 Hi everyone, this is Jason here from Nathaniel in this lesson I'm going to introduce you to ten of my melody writing strategies for all of you piano players out there Well pretty much anyone out there whether you're a guitar player a singer or a music producer or an arranger or whatever it may be These are just ten Writing strategies for a melody which I think will help you all grow as a musician as well as of course make your own songs So let's get cracking right away, but we have one thing to do before we start. That's hit that subscribe button hit the bell Follow us on patreon if you'd like you'll have all the notes ready and waiting for you for this lesson and everything We've done in the past now and also in the future. Let's get started So the first strategy while writing a melody is to look at chords But look at a minimum of two chords Don't think that you're going to make a melody or a very catchy melody on One card all the great composers will at least use two cards So figure out what your two cards are and for these two cards of choice You could use a topic of music called cadences We've done a lot of videos explaining cadences in detail for example in this lesson I'm going to talk about maybe the five going to one in this case G maybe a five seven Going to one so the platform for making the melody or growing the melody in my opinion should always be a minimum of two Cords, so this is an authentic or a perfect cadence you go five Going to one so you find that every note has its own place and eventually Finds its resting point, you know you have You also have the So what happens there And then you also have a be going to see What I did right there was a melody if you think about it right so you could just hold these cards and Sing something and Then play the next chord and just see what it does to you You know as a melody writer Right and just go with that vibe Okay minimum two cards Right so that was about building a melody with two chords learn your cadences. There are quite a few of them There will be notes in our PDF and on patreon check that out. Let's move on to the next melody writing strategy So to make a catchy melody, you don't really need to think of a scale You can just think of the chords of the current chord progression You're working on or maybe you just pull two cards out of a hat for example a minor going to E minor now What does this give you as a melody writer or as a melody composer? It gives you three working ingredients or three notes for every chord So at the a minor chord While the rest of your musicians in the band like the piano player the guitar player are busy Just kind of playing all the three notes together and creating a nice pattern. Maybe You could take those three notes and make it melodic in nature One option could be to just sing one note per chord for example What did I sing there I sang Or you could do just Or you could do Or you could do So you don't have to just sing one note of the chord in a long long note kind of way, right? You don't have to do you have a lot more which you can do in the melody department You can take that note to and make it a bit rhythmic in nature for example Do Depending on the words you have printed in front of you, of course if you're using words to write your melody Okay, so you can also sort of use multiple chord tones For that chord as long as you use the notes of the a minor chord, which is a c e a c e And then the next chord you use e g b you should be fine. So let's play with that for a bit And All this is happening with just two chords guys imagine what will happen if we do more chords, right? So let's move on to the next melody writing strategy. I hope you found the chord tone thing Useful and it also seems quite obvious. Doesn't it chords melody also from the cards seems obvious Let's move on so a very important thing about writing a melody is to give your notes different durations You don't want to make one note and the next note and the next note and the next note be of the same note value For example, this may be not such a great melody You know it's just going on and on and on in the same rhythm pattern or the same duration per note So how do we fix that make some note shorter or squeeze some notes make them faster and then Make another note longer and the longer note in my opinion and in most people's opinions is called as a landing note You try to make that longer note Generally at the first beat of the bar or at the strong beat of the bar or landing on a chord tone You know so for example if you take this chord progression a flat going to C minor you could first of all look at starting your melody by going a flat Which is the root of this chord going to C minor C minor C a flat Quite long right each chord So what you could do to make this more interesting is to figure out a way to take or to travel From this chord to the next chord. So for what we call as passing notes and landing notes. So if you take So I landed on And I made that quite long I Landed on the E flat. So let's try and look at a concept where I Land on C minor a C of the C minor then next time I land on the E flat of the C minor and then I land on the G of the C minor and what are my chords again? A flat major going to C minor. So you go Try another permutation Now let's try and go to E flat That's E flat right Land on E flat so whatever I did in the quicker notes were the passing notes So I'm using notes of the scale in which I'm on or trying to build a scale to eventually take my Character towards the next land which in this case is E flat. Let's try going a flat landing to G You find that G is actually under a flat so why do you want to go? So that also sounds quite nice going to the high G, but you could also do the low G See so many melodic possibilities exist when you just have two chords you understand the chord tones and then you set up a Scenario where some of your melody notes function as passing notes while the other note or the other set of notes Which are longer in duration generally and which occur at strong beats and chord tones will be your landing notes, right? Right, you may be a bit shocked by what I just did in a melody composing lesson I did a rhythm and I just did some kind of body percussion groove But if you treat this if you treat the hit points of what I hit right now And if you also acknowledge that some hits happened at a Lower pitch this one for instance and this one a higher pitch this one, right? Now what can this inspire you to do now if you just keep your hand on maybe CD E flat F G basically five notes and I'm just gonna build a melody with pretty much these five notes But if I go that has nothing to do with the rhythm pattern. I just did I did This is what I did so now I want my melody to follow those hit points So you could either Transcribe this notate it if you read sheet music notate what you did very organically or very naturally Or don't bother notating it if you can figure it out on the piano. That's one step saved. I guess so you go So that's one option. Isn't it? I've literally literally trapped my five fingers just to do that and it can sound quite creative as you just heard Which is that was the rhythm This is a great melodic writing strategy when your brain is like completely fried You don't know what to do. You don't know what You don't even know if something is going to actually come out of you For a melody, you know, but just tell yourself make a rhythm pattern see what comes organically and then convert that into a melody for example Quite catchy right at least I think so anyway, let's move on to the next melody writing strategy, right guys So another interesting melody writing strategy, which I have for you is just literally pick four notes any four Let's say I'm picking C D E G. Okay, and I just keep playing them Two three four one two three so on now the first strategy would be to think of these Just as notes and don't really care about the timing of the notes rather care about how much you are going to be Subdividing your brain while you play these notes So if you play them and let's say you're dividing by two you go one and two and three and four and one And two and and four and and now you have other Opportunities or other slots for these notes to be placed into for example, you could place the E which is at the third beat and displace it slightly before what is before two and a half, isn't it? One and two and three and there we have it And three and four and one I think that's a lot more nicer than doing a rather sleepy set of four crotchets or quarter notes rather two and three and four and two And you can even then split it up further divide your beat further into 16th notes and go One and a two and a three and a four and a one And all these options you can subdivide and then move things around right another thing you could do is you could build bigger phrases Out of a simpler phrase for example So I'm just repeating this this starts getting a bit monotonous So a good strategy will be and to Don't start at the one of the next bar rather start a little earlier if you'd like you can go And two and three and four and one and now you've got yourself pretty much a complete melody Normal and four and one and as opposed to Sort of boring right Compared to and you have a gap also there so that gap will kind of inspire your brain to maybe add some kind of an Answer to this statement, you know like in that gap Right, so that's about beat displacement Which will really help you move forward with a melody writing strategy just using four notes Cdeg in this case, let's move on right so in the world of melody writing There is one scale which I guarantee you will never fail Right or will never fail you that is the pentatonic scales actually there are two scales There's the major pentatonic One two three five six Pentatonic means five notes or you have the minor pentatonic One three flat four flat five seven flat octave Now the thing about these two pentatonic scales They work over almost any diatonic chord progression or even other chord progressions Anything with any set of chords So if you have a group of musician friends who are just playing a few chords, you know and it seems Normal or pop-ish enough you can just sing the pentatonic scale Over any chord and it will generally work. So right now I'll demonstrate F minor pentatonic which is F A flat B flat C E flat This kind of works on any chord progression Right that is D flat E flat whatever it may be Same thing goes with the major pentatonic scale You just kind of get carried away and create some very spontaneous music, right? And it's also the scale used for a lot of your guitar solos and keyboard solos Which everyone finds very easy on the year to kind of explore because it's it just works So that's about the pentatonic scale, which is another very very useful melody writing strategy. Let's move on Right, so you may already kind of know this to make a great melody You have singers and they just sing the melody. You may wonder how did they create that? How do they compose that? How do they what did they conceptualize? Well in my opinion at least as a piano player and a person who can kind of hold a note fairly Okay, I actually make most of my tunes either in the shower or just going out You know strolling or walking the dog or just chilling out That's when some of the best melodies you will ever make come into existence, right? So one is your mind kind of Releases itself from the technique of the instrument Especially if you're a producer using a software using or an instrumentalist using a keyboard if you're a singer It's a different story, but here. Let's say, you know your chords, you know all the technical stuff You just don't have that organic X-factor to make a melody. That's exactly what you need to start doing now So let's try and figure out a melody with our voice on C major Something like I Very vocal light and then you try to copy it on the piano if you want to right if but the point here, which I'm trying to make is Making a melody is not the is a very organic process you saw the earlier strategy where I gave you a rhythm and then it became a melody right here you just sing something and and just try and play it back on the piano or try and arrange what you just sung. And the most important thing is to respect the process of making the melody with your voice. Because a lot of people I find are just sort of bathroom singers as we call ourselves sometimes. We just sing, mumble something and just leave it at that. But we all have cell phones and audio recorders which are on these phones as very good quality apps. Why not come up with something and record it? Here at the next day, I'm sure you will like it. So singing a melody is the most organic way to write one. Let's move on. So if you're an instrumentalist like me playing the piano or whatever you play, you find that when we practice our instruments, we learn a lot of these patterns. And these patterns come in exercises, endless exercises. Like for example, something like this. If you just take groups of three, people will practice that going up and down the scale. Maybe down the scale. Now this to me feels like an exercise, but it feels like an exercise only if you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Now here's the trick for you. You simplify this exercise or any tricky piano or guitar, whatever exercise, and that's a melody in my opinion. For example, you do stop there a little bit, you know. Instead of going instead, sounds quite nice to me. Add some chords, right? Or take these four notes. Build a pattern using those four notes. Just confine yourself to those four notes. Don't keep continuing the exercise. That's an exercise. So I'm not here to discourage you from doing the exercise. Please do the exercise, definitely. But whenever you want to kind of relax your fingers, take a break, chill out from the muscular effort of going through the exercise, slow it down, relax a bit, enjoy yourself, and you make a melody through the same exercise. So what I've learned with scales over my experience of playing this art form is you have big scales or what we call as the parent scales or in karnatic music they call them as mela karta ragas, which are seven note scales. Now seven note scales for a western musician are great because you can form chords out of any seven note scale by building triads, by building quartile chords, by building seventh chords and whatnot. However, what about the melody, right? The scale, the bigger raga gives you or the bigger set of seven notes gives you the scale. It also gives you melodies. But what if you just knock off two of those seven notes and create like smaller subset scales, as I call them. Or as we call them, I think in a lot of classical contexts in India, janya ragas. So what you could do is if you take a scale like D, maybe this scale where you do a major third, flat six, flat seven, we call that actually come to think of it as the mixolydian flat six scale. So major scale with a flat six, flat seven, I use this a lot. Now let's say we build a scale or subset or a janya rag scale. Just that don't play the ma or the four. Don't want that. Or maybe don't play the three. I don't know what the official names are for these scales, but they sure sound good even if I play them up and down. Don't want the C. Well, you could, you could bring it in. But what I am trying to tell you is start with a big scale and clear up a couple of notes. And what you have is a very, very catchy sound which may just give you the melody, you know. Another example could be you take the major scale and maybe knock off the three. So that leaves you one, two, four, five. Don't want the six and just keep the seven, right. Creates a very nice pleasing sound, right. If you think about it, this is pretty much rag this, right. So that's just the small scale which just becomes a very, very catchy melody. So I have one final melody writing strategy which you may find a little controversial, right. So this strategy is a little bit, you know, I wouldn't say this is very popular and part of a textbook at least, but it could work and it has worked for me. But I, the whole process revolves around kind of ripping off or stealing other melodies or riffs and songs and just seeing what you can do with that riff or that other melody using the hit points of those notes or using the scales of those notes and see what happens. So for example, if you take maybe, you know this song by Bruno Mars, right. I don't think I can play the whole song for you otherwise this entire lesson is going to be taken down. But yeah, or maybe let's just take a riff. Pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam. That one. And now let's see what we can do. We've taken a very cheesy riff like that or maybe ta-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. And what can we do? You could take any of your favorite songs. It could be a riff. It could be a melody sung by anyone and just see where it goes. You're not really spoiling the melody. You're not, and I think you'll be fine. You'll not be sued by anyone for doing this. Try it out, but be a bit careful. You want to like completely change the melody, right. You don't want to rip off let's say a Coldplay song and then you get a call from them someday. It will actually be quite cool. Come to think of it. Right guys, so these are ten ways or ten melody writing strategies which I hope you can use in your music. I'm sure there are a lot more and in the comments you could also give me your thoughts as to how you generally compose melodies, any challenges you face while writing them and we can probably script out a few more lessons which can help you towards these goals. Some notes are there on Patreon as usual. Lot of my notes are always there. Go ahead there and it'll be great if you can go there and support our channel. If you'd like to learn with our music school virtually we have our courses, our full length four month cycles. Do head over to our website nathanielschool.com which will be in the description. You can fill up a form and one of our team members will reach you and that's about it and let's make the video go big as well if possible give us a like or a thumbs up, you know. Leave us a comment, share the video with your musician friends and thanks a ton for watching. Cheers!