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The first time I'm stumped by a melody


Music Meister

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Hello to me fellow producers! So I don't know how many of you will know this genre but my problem today is that I can't hear a melody for my song. The genre for today is Electroswing. Electroswing is a genre that is derived from the olden days Swing music which was an evolved form of Jazz music from the 20's. Today, Electroswing has evolved from you typical live bands (think about the Cantina Band from Star Wars), into an electronic iteration of Swing which now features synth basses, leads, and many many more digital stuff. 

Now that you just finished your history class, it's time to get into my problem. So I never knew what Electroswing was until my brother showed it to me and asked me to make him a song. I accepted the challenge and got to work on it. For about a week I attempted to use the foundation as the Cantina Band but I quickly found that that was going to make it difficult to structure a song around. I tried again and this time with an acapella but I only got to the kick pattern and called it quits because the acapella was wrong. So I spent the better half of about a week and a half studying the genre for real and learning how to make and learning by ear. This was a better approach as I was finally able to get somewhere and I had laid down the basic "puh doo puh doo puh doo" rhythm. From there the song took off and I find myself nearing the end and all I need now is a melody. "This is no problem. I've made plenty of melodies before, what's one more?" My own thoughts lied to me. While the rest of the song was somewhat easier, the melody posed to be the hardest because of how I made the chords. 

What am I asking? Well, I came here to ask for help or advice with my melody problem. I wanted to know if anyone is able to either make a melody for me since I'm not an Electroswing expert or to help me figure out a way to make an Electroswing melody meaning giving me tips or ideas or something that will help me to spark an idea that will fit within my song. And lastly, I've never worked with brass before so I don't know how to make that cool ensemble so if you know how to make that, then please by all means do. 

If you're making the melody, I ask that it would sound good on piano (duh), saxophone, and a synth lead as those are the key elements in Electroswing melodies.

Below is my song demo so you can take a listen. 

Key of D major

BPM 130

P.S. it sounds phasey because I had to lower the bit rate in order to shrink the file size so if anyone has a way to shrink file sizes as well, please let me know.

Electro Swing demo.mp3

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I have a system that helps me compose.  You have to realize 1st that music is a form of story telling.  Even if you are not using lyrics and doing an instrumental, you really are just basically telling a story... or describing an emotion...or a feeling.  The difference between amateurs and pros is the ability to tell a story in their music.

1.  What story/emotion are you trying to tell or portray ?  Mentally outline how that works.  Are you starting small and going big?  What is your arc?

2.  Pick a scale that describes that emotion.   Note that the 1/2 steps in the scale give away the emotional sound of that scale.  Example:  If you want to sound "Happy" right off the bat, you are probably going to use a major scale and jump on the 3rd to the 4th.  You might not want to sound happy right away so stay away from those two notes until you do.

3.  You want to mix up intervals, but realize that small intervals sound intimate and bigger intervals are heroic or more powerful.

So you start with these kind of concepts using math and theory to get started. Then let your ear and imagination take over.  It is a lot like cooking, adding spices to tell your story.   If you can't hear the melody, you just haven't thought of your story.  Start with that.  The rest will follow.

 

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