Write the Melody, then the Chords
Lesson 22 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Write the Melody, then the Chords
Lesson 22 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
22. Write the Melody, then the Chords
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
Write the Melody, then the Chords
Hello. In this lecture, we're going to continue writing a melody. But this time we're going to write the melody first of all, and then add the chords. Previously, we added a chord progression and then wrote the melody. But now we're going to do it the other way around. So we're in the key of G major. We know this from writing out tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone semitone starting on the note of G. So we're gonna write a melody in G, you need to think of the rhythm as well. It can't be too boring. You want something that's quite repetitive but isn't too boring, has a bit going on. So we're gonna put some passing notes in, add a bit of rhythm to try and create something that people could kind of sing along to maybe at home or something that could be quite catchy. But first of all, let's just experiment with some notes that fit in the scale of G. So we could start off with the third. Keep it really simple and then have this day, then go to the sea then um good to the day again. So t...
his is really really boring. This would be an awful melody. So, what we need to do now is kind of mix it up, add a few other stuff in so we could have this and then add, just kind of doing this randomly thinking, I'm just looking over the notes that fit in the key. Then I'm just gonna repeat some of these patterns as well. This time go down date. I'm gonna copy, should we copy the scope uh this but I have it backwards. So I'm gonna start chile with this, then end on this and move a couple of the notes around. So it's a similar kind of pattern but a little bit different. OK, let's say this. I don't like this bit and that works. I like one bar one and bar four D 10 down there might just copy this but then drag it down, oh drag it down. So it has the same kind of shape of this might swap this around a bit. So start on the B so I'm just copying this but having it the other way around then. So a similar kind of shape but different notes I'm gonna add in a passing note here as well. No, Seria. So if this works and so I think bar 12 work, bar three doesn't. So I'm getting somewhere just looking at the shapes, really looking at the notes that fit and record or the fitness scale. So I'm not really thinking about cars just yet. So just get rid of three. Maybe. Just keep this really, really simple. Do, do, do I quite like this bit? So I might copy this over again, copy this shape as well with a passing tone there. Now, I like it all apart from the last part. So it's really just trial and error. I like to think of something that's quite singable. du du du, something like that like this. Du du du. So maybe you just have this repeated 1010, 1010. And then so seems catchy to me but not too predictable. Du du du. OK. I'm gonna use this and now let's just get these notes of the scale can write some chords underneath and later, I'll copy and paste and move them to another instrument. So we know ng major, these are the notes. OK? I'm gonna see to look through these notes and see which chord basically has all these notes or most of these notes by looking at the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of the chord. So with this B, it's quite a strong note. So I think this B needs to be in the chord stuff like this C here, maybe this D could be a passing tone but the B definitely needs to be in it. OK? And then we have the E I think the E is quite a strong though as well. So I need to think what call has the A and the B so could be quite a few, could be AC major seven. So CE GMB that could work. So we have the C and the D could be a passing to lets try that. Put the G up here, the B down there, um, change this to AC cos you have to be in the melody quite a pretty sounding co we could make this a bit darker. We don't necessarily have to have this so we could change this to ad then AJ. So the first one could be a G because we have the J, we have the B and the D, then we have the C and the E I quite like the major. See major seven. I thought that sounded quite good. You could even have if you want to be really jazzy a nine or a second. But really, we'd have to put the nine up top and I think it sounds better like this. So let's just, uh, move these notes across, could have the record here. So this d is quite a strong note as well at this day. Um This F sharp seems like quite strong though. Cos it's repeated, the other ones could be passing tones. So, but really want the D and the F sharp, an obvious one would be D major or we could have an E minus seven. So we have the E, the D and the F sharp if we want to make it 1/9. But really, let's just keep this simple. Let's just have ad major. So we have the D, we have the F sharp and we have the A this will fit. OK, let's hear the first two. This BS quite a strong note. So let's add this b then we have the sharp. Seems like quite a strong though as well. Easy one to go here is uh yeah, just a B minor. So we can copy this D over. Also, we can copy these notes over, let's say. So we have the melody going from here. Don't necessarily need to have that be there as it's pretty much been played at the top. But lets have a listen, but it sounds a bit bare. So I quite like the B in there. But this is what I would normally do if you want a darker sound, you could try different chords. But at the moment, we have a uh of a BG C major seven which is kind of a weird pretty chord, I guess. Then we have the D major. So it's very major, very happy. And then we have the B minor. So it's getting a bit darker. So I feel like we should have another minor here. So start with the F sharp. This F Sharps. It's like a driven one. Then there's d it's quite a driven one. Um Then we could have a, another note to try. Uh So it sounds like with A in there as well. This is ad major. Again, we could make it minor. We could try, maybe a E minus sus two could try that. So it's basically E and F sharp might sound a little too stra strange with too much tension, but it might work very tense. Or we could go back to the De Majo want it a bit kind of, uh more released. It's a different kind of feel. We don't necessarily have to stick to these codes. For example, we have an Eab and F shop so we could use this kind of weird code from before. Let's try that. Let's try this a minor. Then we have the F sharps. It's kind of a suss cord could even change the cord there. So we could have this kind of suss feel here and then move to a B minor. Add another quarter here. It doesn't have to stay the same. Could add this E minor. Sus two. So basically Ein of F sharp in again at the end, add a bit of tension. So we have tension and release. So let's add this E and then we have the F sharp, then I have a baby, but let's put this in the base. Last one sounds a little strange. Let's try moving it down to A B minor. So there's a few different options we can do and now let's just stick with these. So one thing we can do it is just copy this over in Ableton Live. Ok. So we have this one, lets just color this differently. So this can be the melody. Just rename this as well. It's great to rename stuff. I know this isn't an Ableton Live tutorial, but it's still useful to uh rename stuff, whatever digital audio workstation you're in because getting confused and deleting the wrong stuff can be pretty bad. So this one is, you can see the chords. So let's delete this melody. Basically. Just the top notes on Monday, we have the cords down here. So these are the cords and vice versa for the melody. So we just uh late the cords, you can have it all on the piano sound if you want, but makes stuff a bit easier when you're mixing to have on different instruments, it turn the cores down, turn the melody up and that's uh let's hear this, make sure the loop's set. OK. And let's say this spent up and active, we can add them on to different instruments. I think this works as a electronic song. I think it sounds a bit boring just on the piano sound. But when you add some different synth sounds, pads, riffs, plucks can sound a bit more interesting. I think this is girls melody. It's not too predictable. Still got a bit going on but still catchy. I personally remember this. Same with the chords. They're all in key. There's a few kind of interesting ones like this E with the F sharp. Then we've also got the C major seven starts at the top of the A melody. It's playing ad or B sorry. So it's major seventh. And then we go to the uh this is so two. So it's E of an F sharp. So we've got some major seven chords, suspended second chords, tension release. Another way you can write a song or write a melody writing in the melody, write, stick with the notes and key to start with you can of course experiment with notes that don't fit in key modulation. Look at the circle of fist for that. That's kind of a more advanced version of this. But to start with just write a melody in the key and then go through and work out what chores can fit with this. So this is another way of writing a melody and then you write the core progression to the melody. So thank you for watching this lecture. I hope you found it useful and I'll see you soon.
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