How do you guys make melodies?

1. Learn how to play chords on piano/guitar
2. Learn songs on piano/guitar
3. Recognize patterns in chords of songs on piano/guitar
4. Learn music theory and understand why patterns of chords in songs on piano/guitar
5. Read Fux 'Art of Counterpoint'. The first bit. The whole book is good, but it becomes a bit overwhelming unless you're doing a music degree.
6. Merge theory of chords with Fux's theory of melodies
7. Make amazing melodies and counter-melodies
 
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I don't know why people over complicate things so much, especially edm producers for some reason. I usually just play stuff on my midi (or even computer) keyboard until I create a melody i can run with. I can then base all the other sounds in the beat off of that one melody I created. You'd be surprised how many songs and beats are produced this way. Don't be fooled into thinking it's necessary for you too learn guitar or piano to make good music.
 
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It is true, what I described would be the way a classical musician would make melodies: there are lots and lots of popular producers who make melodies by trial and error as above poster describes- but it's a crude way of doing it and only makes very simple melodies unless you're very experienced: by which time you might have well have done the bookwork.

I guess it depends how important melody is to you in your music.
 
I struggle at this also. I've just started learning some music theory, that helps. If you use FL Studio, there's a vst called 'Pitcher'. You select a starting key (example; C), and it will tell you all the notes you can play so it sounds 'good'. Now I just have to work on placements. If you don't use FL Studio, look at wikipedia and search the key and it will tell you which others you can play with.
 
Go to the Piano Roll "in FL Studio"
activate the ghost notes
go to the chords section in the piano roll and choose scales or chords"Minor or major'
choose a key ABCDEfG and click on the one you want
open another channel with a vst
finally make melodies following the ghost notes
this is the easy way, the hard way is to learn music theory wayching tutorials on youtube.
good luck.
 
fendrstrings said:
Study the current melodies of successful songs and artists that you enjoy.
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Yup. There are hundreds of great artists who already did the heavy lifting for you. Study their compositions and you will develop your own style by learning their techniques and writings. I always enjoyed Ray Manzarek's melodies, so I studied his stuff (an example)...now you get into Chopin and Monk, you're on your own man...sink or swim lol.

Similar to how a writer studies the works of great authors before him or a painter doing the same by studying the greats. Have patience and have fun writing some kick ass stuff.

*forgot to mention that it would be to your advantage to learn scales, notation, chords and modal styles. Being able to write out music brings a whole different perspective to the approach instead of dicking around on a keyboard playing 4/4 melodies. I get the feeling from your post that you want to move beyond the simplistic haze.
 
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The best thing to do is just play and jam out on different instruments, I played guitar before I produced electronically and I feel like that really helped me writing more complex and intricate melodies. Learning scales helps too, if you are trying to capture a certain vibe.
 
When I make music, I usually create the bass and chord progression first and the melody after. I basically just play the chord progression on a loop where I want to make a melody overtop and then I grab my guitar and jam over the chords until I find something that I like. Knowing key signatures and their respective scales is all the theoretical knowledge you really need for this approach.
 
sometimes i work around chords and break them down a bit, othertimes i just play something random and if it works ill use it. sometimes i might copy paste a small riff and make differences at the end of each section pasted until i have one long melody.
 
Do you mean melodies as in singing/rapping? If so, study other people that have melodies u like. When doing that u start to hear by ear what sounds right and wrong. This isn't super melodic but a but:
 
Music is feeling, melodies are feeling certain things, everything boils down to what you feel. So, get an understanding of a music instrument of your choice and start feeling the chords and melodies. Then try out ways you can create melodies that suite you.
 
Robeezz said:
Do you mean melodies as in singing/rapping? If so, study other people that have melodies u like. When doing that u start to hear by ear what sounds right and wrong. This isn't super melodic but a but:
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good work yo it sounds dope
 
best thing you can do is learn your basic major and minor scales. then you start playing with a couple notes find out what key youre in and go from there
 
I normally start with a good chords progression and then base the melody line from that key. I will emphasize key changing by purposely hitting the note immediately of a change.
 
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