I need Help making melodies

Thehitman808

New member
I’m new to music producing, I understand how to work my daw (fl studio).
but when I try to make my melodies it just doesn’t come out the way I want it to, I’m not saying it on a opinion stand point. But I don’t know what I’m doing . Am I using the wrong instruments ? When I make one melody does the other need to start off with the same key, I need help bad. I also need help understanding when to use a lead a pad a saw and just a regular piano sound. And what instruments I can’t make a melody with. I obviously know I can’t make it with drums but yea just please help me, it seems like YouTube videos don’t help me back all I do it just follow what they do and they give clear details, for a beginner like me.
 
What kind of music do you make? If I were to guess, you just don't have enough experience with the instrument of your choice. However, I would start creating melodies by following these guidelines (You can feel free to break them as you gain experience):

- Stay strictly within the key signature. Any notes outside of the key can quickly bring in dissonance.
- Try and stick with a simple piano as your first melody instrument. Once you have a solid melody line, experiment with other instruments
- Sometimes, melodies can be found while noodling about, and other times it comes to you in your head. Try and use both techniques.
- Keep repeating a section over and over again until you find the right melody.

I would love to hear a sample of what you have so far in your song.
 
Hi
Here's A Trick! Try To Flip The Melody of Your Favorite Track.
Sometimes It Gives You A Great Melody and Some Times idea.
For Example: Try Martin Garrix's Rewind & Repeat It, Just Flip Its Melody.
I have Tried It And It Was Almost Good
 
Hi Hirman!

Yeah what genre you making?

What I do is put some chords down first. Depends though. But one thing I can tell you if you don't know your chords is that if you press a key on midi controller keyboard and then count 3 up (that's any key so black or white) and then 4 up so 1, 3, 4 (3 keys) and that's a minor. If the first note is C then it's a Cm (C minor). If you do 1, 4, 3 it's a major. Then I play guitar so I know what chord progressions work. C, G, Am, F that's used in Let It Be and No Woman, No Cry plus probably tons of others. Then there's just C, F (meaning major chords) can just repeat etc. I can come up with many progressions by ear just from 20yrs of playing the guitar.

As for melodies over the top, say a lead melody. I just do those by ear. Sometimes (more often than not) that's ok but I guess someone might chime in here as to things that work depending on the key of the chord progression probably.

Bass lines can be tricky sonetimes too. I generally go by ear but remember the note of the bass usually has to be the same the root note of the chord. So if on bar 2 there was a D (Dmajor or minor) that starts there then you want a D note (and usually with bass you want octave 1, 2 & sometimes 3) starting there. It can be different though sometimes but that's getting more technical for now.
 
Hi all, it would be a big leap to read what are chord progressions and harmony. After 2-3 weeks of reading, you will have the basic info about making melodies. In addition, to make drum grooves/patterns, read about the theory of music note values, which also helps with chords and harmony. Have fun!
 
Hi
Here's A Trick! Try To Flip The Melody of Your Favorite Track.
Sometimes It Gives You A Great Melody and Some Times idea.
For Example: Try Martin Garrix's Rewind & Repeat It, Just Flip Its Melody.
I have Tried It And It Was Almost Good

This is called working in retrograde inversion.

GJ
 
Hi all, it would be a big leap to read what are chord progressions and harmony. After 2-3 weeks of reading, you will have the basic info about making melodies. In addition, to make drum grooves/patterns, read about the theory of music note values, which also helps with chords and harmony. Have fun!

This^^^^.

There really isn't enough background info and/or "question" that you are asking to give too many tips right now, other than "get familiar with basics of theory and song structure." Then you can ask more pointed questions that are easier for someone that wants to help to answer, rather than having to give a complete seminar on music fundamentals, composing, and arranging. It's a big topic. Like "How do I make a car?" Well, out of all of the parts you'll need. "But how do I make those?" "Where do I get them?" "How do I precision engineer specific features?" It's kind of too much to get at in a post or two on FP. However-- If you search posts in the "Theory, Composing & Sound Design" sub-forum with a keen eye to looking for posts by our former theory expert, BandCoach, you will find a wealth of information that can get you started and keep you on-track.

For now, I would follow Battlegun's guidelines posted above...

GJ
 
This^^^^.

There really isn't enough background info and/or "question" that you are asking to give too many tips right now, other than "get familiar with basics of theory and song structure." Then you can ask more pointed questions that are easier for someone that wants to help to answer, rather than having to give a complete seminar on music fundamentals, composing, and arranging. It's a big topic. Like "How do I make a car?" Well, out of all of the parts you'll need. "But how do I make those?" "Where do I get them?" "How do I precision engineer specific features?" It's kind of too much to get at in a post or two on FP. However-- If you search posts in the "Theory, Composing & Sound Design" sub-forum with a keen eye to looking for posts by our former theory expert, BandCoach, you will find a wealth of information that can get you started and keep you on-track.

For now, I would follow Battlegun's guidelines posted above...

GJ

Yes a bit too much information inside there, but as he is 15, he can learn the fundamentals right from the beginning. He will have developed and learned them at expert level after ten years. All I'm saying is , he can exploit the fact that he has the ability to do it rather easier than a someone who starts at 25 or 30 and he will enjoy the fruits of his hard work at the peak of his age.

Peace :angel:
 
Last edited:
practice, read, watch videos, practice, mess around and practice

4 years ago i didnt know a thing about music or music production but due to some serious amount of dedication and determination i learned a lot in a short space of time by doing the things mentioned above and im still learning new things everyday like most of us

Be prepared for days or weeks where you feel like giving up, frustration etc... but i guess that can be said for anything thats challenging
 
You can start a melody basically anywhere with any key you like. Catch the feeling of it and keep placing or changing notes if it's off-key and doesn't sound good. I know the frustration when you just don't know anything and you get stuck every single time. Also, a good way to learn more about how to make notes and chords is watching tutorials online or just reading music theory.

Try to practise doing several projects (melodies only) and playing around with instruments, but you can really just use a piano sound to make it easier for you and then change the sound of it afterwards.

If you know anything about chords and music theory, create some base chords and build of the melody from this and then maybe add a bassline.
 
Last edited:
I think this a great question and disagree it's too broad or that the OP needs to go away and read (he should of course do this but it doesn't mean he can't ask the question).

As with trying learn anything: break it down and identify which element you wish to understand. Therefore, so far so good.

However, now I need to let you down as I'm not great with theory and melody is something I myself have neglected.

But, I would agree with the advice to restrict the boundaries at first. Stay in key (if you don't know what that means then you definitely need to read up to proceed; that isn't a roadblock however, it's just a diversion) and choose your instrument (piano is great). Use short repeated measures (like 2, 4 or 8 bars only etc) to get a feel.

However, when you don't feel like any structured reading or practice and want to experiment here's a trick I've used:

Take your drum pattern and apply it to your lead sound. You might want to remove the kicks and snare and just use the hats / percussion. You will most likely need to adjust the pitch to get it lined up then remove wrong notes etc but this is where you can stumble on some nice dissonant accidents. You will also most likely need to adjust the note lengths.

Shift things around and add and subtract etc until you get something useful and keep refining. Experiment with different sounds.

Once you have something take a look at the notation and try to understand why it worked.

Good luck.
 
Knowing orchestration is very important in writing music. To know which instruments to combine. Every instrument must sound in the same key, you can do modulations for more progressive approach, these stuff are better explained in the field of music harmony.
 
I’m new to music producing, I understand how to work my daw (fl studio).
but when I try to make my melodies it just doesn’t come out the way I want it to, I’m not saying it on a opinion stand point. But I don’t know what I’m doing . Am I using the wrong instruments ? When I make one melody does the other need to start off with the same key, I need help bad. I also need help understanding when to use a lead a pad a saw and just a regular piano sound. And what instruments I can’t make a melody with. I obviously know I can’t make it with drums but yea just please help me, it seems like YouTube videos don’t help me back all I do it just follow what they do and they give clear details, for a beginner like me.
I just answered this in another post...

1. Study & practice scales & modes. Melodies are made from them.
2. Hum. It doesn't take any theory knowledge to hum. Come up with something and play/program it by ear.
3. Split the process up, rhythm vs pitch. Drop some notes in your sequencer only paying attention to the rhythm (maybe stick with the root note). Once that 1-note melody sounds somewhat interesting, start experimenting with the pitches.
4. Steal a melody from a song you like and make adjustments varying the rhythm and/or pitches.

Does FL Studio have that feature that allows you to restrict the sequencer to certain scales/modes or chords. All played notes will be in key leaving the results to your musical taste. Some notes outside the key will sound good in certain context, but leave that for later unless something sounds good.
 
Back
Top