I have been trying to learn to play the piano, and I know quite a bit as far as reading sheet music goes and musical theory. But when it comes to making up piano melodies, I bomb.
I will have a good chord progression going, but no melody to play. So, facepunch, how does one go about writing decent piano melodies?
Ahh yes.. melody writing is a bitch. I don't really use any tricks myself. I'll just play something on my guitar and listen and think and write it down and then I play some more and then I listen to what I wrote and then I hear it sucks ass so I just erase it and start over blablabla etc etc. Alot of trial and error, alot of luck (sometimes you just "get it" outta nowhere), alot of time. It can help to just hum random melodies while playing the chords - maybe you'll find something you like. Another way which can boost your inspiration is to work with different ethnic scales. Also.. try sticking with various mediocre melodies you come up with. Maybe they need time to grow, maybe they will sound fantastic with the proper arrangement. Writing piano pieces you can experiment alot with tempo, volume, sustain and other effects. Use this to your advantage.
I don't know how helpful this is. "Just keep trying" is the golden rule. Sometimes you come up with great stuff. And those rare, but precious moments make it all worthwhile.
I feel like I could write a book on this, so feel free to specify your questions more and I will try help. What exactly do you mean by piano melodies? What kind of music? What chord progressions do you like to use? Do you have any goals?
Pretty much what Rad said above...but I guess I could add to it.
Melody/riff writing is one the most difficult parts of songwriting IMO. Forget counterpoint unless you've had tons of experience with formal music theory. It's hard to give advice on how to come up with good melodies, it just 'happens' if you know what I mean.
But like everything else, you get better at songwriting with practice; I've never met anyone that was all of sudden good at songwriting the first time they touched an instrument. Also this is probably obvious but you should be first and foremost writing music that [B]YOU[/B] enjoy; don't care about what other people think because chances are that if you genuinely enjoy your own creation then lots of others will also enjoy it.
To start out with actual melody writing, (this is hard to give advice on) basically use notes that are in the chord itself as the main, longer-duration notes, and then use passing tones (notes that aren't in the chord) to transition between the chords in your chord progression. Don't be afraid to use dissonant intervals once in awhile either, they make melodies more interesting.
Another thing to try sometime is just play a chord progression and then play some random notes over it (within the same scale of course); sometimes you'll hear something you'll really like. And as Rad said above, even if you think your melodies are mediocre, they can usually be turned into something awesome if you work with your harmonies, etc. enough.
Imagine a great speaker, what makes them interesting when they talk is not just what they are saying but it's also how they say it. In music it's a lot of the same thing, interesting phrasing and use of even simple melodies can make them sound astounding.
For example, in Hey You (and other various songs on The Wall) there is one riff that goes
A B C B -- A B C B
And it's really simple but sounds really good. A good way of getting a good melody is singing it first. After that a lot of it is just embellishing the melody, and creating tension and then playing the melody again to release the tension.
You're welcome. :mad:
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