Writing Melodies To Lyrics

Greetings fellow songwriters. In this first lesson, I want to explain the importance of using songwriting templates to get the most out of your time when you’re working on your ideas.

As someone who’s been writing songs for nearly 20 years, I can attest to how much of a time suck it is to constantly be starting a new session completely from scratch because after a number of years, I found myself creating the same type of instrument tracks, using the same plugins, and doing the same type of routing. If you’re at a point where you know what tools work best for you, I highly recommend taking some time to create some templates like this so that you can jump into a brand new song idea ready to go. If you’re brand new to working in the D.A.W, (Digital Audio Workstation) use one of the stock templates that your D.A.W provides.

Whichever you decide, I guarantee you will thank yourself later for doing it. I wish I had started doing this decades ago. It’s one of the most simple but effective ways to maximize your time.

If you're eager to jump in and happen to be a Logic Pro X user, I've included my own personal template (with a few elements included) in the downloads section for you to grab and use.

Alright let’s talk about understanding your song’s parameters. Generally speaking, the melody (the hook that is being sung) is THE most important component in a song’s chorus. Having a hummable and memorable vocal melody is what’s going to pull your listeners in and pay attention to the message you’re trying to convey in the lyrics.

So how do we put together a melody that’s going to get stuck in the listeners head?

First, we need to understand the parameters we’re working with.

Specifically, I’m talking about the musical elements that are going to dictate the overall sound and feel of your song.

There are a number of different ways to look at this but to keep things simple, I’m going to narrow it down to just three parameters.

They are rhythm, tempo, and mood.

Included after this video lesson is a short survey to help you start thinking about what your song's parameters may be.

Don't worry if things change later and be open to the fact that they most likely will. Right now, I want you to start making some quick decisions without overthinking things. Trust your instincts. We're going to build on this in future lessons.

Speaking of, in the next lesson, I’m going to take a look at lyrics that Melanie as provided to help me dictate how this chorus is going to turn out. I’ll see you over there.

In this section, I'm going to be looking over the specifications communicated to me by Melanie to determine what the song's parameters are going to be and start making decisions.

If you need some more time refining the ideas for your song, I've included a downloadable PDF below this section that is a bit more involved will build off of the previous survey in part 1 of lesson 2.

As a reminder, please keep in mind that none of these parameters are set in stone. They're only here to help us make some fast decisions and start making moves.

You can grab that down below.

Let’s take a look at the parameters that Melanie has given me regarding her song.

Melanie’s Parameters

Story:

"I just want it to be empowering.

I wanna show that it’s hard to change as a person, and sometimes it requires so much… even us breaking apart… but if we go through it, and we become who we truly are, we can put ourselves back together and become a better version of ourselves. So I definitely want the chorus to sound empowering. You don’t have to write a pop song. I was inspired by My Chemical Romance, haha. So rough and edgy would be cool, since the song’s main character is breaking out from who people expect them to be. So you can play with that. The verses, lyrically, are the contrast to the chorus. But they show how the character went through the change necessary, the stakes and sacrifices included, so they can get to that better place."

So these are the guidelines I have laid out before me.

Here are the things Melanie said in particular that caught my eye.

• Empowering

• Rough and edgy

• The verses lyrically are the contrast to the chorus

Paying attention to these areas in particular give me important information on how to structure the song including tempo, mood, and tonality.

In the next lesson, I’m going to take all the information I have at hand and decide on a tempo, key signature, and mood of our chorus.

I’ll see you over there.

Hey hey!

In this lesson, I want to take a look at the lyrics for Melanie’s chorus before I start making decisions about key signatures and tempos because I may very well find everything I need just by looking at the way the lyrics are structured. Because I’m working with pre-existing lyrics, I can play around with finding the hooks that live inside the way the lines are structured.

In this lesson, I'm going to be focusing on two things in particular.

1.) Finding the lyric's rhythm

2.) Finding the song's key

CHORUS LYRICS

I burn brighter than the colors on the rainbow

between thunder and dawn

Igniting the sparks

shooting stars through black skies

My light cracks this shell

and I set myself free

this is me.

At this point, I hope you've downloaded and filled out your song parameter checklist but if you haven't done so yet, now's the time. You can find it below.

In the next video, I’m going to take these rough ideas and finally begin to flush out a melody. See you over there!

In this lesson, we’re finally going to begin to construct a melody for our chorus lyrics.

If you’re stuck at this point, here’s a suggestion to get things started.

- Program a scale that corresponds to the key of your song.

Example: Seeing as I decided that Melanie’s song would be in the key of D major, I’m going to spell a D Major scale. From there, I'll take my scale and choose some notes to fit our lyric.

* PLEASE READ IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR SCALES!

I've included a cheatsheet with every major scale in all 12 keys down below to help you program your own scale note for note.

* FREE MIDI FILE!

I've also included a C Major scale MIDI file that you can drag and drop into your D.A.W and change to whichever key you feel best serves your song's idea.

Find the cheatsheet and MIDI file down below in the downloads section.

If you’re still stuck, stay with me. I’m going to show you an alternative approach in the next lesson using chords first.

In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to build a melody by first putting together a chord progression.

If you’ve already come up with a melody that you’re happy with from the previous lesson, or if you’re already experienced with putting together chord progressions, feel free to skip ahead.

First, we’re going to lay out all the chords in our key that we’ve decided on.

If you know some music theory, this will come in handy. If not, simply start by selecting up to 4 chords and playing around with the order in which they occur until you hear something you like.

If you’re unsatisfied, select a different combination of up to 4 chords. They don’t have to be 4 entirely different chords by the way. You’d be surprised at the impact of swapping out just one chord can have on a chord progression.

To help get you started

I've included a MIDI file containing all of the chords in the key of C Major in their naturally occurring order.

The chords that naturally occur in the key of C Major are as follows:

1.) C Major 2.) D minor 3.) E minor 4.) F Major 5.) G Major 6.) A minor 7.) B diminished

Upload the MIDI file into your daw, change the key if need be, chop the chords up into sections and start moving things around until you hear something you like.

If you're still stuck, feel free to email me at fastermusiccreation@gmail.com and use the subject line "Understanding Chord Progressions" to book a free 15 minute call with me and I'll straighten it all out for you.

In this lesson, I’m going to show you some additional approaches on how you can make a melody catchy.

That’s a broad question right?

What makes a melody catchy?

The short answer is….Many things but the first thing that comes to mind for me personally is repetition.

Let's explore.

The title says it all. In this video, I demonstrate how I like to write a melody by ear.

If you've got your music all laid out and your lyrics written but you’re unsure of how you want the melody to go, a trick you might want to consider trying out would be what I like to call “bookending” the melody.

For example, let’s take the lyric “I burn brighter than the colors on the rainbow.”

If I don't know what notes I want to use to fill in the entire line, I will start with using a couple of "target notes."

In this instance, I'll choose one note at the first syllable like “I.” And then “bookend” it by adding a note that leaves things feeling tense (in a pleasant way) on the 2nd half of the word “rainbow”

This simple action gets me thinking about how I want to build the melody within these two target notes.

In the next video, I'm going to show you what this process looks like in real time. Stay tuned!

Everything in the course is taught with the goal of hands on learning, but since I can’t be in the room with you, I am offering a free 30 minute coaching call as an extra bonus to help ensure you are engaged and comfortable applying the material.

If you're interested, please send an email to fastermusiccreation@gmail.com and be sure to put "WMTL FREE 30 MIN CALL" in the subject line. You will be sent a link to a short questionnaire to book your free call.

Thanks!

-Aaron-