Sunday, January 24, 2010

Write your melody first

A mate of mine Nathan said he got some advice of a songwriter friend of his that you should write the melody for your song first, before you lay down the chords. It's good advice. The reason, I think, is so that your melody is allowed the creative space to develop and become more adventurous without being unconsciously restricted by the confines of a simple chord structure.

This kinda stuck with me because it articulated the problem I could never quite put my finger on, with the songs of many acoustic guitar-wielding singer-songwriters. And mine too I suspect. Often their chord structures are simple (which is fine of course) but then their melodies are also simple; just a sung version of the chords. It just makes for flat; predictable music. I'm not saying following this method necessarily solves the problem, but it might help shakes things up a bit.

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