Lessons

Lesson Info

Writing a Melody

Hello, welcome to this video where we're going to be looking at adding a melody. So now we have the chord progression, the bassline and the drum beat. What we really want is a melody. When people listen to music, they really catch on to the melody. That's the stuff they're gonna remember in their head. That's the thing they're gonna be humming later on. So we want a catchy melody that people will remember. However, we don't want it too repetitive. We do want some variation in our music. We do want our music to be interesting, but at the same time, we want a nice memorable melody. So I've got a synthesizer here. You can write a melody on the synth, a guitar, a piano, a vocal, there's loads of different instruments you can write a melody on. But for this example, I'm just going to use a synthesizer. But before we write the melody, let's just have a listen to the loop. OK. So one thing to do is to actually have a look at the chords that we wrote previously. So if you remember, we used the...

core progression 156 and four. So really for a melody, we want it to fit with the notes of the chord. We don't necessarily have to use the exact notes of the chord, but we want it to fit in key. We want it to fit in scale, we want it to sound right. So a good starting point is to actually use the notes from the chord. So, what I'm going to do now is just copy over this midi information of the chords and then add it to the synthesizer. What we don't want though is all of these chords playing at the same time, we just want one note at the same time for this melody. So a starting point could be just playing one of the notes from the chord. So just for this example, I'm just going to mute some of these other notes. So we're starting off on this note here, which is an E. So from our chord, this will be the third. So in the triad, we have three notes and the E is the third. Then with a melody, we want people to sing along. We don't want too many big jumps. So we're going to go down to this note here, which is one of the next notes from the chord. So going back to our core progression, the next chord is A G. So with this, we're going to go to ad which is the fifth of the core progression. So if you count up from G 12345 of this note here, which is a G. Now, for the next chord, we can go up to this note here, which is an E, which is the fifth of this A. So a 12345 or we can go down to this one, which is the third. I'm gonna go down to the third because previously we used the fifth. I want it to sound a little bit different. So let's go to the third. So I'm going to mute these two here. So we have the next chord which is the f, so I'm actually going to use this note here but down an octave. So let's just shift this down an octave and then mute the other two. So all I'm really doing is just picking some of the notes from the chords just as a starting point. And later on, we're gonna make this a bit more interesting. It might not be the most exciting right now, but for a starting point, I do recommend just using some of the notes uh from the chord. So it works not the most exciting, but it works. You'll notice there's a big jump between the last note of the melody and the first note of the melody. So, what I'm going to do now is just add a few notes to make the melody go up again. It's a good idea to think of your melody as a shape going up and down and linking and going round. If it just goes down all the way, it will sound a bit boring. If it goes up all the way, it will sound boring as well. You want movement and shape in your melody. So let's zoom in to this last part. And remember we're in this chord here, which is an F major. So if we go back to the chord progression, you can see the last chord here is the fourth, which is an F. And if you remember the notes of an F is the root, which is F the fifth, which is ac, so 12345 and the third by counting up five notes including the 1st 11, will give us the third a major third which is an A. So just to be really simple, I'm just going to use those three notes. So I'm going to type in a new note. Now, let's use the C and we're going to have this starting from beat three. And now let's add the C and just for an example, I'm going to add another C going down. So we have a bit more of a shape and now let's trim these notes. So it's a bit neater. Now, let's have a listen to the last section bar four and now let's have a listen to this with the loop because when we're creating loops, we want the last section, the first section to fit together. So it loops round and round. OK. So we're getting somewhere. It's still a bit boring. Really, still, just too simple. But what we just did there at the end makes it a bit more interesting. So now we're starting to get a pattern. So let's use a similar kind of pattern. So in making a loop, the most important part is the end of a loop and the start of a loop. So it fits well together. Something else to think of when you're making a melody is, is this singable, will people sing this melody? So maybe humm, it maybe think of people listening to your song. Is this catchy, is this something that people want to hear or you just adding notes for the sake of it? So don't just add notes to the chords here and there think, will this be a catchy melody? Will people want to hear this? Will people remember this melody after they've heard the song? So let's now go to the first section and I'm going to use a similar kind of pattern here. So the second half, I'm gonna add some movement. So you can see here it goes up and then back down to the second note. So I'm going to actually have a reverse of this. So instead of going up and back down, we're gonna go down and back up. So we're going to start off with the same notes of the chord and then have the pattern going down. So the pattern is kind of inverse. OK. So we have this note here, which is a G, we have this note here, which is AC, so I'm just going to rearrange these. OK. So this time we're going to use the same shape but go down ST up. So we use this note here. C also we have a G in this chord. So let's go down to a G, you can see on the side here's a G CD EFG and then go back up to this note here. So now let's hear bar four and bar one, you can see it's kind of similar but flipped on its side. So this can work to add some familiarity to your song, but also to add a bit of variation. OK, great. So it's starting to sound more like a melody now. However, I don't want to have this pattern all the way through, even if it's different notes, sort of flipped upside down or changed around. I still want a unique pattern now. So for bar two and three, let's add something different. Let's make it a bit more unique. So instead of having this long note at the start, you're going to have a short note. But just for this example, to keep it simple, I'm going to use notes from the chord. So the second chord here, if you remember it was a G major, so going back to our chord progression. The second one is the fifth, which is a G major and in G major we have a gab and ad. So let's use those notes. So we're gonna start off short and go to this B and actually repeat this. And you'll see here, it doesn't start on the beat. I've moved it around a bit just to make it sound a bit different. We're gonna have a different rhythmical element here. I'm even gonna repeat that again. We had different rhythmical elements and then go back up to this note here is ad and then go to the last note here, which is a G down here. So we have a shorter section there. So we have something different here. It doesn't land exactly on the beach. So let's hear what bar one going to bar two sounds like. Now that didn't really sound too good. Repeating that note. So let's move this upwards and I'm going to move this over to the second half because that wasn't bang on the beat. It didn't quite sound right. But if you have this halfway through the beat, it can sound a bit more suitable. So let's move it over slightly. So it's halfway through the beat. So this way, it's on eighth notes rather than in between on 16th notes. So if you have a look at the grid here, it snapped into four beats. Each one of these is 1/16 notes each two of these is an eighth note. Four of these is a quarter, eight of these is a half and all of these, all is a whole note. So you may hear terms like 16th eighth quarters that's really just different beat divisions of these grids. So let's have a listen to this again. OK. Starting to sound more like a melody. It does sound a bit too choppy so we can actually drag these notes over. So it sounds smoother and I might even get rid of this. Not here and add this G and make it longer. So let's have a listen again. OK. Great. That sounds more like a melody now. And I'm going to use a similar pattern for this next section here bar free. So what I'm going to do is just copy and paste this bit over and then move the notes so they fit with the next chord, which is an A minor. So remember the next one is chord six in this case, an A minor. So let's just copy this over and remember a minor. Let's use the notes that fit in a minor. So we have this note here, which is ad which isn't in these three notes of a minor. So with this, we can either move it up to an E or down to ac. So I'm actually going to move this up to an E and a minor has an A, the 5th 12345 is this E and in between, we have this C. So the minor, you can either count up 41234 to make it a minor or count up five notes from the route 12345. That's a major then drop it down a half step to the C here. So we have these notes AC and E. OK. So the next note here is A B that's not really going to work. We can move this up to AC. And the next note here is this G, let's move this to a, the only thing now is this actually is the same note as the next sequence. I'm actually going to add a passing note just to make it flow to the next part of the melody. So it's not too repetitive and also to make it stand out from the section before just before here to drag it back and repeat this note here, which is AC and you'll notice the C fits in the next chord sequence as well. So the passing notes should fit really well. Now, let's have a listen to bar two and bar three. OK. Great. Now, I'm not too happy with this lower note here. I'm just going to change this up an octave. Now, we're gonna have a lot more variation. This may be too high. This may be too much of a jump or it could work varie melodies. A lot of it is about experimentation. So let's just hear if this high note fits great. I think that's starting to sound good. Now, I want to change this note here to make this fit and flow with this higher note. So the last chord if you remember was an F. So number four, so if an F we have the notes F and C which is upper F 12345, it's F major. So we can top 512345. So we have F A NC. So let's move this up to an F now, let's move this down to an A. OK. So we can get a different kind of shape now. So let's hear bar three and bar four. The only thing there is, it could have a bit more movement. So I'm just going to add a bit more movement here and use another note. It sounds a bit slow at the end though. Cos we're getting all this speed from bar two and bar three and that slows down too much at bar four. Then we're going to add this other note as well, which is the C which is the fifth of this called F. So let's have a listen again and bar three. So when you're making a melody, it is important to keep going back, seeing if it fits. Don't get stuck on one part. If you can improve it, always go back and improve it. So let's have a listen to bar three and bar four. Great. Now, let's have a listen to the whole loop. Ok. There's just a couple of notes that don't make it too catchy. So it all works all fits. If you heard this in a song, you wouldn't think it's bad. But there's a couple of notes that I think could improve. So I'm just going to have a listen back and I'll point out which ones I don't think are quite right. This note here. I think this could be higher. That note to me just doesn't sound too interesting. So let's actually change this. So remember, this is bar three and going back to our core progression, this is an A minor. So let's change this to a higher note. So for a minor, we can change this to E and E that may be a bit boring because we're repeating that note. So let's change this to an A right there. And there's another note here, I think because we're jumping up to this A, we wanna jump up again even more towards the end to make it a bit more exciting. So I'm actually going to have this note here going up quickly. So we've got this high passing note to make it a bit more interesting. And this note there's a big jump there. So I'm actually going to change this note. So it fits a bit better. Remember the last chord is nef so I'm gonna change that to an F. OK. Let's hear bar three and four now. OK. That's a bit more interesting to me now and I'm actually going to change this one to ac this one back to an f the reason they did this to make it sound more like a shape, to make it sound a bit smoother and to make it sound a bit more memorable. So you can go back and have a look at the pattern. We're going up and then we're going back down again. So you can see we start in the middle range, then we drop down and then we jump to a higher range and jump back up again and then we go back down. So we're taking the list on a bit more of a journey with this melody, the shape there's movement, but there's also repetition. You can see we're using similar kind of rhythms, we're using similar kind of shapes, but it's different. It's not too boring. There is movement, there is stuff going on because any kind of melody needs to be repetitive. So the listener remembers it in their head later on but not too repetitive, not exactly the same. You wanna use different tricks, twists and different movements to make your melody stand out, but also be repetitive. So let's have a listen to this again. OK, great. So I think that melody works. Obviously, we can make more melodies, we can make this longer. We could change it. We have different sections. We could have different melodies. I could even sing this vocal melody or play this on a different instrument such as a guitar, a saxophone, maybe even a piano. But this is just one way of writing melodies, how to quickly write something catchy, memorable and repetitive at the same time by just using the notes from the chord. So let's have one more listen and then I'll see you in the next video.