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Writing Melodies - Part 3

Lesson 14 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music Production

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

14. Writing Melodies - Part 3

Next Lesson: Arpeggiator

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Writing Drums and Bass Part Introduction

01:11
2

Making Drums Beats with Ultrabeat

14:27
3

Beats with Ultrabeat and Drummer

08:48
4

Writing Bass Parts - Part 1

15:03
5

Writing Bass Parts - Part 2

04:53
6

Writing Drums and Bass Parts Assignment

00:44
7

Writing Chords Introduction

00:56
8

Writing Chords

19:38

Lesson Info

Writing Melodies - Part 3

OK. Now we're going to continue looking at melody writing and this time, we're going to adapt our melody to these chords here. So if you remember in the previous lecture, we had the chords that fit in key, these chords all fit in C minor, then we had this new section where two of the cords weren't in key. They modulated, they changed to a new key chord one and ch four wearing key call two and call three actually modulated, like I said and changed to new keys. So what we're going to do now is actually adapt our melody to these new courts. So one thing we can do, we can actually drag the cords over. So we have a reference point or we can just look at the cords and remember what they are. So we can work them out here. The first one has an E A G and A B. So that is if you know your music theory, an E minor, the second one is a day with a major third. So it's ad major. So it's just E minor and D major. If we just remember that you can just basically adapt our riff or adapt our melody to thi...

s. So let's just copy this over by holding down alt, I'm actually going to color this slightly different just so I know it's a new section. Let's double click on this. Remember E minor D major. You can change it down here as well if you wish. But this is quite an easy one to remember. So let's zoom in. So starting from 16, it moves to E minor. So the first note is a F which doesn't actually fit an Einer. Einer has Nef sharp. So let's move this down to E. Next one is A B. So an E minor has a been natural. And after this, we have a day which does fit, it's the seventh, but I'm gonna move this up to an E. Then we have this note here which is a G sharp or an A flat which doesn't fit and move it down to a G cos E minor has a G rather than a G sharp. OK? And then we're gonna move all these from an F two back to an E. OK. Now we have this bit here which is a F, let's move this back down to an E. Now we have this bar 17 to over the court of day. So let's move this first one which is a F to an F sharp because D major has an F sharp. Second one which is a G sharp. Let's move this to an A next one is a, a sharp. Let's move this to A B then going up, we have D sharp. Let's move this down to AD F. Let's move this up to an F sharp. And then we have ad sharp or an E flat, move this to ad. So what I'm basically doing is just moving the notes so they fit the new key. So this key is now in D major. So let's change this c to uh let's try A AB because it's really a passing note, then let's change this G shop to an A F to an F shot. And that's basically it. Now, if we play this back, it should hopefully fit with the chords. So let's always remember to save command s and let's play this new section. So that does fit sounds a little unusual. That's because the chords are unusual. So that's basically how we can adapt our melody. One other thing we can do is actually chop up the melody, the melody doesn't have to be played all the way throughout because after a while, it might get a bit too repetitive and people might get a bit sick of it. So what we can do is actually chop up our melody. So if we change our right click tool to a scissor tool, you can go through it and chop certain sections. So I'm gonna change this to split, then we can really just chop it up and move it around. What I do recommend doing is having a backup copy just in case we get this all wrong. So I do have another copy of this riff here just in case I mess up this chop. So this is another idea of just chop stuff up and move it around can make it sound quite interesting. I know the EDM artist Scrilla does this a lot with vocal samples here, Chop up a vocal line and move all the parts around and actually auto tune some of it and change it just from one vocal line just to make it more interesting and have more stuff going on. So I'm gonna get rid of the second bit here and then just gonna play this first bit here. Then I'm gonna get rid of this bit and this bit. Let's hear this. Now, now we're going to create a new instrument below. Then I'm gonna put part of the riff on this new instrument, a part of the riff on the original instruments. So let's create a new instrument. Let's choose software instruments. And this time, let's choose ESM monophonic synth and hit crate. Now, I'm gonna drag this rift down to this monophonic synth. Let's first of all, just loop this section and then I'm gonna open up this synth just to hear what it sounds like. And so I'm gonna choose this one that says analog base. This is really a bass synth, but there's no reason why you can't use it for the lead instrument as well. So now I'm gonna have part of it played on this bass sound and part of it played on this lead sound and just chop it around and just make it sound a little bit more interesting. Remember, we do have another copy of this riff as well. So if we do make a mistake, we can always go back and use the original copy. OK. Let's now hear this back. So we'll have different parts of the riff put on two different instruments. So I'm gonna change this rift more into a build up. So I'm going to delete the second one here and move this chopped up bit over. Then eventually, when it all kicks in, we're gonna play both the parts on both the instruments and then I'm actually gonna chop up a new section for this B section with the kind of unusual chords, similar kind of thing to this drag over two versions. I'll change it up a little bit just so it's different. A lot of this is just trial error chopping stuff around, having a good bit of fun with it and making a, a new fun melody. OK. Great. And I'm just gonna delete some of these. OK? And let's say this back. I'm gonna copy this over. Actually gonna create a new track. Now, duplicate this mute it just to put this on, same as the other one just as a kind of a backup just in case it all goes wrong. And I want a copy of the original ref then it's all going to kick in here with the riff. So, what I've really done now is I've adapted the melody so it fits on these new chores and I've just chopped stuff up, moved it around just to give hints of the riff just to give parts of the riff but not the whole lot. So now let's hear the track from the beginning and hopefully now it's starting to sound more like a song. It's starting to be a bit more interesting than just a kind of repetitive dance song. Ok. So we're starting to get quite a few more ideas from this melody. There's still a lot more we can do to improve the song and to actually turn this into a piece of music rather than just a few ideas. So, thank you for watching this lecture. I hope you found it useful and I'll see you in the next one.

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