Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
Lesson 42 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
Lesson 42 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
42. Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
Lessons
Introduction
00:58 2Basic Music Theory Terms
08:07 3Keyboard Layout and Octaves
06:19 4Working out Major Scales
08:58 5Perfect 5ths
06:42 63rds - Part 1
08:05 73rds - Part 2
07:39 8Perfect 4ths
04:36Chords and Inversions - Part 1
10:05 10Chords and Inversions - Part 2
09:13 11Chord Progressions - Part 1
10:22 12Chord Progressions - Part 2
08:26 13Inversions
08:53 147th Chords
09:48 15Chord Extensions
08:09 16Suspended Chords
02:40 17The Circle of 5ths
04:30 18Minor Scales
08:09 19Chords in the Natural Minor scale
09:56 20Harmonic and Melodic Minor
09:30 21Write the Chords, then the Melody
09:03 22Write the Melody, then the Chords
18:01 23Arpeggios
08:00 24Writing Bass Parts
11:35 25Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
14:10 26Song Analysis - Chords, Part 1
10:17 27Song Analysis - Chords, Part 2
05:58 28Song Analysis - Melody
08:55 29Song Analysis - Arrangement
07:30 30Song 2 Analysis - Arrangement
05:04 31Song 2 Analysis - Chords
08:55 32Song 2 Analysis - Melodies
06:34 33Song 3 Analysis - Chords
11:41 34Song 3 Analysis - Melodies and Arrangement
06:55 35Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 1
10:22 36Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
18:47 37Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 3
18:49 38Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 4
08:21 39Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 1
08:16 40Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 2
08:07 41Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
07:27 42Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
09:05 43Modes Intro
04:10 44Ionian
00:43 45Dorian
04:31 46Phrygian
02:09 47Lydian
01:35 48Mixolydian
02:13 49Aeolian
00:39 50Locrian
01:50 51Dorian Mode Example
09:12 52Pentatonic Scales
12:27Lesson Info
Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
Now, what I'm gonna do is take these base notes and stick them on the base. So easy way to do this to actually. So just copy the whole thing, then go on to the base part, then just delete everything apart from the low notes. That's the base pretty easy. Yeah. So that's the base and then do the same for the cords and all you have to do is just delete everything apart from the chords, which is the middle ones. I've got this LFO which is a low frequency oscillator set on an eighth note. So I've got this BBBBB pulsing feel which I think works and then go to the riff and delete them all apart from the high ones. So that's why a way you can see everything in one place. You can quickly see what fits and what doesn't cos writing around the melody is about just seeing what chords fit with the riff as well. OK. And that bass part is a bit boring. So we wanna really add a little bit of rhythm to this. OK. So what we could do is just, uh, we really wanna lock this in with the drums, but I can put ...
something for now, kind of a different kind of feel really just to make it a bit more exciting. Cos its a bit dull at the moment. But the great thing about just writing music really in a digital audio workstation like this. If you make a mistake, what you've got to do command and Z and does it, I remember using cassette recorders when I first got into music production. If you made a mistake record again, I know the Foo Fighters still record on tape because they're adamant to play everything imperfect, which is cool for session players or for, for bands like that. But if you're a solo electronic music producer, yeah. Right now, this is so much easier, right? Let's have a listen to this. Now, we can just quickly add the drum part in. What I've done is I've just dragged over the bass part for the drums just so I can actually just see what's going on really? So I can see the rhythm. So what I can do is just uh zoom in then that's just um it's the same rhythm all the way through. So I'm just gonna copy and paste one of these notes. So it's g I'm just gonna copy and paste this so I can just see the bass rhythm with the drums. So it's easier to lock in what I'm actually playing rather than just kind of thinking, I know what the drums are doing and sometimes I don't. OK. So we've got a kick here. Kit is nice and simple. Turn off the Metro as well before it drives us insane. Really simple for me. So it's typing in some drum parts just on every beat for the kick and on the two and the four for the snare and a clap, clap, just uh add a bit of variation for the clap and then just gonna add a bit of a high hats. And I'm just gonna copy this rhythm over. Get rid of these Gs here and then just copy this over. I'm gonna have a high hat on every 16th I think. I think that'll sound good. Just keep it really, really simple. Just yeah, like that. Not hot at all. This is basically how I've built start of a song from a melody and like I said, if you do make a mistake on a digital audio workstation, all you have to do. Press command and Zed net and does it, which is pretty cool or you can just hold down to drag stuff around this. Hold down. Oops. There we go. Then I'm just going to add on an open high hat at the end. Stir up a bit. OK. And that's it. And just repeat this turn on light boom. That's kind of it really, this is a really, really simple arrangement I've done just from this melody, writing around this melody. Then we can uh do a quick arrangement. So I'm just gonna take away the hats part from the open high hat at the end. I'm also gonna take away the snares and leave. The claps arrangement is important. And then I'm going to leave the cords or the LFO cords going and the ref get rid of the base. And then I'm just gonna bring it back after really, really simple arrangement, then bring it all in here. That's kind of a, yeah, a quick arrangement allows you to think of new ideas. You wouldn't necessarily think of cos you was what I was doing there. I was thinking of the notes in the melody and then I was thinking of what chords could have fit under here. And when there's freedom and space in your melody, you're free to modulate, try new ideas, try new chords that you wouldn't always think of if you're writing around chords or if you're writing around a drum beat. So these different methods, I've shown you just allow you different techniques for writing. So the first one was right around a drum beat. This allows you a lot of the time to create more of a funky grooved rhythm to get more of a grooving. Yeah. Beat. It's more beat driven. If you wanna write a song be written around a beat. The second way was to write around chords. This is great for finding some cool modulation, some interesting chords. And the third way was writing around a melody, which is great. It gives you more freedom and flexibility than just writing round, a strict idea that you've already got. So let's hear this back and this third way, just really quickly, just off the top of my head because I know a lot of producers, especially the newer guys, they get a bit intimidated when they see that blank screen. Where do I start? Where do I begin? So I've given you three techniques here writing around a drum beat, writing around a chord progression and writing around a melody. Obviously, the fundamentals of knowing music theory is super important. But once you've kind of got this drilled in and you're internalizing some of the techniques I've showed you, I recommend going into your digital audio workstation and write and write and write. It's not gonna be perfect straight away. You're gonna make a lot of mistakes, but it's fun. As long as you enjoy it, the mistakes or a learning curve. As long as you learn from your mistakes, it doesn't matter that you make mistakes. So let's just hear this once more. And thank you again for watching this lecture. So it's really simple, but the building blocks are there, you could change the melody, expand the melody, move the melody, you could use the musical typing to change and add a new melody or you could go back to your midi controller and write in new parts and write new chords around this or you could stitch these chords and use the techniques and the chords that I showed you to write new chord progressions or change up this drum beat and lock it all in and combine all three of these songwriting techniques that I showed you. So, thank you again for watching this lecture. Hope you found it useful and I'll see you in the next one.
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Electronic Music Production