Writing memorable music

[Brouwers]

I want to write memorable melodies, my melodies are often 1 bar or 2 bar loops which are nice but arent that special and then I get stuck in the loop . Are there any books I can read that will help me in quest for better melodies?

[tapper mike]

Even the best song writers will admit that the make more songs then hits and the songs they think will be remembered aren't necessarily the ones that are.

The first thing I would advise you to do is to sing or atleast hum the melody even if you can't sing. Because that is the one retaining issue. People generally don't try to beatbox a drum pattern or hold it in their head. Same is true for basslines or chords. Sure if a bassline is memorable and is the leading instrument they may sing the Highlight of it but not the entire bassline of the song.

Singing will force you to vary the motif. repetition variation and comparission or juxtaposition (like call and response) make a melody whole.

If you can get ahold of some minus one (backing tracks) based on 4,8,12 or even 16 bar progressions. Try to write/perform/sing over the tracks without knowledge (or at lease imitation) of the existing melody. Play the song a couple of times through before you start so you know where the changes are going to come.

I've found the better one understands and can perform harmony (chord progressions) the easier it is to write lines that support the harmony. There is nothing wrong with learning covers or attempting to improvise over them. That's how all the greats learned.

[jancivil]

definitely get away from the idea of reading about how to do something and get busy doing the things in real life that will inform it. You need some years learning about melody from experience with melody, learning tunes people that knew how to write tunes made, and absorbing the lessons with your body some.

[train_ear]

reading is ok but it won't help very much. the melody must come from your inside. just be yourself and give the best.

[Brouwers]

Ofcourse but analyzing melodies and theories behind good melodies help. The ways you know how create melodies the better the chance that you will create something good

[jancivil]

reading is not knowing. the best way to know about melody is with real experience with some melodies.

I create melodies at once, in real time, any time. I have never learned any of it from reading information about it. Information is not knowledge.

You are free to disregard this of course. If you know what to do already, why ask?

what would you know to analyze a melody from reading? that cart won't pull the horse.

[Kalee]

Hi,

Coming from late Nintendo 8 bit / Sega 16 bit generation, whose father listened to disco and Pink Floyd.

I think it can be good idea to look at stuff you still maybe remember. Ducktales theme, Chip and Dale rescue rangers. Alot of these have quite nicely done "scale switches":
Chipchipchipchip chip and dale rescue rangers -part starts in major C, then chord changes to A# major and melody scale changes to C minor. I think this change is why i remember the song from childhood.

Ducktales theme has also similar things. Similar things you can find in many Tina Turner hits: We don't need another hero, What's love got to do with it - for ones. Proud Mary has shorter life than those 2, maybe because what happens next can be more easily predicted, the energy the song gives becomes dull more quickly.

I find similarities between Gummi bears theme, Alice Cooper - Poison and The Beatles - Penny lane. All quite memorable songs .

This stuff is now almost copied to death, and soon the same old chord progressions and timings and what not wont have historical ties with new music listeners.

Sonic games have music that I still remember close to 20 years later, but close to none, if any of Sonic songs have stuff in it that I previously mentioned. Its stuff that some sort of fusio jazz sounds today.

In end I think that universal blueprint for good music stuff doesn't exist, and even if it did in some form, it would be "generational" and cultural to some extend; I think I could assure you that, if Penny Lane was recorded today, noone of the people who will be born in 2030 will listen it in 2050. Feels like alot of electronic music people who are +10 years older than me, likes stuff like Jarre and Kraftwerk has classic songs for them, I find both of those quite boring, even disturbing to listen to.

Everyone has chance to make good quality music production, also now music is distributed in way that maybe even prevents from classics to be born, by giving people the chance for not having to hear the same type of hit material over and over again in MTV and other music shows == people listen greatly different music. My absolute favourite albums today are made by hobbyist musicians, and it is quite surprising to hear that someone else knows about some of these bands/ producers.

Alot of metal people today listen to heavily unpredictable music, next to impossible to remember. Really many ppl listen to dubstep, which is also quite unpredictable music with good attention to small details.

If you only want song to be easily remembered, predictability and simplicity does that, but it dies quickly. Too monotonic may sound just boring for some, like some Mr. Oizo song that was on MTV all the time 10+ years ago, never liked it, but I still remember it.

Maybe the reason this stuff catches on is because it was beated into us from every direction.

I can see same sort of change happening with sports now, when the only possible viewing platform is not the TV broadcast anymore. Last weekend a final of a videogame tournament filled half of an icehockey stadium in Sweden .

My thoughts are scattered around the post, try to recompile .

TL;DR summary: I can't see old things stand against time, especially in this period with big technological development.

[shankfiddle]

If you are a serious composer who has higher goals than the "pop world" you should listen to classical music. I'm not saying you have to spend years bored off your ass studying theory in a classroom, just put some Mahler and Rachmaninoff on your shuffle list in the car.

All we hear on the radio and TV is intellectually rudimentary "music" with usually only 3-4 parts to the form that cycle ad nauseum. This is why it's hard for you to break out of repeating the same 2-bar melody.

Want to be more memorable? Screw the John Mayers, the U2s, Green Days, Gagas and yes, even dubstep: listen to big-boy music.

Listen to compositions with complex structures, that don't repeat. and try to interpret the structures in whatever terms you know: "this symphony has a loud/heavy intro - then develops into a softer tender section and then it returns to the intro melody but in a new key with more decorative stuff going on..."

if you start to think like this as you listen, you will subconsciously play with complex structures as you compose

[Ogg Vorbis]

Screw the John Mayers, the U2s, Green Days, Gagas and yes, even dubstep: listen to big-boy music.

As a classical composer and listener I hate to see this kind of comment. It doesn't exactly win hearts and minds.

[1-2-Many]

Yes - and the whole premise is wrong as the "memorable" percentage is about the same among classical pieces

[DramaNoMore]

What makes music memorable has nothing to do with complexity or familiarity; Both "Thus Spach Zarathustra" and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusic" are extremely memorable, and they are at opposite ends of complexity. But they both do what matters, they portray emotion, they trigger emotion.

[qa2pir]

Yes - and the whole premise is wrong as the "memorable" percentage is about the same among classical pieces

I don't think the premise was about classical music containing more memorable material, but rather that the expansion of musical memory (e.g. through classical listening) can improve your ability to generate meaningful tonal structures across a wide stylistic spectrum, and that this will in turn promote your creation of music that is unconventional yet comprehensible; dynamic and memorable.

[rbarata]

If you are asking this is because you have an idea of what memorable music is to you. Start from there, imagine the song in your head, then transcribe it to paper (notation).
If you're thinking in terms of memorable to other people...well, it's not possible to make music that is pleasant to everyone, so go back to the above-mentioned.

[shankfiddle]

I don't think the premise was about classical music containing more memorable material, but rather that the expansion of musical memory (e.g. through classical listening) can improve your ability to generate meaningful tonal structures across a wide stylistic spectrum, and that this will in turn promote your creation of music that is unconventional yet comprehensible; dynamic and memorable.

right on, thanks for not taking my words out of context.

An architect will never get anywhere if he only practices in and studies the medium of legos. That doesn't mean legos are a less valid art form, they're just not "memorable". A serious artist will study all mediums and styles at his/her disposal.

[beatflux]

I want to write memorable melodies, my melodies are often 1 bar or 2 bar loops which are nice but arent that special and then I get stuck in the loop . Are there any books I can read that will help me in quest for better melodies?

http://www.amazon.com/Melody-Songwritin ... ef=lh_ni_t

Professional songs usually use variations of some kind to keep their melodies engaging, but still repetitive enough to make it easy to remember.

For example: there is quite a bit of anaphoric repetition in dance music. To execute this type of repetition, you would copy and paste a melodic idea, and keep some part of the beginning of the idea intact and change the ending.

Example:



A---B---C---A---|A---B---C---B-A-

You'll find more variation ideas in the book, and there's much more in that book that will help you.