do this to one extent or another, but Paul articulated it explicitly when talking about his boogie woogie piano line in You Never Give Me Your Money .
So most of the time I try to do that. When I develop my chord progression, then I think about what the bassline should be (sometimes taken up by my thumb on the guitar), and usually it’s different from the melody at almost every point, only rarely synching up. Same with the tonic notes vis-a-vis the chords.
However, in one song I wrote — “Corduroys (Give Us A Smile)” — the bassline was so profoundly satisfying, and the resolution to a tonic note for each chord (using a lot of notes in & around them) fit so perfectly, I just had to make it also the melody for the chorus, based on the chords D–Bm7–Em7–A7–D.
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2.29pm
30 December 2022
Offline Sea Belt said
(example: avoid singing the note A when playing A major or minor, D when playing D major or minor, etc.).
Am I supposed to sing 5ths, 3rds, or what? Everytime I try this it sounds bad.
"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." -John Lennon
3.42pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
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Posts moved 
all is well 
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2.08am
26 January 2017
Offline Neely said
Sea Belt said
(example: avoid singing the note A when playing A major or minor, D when playing D major or minor, etc.).
Am I supposed to sing 5ths, 3rds, or what? Everytime I try this it sounds bad.
it depends. There aren’t any hard rules but typically a melody should go from one place to another. Singing just one note might sound boring regardless if its a root or a 3rd or a 5th or a 9th. With interesting chords it might sound exciting. Try targeting chord tones, for example the 3rd of the V is a half step below the root of the 1. the 9th or second of the 1 is the 5th of the V. If that doesn’t make sense I can elaborate, but to make interesting melodies try connecting chord tones together using passing phrases, chromatics, intervals, and other melodic techniques that result in you landing on chord tones.
Check out Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love to hear how chord tones are target through different descending intervals that get smaller and smaller and the line progresses until eventual it becomes unison on the root. Avoid the root in jazz but in Pop it can be very impactful if built up to well.
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Beatlebug"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
4.02am
30 December 2022
Offline sir walter raleigh saidt
o make interesting melodies try connecting chord tones together using passing phrases, chromatics, intervals, and other melodic techniques that result in you landing on chord tones.
My band director taught me this once. I have just had trouble incorporating it into my own music. I may be over thinking though. I could be doing it this whole time and just not realizing.
"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." -John Lennon
4.17am
26 January 2017
Offline Above all trust your gut. What makes Paul so amazing is his melodies sound as of they were mined from an ancient tune ore and have existed since the beginning of time, he was just the one to dig it up and put it into a hit track with soaring high range. Following all of the “rules” or just using “correct” theory to craft a tune can often end up soulless. When you feel the call of a great melody do not let it pass you by. Work on putting it over some chords, with lyrics, at the very least record it so you don’t forget. Its extremely difficult to brute force a great melody, writing a song around one that got stuck in your head out of nowhere is easy.
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Neely, Richard, Beatlebug, Beatlebug"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
4.50am
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Petition to rename “stupidget” to Wise Get 
It’s true. Stuff like theory can help you in specific cases where you’re trying to spark something or play around with a theme you’ve already got, but just building songs like you’re following Lego instructions is probably something AI can do. Writing “I Will ” and “Let It Be “? Not so much.
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4.07pm
7 November 2022
Offline Beatlebug said
Petition to rename “stupidget” to Wise GetIt’s true. Stuff like theory can help you in specific cases where you’re trying to spark something or play around with a theme you’ve already got, but just building songs like you’re following Lego instructions is probably something AI can do. Writing “I Will ” and “Let It Be “? Not so much.
That’s a good metaphor, the Lego instructions.
There’s an interesting nature to the songwriting process, especially the development or unfolding of a melody in tandem with the development of a chord progression. It’s almost like it flows out into pre-existing channels that only appear as the process is happening (so you only discover their “pre-existence” in the moment of creation).
Part of this may be less metaphysical than it sounds, in that the melody is born and grows limited logically by the number of notes available, the fit of notes to the chord, the structure of the notes in their scale, etc. But that only explains the unfolding of any melody — not of the inspired melody that stands out as superlative.
Another metaphor would be Michelangelo’s, of the finished sculpture already present in the formless clay, so that sculptor is not creating the finished face or body — he is chipping away what is NOT the face or body already latent in the stone.
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