When writing melodies, do you try to keep them within your chords
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- KVRer
- 4 posts since 27 Jun, 2004 from Los Angeles, CA
Yes and no - initially, yes, I did for the most part. I would play with the blues scale also (♯4 or ♭5 as a passing tone, and ♯9 over dominant chords) but nothing too dissonant when I started writing music (I think I was 13).
Later, a former college roommate (since then a world famous pianist) once told me to "follow the melody; let it go where it wants to go."
I've embraced this philosophy: where I would come up with a chord structure and bass line (or bass line and then chords - depending) and then listen for and compose a melody, I now mostly establish a tonal center, maybe the first two bars, or two chords, and follow the melody wherever it wants to go.
I'm not saying my previous approach was lesser or inferior, never mind wrong; I really love (still) my earlier compositions - and the process that birthed them. It's just that following the melody has allowed me to write music that I don't think I would've heard, or come up with previously.
In simple words: I used to hear (and yearn for) chord progressions in my head, whereas now, I hear melodies first, and my previous extensive experience with sophisticated chord sequences has enriched my harmonic vocabulary to the extent that I can quickly (if not effortlessly) harmonize the melodies that I hear in my head, or off the piano, in ways that are equally satisfactory (to me), but also sound fresh (the chords) to my ears.
Highly recommended you try it. See where it takes you!
Later, a former college roommate (since then a world famous pianist) once told me to "follow the melody; let it go where it wants to go."
I've embraced this philosophy: where I would come up with a chord structure and bass line (or bass line and then chords - depending) and then listen for and compose a melody, I now mostly establish a tonal center, maybe the first two bars, or two chords, and follow the melody wherever it wants to go.
I'm not saying my previous approach was lesser or inferior, never mind wrong; I really love (still) my earlier compositions - and the process that birthed them. It's just that following the melody has allowed me to write music that I don't think I would've heard, or come up with previously.
In simple words: I used to hear (and yearn for) chord progressions in my head, whereas now, I hear melodies first, and my previous extensive experience with sophisticated chord sequences has enriched my harmonic vocabulary to the extent that I can quickly (if not effortlessly) harmonize the melodies that I hear in my head, or off the piano, in ways that are equally satisfactory (to me), but also sound fresh (the chords) to my ears.
Highly recommended you try it. See where it takes you!
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- KVRian
- 1058 posts since 6 Nov, 2010
No, I often come up with melodic ideas first and then build around it. The exception are songs with vocals but those are few and few between.
I think some of my best compositions were when I was starting out and didn't know much beyond key/scale/chords. They were all over the place but they were much more creative than now that I have all these rules in my head.
I think some of my best compositions were when I was starting out and didn't know much beyond key/scale/chords. They were all over the place but they were much more creative than now that I have all these rules in my head.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Emerson