ive got a melody... now what?

[high_school_bassoonist]

this is a question out of interest. 1stly Once any of you have laid down a melody. Do you instantly know what sound you are looking for in a backing? what chords, what progressions?etc... or does it take you considerably more effort than just a cakewalk. and 2ndly, when you have completed a first draft of a piece. how do you know what to do with it next. for example, added is a "draft" of a piece of mine. in my head its got almost every part i can think of written down on it. How do you know what to add, what additional feels would sound nice, and what is applicable to it ? ( ive only been composing for about a year... and only doing music for 3 :S) so sorry if these are silly questions. thankyou for your continuing support. M.P. Bassoonman

[ttw]

Most melodies can be harmonized in more than one way. Sometimes it's fun to try several harmonizations (and maybe change the melody a bit) to see what works. The nice thing about computers is that one can experiment quickly.

[reith]

It's a difficult one. I usually think of a melody in a setting first time round, try to work out what the harmony/scoring is. If, when I try it out, some new great sound comes up by accident or if it doesn't work like I expected, I might use that.

Then the problems start because I use motifs a lot and never repeat anything exactly. Something has to change and it's usually the harmony/scoring so I have to think about what's possible. I might get to a keyboard with pencil and paper; a mix of imagination and working out "traditional" progressions. Though I tend to use weird harmonies I start with basic chord names like I - VI(#3)7 - II - V and elaborate later once it works.
So I work something like ttw describes but usually after the first use of a melody/motif.

You just work the way that suits you best. If you come up with melodies first then fine, the next stage is to work out some harmony using traditional methods or intuition if it suits you.

As for what to do next, you'll develop a working method as you go along. Unless a deadline is involved I'll put the work down for maybe a week, a month...depends how much time I have. The very least I do is, once complete, rehearse it in my head until I'm pretty sure it's going to work as I hope. I'm not always right but it's a habit now. I may even scrap it (like, not throw the m/s away, just come to terms that it isn't going to work and maybe I can use bits of it elsewhere). When I pick it up again I try revisions I've been thinking about which, huhhhh, may alter the whole thing...one hopes not often!

anyway, good luck

[stevel]

Originally Posted by high_school_bassoonist

this is a question out of interest. 1stly Once any of you have laid down a melody. Do you instantly know what sound you are looking for in a backing? what chords, what progressions?etc... or does it take you considerably more effort than just a cakewalk. and 2ndly, when you have completed a first draft of a piece. how do you know what to do with it next. for example, added is a "draft" of a piece of mine. in my head its got almost every part i can think of written down on it. How do you know what to add, what additional feels would sound nice, and what is applicable to it ? ( ive only been composing for about a year... and only doing music for 3 :S) so sorry if these are silly questions. thankyou for your continuing support. M.P. Bassoonman

Usually, I tend to conceive of melody and accompaniment (at least in a general sense) together. But if I have a melody, I would try to consider all the things I could do with it - leave it by itself. Double it an an octave. Double it at some other interval. Present it in counterpoint. Present it over long drone notes. Present it over a rhythmic ostinato, and so on and so on.

I think the big mistake beginning composers make is they feel like "I have to harmonize this with I-V-I and have an accompaniment pattern like Alberti Bass or something". This is where experience with real music comes it and just knowing what your options are gives you a bigger toolbox to reach into and pull out the right tool for the job.

Best,
Steve

[kenm]

I usually start with a particular ensemble, so I choose the melodic material to fit some of the instruments. In most pieces, I think more contrapuntally than harmonically; even when I am thinking chords, the next part to consider is the bass.

Whatever the scale of the piece, it needs both repetition and contrast within it.* In a large scale piece, contrast is often achieved with new themes, but there is also a long tradition of deriving new material by transforming the old. The "canonical" transforms of serial music are the retrograde (play the tune backward), the inverse (upside down) and the inverse retrograde. These techniques are actually much older than the New Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern) who codified them. J S Bach and Joseph Haydn both wrote pieces in which one half consists of the other half played backward, and Beethoven, in the slow movement of the Eroica takes the four notes of his second subject ( Eb - D C Bb - -, bars 17 -18) and inverts them to be his fugato subject (F - G Ab Bb - -, bars 114 -115).

* For an example of variation and contrast in a popular tune, I have found nothing better than "Let the people sing", a show song written by Noel Gay (Richard Armitage) c. 1942. I don't know what key it was in, but C requires fewer sharps or flats:

|: g a e f g - - - a g e f g - - - a g e c eb - d - c - - - - - - - :|
B e f# g f# - e - g - e - - - - - d g a b a - d - d - g - - - - -
g a e f g - - - a g e f g - - - a g e c d - c - a - - - - - - -
a g e c a - g - c' - - - -

[Peter Bolton]

Once you have a melody, you should examine it and decide what you think are the important patterns that it contains. Whatever kind of setting you want to use, try to incorporate these patterns in any ways that come to mind. These patterns may be melodic, harmonic or rhythmic. Use inversions, extensions etc or anything that seems to you to be to derived from those patterns. All this will help to give cohesion to your music.

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Peter Bolton

Once you have a melody, you should examine it and decide what you think are the important patterns that it contains.

I find myself doing this a lot. Sometimes, I get a melodic idea from - nowhere - it just pops into my head. So I've got to figure that there's at least some "rightness" about it. It may need to be bent, folded, spindled, or mutiliated, but it seems there's something important about this kernel of an idea.

So I then usually look for things within that melodic idea (even if it's just a motive and not a full melody per se) to exploit. Sometimes, it's a characteristic interval, or sometimes it's just the fact that there's an upward leap.

I do think there's a certain style of composition (or let's call it a compositional technique) where a composer creates an entire work out of one germ. It's not the only way though - obviously you can also work by moprhing things, or constantly introducing new things. Obviously, building everything out of one idea makes for consistency, and constantly introducing new things makes for variety - but I think really you want both. You can lean more towards one side than the other, but some people mistake all consistency, or all variety for "good", when a lot of times it works counter to their goals.

That said, I still find myself most often looking into my ideas to see if they can or will generate even more ideas. I feel - at least in my own sefl-justified way - that the "idea begets the piece" in that regard, and am personally usually happier with the result.

Best,
Steve

[Stenir]

Personally, I'll go back to the melody and hum it in my head. See where that takes me.

If that doesn't get me anywhere, I'll go through and pick about four chords that could have that note (and any passing/neighbor tones), such as below, using Frere Jacques:

Chords: C, Am, Dm7, Fmaj7
C D E C C D E C

Chords: C, Am7, G7, Em
E F G E F G

Chords: C, Am7, Em, F(add2)
G A G F E C G A G F E C

Chords: C, F(add2), Am7, or even a Gsus
C G C C G C

For something like the ending above, I could (and usually do) modulate to F major from C, by taking the ending, and having that chord as a Gsus7 followed by Gm7, then a Csus7 followed by a C7. That would resolve into F.

I think in some ways it depends on what chords you choose. In the above example, I may not always choose the regular chord progression for the piece. It may differ. Or I may take it and change it drastically for a nice effect:

Chords: Cmin, Ab, Fmin7, F7
C D Eb C C D Eb C

Chords: Cmin, Abmaj7, Eb
Eb F G Eb F G

Chords: Cmin, Abmaj7, Fmin
G Ab G F Eb C G Ab G F Eb C

Chords: Cmin, Cmaj, Ab
C G C C G C

If you try it out, you'll see what I mean. The route you take depends on where the music you are creating lets you go.

Great...now I want to do a variations piece on Frere Jacques for band. Probably a low level (Grade 2) band or the such, but I hate that sudden inspiration.