Ableton Forum

I am new to music production in ableton and i wanted to ask about melody writing? do you guys use any techniques or methods to help you write them? or is there any plugin that helps alot with the sound of the melody or the writing itself?

I've been thinking about this a bit.

What I have concluded is that what I need to do is to get a bit more familiar with music theory, and to put in practice and time with practicing scales and chord changes. So that my hands know where the harmonies live.

I find that as I have been easing into that, it has been easier to get past my melody making lock. I can put down a simple bassline and improvise over it, and increasingly the melody sings, instead of there just being isolated notes

It helps even with atonal / minimal non-melodious styles I find. I just have more confidence and my hands know where to go and what to do.

I came this close to flaming you when you said you were looking for a plugin

Chris well wrote:I am new to music production in ableton and i wanted to ask about melody writing? do you guys use any techniques or methods to help you write them?

Practice, and practice, and dumb luck

Although things like Numerology (Mac only) are quite inspiring.

Or just use Noatikl, a generative music program

Give Cthulhu a go from Xfer Records - it's cheap and an absolute blast. Really inspiring to help you get a track off the ground.

Listen to as much of as many different types of music as possible so you can absorb the melodic content

Practice improvising melodies with your voice or on an instrument.

Learn the sound of intervals. Learn how they sound harmonically (played at the same time) and melodically (played in sequence) both up and down. Try to pick out intervals in the melodies you listen to.

Learn how the intervals lie on the piano roll in Live so you can take a melody you know or a melody you have improvised and enter it into the piano roll.

Rhythm is important too. If you're using the piano roll make sure you know how the relative note lengths sound in the context of a melody. Understanding how syncopated rhythmic figures line up with the subdivisions of the beat is helpful in making melodies that aren't too square.

Just make shitty music, that way you don't need to worry about writing a melody at all.

Yes. And be careful not to accidentally make good music. Watch out for those consonant intervals and scales with less than 10 tones!!

Yes, if you make good music people will think you are a snob.

Always remember that it's never about the music you make... it's about how many flashing lights and scantily clad women surround you.

stringtapper wrote:Listen to as much of as many different types of music as possible so you can absorb the melodic content

Practice improvising melodies with your voice or on an instrument.

Learn the sound of intervals. Learn how they sound harmonically (played at the same time) and melodically (played in sequence) both up and down. Try to pick out intervals in the melodies you listen to.

Learn how the intervals lie on the piano roll in Live so you can take a melody you know or a melody you have improvised and enter it into the piano roll.

Rhythm is important too. If you're using the piano roll make sure you know how the relative note lengths sound in the context of a melody. Understanding how syncopated rhythmic figures line up with the subdivisions of the beat is helpful in making melodies that aren't too square.

^^ What he said.

One good thing to do is to take a favourite track or three and see if you can duplicate the melodic ideas. You will learn to listen analytically, which is very different from listening experientially. And your knowledge will start growing in leaps and bounds!

whistling is the best method for writing melodies and now with Live 9 you can convert that to midi



yay! for audio to midi

that is so true. It was the first thing that came into my head when I heard about A2M

Assuming you can sing / whistle in tune, though

sowhoso wrote:whistling is the best method for writing melodies and now with Live 9 you can convert that to midi



yay! for audio to midi

Not a bad shout to be honest. I have been using the feature a bit since I got the beta and, more often than not, it has helped me get a part sorted.

Like others have said, practice and learn. And like KrisM says - dumb luck plays a huge part too (for me anyway).

I am NOT recommending this approach but I remember going through a phase a few years back (the barren years...) of using vst's through a step sequencer (I forget which) and basically adopting a some sort of crazy monkey approach of just hitting anything and not paying attention. Strangely managed to get some useful stuff out of it and some melodies! Kind of supports that study that suggested stock brokers & investment "gurus" who took time and thought about buying and selling shares were just as succesful as these monkeys that just chucked shit and poked at switches all day for food

quiet_ou wrote:One good thing to do is to take a favourite track or three and see if you can duplicate the melodic ideas. You will learn to listen analytically, which is very different from listening experientially. And your knowledge will start growing in leaps and bounds!

Yes. Mimicry is a great way to internalize. Listen to a track with a melody you like. Sing or play (or whistle!) the melody along with the track. Then turn the track off and sing the melody back by yourself. You could even use the new Audio to MIDI function to check your accuracy!

infernal.machine wrote:Just make shitty music, that way you don't need to worry about writing a melody at all.

good one

One very cool thing about the built in (ie: quick) nature of melody to MIDI in Live 9 is the ability to quickly sing a melody, and have that converted to MIDI. Now, true, nothing really *replaces* music theory and experience, but I was making a song with my sister (who loves all things music, but doesn't know any theory or instruments really) a while back, and we did just this in the beta.

So there was a melody she had in her head that she wanted to build something off of, so I gave her the mic and let her have at it. Depending on how accurate your singing voice is, yeah, you obviously might have to adjust some of the MIDI notes. But, using a microphone as the way to get a melody from your head into MIDI is an awesome tool. Hell, I've played guitar for 16 years, so there isn't a melody that I can't play on the guitar once I think of it, BUT, having the melody to midi option and building electronic instrument parts QUICKLY off of singing your own melodies into a mic is just a really neat thing.

I used to be (well, and still am in some small ways) a very curmudgeonly instrumentalist, because damn it, I studied music and music theory at the university level, and spent a decade at my instrument and so should everyone! But, that's totally not how I am anymore. Music is about the end product and how that end product affects the listener. So in that vein, building the main parts of a song solely off of singing into a microphone and converting them to 'instrument' sounds is just as legit as anything else.