How To Write GREAT Melodies!! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I give a lot of lessons on writing
2. 0:01music, specifically prog, and the most
3. 0:03glaring deficiency I see in most of my
4. 0:05students is the ability to write a
5. 0:07melody. I hear all kinds of awesome
6. 0:09riffs and rhythms and chords, but very
7. 0:11rarely do I hear good strong melodies. I
8. 0:14want to take a look at three melodies
9. 0:15today and talk about their structure,
10. 0:17note choice, and phrasing in hopes of
11. 0:19shining a light on some of the things
12. 0:20that make a good melody. If you'd like
13. 0:22access to the sheet music for this
14. 0:24lesson and all of my other lessons, you
15. 0:25can join my Patreon or become a channel
16. 0:27member here on YouTube. I also give
17. 0:29private lessons if you'd like some more
18. 0:30personal feedback on your own music.
19. 0:33Links to all of that is in this video's
20. 0:34description. I've picked the choruses of
21. 0:36three songs here. These are quite varied
22. 0:38stylistically and they're all vocal
23. 0:40melodies, but the techniques being used
24. 0:42can work in every style of music and in
25. 0:44instrumental music as well. First up is
26. 0:46a song from the brand new Periphery
27. 0:48record.
28. 0:50>> [music]
29. 0:55[music]
30. 1:03[music]
31. 1:08[music]
32. 1:12>> This is the chorus of Everyone Dies
33. 1:13Alone. I chose this as an example of a
34. 1:16super simple, very catchy, almost
35. 1:18pop-like melody. Even in more complex
36. 1:20styles of music like prog, we don't
37. 1:22always want to lose that catchy, hooky,
38. 1:24melodic sense. Sometimes a very singable
39. 1:26melody can help tie a complex song
40. 1:28together and help ground the more
41. 1:30over-the-top parts of that song. The
42. 1:32chorus melody is 16 measures long, but
43. 1:34it's really just an eight-bar melody
44. 1:36that repeats twice. It's in the key of B
45. 1:38flat minor and the chords here are as
46. 1:40follows. We have G flat add nine for
47. 1:42four bars,
48. 1:44>> [music]
49. 1:45>> then an E flat minor nine for three and
50. 1:46a half bars,
51. 1:48a quick A flat add nine for two beats,
52. 1:51>> [music]
53. 1:51>> then four more bars of G flat add nine,
54. 1:55and then finally to B flat minor for
55. 1:58three bars and then one bar of A flat
56. 2:00add nine.
57. 2:01>> [music]
58. 2:02>> In B flat minor that's 6 4 7 6 1 7.
59. 2:06Super simple, right in the key the whole
60. 2:08time. And Spencer's melody looks like
61. 2:10this. This is a pentatonic melody coming
62. 2:12completely out of B flat minor
63. 2:14pentatonic.
64. 2:16>> [music]
65. 2:20[music]
66. 2:25>> And this is a pretty common approach to
67. 2:26melodies. As any guitarist will tell
68. 2:28you, the good old minor pentatonic scale
69. 2:30works great over all kinds of things. A
70. 2:32lot of times if I'm just humming a
71. 2:34melody in my head, it ends up being
72. 2:36pentatonic based. And I imagine that's
73. 2:38what happened with Spencer here.
74. 2:39Structurally, this melody is following
75. 2:41what is called a sentence form. You have
76. 2:43a two-bar basic idea.
77. 2:46You repeat that idea.
78. 2:48>> [music]
79. 2:50>> Then you move into a continuation where
80. 2:51it goes into new territory.
81. 2:54>> [music]
82. 2:54>> And then end with a cadence where the
83. 2:56melody resolves.
84. 2:58>> [music]
85. 3:00>> This is one of the main classical forms
86. 3:02for writing melodies and it's one you
87. 3:03see in all kinds of music. You could
88. 3:05also call this AABC or even just AAB in
89. 3:10this case. So, you have an A section.
90. 3:12>> [music]
91. 3:15>> And then a B section.
92. 3:18>> [music]
93. 3:20>> You have a strong first melodic idea,
94. 3:22then you repeat it to drive that melody
95. 3:24home, and then you answer it with
96. 3:25something different. You get the
97. 3:27repetition so that first part is stuck
98. 3:28in your ear, but you have variation so
99. 3:30the melody is not too stagnant. This
100. 3:32melody has a lot of focus on chord tones
101. 3:34as well and that's something we'll see
102. 3:36in all three of these melodies. The
103. 3:38first phrase starts on the third of our
104. 3:40G flat add nine.
105. 3:43And then lands on the major seventh.
106. 3:45Gives this chord a major nine sound even
107. 3:47though the guitars are just playing an
108. 3:48add nine underneath.
109. 3:51>> [music]
110. 3:53>> And then on the E flat minor 9, we start
111. 3:54on the fourth,
112. 3:56>> [music]
113. 3:56>> which is a tension note, but that then
114. 3:58resolves up to the fifth of B flat.
115. 4:02And then finally landing on the root of
116. 4:04that chord.
117. 4:06We get the same melody over the B flat
118. 4:08minor the second time.
119. 4:10This is still a tension note, in this
120. 4:11case the seventh of B flat minor,
121. 4:14resolving up to the root.
122. 4:19This is just a good solid melody. It's
123. 4:21structured well, it's catchy, it has a
124. 4:22nice syncopated feel with these dotted
125. 4:24quarter notes. So, let's look at
126. 4:26something a little bit different.
127. 4:33>> [music]
128. 4:39[music]
129. 4:44[music]
130. 4:49[music]
131. 4:55[music]
132. 5:00[music]
133. 5:05>> This is the chorus to The Tank off of
134. 5:07Act III by The Dear Hunter. The Dear
135. 5:09Hunter is one of my favorite bands.
136. 5:10Here's the shirt I picked up at their
137. 5:12show a couple of weeks ago, but I
138. 5:13haven't talked about them on the channel
139. 5:15in a little while, but they have a lot
140. 5:17of strong melodies, so this is a perfect
141. 5:18place to bring them back into these
142. 5:20videos. This melody is really strong and
143. 5:22it follows these chords perfectly. We're
144. 5:25in 12/8 here and this is in the key of G
145. 5:27minor. The chords are as follows: G
146. 5:29minor,
147. 5:30C minor,
148. 5:31E flat major 7, and E minor 7 flat 5,
149. 5:35then G minor, C minor,
150. 5:38E flat major 7,
151. 5:39then D 7 over A to D 7 in root position.
152. 5:43>> [music]
153. 5:45>> Structurally, this one follows the
154. 5:46period form, another one of the main
155. 5:48classical forms for writing melodies.
156. 5:50You have a two-bar basic idea,
157. 5:53>> [music]
158. 5:56>> a two-bar response,
159. 5:58>> [music]
160. 5:59>> a two-bar return to the basic idea,
161. 6:04>> [music]
162. 6:05>> and a two-bar ending cadence.
163. 6:13You could also think of this as being A
164. 6:15B A C. This one is much more chord tone
165. 6:18and arpeggio focused than the periphery
166. 6:20melody. We have this G minor 9 arpeggio
167. 6:23outlined in the first bar.
168. 6:26>> [music]
169. 6:27>> And we take that same melody down a
170. 6:28step, starting on the fifth of the C
171. 6:31minor.
172. 6:34And then in the two-bar response, it's
173. 6:35the same figure twice.
174. 6:38>> [music]
175. 6:39>> This is starting on the seventh of E
176. 6:41flat major 7,
177. 6:42>> [music]
178. 6:43>> and the seventh of our E minor 7 flat 5.
179. 6:48Then you get the two-bar basic idea
180. 6:50again, and in the last two bars you have
181. 6:52the figure from the response once,
182. 6:55and then this line to end the chorus
183. 6:57over the D7 chord, which is our five
184. 6:59chord in G minor.
185. 7:04And every one of those notes is from a
186. 7:05D7 arpeggio except for this G at the
187. 7:08end.
188. 7:10>> [music]
189. 7:12>> Another really catchy melody, nice
190. 7:14contour with these descending lines,
191. 7:16works perfectly over the chords, and it
192. 7:18has enough repetition to get stuck in
193. 7:19your head without being too repetitive.
194. 7:22Now, let's look at a classic Prague
195. 7:23melody. And you'd [singing] be the one
196. 7:27who [music] was laughing,
197. 7:30except when things weren't going [music]
198. 7:33your way.
199. 7:36And then the lady would say that
200. 7:39she had [music and singing] enough
201. 7:42wandering around on the own.
202. 7:48This is the chorus from More Fool Me by
203. 7:50Genesis off the album Selling England by
204. 7:52the pound. This is an early example of
205. 7:54Phil Collins on lead vocals in a Genesis
206. 7:56song, and this has such a good and
207. 7:59strong melody. Now, this song is
208. 8:01somewhere between B flat and B on the
209. 8:03original recording, but I'm going to
210. 8:04analyze it in B here as that's how they
211. 8:07usually did it live. The chords here are
212. 8:09A major 7 over B,
213. 8:11>> [music]
214. 8:12>> E major 9 over B,
215. 8:14B7sus or F#m7 over B, then E,
216. 8:19and then the second half is E major 7,
217. 8:22D#m7, G#m7, C#m7, and then finally
218. 8:27F#7sus
219. 8:28to F#7. [music]
220. 8:30This is more of a complex progression,
221. 8:32but it's mostly staying in the key of B.
222. 8:34We do have some outside chords with the
223. 8:35A.
224. 8:37You could think of that as being from B
225. 8:39mixolydian, but most of this is coming
226. 8:41right from B major. And this one is also
227. 8:44using the period form. So, we have this
228. 8:46two-bar basic idea,
229. 8:51then this response,
230. 8:53>> [music]
231. 8:56>> and then the basic idea again with some
232. 8:58variation, which is a pretty common
233. 9:00thing to do in this form.
234. 9:02>> [music]
235. 9:06>> And then this final cadence.
236. 9:08>> [music]
237. 9:14[music]
238. 9:15>> This one is really focused on the color
239. 9:17tones of these extended chords. For
240. 9:19example, on this first chord, the melody
241. 9:21is on the major 7th.
242. 9:23Really nice sound over this chord.
243. 9:26>> [music]
244. 9:28>> And then we get the ninth
245. 9:29of E flat of E major 9.
246. 9:32And then in the second phrase, we have
247. 9:33the seventh of B7sus,
248. 9:37and the third of E.
249. 9:39>> [music]
250. 9:39>> And then we get the third of all of
251. 9:41these next chords.
252. 9:44Third. [music]
253. 9:46Third. And then the third of C sharp
254. 9:48minor 7.
255. 9:49>> [music]
256. 9:50>> And then the root
257. 9:52of F sharp 7.
258. 9:54>> [music]
259. 9:55>> Thirds and sevenths are the notes that
260. 9:56give seventh chords their unique flavor.
261. 9:58So, landing on these in a melody almost
262. 10:00always works. There's also this rhythmic
263. 10:02figure present throughout all of these
264. 10:04phrases. It's landing on the and of four
265. 10:06each time anticipating the next measure
266. 10:09and giving this melody a nice syncopated
267. 10:11feel. The vocal harmonies here are
268. 10:13adding quite a lot as well, but I'm
269. 10:14going to stick to just talking about the
270. 10:15melody in this lesson. And this melody
271. 10:18has always been a favorite of mine.
272. 10:20Genesis were so good at writing these
273. 10:21hooky melodies over pretty interesting
274. 10:23chord progressions. And there's all
275. 10:25these slash chords in here as well,
276. 10:26which are another Genesis staple. So,
277. 10:28there are three melodies you can study
278. 10:30to help improve your melody writing. As
279. 10:32I said, I think this is a skill that not
280. 10:34enough musicians are focused on these
281. 10:36days, but it's something that can
282. 10:37drastically improve your music. If you'd
283. 10:39like the sheet music from this lesson,
284. 10:41you can join my Patreon. And if you
285. 10:42enjoyed this lesson, subscribe, hit the
286. 10:44bell notification, like, comment, share,
287. 10:46and I will see you all in the next
288. 10:48video. Till then,
289. 10:50stay proggy.
290. 10:53>> [music]
291. 10:58[music]
292. 11:03[music]