Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.
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Old 10-30-2012, 03:20 AM   #1
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Icon5 Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

I have been having the hardest time writing multiple melodies to line up with one another and create a sense of movement and tension.

this guy is a very good example of what I am talking about. especially at 1:15 and 1:49 and 3:17 those parts just bleed emotion and give the song meaning IMO.



also this song has a very catchy riff and he is able to get the two parts to harmonize really really well at 1:21 how do you get the parts to flow so well with one another?


and one of my favorite Post-Rock groups ever is "If These Trees Could Talk" I just have no idea how they are able to fit all of these individual guitar parts together as if it was one solid unit.



I know how to make a good chord progression, it's just writing of the individual melodies and making them talk back and forth with one another and when need be, play all together at the same time.

how do you make multiple melodies without making it sound like they are clashing?! and fighting to be heard, like you ear is able to pick out how each little note plays it's part in the song and it doesn't sound like a repeat of what you just heard. It sounds fresh and new, like you are starting a new sentence.

In a recent remix I did, I have the problem of only letting one melody play at a time and if I overlap two parts together it sounds too dissonant and wrong... I want them to work together, not fight and clash...

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Old 10-30-2012, 03:30 AM   #2
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Re: Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

honestly... practice.

make a chord pro. make a bassline that goes with it, use it as a guide to make a melody, then add a part on top, then add more notes... practice and practice and practice. reading aobut theory helps too, but practice is key. study counterpoint and how scales and modes work.

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Old 10-30-2012, 11:25 PM   #3
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Re: Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

There is a whole section of theory that deals with this called counterpoint, which was mentioned above. TBH if you really want to get good at this then you should download a textbook because there is no way a poster on a forum would be able to explain it better. I suggest Kent Kennans Counterpoint 4th edition; helped me loads and lots of great examples!

My advice: 3rds and 6ths always sound good and stay away from consecutive 5ths and octaves when you're just starting out. Practice, study, and practice on top of that!
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Old 11-03-2012, 05:12 PM   #4
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Re: Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

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Originally Posted by Slump View Post
There is a whole section of theory that deals with this called counterpoint, which was mentioned above. TBH if you really want to get good at this then you should download a textbook because there is no way a poster on a forum would be able to explain it better. I suggest Kent Kennans Counterpoint 4th edition; helped me loads and lots of great examples!

My advice: 3rds and 6ths always sound good and stay away from consecutive 5ths and octaves when you're just starting out. Practice, study, and practice on top of that!
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Old 11-03-2012, 05:59 PM   #5
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Re: Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

Definitely consider learning some chord oriented instrument (i.e. guitar or piano) and grab a beginners book or two. You'll start to learn progressions and you'll definitely come across things you've heard before that you liked but couldn't explain and after working with stuff like that for a while you'll have a sort of intuitive understanding of what creates the actual tension and release between notes of a chord and the movement of the chords themselves. As far as book's I'd recommend:

Study of Counterpoint: From Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus Ad Parnassum: Johann Joseph Fux, Alfred Mann: 9780393002775: Amazon.com: Books [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click here to register]

and any sort of beginner guitar of keys books of any style (I'm currently working through learning Gospel Piano, Hal Leonard has a reputation for making quality beginners books for this stuff. Check it out!
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Old 11-09-2012, 04:59 AM   #6
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Re: Making multiple melodies line up with harmony.

This post assumes you know basic music theory (i.e. scales, chord inversions, and the like). If you don't, do a little bit of research and you'll pick it up pretty quickly; it isn't complicated (IIRC there's a music theory guide on idmf someplace). If you don't know music theory, your ability to compose music period will be seriously stunted. Just do yourself a favor and spend a few hours learning this.

Okay, so make yourself a melody. The melody should be in a 2:4, 3:4, or 4:4 time signature; at least if you want to make it easy on yourself. Also, have the melody be in a specific key. Now, at semi-regular intervals (once every 1/4th note or 1/2th note, mostly), 'map' a chord onto your interval. Basically, make a chord every 1/4th note or whatever so that you can play both the melody and the chord sequence at the same time, and the piece will sound good. This isn't as hard or arbitrary as it sounds: if you have one of the chord's notes be the same as the 'important' notes in the melody-segment it corresponds to, then you can build a chord around that. For example, if I used C as one of my notes, there are several chord options I might try: any of the C major or C minor inversions; any of the Diminished 7ths in the keys of C#, E, G, A# (to find the diminished 7ths of a key, find the note a semitone below it as the 'base note', and then every 3d semitone above that base note: for example, the root diminished 7th chord in the key of C# contains the notes C, Eb, Gb, A.); the major 7th chords in the keys of C#, F, G, Bb. Obviously you needn't restrict yourself to only these, but they provide a great starting point. The chord sequence also should contain some tension/release and variety. For example, following a C major chord with a major 7th in the key of E, then an F minor... standard major/minor chords make good releases, while grungier ones like diminished 7ths add lots of tension.

Now that you've got a chord sequence, you map a melody onto that the same way you mapped a chord sequence onto a melody. Just make key points in the melody match up with one of it's corresponding chord's notes. Hey presto, you've got counterpoint, plus a chord sequence you could use for pads or the like. It all requires practice, obviously, but it's also not rocket science.

You should also look into phrasing and call-response. Basically, if you follow one little phrase/lick with another that answers it, you've got a great melody/chord sequence right there. For example, in the second track you posted, the phrase at 0.39 'answers' the phrase at 0.36. You'll find call-response in most good music; they're especially noticeable in Hardstyle melodies.

There's obviously lots more, but I'm out of time for now. If you've got any questions, just ask.

I hope this helped!

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