Techniques for Drawing Melodies on Piano Roll

[Goodie]

Can you describe some of your techniques for drawing or creating melodies on Piano Roll (PR)? I am talking drawing notes on the PR using the mouse and not the MIDI keyboard. I would like to hear how you create new melodies or transfer melodies that you hear in your head or from existing songs to the PR..

I am aware that most people start with a chord progression and then move on to creating a melody. To me melody is everything, and it comes first.

Sascha Franck, please, don't start sneering at creating a melody with a mouse (I read your comment in one of the other topics here on Kvr, that one should create melodies with a keyboard and not draw songs with a mouse). I have observed a teenager compose whole songs starting with a melody building it up into a respectable hip hop song on FL Studio, layering notes on top of melody. I thought it was just that, hip hop. But the other day I challenged him to create a kwasakwasa (rhumba) song. It sounded authentic. The song is actually played on several radio stations and clubs around here.

I have also read on one of those blogs composers have, that a number of composers are switching from using score notation to PR for its instant gratification: you see the note, click on it and hear it instantly. Edit. Print it as a MIDI file. Done. Also, a lot of writers in their articles on the net, have indicated that they use PR for all their MIDI recording.

I am convinced that the PR is, to us non-trained musicians, the equivalent of the score or notation editor to trained composers.

Here is my example of drawing melodies:
In my exploration I have discovered that it is easy for me to write a melody I hear in my head by:

1. Humming the melody to determine the notes for it. Usually it's a musical phrase of 2 to 4 bars long.
2. I set the metronome and tempo. FL Studio already loops to one measure when you are in the PR and more measures emerge as you add more notes beyond it.
3. I sketch out the melody by outlining the notes that fall on the first beat of each bar. Most of my songs are on the beat anyway. Usually I am using whole notes, each note filling the whole bar.
4. Then I fill in the notes in the first half of the bar by changing the whole notes into say 2 half notes. Each time referencing to the melody in my head.
5. Then I start adding details by filling in the ¼ , 1/8 and 1/16th notes that represent the melody, measure by measure shaping out the phrase.
6. I do the same for the other phrases until I chain them into a chorus or occasionally a verse. Then I start adding harmony.


The process is what interests me. Thank you in advance, good people.

[xoxos]

not to come across as too self-servient.. if you are interested in the process of melody assembly, perhaps you should be using/developing algorithmic methods

in the next few months i'll be releasing tools/tutorials to make synthedit a facile environment for experimenting with these ideas (tho oc there are hundreds+ of free apps already.)

my faves are all 'transcribed' from inspiration.. something i "hear," usually in the kitchen, bicycling or other rote process. i've 'assembled' melodies by moving parts around, and afair some are interesting but don't have the staying power.

you may think then that algorithmic methods would fall into the latter class of 'assembled,' but too often i've been floored by algorithmic output.

http://www.xoxos.net/music/music.html
right at the top, algo-23 was one of a dozen in a series using very primitive generation. it's an arguably simple mileu, see if you still remember it a month later

[dannthr]

I use both.

The thing about the keyboard is that I can create music I don't hear in my head because it comes out of my hands--it's spontaneous; improvisation--so sometimes I get something different.

Sometimes, however, because physical action is rote motion and habit-oriented, I also use the Keyboard AND the Rollbar to work out what I hear in my head.

For rhythms, I almost exclusively write rhythms with the rollbar.

For other stuff, I usually work it out in my head or on paper--I plan it, and play it on the keyboard, etc. I'll either use the paper or a MIDI record of my performance as source to actually click in my composition--rearranged for whatever instrumentation I intended to use that wasn't keyboard.

If I want a realistic performance, sometimes I'll record the midi data from keyboard and tweak it out afterward.


Just as variety in foods is important to your health, so too is variety in your creative approaches to the health of your work. I wouldn't suggest any exclusive method for creating--that's how you stagnate--so if its within your power, use all the tools at your fingertips: Keyboard and Rollbar alike.

[SledgeFist]

I try to record my humming/singing into a small recorder of some kind, the type that you normally use to record dictation, lectures, meetings, etc. Then using that, I try and figure out the intervals in-between notes and use that to build the line in the piano roll.

The benefit is that I can keep humming and singing and improvising as I go until I get tired or run out of tape. I don't need to remember two minutes and twenty six seconds of song in my head. The tough part is that to replay a passage, you have to stop, rewind, play. So most times, I feed the recorder in the line input on my interface, record a quick wave in Audacity, and then use that to single out note phrases.

-Sledge-

[Goodie]

Sledgefist,
Cool, I kind of identify with your method of

"I try and figure out the intervals in-between notes and use that to build the line in the piano roll."

Can you add a little more detail to what you do between deciding the intervals and making the melody. That is very interesting to me.
Thanks,
Goodie

[mr]

Try humming / singing intho Melodyne demo. It will show you the "piano roll" whit notes & tempo. There are other even free audio to midi utilities, but Melodyne is the best for me

[nibbzious]

3. I sketch out the melody by outlining the notes that fall on the first beat of each bar. Most of my songs are on the beat anyway. Usually I am using whole notes, each note filling the whole bar.
4. Then I fill in the notes in the first half of the bar by changing the whole notes into say 2 half notes. Each time referencing to the melody in my head.
5. Then I start adding details by filling in the ¼ , 1/8 and 1/16th notes that represent the melody, measure by measure shaping out the phrase.


The process is what interests me. Thank you in advance, good people.

I've recently gotten back into the composing side of music and found that I've been writing all my melodies by hand, and being very comfortable/confident with this approach.

The process I've been doing is very similar as you described, Goodie. Blocking things out over 4/8 bars, focusing on defining a rhythm accompanied by a general tension and release pattern. It's all very fascinating, really... coming up with a good melody is both a visual and sonic science/art. All my "good" melodies (which there are few of ) have a visually pleasing shape, it seems like. For example:





Some of my observations from this process include the concept that melodies seem to require for every every note written, an equal amount of "rest" within the phrase. So, in a 4 bar sequence, there should be roughly 2 bars of rest (I would consider a rest to be a dotted 1/4 note or anything longer). You can chop it up rhythmically any way you want, place static "wait" points within the melody itself, but I find I can only get good results by leaving lots of space. I feel like my ear finds the rest points to be very pleasing. Lazy bastard! So I try to err on the side of "sparse."

I like to doodle/draw and I also like music, so it's a natural combination of the two, the way I see it. It's easily the most fun part of the entire composing process, writing out melodies in the PR

[Xiritam]

Learn Music Theory ( perfect pitch and Relative Pitch helps you a lot in writing your own original melodies and chords )
And possible learn to play an instrument.
Since your daw is piano-roll based, i suggest you learn some piano.

Cheers!.

[mothballs]

xoxos I'm very interested in your algorithmic tools - even to the point that I might have to buy a copy of synthedit to check them out. I've been interested in algorithmic composition for years now and have been at a bit of a loss since the demise of Tangent. If you are aware of any other tools worth a good look let me know.

As to the original posters question regarding the piano roll, I very rarly compose anything in this manner and don't really have any suggestions. Actually I don't have any set methods when it comes to composition and just do whatever seems appropriate when I get the inspiration. Often I begin with a concept (not necessarily musical) of some kind. This could be anything from a melodic fragment to a harmonic structure to a non musical idea deriving from something I've read or seen. From that point anything can happen.

[MotorMind]

I just place notes randomly and make them fit. Often I also improvize lines on my bass or Stick and then just copy everything in the midi editor if I decide not to keep the original track. More often though I just play everything on my keyboard.

[camsr]

I usually keep a scale in mind and work around it, introducing ncts here and there. And it's also good to keep a metrical weight in mind too.

[rvltion909@yahoo.com]

I saw this piano roll topic and wondered (again) if anybody had any good experiences using those tablet pen controls to "draw" their notes?

Im thinking of trying this soon as it just seems like it would be much easier and a more "hands on" approach (which I am REALLY trying to go in the direction of).

[MacZero]

have a look at some midi files of songs you think are put together well would be one idea. Some midi files are better than others of course.

[Goodie]

MacZero,
What should I be looking at, shapes, range, intervals? What have you observed so far?

[Shane Sanders]

I'm terrible with melody, but my better ones usually started out on a guitar and then I figure out what I'm doing and draw it in a piano roll.