Techniques for Drawing Melodies on Piano Roll

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Techniques for Drawing Melodies on Piano Roll 2007-09-22T10:43:13+00:00 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. Goodie https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=157590

musikmachine musikmachine https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=122199: KVRAF
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Post by musikmachine » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:21 pm

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I usually start on my korg mx.Thats better for me than a PR but then i'll record the parts into live for further editing and pattern variations etc,plus i can automate the fx to my hearts content and create more complex parts

Recently i've been using the laptop keyboard to compose when using vsts,you can pretty much make music with a laptop and a mouse!So if you can try playing with your computers keyboard as well

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