Hi

Do any of you know any good book that specifically study and explain in depth melody? I can find thousands of books on harmony, but not much about simple, good old melodies.

Now I know what you're thinking: melodies are really important in song writing and they are also the hardest to define/explain; but this is true to a certain point. I know for sure that if I add an octave leap in a melody, it will sound energic and add character and create some sort of tension; yeah, tension and release; intervals, leaps, going up and down, stepwise motion, etc. etc. All this kind of stuff is what I'm talking about. Another example is (I don't really know what this is called; avoid tone, maybe? no idea) using the 4th and the 7th in the scale (talking about major here) to add tension; or use notes outside of the chords playing in that moment; etc.

I recently listened to some of my old tracks and I wanted to make some hands up tracks; and there the melody plays kind of an important role, especially when there's no vocals. It has to be catchy, or at least singable. But I found myself short of inspiration maybe, or lack of experience, I don't really know.

Even tried singing out loud or just humming (after I found out keyboard or mouse weren't helping), and I have to say sometimes you come up with stuff you don't expect when trying to "create" a melody out of thin air.

Advices/tips?

Spoiler: -

Foster any help?

PS: If it helps, the style I was going for is the same as some amateur guys on the old euroadrenaline forum, (Splash, Boosterz, Dan-J, Ekowraith, etc;. not famous people obv)

 

This is top secret information ... when you are composing a melody, at all times be aware of the position of the tonic and dominant in relation to the adjacent scale degrees, and learn the difference between chord tones and non-chord tones, i.e. stable and unstable.

 

Last edited: Sep 16, 2016

I can make unlimited number of melodies like this (more than 1 hour per song- kidding):

Don't expect me I could explain them for you.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 15, 2016

I think anyone could benefit from studying BB king solos, regardless the genre you want to make.

Also, is foster911 a troll?

 

voilá

Code:

https://www.amazon.com/Melody-Songwriting-Techniques-Writing-Berklee/dp/063400638X

 

Have you read this book or you're just linking it to me? Because there are a lot of books on how "write the next hit!" and stuff like that which are kinda pathetic and don't help at all
I have four books about theory, composition and stuff, and in total there are about 6 pages only (throughout the whole books, lol) about melody...

Meanwhile I guess I can just keep practicing, although I wish I knew some more

 

I don't know if you could learn better melody writing from a book. Creativity is such a personal thing. I think you're better off studying your favorite melodies and trying to figure out why you like them. What, if anything, do they have in common? A good melody gets stuck in your head and you will whistle or hum it throughout the day. I think the only useful information I received from a book about melody is that steps are better than jumps or leaps. Meaning that successive notes are relatively close together. But of course this is not always the case.

I think John Williams is a great melody writer. I can still hum his melodies from Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. etc etc., even thought I haven't seen some of these movies in 20+ years. I think that's very powerful.

 

No specific strategy for the melody imho. Even practicing can not help more. Everything is contextual. Just in the production, good or bad melodies are distinguished. I mean the bad solos may be brilliant in the production or vice versa (just my experience).

 

Both last posts bring up a point I was always scared to face.
Some people may like melody A; others may not like it. Easy, simple as that. There's no "right" or "wrong", especially in the melody.

@flyingsleeves: I've spent a lot of time studying and analyzing songs in the style I wanted to do, especially when I started. Sometimes I make some melodies I think are cool, sometimes I hear them fitting another style entirely, and most of the time I feel like they are crap; and this also brings up Foster's point: context. One song that I was always obsessed over was this one. At that time I was into hands up, and I met a lot of amateur artists (and this was actually the reason I started learning music on a production level rather than just listening to it). A beautiful day (by Splash) (off topic: cool website, just found about it; lets you upload MIDI and you can even view the piano roll). As you can see: the baseline is the usual cheap one overused, nothing new here; the melody, is simple, but gets stuck in your head. Or maybe you will find it boring as hell.

Anyway thanks, I should probably go midi-fishing again, maybe with a bit more experience I can understand something that slipped away years ago

 

Legato-Foster911. :D

OP: We are just studying this at university. One of our teachers is a friend and co-writer with Max Martin. His advice is "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Besides the fundamental music theory behind it all - practice, study/analyze pop songs, be inspired and borrow (tastefully) from the greats. I don't think there is a "magic book" on the subject of simplicity. Usually if it is simplistic and has repetitions, people will be able to memorize it and sing along. Just remember that the rests/pauses are equally (or more) important than the actual notes (hence the "legato-Foster911" comment above).

 

Last edited: Sep 15, 2016

Precisely. Or in other words music IS the pauses, which is also known colloquially as Rhythm. Just like in written language, a sentence without any breaks between the letters makes it hard to find the words. Like this: whendoesonewordstartandanotherbeginyoutellmecuzidon'tknoweitherbutipromisethereisasentenceinhereiswear!

To the OP, may i humbly suggest, that Jazz fake-books are a great source for melodic studies. Because they are written with horns in mind and are usually like a page long so they have to get to the point while still being memorable. I studied one while in music school for guitar and it was far more enlightening because you hear the melody in context of the chord changes so you can hear the juxtaposition.

 

Hooktheory is great for this very thing