making melodies - share your tips

usually my melodies come about by me humming something on a walk or the toilet or something and then i just hum it back over and over and eventually put it into Reason to make sure it doesnt get lost (if it is a good melody)
sometimes i just find a random chord from a list i have with pictures and just hit random keys of that particular chord to a beat thats playing. sometimes i have had really nice melodies come out of this.
i have always said that melodies make the beat (think 'dirt off your shoulder').
that ONE BAR melody put the beat into the +$$$$$ zone.
so share your techniques of melody composition.

note- i searched for "melody" but no topic has had that or "melodies" in its title.

Usually i make my melodies with one good note over 16 levels function.this isnt always good as i dont have a time stretch but it can be ok.
Another way is finding a sample of an existing melody and loading it in acid pro then chopping it and re-arranging the pieces,then load the individual parts back into the MPC (if that makes sense?)i always think melodies i play out sound cheesy.hope this gives u an insight into melody making.Peace!

I get a melody going by using 16 lvls, I sit there and play diff melodies until I get one that I like

I then simplify the melody in my head and record it step by step so that the timing is right

simple as that

but now I have a m-audio oxygen8 so its about to get even better

a good way to make melodys is to just play one note over some drums and then just play around the keyboard until you hear something you like. Then you just simply record that one note. Process takes about 15 to 30 mins if you are focused, but melodys should come easily if you listen to alot of classics like beethoven or mozart bach and stuff...this is just how i do it. NOT THE ONLY WaY TO DO IT!

thats what I was saying basically

i break it down to a simplified melody and build around it



I get what your saying

i bang randomly on my MPC when in 16 levels


or bang on my midi keyboard untill i hear something i like.

find a soloed out instrument on a record/mp3 and sample it. chop each note into its own file and assign each one to the pads. you have unseamed the fabric of the sound, now rearrange it to your own liking. this is my new favorite method of finding a base melodies, then i create more melodies overtop with reason--interpolating and riffing on the original idea. using this procedure you can get a really realistic sound while at the same time ducking sample clearance issues.

www.excommence.com/staplemouth%20beat.mp3 the guitar in this is sampled but restitched together. hear what i'm saying? utterly unrecognizeable from the original--this is my melody, yet it's still got that nice live sound.

you can take the pgm you've made of chopped samples and then pitch each file up 6 or even 12 and then decay the hell out of each one to have nice little blips and beeps which you can use to texture the melody you get out of the first pgm.

never knew how to get the blips thanks.

i'm having trouble with melodies at the moment, they come to me in the morning when i'm at work and i forget em by the time i get home

one thing i did was sample about 20 different 3 finger chords (i have no music terminology lol) and load them into pads, hit the note off and just mess about, i've come up with things that would be near impossible if i were just banging on the keys

sometimes i play a simple 3 note riff and a bassline, and then just change the bassline for a nice (key?)change, i find it easy to overdub and make it more interesting

or start with a sample i've just chopped and work a melody around that, cos i get the block if i'm sat for too long endlessly thinking of the catchy melody that never comes

sounds like i should learn the 16 levels function

Paul R:
You talked about forgetting the melody you found out earlier.
Do you have mp3 player or some other player with recording function?
I use to record my ideas sometimes
Of course it's funny when making odd voices in bus, elevator, library, etc. lol

pumpinpads wrote:Of course it's funny when making odd voices in bus, elevator, library, etc. lol

I do that ALL the time.

like a dictaphone?

good idea, or i could sing myself voicemail messages, might end up costing a bit tho

Most cell phones have a voice recorder.I use mine all the time.I had a kid that wanted a beat so he just beat-boxed it for 4 bars into my phone and i sat down and made it.I haven't done the others yet but i'll get to them soon.