Hey, don't knock simple. John Lennon wrote simple melodies. Sting used to write "cute" but he grew and evolved. So will you.
I like the "Too Simple Melody" - good job. Sounds like a Joe Walsh ballad.
Hey, don't knock simple. John Lennon wrote simple melodies. Sting used to write "cute" but he grew and evolved. So will you.
I like the "Too Simple Melody" - good job. Sounds like a Joe Walsh ballad.
Thanks for the feedback. (Both NMB and Chaim)
I think I need to do some Jackson Browne inspired lengthy hard work on it to get rid of some of the over-simplistic repetition. I'm sure some of the too predictable bits can be made a little less predictable with variation. I think if I play real bass on it rather than bass played from a computer (querty) keyboard, then that might up the sophistication a touch.
I think that the 'strummed acoustic' chords not matching the piano may be a fortunate accident. I'm going to work on simplifying the guitar chords so that there's a more interesting relationship between the two instruments. EDIT: Current version has no guitar, louder strings, drums, and a (very simple thirds) harmony line. I'm going to try to put guitar back in, but it is a mess at the minute.
Last edited by Annoying Twit; 06-27-2016 at 12:26 PM.
I didn't find it predictable - just my tuppence.
For those who may be interested, the University of Leeds offers a free online course on songwriting. I took it last summer, it was very interesting and introduced me to some things I'd never thought of before. Such as writing out your melody lines on a staff to visually judge if you should introduce more variation and range, or if you could "mirror" an arc of melody in reverse. I think it's called a pitch contour or melodic motion.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/songwriting
A bit more on melodic motion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodic_motion
That's why I like using Logic. A click of a button and I see my music drawn as a score. It makes it look like 'real' music, and enables seeing things that aren't so obvious when heard, as NMB points out.
The book I read yesterday really goes into melodic motion. The first half of the book concentrates on producing melodies that can stand alone before it even goes into harmony.
I really need to have more dramatic melodic contour in what I do.
Melody in Songwriting by Jack Perricone. It really does have a lot in it. I'm only about a third of the way through the chapters and I've already learned loads. Putting it into action, that's going to be the tricky bit.
https://online.berklee.edu/store/pro...229&usca%5fp=t
The free chapter from the book doesn't give a good indication of what's in it. The free chapter is an overview, the book gets into melody much deeper than the first chapter suggests.
Oh, I have that book but haven't read it yet Now is the perfect time to start.
I have another Berklee book but it's so technical and intimidating. The irony is that the author's claim to fame was this awful melodramatic bubble-gum song that was briefly popular when I was a child, "Run, Joey, Run". Even as kids, we laughed at that turkey.
Is the other book you have "Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure: Tools and Techniques for Writing Better Lyrics"? I bought the kindle version of it today.
I've noticed that one problem with how to write lyrics books is that the authors tend to write lyrics ... 'politeness' brain-cells spring into action ... not in the style I like best.
The melody book is quite technical. But I like that as it gets into things deeper than (say) Jai Josef's 'How to write music for hit songs'.
No, it's the one on Harmony. https://www.amazon.com/Songwriters-W...SRJY2S6PDWS7P3
Just for fun (and as a signpost of what *not* to do), here is Run Joey Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUVZsu36SW4