Hey guys something that has always plagued me is writing a song in a major mode.. Ive learned and understand minor scales pretty well but I feel like im missing out on a huge pallet of melody and its keeping me in a box. So I usually look up the scale before I begin writing a melody and ill begin hitting different notes in a pattern to come up with a melody then if need be ill lay chords under the melodies.. but when I'm writing in major it sounds like a nursery rhyme.. ive just been looking up songs I like in major and alot of kanye wests production has a major happy inspiration feel to them.. and I just wanna be able to possibly mimic before I get a good grasp on what im doing wrong. Is it because im usually starting on the root since the 1 makes it major? I apologize if this is in the wrong place or if I couldn't translate what im talking about.. im just hoping someone has had this issue and over came it. Thanks guys and happy new years

 

Try mixing in a minor chord with the major chords and see what happens.

 

So start with some chords first not melodies?

 

Music has no real rules, if you become good someday, you will be able to play even chromatic melodies and harmony that sound natural.

 

Remember that major = minor, just in a different note order. For example: C major = A minor. So in a way you've already been writing your minor music in a major scale. ;-)

It might help to check some regular major chord progressions and start from there.

You also might like modes like dorian, phrygian (etc...) better. There's wáy more possibilities than just major and minor.

And check out the harmonic and melodic minor, they're cool too.

 

What the hell?
Cmaj = C E G
Amin = A C E
I don't see where you got it Cmaj = Amin.

Have a look to this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtizmrEUpvbEfutiE1XgIWw

 

All the notes of the scale are the same. They are relative keys.

These are chords. Not scales.
Good luck!

 

I know perfectly that are relative scales.
But saying Cmaj = Amin is at best a confusing statement for someone who is trying to understand an already somewhat complicated matter.

Also:

Is another ambiguous statement, not answering or helping in any way the OP.

Usually not, you start with a melody, major or minor and then you build up chords on that, but you can of course make just chords progressions.

 

If you make all your melodies start and finish on the root note, it can be quite easy to get that 'nursery rhyme' feel, indeed. Without talking about modes and such, which would probably just make things more confusing for right now, try starting and ending your melodies on a different note of the scale. So for instance if you're playing 'in C', try starting/ending from the second note, D. Try and internalize how that sounds against the same chords, compared to what you were doing before. I suggest writing down some 'keywords' that you associate with the sounds/character that gives your music. Really spend some time doing this so it becomes a familiar sound. Then, after you get to that point, do that for the remaining notes as well. Eventually, 'C major' will have all kinds of different flavors available to you. Good luck! Once this all makes sense to you on a 'feel' level, maybe start reading up on modes somewhere.

 

Amin is the Aeolian mode of Cmaj.
Playing with modes is a great way to 'spice up' your music: https://blog.landr.com/music-modes/

 

Last edited: Jan 3, 2021

i don't know about "usually", but when i was in a group that did all their own original material, i "wrote" most of the melodies. and that was always after the instrumentalists came up with the chord progressions and rhythms.

 

"Usually" means that MOST of times musical ideas are melodies or themes that are later supported by harmonic structures, or chords.
At the same time it means that more rarely someone like you can write melodies built upon chord progressions made by your instrumentalists, no need to feel excluded.

 

I agree. In my opinion, it's easier to start with chords, but it's just preference.

Yes and no. This is the common thinking, but it's wrong and very dangerous. You can play exactly the same notes in exactly the same order and make them sound minor or major, depending on how you accent certain notes. These two are not the same thing.

 

So get good at writing nursery rhyme style songs. It may not be what you're going for now but you'll get better at writing in major keys. I grew up playing church music on the piano, and one trick those composers use is to put a minor section in the middle. So the chords might start out with C,F,G,C, but in the middle section it could be Aminor, Dminor, F,G, going back to the first section again. These chords are still all in C major/A minor, but many songs have sections in the same song that make use of both.

Also if you are thinking of a specific Kayne song that makes good use of a major key, let us know which one. I bet there is a part that makes use of the relative minor for contrast.
-----
BTW, not my favorite Jamiroquai song but it shows the jist of what I'm talking about:

Compare the beginning (major key) with the chorus at 1:01 (relative minor), and back to major stanza section at 1:19

 

Last edited: Jan 3, 2021

I'd recommend doing a search "major scales and writing music". Lots of information comes up.

As for said experts on any site, as Miles Davis was known to have said: "What comes out of your horn tells the story, not your mouth".
As a side note - If you think anyone is incredibly good in music at what they do, ask to hear their music. That tells you all you need to know. The proof has always been and always will be in the music and said performance thereof.

 

Absolutely laughable! Unless by "accent" you mean "bend'. Accenting is often a dynamic term, so...
These exact same notes you talk of only sound minor in context with another note I.E. a relative minor root, or...chords!
So after 30+ plus years of work, you are the first of your type I've met!
Pleased to meet you!

...then you would have heard their music. You would not think it otherwise.

 

it should not be too complicated when you finished math in elemetary school and i find his explanation perfectly right and expedient.

minor and major are just two of the 7 possible modes and they all use the same keys - the "only" difference is which key you declare to be the base note.

my tip for te OP would be: before you start composing in major, listen to some music which is in major, too.

75% of all music is mostly major, and after you have listened to the beatles or some folk music for 2 hours, you should be ready.

beeing sticked to major is nothing more than the result of hearing and using it all the time. the cure works the same way.

(after you are cured from minor-only syndrome you are ready for the just intonation, then microtonality, and in 2035 you will finally be able to make noize music.)

 

Listen a few exemples...

 

Oh my, it resembles me anoter thread where someone declared that C major chord is actually not.

Then it should be easy enough for you to state that in math EQUAL (=) is EQUAL (=) is EQUAL (=), so why bother to call them C and Am?
I don't care to explain the difference between them, but at least, beside the ROOT note:

Yep, with the "other only" difference of different intervals, very very small detail in a scale uh?

BTW I don't even agree with the OP about the major scale nursery feel, and I announce that you can also modulate among scales modes and roots, what a strange thing this is.

 

I would not pretend that I know any music theory at all,
But I regularly visit Wikipedia to find the relative key. and then transpose melodies to fit.

And to add to the damage, Auto tune is permanently in minor mode here.
Which successfully narrows it down to the 12 possible targets.