How to compose a melody

[MYK]

Hi. I'm MYK. I'm 17 years old. I practise music since 5 years old, and it's only now that I started to compose melodies.

However, the melodies that I composed didn't pleased me a lot. :frown: In deed, there isn't tonality and rhythm changes like in progressive metal.

It's also only since 1 year that I really began to listen to progressive metal, especially Dream Theater (and LTE :wink:) because this style of music unify the riches of the classical music, the energy of the punk, metal, rock, ...etc, and the diversity of the instruments used in variety (like in Whitney Houston songs, ...).

So, what I want to know, and I adress this question to Jordan Rudess and also to all the members of DT, is how can we compose long, rich, and beautiful musics ??? Do we use mathematics, or any other science ??? Because I can't believe that the inspiration is enough to do that.

Answer me the earlier possible please. Thanks.

PS: If somebody would like to speak with me in French, then he is wellcome :tongue:. And don't forget to vote in the poll above.
To contact me, you can also find me in Facebook (Moharem Youcef Khalil) and hotmail (MYK@hotmail.fr).

See Yoo ! :cool:

[MyoJo]

Seems your English capability is better than mine at least.
Stay confident!

[MYK]

:tongue:

Ok let's talk about music now :smile:

MyoJo, have you ever composed a progressive song ?

If Yes, please tell me how

:biggrin:

[MyoJo]

I have composed about 12 songs up to now,
but there're no songs that can be called proggy.
I've been a DT fan for this 12 years, though.

Sorry it seems I'm not able to help you.

[MYK]

No, why not ? May be it will help me. Who knows ? :cool:
Did you transcribe them in tabs or music scores ? Or did you save them in MIDI files ?
I'd like to listen to them !!
If you saved them in Guitar Pro tabs or midi files (or even youtube videos :smile:), send me the files (or give me the links of the videos).
If you saved them in music scores, scan the scores, save them in a jpg file and send them to me.

PS: Add my e-mail to your contacts list. :rolleyes:

[Aterkeys]

Let me see how can I help you...

First that all, you should try to sit in from of your piano/keyboard, and play some melodies.... That's the first step you've to follow if you want to have a song with feeling. Depending on what do you want, compose something happy, something melancholic...

Once you have your melody, add more voices to the song... arrange it, imagine a rhythm for the drums, add a bassline. Then, write it on guitarpro... there you may be able to arrange all the scales, progressions, everything and, at last, record it, or just perform it...

I hope I've been helpful for you !

AF

[MYK]

May be :smile:. I'll try to compose by following your advise.
Of course, the real artists don't compose, as we say in french, "sur commande" (it means "in a commercial order"). However, I would like to create songs to use my theoric knwoledges in music and to express my feelings as you said. The problem is that sometimes, a short (but whole) melody comes in my mind and I don't know how to modify it because of its beauty, so I include also this when I say "How to compose a melody".

The thread is still opened ...

[MyoJo]

No, why not ? May be it will help me. Who knows ? :cool:
Did you transcribe them in tabs or music scores ? Or did you save them in MIDI files ?
I'd like to listen to them !!
If you saved them in Guitar Pro tabs or midi files (or even youtube videos :smile:), send me the files (or give me the links of the videos).
If you saved them in music scores, scan the scores, save them in a jpg file and send them to me.

PS: Add my e-mail to your contacts list. :rolleyes:


For the time being, I saved my songs as MIDI format,
but I have no intention to open those files to aynone else.
Because I think they're not so fine songs.

Here's the link to myspace. And you will get what I mean.
http://www.myspace.com/myojoran

[idp]

Composing long, prog-like (I dont like this word) songs is a multi layer project as I see this question.

First of all, if you have nothing to say, dont take intsrument in your hands. I work with concepts. Always. Because if you write a complex, long song, it must be cohesive, compact, so I plan it. And if you know what you want to say, what story you want to tell, what chain of feelings you want to broadcast, its a concept. I usually take notes like a algorithm and if it is okay as a chain of feelings, thoughts, has a start and an end, then I start composing the full song.

Ad the initial feelings, the thoughts, the story I build the whole concept from comes from free, nobrainer improvisation and experimenting with synth-sounds. If I have 3-4 uniqe themes, then my brain starts working and the whole process starts.

So.

1. I usually just sit down and play, improvise.
2. I like experimenting with sounds (not the hardcore synthprogramming way, just put together sounds in strange combinations) and improvise with them.
3. I use very catchy and simple melodies
4. These melodies are the basis of the whole (just listen to any DT song, and what parts are you humming? the simple catchy ones, the shredding and the hard technical parts are just the fillers between them :)
5. When I finish making the model of the song, I start to fill the empty spaces
6. I make the simple catchy melodies technical feel (crazy drum part, percussion part, complex riff, technical bass) but the main thing is stays catchy and melodic
7. I listen to it many many times, changing here and there

Its a rather long process, but in the end its worth it.


But not every song mus be long and proggy, some of my songs are rather atmospheric, I work on the sounds instead of crazy tempos in this case. So its up to what type of feelings you want to broadcast.

I hope I could help you.

[MYK]

Hi, everybody !

I apologize for this long absence 'cause I was a bit busy.

Never the less, I read the last replies and tried to compose some songs following the advises that you gave me.

Fortunately, the result satisfied me more than the songs that I've created before I register in this forum, so thank you a lot ! :rolleyes:

The thread is always still opened if you want to give more advises.

If you want to hear my songs, add me to your MSN list. My e-mail is MYK@hotmail.fr (MYK@hotmail.fr).

See you :wink:

PS: Myojo, your myspace songs don't work :eek:

[Sparky93]

sing first

[glassprison]

How well do you know theory?

I know theory doesn't have much to coming up with new ideas, but it seems that once I learned theory I started coming up with better melodies.
And, when you know harmony, you can make an Ok melody sound really good if you use an interesting chord structure.

[Ofdirfska]

The best advice I could give is that you cannot expect to finish a prog song in a day. Writing any kind of music always takes time.
Melody writing is not as hard as most people make it out to be. If you do not have the natural ability to pull a melody out of the air, try finding a short section in another song and then changing it around. (Look in a piano etude!) Add a trill, change a rhythm, take a note out of a chord or put one in. If it does not sound good, change it back and try changing something else. Remember what you changed, too, and remember what worked well in other composer's songs. Information like that is what can get you to the point that you can pull melodies out of the air.