How to add compelling lead melodies to your track
Have you been struggling to write compelling lead melodies that flow between sections and fit the key of the track?
Today we’re outlining a simple technique to make the most of your melody writing process, rather than going blind and randomly inputting notes until they sound good. If you have an idea of the picture you’re trying to paint, the process becomes much easier.
Lead melodies are an important component to a winning track.
All throughout musical history, composers have been using melodies as one of the key aspects to creating tension and release. Composers use the relationship between notes in the scale and the root note itself to create varying moods of “consonance” and “dissonance”.
Dissonance can be described as creating an uneasy feeling for the listener by using notes that are not harmonized to the root of the scale. Famous composer, Bach, used this technique in his Fugue in C-Major, the dissonant chords build up to a chaotic climax which is resolved by a beautiful harmony. There are obviously varying factors that make notes more or less dissonant, for electronic music – where you have a lot of elements sounding at the same time, I like to keep it fairly simple and not stray too far into dissonant territory.
In layman’s terms please!
In the early days, composers didn’t have the technology that we have now.
They couldn’t rely on complex arrays of layers to fill in the “space”. This is where being an electronic music producer has the upper hand, although a large portion of producers are forgetting the core elements that make music such a thought-provoking and emotional art-form.
I challenge anyone to listen to the first 5 minutes of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata without being overwhelmed by a series of emotions.
Much like Beethoven tells his story by the placement of notes with his left or right hand, we electronic music producers are telling our story with the placement of sound in the frequency spectrum. And like with any compelling story, their needs to be movement.
Watch my latest video on creating meaningful lead melodies – although the genre is psytrance, the same theory can be applied to other genres too.
Check out Dash’s channel for more.
