How to create a melody

[Majestic290]

Once i have a chord progression that I like, how do i add a melody on top of it, like how do i know what fits.

I know one should play within the scale, but that's kind of boring.

[aquar]

If you find playing with scales boring its probably better to just give up.

Seriously though you could start by adding passing tones that don't belong to the particular scale you are working within to spice it up a little.?

[Majestic290]

its probably better to just give up.

not cool

[fmr]

Once i have a chord progression that I like, how do i add a melody on top of it, like how do i know what fits.

I know one should play within the scale, but that's kind of boring.

Try to find a note that fits in two or three chords. Sustain that note, and try to listen a melody. At least, it works for me - when I try to sustain a note while playing chords, I start hearing a melody flowing. Sometimes, the melody doesn't fit entirely the chord progression - in that case, change the chord progression. For me,. the melody is the conductor.

[Majestic290]

Ok I'll try

[sammy24]

Maybe try singing or humming to yourself. just randomly, for a few minutes. A good melody should be strong even without chords/harmony, in its own right. So rather than restrict your melody to whatever chords you happen to play on your instrument, just try to freely sing, and hopefully you'll hear an idea you like. Now take it, move it, change it, add to it, until you have a whole melody. Just an idea...

[Jafo]

Don't worry if your first tries suck; according to his notebooks and their demos, even Beethoven and the Beatles had to keep hammering at it until all the notes rang true. Similarly, folk music often has melodies of staggering beauty, simply because they've passed through countless singers.

[Aleatoriac]

Flip a coin. Heads = up tails = down.
Flip again. Heads = whole step, tails = half step.

If it doesn't fit the progression, toss the chords, choose a bass note for a drone and have fun.

That might just be a stupid idea too. I have those all the time. Stupid ideas. I'll sell you one.

[dhalfen]

Maybe try singing or humming to yourself. just randomly, for a few minutes. A good melody should be strong even without chords/harmony, in its own right. So rather than restrict your melody to whatever chords you happen to play on your instrument, just try to freely sing, and hopefully you'll hear an idea you like. Now take it, move it, change it, add to it, until you have a whole melody. Just an idea...

+1 -- humming or singing is a human's most natural way of making "pitched" music.

IMHumO, you create the melody first, and only then worry about harmonization.

If you try to create a "good" melody from a chord progression -- well, your possibilities are seemingly-endless, and that's precisely the "problem": maybe I should put this note here, or that suspension there, or silence in the middle...

(You're trying to carve beauty from a matrix of choices, IOW, and that can become a rather complex mess rather quickly!)

Eck, save yourself the blood, sweat, & tears -- work on the melody first.

(Additionally, I actually prefer music w/o lyrics [though wordless vocalization or humming works for me!], but I find that a good descriptive passage from a story or novel, or a lyrical poem [not too fluffy/flowery], serve as great sources of inspiration; an image of a landscape, seascape, starscape, etc. -- or whatever inspires you!!! -- will work beautifully, too!)

[dhalfen]

Once i have a chord progression that I like, how do i add a melody on top of it, like how do i know what fits.

I know one should play within the scale, but that's kind of boring.

No, one certainly does NOT have to play within a scale - what fool put these shackles around you???

Scales are merely "trail maps" -- granted, you want to avoid the poisonous flora and carnivorous fauna, but if you stay on the trail most or all of the time, then you're going to become bored and irritated with the static quality of the experience.

Seriously, the simplest advice I can give to you (based on my own experience): you'll make the best melodies by improvising -- and only after LOTS and LOTS of improvising.

Easy for me to say, but it'll take a lifetime to "master." (Though I doubt you'll need to be old & grey before you're much more comfortable making melodies which please you, the most important audience.)

And you don't really stumble across melodies by accident; you grow into them, through repetition & familiarity with your own improvisatory preferences.

(The image of a songwriter sitting at a piano or hunched over a guitar, thinking but not playing, and having the "tune" suddenly pop into his/her head -- that's a laughable farce created by a writer, not a musician. )

Performance and composition should be regarded as one and the same, albeit the yin to the other's yang.

(Also IMHumO, the best composers --or songwriters, or etc. -- were also adept performers, at least during a significant portion of their lives.)

[K-Bee]

I may be odd, but I always start with the bassline. After that I add some sort of melody line (just a sketch really) but it helps me in developing the chord progressions because I have two things working together already. That way it's easier to rule out stuff that doesn't fit.
So: make a bassline, create a melody sketch, add the chords. Don't be afraid to change the bass or the melody as you go along if you think the chords have ended up being better than the rest all of a sudden That's the way I usually work.

[wrench45us]

you have a chord progressionand want to create a melody

well as above reducing the chord progresion to a bassline may provide a little more space to come up with a melody

another something you might try is different inversions on the chords in the progression as the top not usually carries the melody and see if something emerges when you do that. Usually some sort of simple basic melody is implied by a chord progression.

just keeping playing or humming or whistling against a loop of the chord progression or reduced bass line

[Km7]

(The image of a songwriter sitting at a piano or hunched over a guitar, thinking but not playing, and having the "tune" suddenly pop into his/her head -- that's a laughable farce created by a writer, not a musician. )

Performance and composition should be regarded as one and the same, albeit the yin to the other's yang.

Nonsense. Composition is a highly personal thing and some composers actually do write music that way - away from the instrument, focused on their ideas and writing them down on paper, or with combinations of approaches. It isn't very wise to ignore other approaches and try to impose the one that suits you as the right one.

[Meffy]

granted, you want to avoid the poisonous flora and carnivorous fauna

We carnivorous fauna unjustly get a bad rap. Remember, folks: chromatic notes are at least as scared of you as you are of them.

[DrawMusic]

Funny (to me), the question was pretty open, about "melody", and everyone restricts their responses to just pitches.

Here's an alternative idea: rhythm is more important than pitch. Create your melody's rhythm first. You can use just the chord roots for pitches, or the closest pitches to middle C which fit your chords, or whatever.

If you have lyrics, this will influence your rhythm since it will need to fit the lyrics.

At this point your melody probably already sounds like lots of hit song melodies. But you can now play around with different pitches for the notes in your already-created rhythm.