Helping me compose

[charlie2]

I would like to know any new ways of composing. If anyone could add anything that would help my composing; let me know. This is the way I do it.

When I write music I start with the melody, which I consider the basis of all music. From this melody I have the outline of my chords, orchestration and everything else. It's just a matter of finding a great melody, which starts everything rolling.
Later I ask myself honesly what the melody reminds me of, and from this I create the lyrics.

Using chords from other keys is also something I do a lot. (modulating to other keys) I use chords (or modulate) from both the relative keys or the parallel keys,( modal mixture). This can go from major to minor, or minor to major.

An example would be a melody in the key of C major. With this melody I could use all the chords in A minor which is the relative minor, or I could use all the chords in C minor which is the parallel minor. Everyone did it; David bowie, The beatles, etc..

I find that breaking down other songs gives me ideas.
A really unique example of modal mixture is light my fire from the doors. It starts with an A minor chord which then goes to an F# minor. The F# minor is the six chord in A major, so it's using the parallel major or modal mixture. Most of the time songs modulate to the parallel minor, not the parallel major so light my fire is unique.

Another unique song is blue sky from Irving Berlin, which modulates to both the relative major and then to parallel minor of that new relative major key. (don't really see this too much) It's a really nice sound, but I haven't been able to duplicate it yet.

I know this stuff gets confusing but I love this theory s... lol

[Len911]

I do the chord progression first, structure it into chorus, verse, etc., and if I like it, and after playing it a hundred times I start singing to find the melody, then after the melody is fleshed out, I write the lyrics much as you do from the mood of the song. Your theory is that the melody is the basis, mine is that the chord structure is the backbone. It doesn't really matter, to me you are starting near the end of the process, and the advantage is that you have more control in the process. Some people start at the lyric, which is the very end process for me! Some even start with a drum and bass groove. It's probably mainly about what is easiest and most productive for the person writing the song, not to mention skill and musical education level. If I used a groove, I would probably end up writing r&b or dance music, and if I had a masters in composition I would probably end up with operatic aurias, if I started with lyrics, as I have tried, it would end up more like poetry,lol!!! Unfortunately, when I sought answers reading the generic songwriting books they only confused me more, because rather than give a formula they only told you there were no rules and you could do things however you desired, much like I just did,lol!!!

[hummingbird]

Instrumentally I compose from groove. Not to say that I might not have a melody to start with sometimes, but... in most cases I start with a) a genre, b) a title, c) a BPM, d) form, e) percussion. I decide how many bars intro, A section, B section, etc. Then I start planning the percussion, and through lines. Once I have the groove set up for each section, then I start adding other elements to accentuate the groove. And then I start to improvise melody over the groove. Once I have the melody in place, I start improvising counterpoint to it. Then I'll add bass lines, etc that support the melody or are harmonic to it.

Here's an example of a news cue created this way. I think it has about 9 percussion tracks, and several synth tracks interplaying with each other to create the vibe:
http://www.vikkiflawith.com/audio/Talk_ ... w_hifi.m3u

[charlie2]

but... in most cases I start with a) a genre, b) a title, c) a BPM, d) form, e) percussion. I decide how many bars intro, A section,

Ya, but what I do is, after getting a good melody, I let the melody lead me and tell me what the genre, title, BPM, and form is. I can't tell it or force it because it never really works out for me like that.

First and foremost is getting a good melody which then leads me to everything else.

[hummingbird]

with a song, I write lyrics first (because that sets the form). with an instrumental, I set the form and write the groove first. I do this because I always getting "R's" with the note that my melodies were too meandering.

[charlie2]

Ya know, thinking about it now; I did do some songs with the chords first, before the melody.

The one I'm thinking about was a great chord progression I got from the John Braheny book.

It was i, io, ii/I, V7/I. In other words Am, A diminished, Bm, and E7.

This is a variation of the famous I, vi, IV, V7 progression, but using a diminished chord and modal mixture because of the use of the ii and V chords from the parallel major.

I also did a few others like this, but usually this is rare for me. As I stated, most of my stuff comes from getting the melody first.

[Kolstad]

I suggest an exercise:

Grab pen and paper. Decide upon a form with a time division (say AB with four bars each in 4/4 time).

Take two dices. First you assign a chord letter to to each of the numbers, and throw the dices once for each bar. Then you have a sequence. Make some quick decisions on major/minor as well as chord extensions, or play for those too.

Then assign a note to each number that's in the key of each of the chords. Throw the dices four times for each bar. Then you have a melody.

I learned this years ago from one of my jazz mentors. It's supposed to show how our minds and ears can settle with any type of sequence, as long as it is repeated.

You can really come up with some fun ones. I think I've read about some fractal programmes that'll do the same for you, but I haven't bothered looking for them..

[willwillp]

I've been playing around with this a lot lately, and or course there really is on right or wrong way to do it. And I've found successful songwriters who do it all different ways. They don't all start with the melody, or with the groove or whatever. I've been trying to improve my grooves lately so I have been starting with a groove. Then I work on coming up with a melody. Then I do the lyrics and then I work on finding chords. Of course I go back and tweak all of the above as I go so that the song works as a whole. I've written songs starting from all different places and I think most successful song-writers do the same as I'm sure a lot of it depends on the needs of the project. And it is probably a good exercise to write a song starting from any of the above places.

[Guest]

I have always written melodies in my head and then gone to the guitar to work out the song. When I have tried to come up with chord patterns and write melodies to them for some reason they don't sound natural.
Sometimes it is frustrating because I want to try to write other ways to see what my songs would sound like. So far though I haven't been successful. I guess that is why I enjoy co-writing.

[mojobone]

I find that the whole process goes much quicker if you spread lots of quicklime both beneath and on top of the corpse, before replacing the dirt.