How do you come up with melodies?

[Howlgram]

i am just wondering (besides it's not easy for me ^^U) how you guys come up with melodies, and how you get to put them down into the song

You dont have to read what's next to reply =P
so even though i have done nearly nothing, sometimes i play around the keyboard (pc keyboard cuz i got no midi, ha) and sometimes a couple of chords sound good, though i dont know how to keep it going =P
or something else is just i can sort of hum some rhymes and sometimes they sound nice, but it is pretty difficult to put that into a song, i either forget it or just the fact that i lack a lot of practice to find the notes that i want.
^ Those are the terrible newbie ways i can think about (don't blame me), so don't really listen to that.

P.D. Im a newbie here and at ableton

[X-Trav]

I do it just like you do. I press at they keys and fine something I like, usually its just three to nine notes that I stick to and then flesh them out using intervals and chords. I find a main theme and build around it, I see it as how one sets the foundation before building the structure.

Another way you can practice is to directly copy a melody you know and fool around with it, change the key or flip it over, learn what happens when you do _____.

It also REALLY helps to know music theory so read up on that if you have the time.

[Versilaryan]

I almost always start with a chord progression. Then, I just loop it over and over again while humming things to myself and eventually, I'll find something worth keeping. If I come up with something I like, I'll just repeat it until I can write it down without forgetting it. If that's a problem, it helps to just record yourself singing (with the chord playing or while tapping your desk or something to help figure out rhythms).

And like X-Trav said, music theory helps a TON. Just knowing basic theory, like how chords are strung together, will help a ton with making chord progressions that make sense, and ear training (being able to translate from what you hear to notes on a page, and vice versa) will help you so much with composing that I'm not even going to start.

[[voodoopony]]

Normally I improvise [record myself slamming my head against the keyboard] until I come up with something cool and work with that. Only recently did I start looking into music theory cheat sheets and began producing around that [which makes it easier to pull songs out my ass].

Nothing quite beats accidentally coming across something kickass when improvising though.

[bartekko]

Nothing quite beats accidentally coming across something kickass when improvising though.

This a milion times

[Interrobang Pie]

I don't know.

Occasionally I'll come up with a melody at school or when I'm not sitting down. And when I come to sit down ready to compose, nothing happens.

So sometimes I'll come up with a short bit of the melody and then I'll repeat the progression and agopadfhasdohsahio inside the new progression to get it. Most of the time I jump up an octave.

[Makkon]

It's a lot of experimentation, and learning the chords that I like that go together.

Actually for me, it's pure experimentation. You get better at it as you make more and more melodies. I don't know jack squat about music theory, everything I do is by ear and comes from observation, analyzation, and implementation. It's the exact same approach I take to visual art.

I almost always build the chord progression off of the melody first, then I fix the chord progression to be more solid and modify the melody to fit afterwards.

But sometimes I just try something completely different and go in a interesting direction. Sometimes, when you try something bold and new, the melody comes, and the magic happens.

[General Mumble]

I almost always start with a chord progression. Then, I just loop it over and over again while humming things to myself and eventually, I'll find something worth keeping.

I think I might try this method, since I always just doodle a riff and then slap the chords that sound best afterwards. I might actually learn a thing or two about progressions that way.

Also... If I think of a nice tune while I'm not sat at my DAW, I have a shortcut on my phone's home screen to a sound recorder. I'll get my phone out and hum or whistle into the mic and it's saved forever.

I recommend that anyone with a phone that has (or can have) a sound recorder at least considers this. Also useful for field recordings that I've used in a few songs. If I'm at the beach or whatever and people are making noise and you can hear waves it's the sort of thing I want to capture, but that's nothing to do with melodies. Still a valid point I guess.

Yeah, get a sound recorder you can carry with you at all times.

When I AM sat at my computer, I'll normally just slap a few notes down, put them on a loop, and move them around while it loops until it sounds nice. OR I'll set the DAW to record my MIDI keyboard input and just jam (or more accurately, as [voodoopony] said, "record myself slamming my head against the keyboard"). Then, if and when I accidentally make something awesome, i'll pick it out of that recording and refine it.

I think that's pretty much everything. Hope I helped, or at least made an interesting read.

[General Mumble]

Oh, also... This is debatable, sometimes, I just really feel like cooking up a nice beat. After I've done that I'll sometimes jam a melody to the beat. Though sometimes it's best to make a melody then make a beat to compliment it afterwards.

I dunno, it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg matter that muddies the issue. Just try both of these and see what happens.

ALSO, DON'T STOP MUSICING, EVER.

[Aussie]

Also... If I think of a nice tune while I'm not sat at my DAW, I have a shortcut on my phone's home screen to a sound recorder. I'll get my phone out and hum or whistle into the mic and it's saved forever.

THIS. I thought I was the only one!

Sometimes though, I just slam my head on the keyboard and it ends up sounding good. This has been the case for my last three Toastbeard entries, I think.

If nothing's coming to you, Howlgram, maybe just try putting notes in random places in the piano roll, move them around, and see what the results are. If they don't sound good, screw around some more. You might come up with something good!

[Stars In Autumn]

For me, it's just making up weird chord progressions and then hammering away on the piano until I think I made something awesome. Then when I put that into MIDI form, I mess around with it more to try and make it more awesome.

[Circuitfry]

I usually try face-slamming, but I have a lot of ditties stuck in my head, too. They're like demons. They want to get out and be songs so bad, but I can't find places for them. The only time I've managed to get a ditty out was in a Silva Hound remix, and although that was fun, it was forced to work. bah.

It's tough, sometimes, to come up with inspiration.

[[voodoopony]]

I don't know jack squat about music theory, everything I do is by ear and comes from observation, analyzation, and implementation. It's the exact same approach I take to visual art.

Wow, that's impressive. That's basically me and me still [I never find myself relying on music theory cheat sheets at all]. It's a similar approach I have with grammars and stuff, I read a lot as a kid and did good on all my english classes without studying. I think it takes some talent to know what sounds and looks right without knowing everything about it than to follow a strict step-by-step formula to achieve what you're looking for, in a way.

[Trixie]

The two main ways I make melodies are...

One, a melody or bassline or rhythm pops into my head...from there, I hit the record shortcut on my phone's homescreen and record it. At the moment I have around 60 in there; I've used like what, two? I get distracted by the melodies that pop into my head when I AM at my writing area xD.

Two, I mess around on the keyboard or piano.

Following either of those paths, then I develop the melody more and more, and see what comes out.
Occasionally I'll come up with some chord progression, but it's the exception.

There are some other ways I use now and then too, but not often.

[Calamus_Dash]

I usually hear a bassline/melody in my head during school, but forget them by the time I get home. I unfortunately don't have relative pitch anymore and I keep forgetting to try and re-learn it so I can write them down before I lose them. Sometimes I'll find a progression that I like on my piano and eventually put it into FL studio, but as of now I haven't actually released any original songs, so, as you can see, I haven't developed any of them yet.

[Tephrax]

Personally I use vocal improvisation then play around with it in FLstudio. I usually take a progressive approach too - Add something more each time and build it up. Ultimately the biggest challenge comes in synergising synths and mastering, something I'm having to learn now xP but playing around will get you quite far.

[Dr_Dissonance]

I suppose I should answer this!

I tend to think more in a soundworld than in a chords + melodies mentality that is the default for most people, so melodies for me tend to be made up on the spot!

Yep, when I need a melody I either look at what harmonies I have and figure out a melody based around them or I take a deep breath and just hum the first thing that comes to mind...that's how I got all the melodies for my recent Maretroid Prime!

But I tend to use the former method a lot more!

Alternatively, once I have one melody, all other melodies in a piece (or other pieces too) are transformations of that melody!

[Trixie]

Oh yeah, I also use the progressive approach Tephrax mentioned very, very often (I'm starting to think too often) as well as transforming the melody.