Is establishing melodies a big part of writing music?

[LeonardScaper]

 

Hey guys.

 

Hey, Ram!!!

 

(waving back)

 

[RifferDave]

Hi, interesting question. Yet you pose others as well. Melody is what draws the listener in, whether its instrumental or lyrical. Its very critical. Two songs, one complicated, one simple; Wayne Shorter from jazz tune Nefertiti, a song that strides the fence of complicated and simple, chaos and structure, melodic and discordant, all weaved and held together by the melody itself. The Beatle tune Yesterday is all melody with a simple background accompaniment of strings. Both rely on the melody. As for "U2 writing the music" is where each member contributed some portion, had some say in its creation. Band democracy.

[RifferDave]

I don't think there's a "wrong" way to write a song. A song is an expression and an extension of yourself. It comes from your heart and your soul. Your brain puts it in perspective. You are a conduit. I've written tons of songs that all started with the chord progression. My partner would write lyrics based on that. Obviously, he's thinking of a meter or rhythm. He hands me the lyrics and then I try to come up with a melody, not knowing anything about what he heard in his mind. I've written lyrics without an instrument handy at the time, and then later try to come up with something. Then there's the tried and true way of sitting and playing, having lyrics, melody and chords happen together. Who knows what's going to happen when the urge strikes?

[Delmont]

Excellent question. Answer: sometimes. And yes, it really, really, really depends on the band.

 

First, there have been and are plenty of folks - Bob Dylan, Gil Scott Heron, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Winter, Leonard Cohen, and many, many rappers - who pretty much just talk (or mumble, whisper, or bellow) in key. Melody just isn't a big issue with them. Their voices just tag along with the chord progression - if there is a chord progression.

 

When a band produces a song, it's often hard to know who did what. Lennon got credit for words, and McCartney got credit for music, but they actually overlapped duties. Robbie Roberson got credit for a lot of the Band's words AND music, but it was actually the whole band who wrote a lot of those songs.

 

Sometimes imaginary or fictitious people get credit. The Dead sometimes attributed group compositions to McGanahan Skjellyfetti, a character they read about in a novel.

 

What about progressions, rhythm, harmonies, riffs, hooks, and melody (not to mention lyrics!)? If you pick apart dozen songs, you'll get a dozen answers. Some artists compose and control every note. Some bands have clear divisions of responsibility. Some songwriters sell their songs to bands to perform. Some bands rearrange what others have written. The Byrds, for instance, made a cottage industry of covering Dylan tunes.

 

A lyricist is, by definition, just that: a person who makes up the words. Elton John has Bernie Taupin. The Dead had Robert Hunter and John Barlow. Cream had Pete Brown. George Gershwin had Ira Gershwin.

 

Different bands have different degrees of collaboration. Three useful (and entertaining) movies to rent are "Muscle Shoals," "Standing In the Shadows of Motown," and "Cadillac Records." You'll learn a lot about different ways hits can be made.

 

When my band plays one of my songs, I let them all do what they want to do. The drummer is a better drummer than I am, the bassist is a better bassist, the piano guy is better at piano, and the other guitar guy is a great guitarist. So why should I tell them how to do their jobs? What fun would that be? And when we do someone else's song, I get to do pretty much whatever I want. They seem to like how I play.

 

But I've been in bands where the leader tells everyone exactly what to do. In some bands, they hand out sheet music. So again, it really does depend on the band.

[Delmont]

I don't think there's a "wrong" way to write a song. A song is an expression and an extension of yourself. It comes from your heart and your soul. Your brain puts it in perspective. You are a conduit. I've written tons of songs that all started with the chord progression. My partner would write lyrics based on that. Obviously, he's thinking of a meter or rhythm. He hands me the lyrics and then I try to come up with a melody, not knowing anything about what he heard in his mind. I've written lyrics without an instrument handy at the time, and then later try to come up with something. Then there's the tried and true way of sitting and playing, having lyrics, melody and chords happen together. Who knows what's going to happen when the urge strikes?

 

That's another way to look at the question: that it's a question about creative process. And the answer still boils down to: it depends. My song-writing uncle Leon Fullerton's songs have started with a story idea, a rhyme, a turn of phrase, a cool chord change, a cool chord progression, or a melody.

 

Some of his best stuff came from things he heard people say. I asked him about it once, and he said: "Keep your ears pinned open. If there were no plagiary, there'd be no music. We're all magpies. Some of us just fly faster than others."

 

Other times, there's an experience. His stuff included a lot of (highly embellished) autobiography. For instance, he got bitten by someone's pet monkey in a train yard once and wrote this (as interpreted by my cousin Ray and me - we recorded it in Ray's basement):

 

http://www.thefullertons.net/uploads/1/3/1/2/13125528/the_monkeys_business.mp3

 

With other writers, it might come down to: "First I write the music, then I write the words" or "First I write the words, then I write the music," or "It just came to me." We're all different.

 

So if you want to make up songs, just get to it. It doesn't matter where you start. It just matters that you start.