Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
Lesson 41 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
Lesson 41 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
41. Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
Lessons
Introduction
00:58 2Basic Music Theory Terms
08:07 3Keyboard Layout and Octaves
06:19 4Working out Major Scales
08:58 5Perfect 5ths
06:42 63rds - Part 1
08:05 73rds - Part 2
07:39 8Perfect 4ths
04:36Chords and Inversions - Part 1
10:05 10Chords and Inversions - Part 2
09:13 11Chord Progressions - Part 1
10:22 12Chord Progressions - Part 2
08:26 13Inversions
08:53 147th Chords
09:48 15Chord Extensions
08:09 16Suspended Chords
02:40 17The Circle of 5ths
04:30 18Minor Scales
08:09 19Chords in the Natural Minor scale
09:56 20Harmonic and Melodic Minor
09:30 21Write the Chords, then the Melody
09:03 22Write the Melody, then the Chords
18:01 23Arpeggios
08:00 24Writing Bass Parts
11:35 25Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
14:10 26Song Analysis - Chords, Part 1
10:17 27Song Analysis - Chords, Part 2
05:58 28Song Analysis - Melody
08:55 29Song Analysis - Arrangement
07:30 30Song 2 Analysis - Arrangement
05:04 31Song 2 Analysis - Chords
08:55 32Song 2 Analysis - Melodies
06:34 33Song 3 Analysis - Chords
11:41 34Song 3 Analysis - Melodies and Arrangement
06:55 35Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 1
10:22 36Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
18:47 37Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 3
18:49 38Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 4
08:21 39Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 1
08:16 40Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 2
08:07 41Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
07:27 42Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
09:05 43Modes Intro
04:10 44Ionian
00:43 45Dorian
04:31 46Phrygian
02:09 47Lydian
01:35 48Mixolydian
02:13 49Aeolian
00:39 50Locrian
01:50 51Dorian Mode Example
09:12 52Pentatonic Scales
12:27Lesson Info
Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
OK. Now we're going to look at writing a track from a melody. So, what I'm gonna do now is just write a song completely fresh because a lot of people that I've noticed or I've talked to who are new to music theory or new to music production quite intimidated by this blank screen, this blank slate. So I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna write from nothing and hopefully you'll be able to get a few ideas, tips and techniques from what I'm doing. So I've been writing from a melody. You wanna think about the key first of all? So I'm gonna stick in G. So this is kind of ac but of an F sharp instead of an F. So you do tone, tone semi to tone, tone, tone semi to from G to find all the notes in the scale. I'm using a midi controller as well. This is the M audio AU 25. You can write this in the piano roll, but I like to write with a Midi keyboard and then go in the piano roll edit, change it around, move stuff about that's just how I like to do it I recommend trying this way. But of course, y...
ou could try with a different C controller like a push two. If you're using Ableton Live or you could just write in the piano roll editor, it's completely up to you. It depends what you're used to. This is the technique I like to use mini keyboard and then edit and manipulate and change stuff around chopping up, chop it up, arrange, arrange, arrange arrangements. So important when writing music, obviously, this is a music theory course, not an Ableton Live course. I recommend having a look at my complete Ableton Live nine course. If you want to learn more technical elements of Ableton Live cos I will be going through a lot of this quite quickly, but it's more about the theory and the writing that I want to emphasize in this. So let's create a melody. So I've got no ideas but I know the, the scale of G, the route, the third, the fifth and the octave. Well, I quite like that. I used this blue note. So I went into D really, so maybe I could play in D, let's try that. I'm gonna play this in and I'm gonna analyze what I played after. So you can see also, I want to turn it on the Metronome makes it a bit faster. Also, I want to change the speed of the song from the start cos what I do a lot of the times I change the meno mid flow and that rere records the whole thing. So let's just uh go back to the start and now I'm gonna change the tempo up to, let's have a faster 1128. EDM tempo cos before we had a kind of a slow hip hop tempo and then a housey tempo of 122. Now we're gonna have a faster tempo of 128, which is kind of a traditional EDM tempo. Obviously, that was wrong. But when you're playing and you always make mistakes, but you can chop in and change it, that kind of thing. I think I can make work. Let's have a look and I'll explain exactly what I did and the notes I used. So I'm gonna set 1.1 from here. So if we move this over and able to live, you can change it. So the one starts there. So they have all the old information. OK? Get rid of all this as well. So I'm gonna quantize this to put it in time command. U obviously, there was a, a wrong note there. So I'm just gonna use these patterns, I think and just work it around this. OK? Let's just use these. So we've got, let's just start with this. So what you need to do it's really just go through, work out what these notes are zoom in a bit. So we've got a G B ad and this kind of funky C# that sounds a little odd, but I quite like it. So you need to think what notes thinking this obvious one would be a G, so a G major, not the C# though. So I want to use. So I'm thinking of a cord underneath. So it kind of goes around the major, but then it has this passing note, but it's a bit long for a passing note. So maybe think of a chord that has it's kind of a diminished feel, I think personally, or you could try a B minor, which is we go over, let's just build it below for now and then we can change the notes after. So I'm gonna keep this up here, then spilled in a BM. I hear what this sounds like. It might sound terrible, might sound really good. So let's draw the sense of B then we have, we can always change this also. So we could start with a B or even a G. Let's start with a G actually cos we have G major changing my mind as I go along. This is a lot how I write music a lot of the time. It's quite sporadic. You're thinking of ideas and new things pop into your head constantly. So this note here is a G, this note here is B this note here is ad so 12345 major, F, 234. So this first one is a major chord G major we can put here, which is awesome. So let's add in a gab and ad basically just the notes that we're playing, then we have this new funky note here. This, so we can change the chord here. So let's change this to I think A B minor cos A B minor has left sharp. All it did was change this G down to an, an F sharp and this will create a B minor. So in the base, if we have a G gonna write in a G as well, so this is the bass note and go through and change this of instruments after into a B, this is the bass note. So let's hear this. And now we have a bit of space add in some of our own chords. So let's think we're in the key of G cos we've got an F sharp. So now we've got count up, we've got the route. So major 1123. Remember it's major minor minor. So this is the B minor. So we've got route third or so major. Then we've got the, the third of the chord which is a major also this other minor. And he can, mine would be nice maybe E minor, which is the six notes, I think E minor. Just fill that. So stop the base note, the E and then it got to the G B day six. Very similar. I think that sounds too happy. If we keep this D here, this will be E minus seventh because if we go up to E minor, this is the seventh note off. We count up. It's the seventh note. That's much better. Listen, this is the happy, too happy for me. Put this down to the seventh. So much better and then naturally feels like it needs to drop down. So let's try uh D major. So D in the base, that's sharp. A still too happy. Maybe I should try major seventh. So we have the C instead of a ad. Mm It didn't really sound very nice. So it's quite hard really to find something that fits well. But doesn't sound too cheesy. So I don't wanna play ad. Let's try another chord. Let's try F sharp. So which is the want the dominance of maybe not that sharp. Got C left C major. Let's try this. So I'm gonna change this. It is the fourth. So a perfect fourth. So fourth. So it's major, minor, minor major. So it's ac major. Remember right? In a major scale. C AJ. So this is C major but a different inversion. It works, but still didn't like it. Why don't we modulate? I've run out of chords really apart from the F sharp, which I don't think will work because it's the dominant um the diminished seventh. So thinking of G, let's go up to D OK. So d we've got a few extra chords. Major, minor, minor, maybe an F sharp minor. Then we've got this C# as well. I shop. OK. Let's try this. I don't think that works either. So, it's just about experimenting, finding what works, what you can do as well. You can just hold the note called before. If you can't find something, if you don't want to modulate, you can just do this and then repeat if we repeat this and we look at what's going on, you can also change it the last time. Oh So that cluster same. But that's what happens when you move it. So this riff here we go to a, an F sharp in this cord. Here we've got a F sharp to submit this time. I want to change the last cord. So it's not too repetitive. So let's try. I'm gonna try ad this time of D minor because I'm gonna modulate from G to C. It's a little uh funky, little unusual, but we can do that when we're right. No music will do what we want. Really. I'm gonna try the f sharp kind of predictable, but it works, it works around the melody. We can always go through and add different chords. Now, we know there's so many different chords we can choose from. We can use pretty much all the chores in the scale, maybe not the diminished unless it's a passing chord. And then if we don't like these chords, we can modulate backwards. A forth or forwards 1/5 if we look at the circle of fifth. So there's so much to choose from.
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