Troisnyx 2015-07-17 15:08:14

The alternative, which I often suggest (and which I also learned as part of music theory several years ago) is to take a set of words, mainly poetic ones, try saying them, and noting where our voice goes high and low. Then treat the tones in speech like tones in a song. Set it to a melody, putting the higher notes on the emphases or something..... make sure it all sounds tonal and not bad to the ears.... and then here you go!

(That can be done with rhythm as well; longer counts for emphases, shorter counts for quicker syllables.)

This method sometimes sticks with me, I'll admit, and I remember doing lots and lots of practice on setting poetic verse to music -- I remember the first example given to me was "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky"; you could imagine how easy it would be to place emphases.

Just thought I'd throw it out there; it might be a good method for some.

wash151 2015-07-17 18:07:35

Wow thanks helped alot

8-bitheroes 2015-07-18 02:36:06

Learning to play an instrument sure does help get your ideas out fast. I have been a guitarist for years and I gotta feeling if I hadn't of been, my comping wouldnt be half as good as what it is if I had of just relied on computer sequencer alone. Having said that the only problem with a physical instrument is you can get caught up in the techniques and styles that are unique to that instrument so really I guess its best for your composition all round if you can play more than one. Your totally right about chip tune, its great for working on melodies, even more so in a tracker because it almost completly frees you up from mixing. Its all fun really

LucidShadowDreamer 2015-07-18 14:38:23

I play the piano a lot, and I can confirm. I've never really had any difficulties when it comes to creating melodies, due to these things. I can almost improvise mediocre ones at this point, even if my theory knowledge is extremely limited. I also recommend listening to a lot of music that other people have made, in several different genres, until good melodies become part of your subconscious. The only thing I'm afraid of is that some of my good melodies are actually acidentally "stolen" XD
But also, I want to stress that if one plays an intrument, it's great to just play whatever gibberish that your body (fingers/hands, in the case of a piano) will do, every once in a while. Even if you don't know how to improvise when you start, and what you play sounds horrible, you'll eventually learn to play chords that go well together, etc.
I often get the base for a song from just remembering a good riff that I accidentally came upon by way of improvisation, and so on.
Thanks for writing all these guides for us! :D

Daveisgr81 2016-07-18 13:43:16

Absolutely love all of this information - really cool!

Csucskos 2016-07-23 03:37:43

Thanks. This will help me a lot I hope.

I will try the methods. Chiptune is fun. It is really easy to arrange so I just have to deal with the melody. ;)

Giving good feedback is hard. If I like the song I can't really give tips what to improve and I don't want to write comments like: 'I love this song. It's good.' I don't think it will help the musician.

Playalong? Is it allowed to have the scores of the music? Or is it cheating? In this situation I want to be perfect. This means I don't want to have only the melody and the bass but every single note has to be on the perfect place. So my method:
1. Get the scores.
2. Play the song. Sometimes needed to practise some tricky sections.
3. Goto 2.
4. Play the song to audition (my family, etc.)

With this method I don't have to observe the song just need a lot of practise. The result is: I never play the song just practise it.

Ohh and yes, the speakers are really important. I write my songs in headphones and the songs sound totally different on speakers.

Anyways thanks for the ideas.