Arranging song melodies

[Mikeleric]

Every so often I think of my own song melodies. I sing notes to myself until I make up my mind how a song should be. I get songs into my head in little phrases, not one note at a time, and then often one phrase leads to another similar phrase, and so on. I won't try to analyze my songs too much right now, but I do not know about chord progressions - so far I always start with the melody. But I know very little about music theory and I can only think of a simple melody, that is, one note at a time. I want to teach myself how to arrange what I have thought of, and by arranging I might mean adding chords or bass notes or in general other parts I am not able to think of now because I do not know about music theory.

Background information: when I was a kid I played clarinet in my school's band and I can read music and I can play notes I see on guitar, but I can't look at a note and sing it but I can match my voice to any music I hear and sing ok even though nobody ever taught me to sing, and I have a book of blank music staves I bought and I have already started writing, but sometimes I will start writing a song, not finish it, come back later and realize that now the way I am thinking of the song is different than what I originally thought of. I am not able to explain why I am able to think of song melodies.

Mainly can somebody say what book I can buy or who else does what I do?

[rick-slo]

When you have a melody in your head, don't you have some basic chord to go with it (I don't mean the name in particular, but the sound of it). Start with basic chords if helpful before getting fancy. If you have to, pick out the harmony and bass notes one by one. Pretty soon you will have something. Play it over and over so it sticks in your memory, or write it down. Revisions and revisions of revisions is allowed.

[Doug Young]

That's a big topic, but you have a great head start if you actually hear a melody that you want to arrange. Most songs can be harmonized with 3 chords, the I, IV, and V, or C, F, G in the key of C. Odds are your melody starts or ends on the root chord. So just play around singing or playing the melody and try each of these chords everywhere. You may end up needing others, minor chords, or something more sophisticated, but you can usually get started with those 3 chords.

Another approach is to play the melody, and then just try different bass notes. You can do it brute force, if necessary, play the first few notes over an open E, 6th string. Not right? Try F, then F#, G.... one of the 12 possible notes is going to sound right. Once you have a melody and a bass line, you're probably 95% there, you should be able to figure out chords from there (probably the same as the bass note in each spot). The rest comes from repeated experimenting. Knowing some music theory can make the process faster, but if you're hearing a melody, you'll probably also "hear" the rest - or recognize what you want when you play it.

[Davis Webb]

Use your Iphone or another recording device and sing the melody into it and save it. Then, find the notes on the guitar and play it.

Then, locate the highest note your are going to sing and find a key that accommodates that note without straining your voice. That is your key. Now add a I, IV, V progression. After that, you may want to refine it.

But get that melody down on tape as soon as possible. 5 minutes later, and it can be gone, forever.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Mikeleric

Every so often I think of my own song melodies. I sing notes to myself until I make up my mind how a song should be. I get songs into my head in little phrases, not one note at a time, and then often one phrase leads to another similar phrase, and so on. I won't try to analyze my songs too much right now, but I do not know about chord progressions - so far I always start with the melody. But I know very little about music theory and I can only think of a simple melody, that is, one note at a time. I want to teach myself how to arrange what I have thought of, and by arranging I might mean adding chords or bass notes or in general other parts I am not able to think of now because I do not know about music theory.

Background information: when I was a kid I played clarinet in my school's band and I can read music and I can play notes I see on guitar, but I can't look at a note and sing it but I can match my voice to any music I hear and sing ok even though nobody ever taught me to sing, and I have a book of blank music staves I bought and I have already started writing, but sometimes I will start writing a song, not finish it, come back later and realize that now the way I am thinking of the song is different than what I originally thought of. I am not able to explain why I am able to think of song melodies.

You don't have to explain it, and your way of working is probably the ideal way to compose songs.

Of course, you need some way to preserve your (good) ideas, and then some way to develop and complete them.
For preservation, if you can write your notes down correctly, then that's good, but recording yourself might be more reliable. Recording preserves everything, avoiding that stage of converting it to notation, where sometimes good details might get lost (and sometimes theory can intrude and persuade you something is wrong when it isn't).
IOW, the most important thing about a melody is that it sounds good and is singable. You can worry about the theory later (if at all).

When a melody sounds good, it's generally following a scale of some kind - not just rambling through all 12 tones at random.
As suggested, you should be able to start finding chords by playing along with what you're singing - another good reason for recording, because you can fix the vocal and play it over and over while you search for good chords.

Try to find the notes you're singing first. As I say, these should imply a scale of some kind, which should suggest a key, which in turn will imply a few basic chords to try first. You don't say how much you know about chords, or how long you've been playing guitar. Theory isn't important, but it's useful to know the I-IV-V in any key, as Doug says. Just the main chords in the simpler guitar keys is enough.
Bear in mind that a tune you sing intuitively might be in a difficult key for guitar; so a capo is a useful device to make hard keys easier.
Eg, you might find you're singing in the key of Bb, which is all barre chords on guitar. But put a capo on fret 3, and you can play shapes from G major.

It's really important that you stick with your vocal inspiration, provided you're happy with it. Don't let any limitations in your guitar technique inhibit your vocal melody. Sometimes, if you're not sure of a particular melody note, strumming a chord can help confirm it. But generally the melody should rule - if it's strong enough.

The main notes of the melody - the longest or most accented ones - will usually be chord tones. Don't try to find a different chord for every note, but a chord that will work for a whole phrase if possible; not every note needs to be in the chord, just the main ones, and mainly the chord just needs to sound right with the tune.
Quite often you'll fnd you can strum one chord for several bars without needing to change. Other times the melody might demand a new chord every 2 beats.

BTW, don't forget to study lots of songs by singers or bands you like. Look at the chord sequences, and how they fit the tunes. Make a special note of (a) common changes, (b) specially unusual or good-sounding ones, and (c) good sounding use of particular notes against chords.

Eg, very simple songs are often appealing because of the way the melody is harmonised in unusual ways. When I was first learning songwriting, I noticed how Bob Dylan liked to harmonise melody notes as the 5th of a chord quite often, which had a distinctive sound, more interesting than the root and different from the 3rd. Eg, Mr Tambourine Man only has 3 chords, but the melody (one of his greatest) is mostly based on the 5th of each chord, eg, a D note on a G chord, then an A note on a D chord, etc.

You don't have to know any theory to do this. Just experiment with chords, singing different notes on each chord, listening to how they sound. IOW, before you write a song (or try adding chords to an existing song), just get a feel of how individual notes sound on different chords. Strum a simple sequence, and hum a line through them, making sure you know which note(s) in each chord you're singing. Then strum the same sequence, and try and hum a different line, higher or lower.
You're learning the vocabulary of a language. And that comes from a mix of your own experimentation and copying others.

You can steal any chord changes you like! It's melody and lyrics that are copyright. The law may not be quite that simple, but it's a good principle to follow.

[Mikeleric]

"Odds are your melody starts or ends on the root chord" How do I know this? I am not aware that a melody can start with a chord. I can only sing or think one note at a time. And one little melody I thought of ends on a note which is the 4th note of a scale if the first note of the song is the first note of the scale.

"Another approach is to play the melody, and then just try different bass notes. You can do it brute force, if necessary..." I believe that describes what I already started to do.

[Crostonc21]

Your In the Band is a real basic music theory book I know of that gives you the basics, and music theory is a real important thing to have when you just play with music. Makes it easier. Plus if you are into fingerstyle guitar, check out candyrat records. In particular, Kelly Valleau. He has simple arrangements of songs that give you the general idea of putting bass notes, melodies, and the middle. Check him out, trust me it will help.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Mikeleric

"Odds are your melody starts or ends on the root chord" How do I know this? I am not aware that a melody can start with a chord. .

I mean that the harmony for your melody probably starts or ends on the root chord of the key of the tune. No, a melody is not a chord, but the harmony for that melody is. Sorry, some loose wording on my part.

There are always exceptions, but most "normal" songs (whatever that means) end on the I chord of the key they are in. So if the song is in C, it likely ends on C, to create a sense of rest or ending. Of course some songs don't do this, just to create a different effect. It's your melody, so only you know how you want it to sound. If you just have some melody that you're singing or playing, and you don't know the notes, and you don't know any theory to know what key it's in, you're pretty much left doing it by trial and error and ear to find what you think sounds good.

It's really hard to get very specific without knowing what the melody is - you may have something that breaks all the rules, who knows. We don't know what you hear. If you can post it, written out, or recorded, you'd likely get some more focused answers, of how various people would add harmony. But there are always many, many ways to harmonize any melody, so there's no single right answer here. Harmonizing your melody is part of the creative process.

You might check out Muriel Anderson's book "Building Arrangements from the Ground Up", where she walks thru the harminizing and arranging process for a simple melody.

[Doug Young]

Here's a little exercise I created years ago that demos taking a melody and creating an arrangement for it. The melody is a fiddle tune, but the process could be the same with any melody. It's also using DADGAD tuning, but again, that doesn't really matter for the process:

http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/apm/woodland_dream.pdf

How did I find the chords, then bass notes and then the fills? Basically by ear, trial and error, and what sounded good to me. It also helps to know enough theory that I can recognize the key, know what chords are in the key, and so on.

Hope that helps.

[Mikeleric]

At least so far I don't think of lyrics. I always imagine which instruments are playing the song. For example I have imagined songs played by an orchestra or band, or saxophone accompanied by light drumming and chords played by various instruments.

For one song I thought of that I actually began to write down on blank music staves, By accident or coincidence I figured out that some parts of the melody can be played by putting my hand in the position of a b minor chord and just plucking with my right fingers.I have only been trying to learn to play guitar since December 2011 but I had a mishap where I lost my right thumbnail and didn't play for 4 months, until I found out thumb picks exist. I can't seem to play the way I think I want using a normal pick.

[fulfillingsoul]

I recommend "Reharmonisation Techniques" by Randy Felts.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Mikeleric

"Odds are your melody starts or ends on the root chord"
How do I know this? I am not aware that a melody can start with a chord. I can only sing or think one note at a time. And one little melody I thought of ends on a note which is the 4th note of a scale if the first note of the song is the first note of the scale.

Doug meant the "tonic" chord (I in the key), and it's quite true that a song usually starts on that chord, and almost always ends on it - right at the very end of the song, that is. Likewise, the final note of a melody will probably be the tonic note - it won't sound quite finished if it isn't - but the first note of a tune can be any note; although a chord tone is likely.

Eg, if your song is in the key of G major, the final note and chord is almost certainly G. (That's almost what defines it as being "in G" in the first place; G is "home", so it's naturally where you come back to.)
The first chord will probably be G - especially if it's a rock song - but doesn't have to be.
If the chord is G, the first significant melody note (held, or on a strong beat) will probably a chord tone of G, so either G, B or D. But songs can often begin with pickup notes or phrases, leading into the first chord, which don't have to be in that chord.

Just plucking some old pop tunes out of the air...

Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man":
Key: D (capo'd in the original);
First chord: G
First melody note: D (5th of chord)
Last chord and note: D

Beatles "Hey Jude"
Key: F
First chord: F
First melody note: C ("Hey"), leading into A ("Jude") on the first downbeat - ie two chord tones of F.
Last chord: F, but fades out
Last melody note (of looping melodic phrase on fade out): C

Neil Young "Heart of Gold"
Key: G
First chord: Em
First melody note: G
Last chord: G
Last melody note: G

Beatles: "Yesterday"
Key: F
First chord: F
First main melody note: F, but preceded with a non-chord tone ("Yes-ter-day" is the notes G-F-F.)
Last chord: F
Last melody note: A

Led Zeppelin: "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
Key: A minor
First chord: Am
First main melody note: C, but bent up from B ("Babe...").
Last chord: Am
Last melody note: a long held A falls to E as final note.

Originally Posted by Mikeleric

"Another approach is to play the melody, and then just try different bass notes. You can do it brute force, if necessary..." I believe that describes what I already started to do.

And there's nothing wrong with that.
Knowing lots of theory doesn't usually help, it can just tie you up in knots, and gives you too many options to think about.

What helps is having a good background playing lots of other people's songs, which trains your ear to hear all the formulas in action (the common and the uncommon), rather than on the page.
All the great songwriters (in pop/rock at least) started by doing that: covering countless songs by their heroes. For many of them - at least in the old days - it was probably a while before it occurred to them they could write their own.
Ie, they started off just wanting to play rock'n'roll (or folk or blues or country, or whatever); it wasn't till they'd been doing that for a while that they started to realise it wasn't hard to write songs, and they could do it too; they'd got all the formulas under their belt by then. (That certainly applies to the 60s acts like the Beatles, Dylan, the Stones, etc.)

If you don't have that background, then it can seem like you're working in the dark trying to write your own songs. What chord can I put here? When does the chorus need to come in? Do I need a bridge? (what IS a bridge?) Can I - should I - change key? How do I KNOW what sounds good?? Etc.
Some theory can help shine a light in the dark, but it can also illuminate a lot of irrelevant stuff, if you don't know where to point it .

You'll find that books on songwriting always give you lots of examples of the various principles, from well-known songs (or they should); so you may as well just study the songs in the first place. The secrets and tricks are all there. You've heard them all before. Your ear knows it all already.

A songwriter buying a theory book is like an English speaker buying a book on English grammar to help them speak, or to understand what other people are saying.
Of course, if the analogy is with a poet, that might not be such a crazy thing. You might want to write a complicated song, a mini-opera, with lots of impressive modulations and artistic control of form. Theory will help you with formulas there - as long as you have some idea of what you want in the first place.
But nobody in pop/rock writes that way. They mess around until something sounds good, or fits what they've already got.

Ask yourself, what kind of song do you want to write? What genre does it fit, or is it closest to? What other singers do songs like that? Who can you imagine singing your song (other than you)? IOW, orient yourself in a ballpark - and then study songs of that type.
(Every song is always of some kind of type. A song is never just a song, unconnected with any stylistic context. Any song can be adapted into any other style, of course, but it always begins belonging somewhere, in some generic style.)

[Mikeleric]

Sometimes when I am out jogging or in the shower a melody comes to me, but I often imagine the light swirling sound of string instruments or the sound of a band of wind instruments. I hate to say this but few songs I have thought of may be some kind of classical or jazz influenced style, although I do know some songs I like by the band Metallica. I don't think of lyrics but I have wondered whether I could find poems in a book from the library to use as lyrics, but now I wonder whether that would somehow violate copyright.

Anyway I am aware that when I can't seem to think of melodies by accident, I can force myself to think up a melody by singing notes to myself until I make up my mind what sounds good according to gut instinct, without having actually learned how to compose songs. I did somehow make up a certain kind of song template which sometimes helps. The template is that I think up a little melody, and then I imagine a song containing several "big chunks", each chunk contains four quarters, and each quarter contains two halves. In the first three quarters, each half is the same (I believe songs usually repeat certain parts more than ones). The fourth quarter is rather different than the first three quarters yet somehow just sounds like it goes with the rest of the song according to gut intuition. Then at the end do the fourth quarter, the last note gives this urge (I know there is an explanation for this but I don't really know it) the unresolved gut urge to go to another note (which just happens to be a 4th above the first note of the song) which is different than the note the song started on, and then it sounds right to just repeat the whole thing, what I just called the "first chunk" starting on this last note but this time the song ends up in a different key and then I could choose to sing the second chunk and then a third chunk... And in theory I could do 12 chunks before I get back to the original part on the 13th chunk, but of course 12 times is excessive, so I have have other parts in mind for after the 3rd chunk, then do another chunk similar to the first one but in a yet another key and with some of the notes a little different too, and then end the whole thing before people loose patience or get tired of listening or playing it. Thus at least one song I thought of is like this with about 5 "parts" if that is how you want to think of it.