Crafting Better Melodies

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Del curso dictado por Berklee College of Music

The Art of Music Production

813 calificaciones

Berklee College of Music

The Art of Music Production

813 calificaciones

Curso 1 de 4 en SpecializationMusic Production

Explore the art of record production and how to make recordings that other people will love listening to. This course will teach you how to make emotionally moving recordings on almost any recording equipment, including your phone or laptop. The emphasis is on mastering tangible artistic concepts; the gear you use is up to you. You will learn to develop the most important tool in the recording studio: your ears. You will learn to enhance every aspect of your own productions, both sonically and musically, by employing deeper listening skills. Assignments will include posting your own recordings for peer review, and reviewing your classmates’ work by employing specific tools and strategies. If you use a digital audio workstation to record and mix, that’s great, but as long as you can record into your computer and post an MP3, you can complete the assignments. As you learn about the art of record production in this 4-week course, you will also learn about yourself and who you are as an artist and producer. It is not necessary that you read music or play an instrument to take this course.

De la lección

Strengthening Musical Productions: Tools & Strategies

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to employ several useful techniques for strengthening your songs and instrumental tracks. You’ll acquire skills in prosody, focus, and an intelligent approach to repetition. You’ll also learn to craft better melodies, write better lyrics, and construct a musical form that best suits the emotional contour you are trying to accomplish with your recording. You’ll understand the principles of getting the most out of feedback on your recordings, in order to gather valuable perspective to better convey your intended response. You’ll incorporate notes from your colleagues to further refine your recording and re-post an updated version.

Using Prosody to Make Better Art1:43

Form: The Structure of Your Song7:38

5 Tools for Writing Better Lyrics9:28

Crafting Better Melodies4:40

Arranging - Rule of Threes5:38

Studio Performance2:46

Programmed Tracks5:50

Singers: Virtuoso vs. Vibe3:41

Producing Vocals4:52

Conoce a los instructores

Stephen Webber
Director of Music Production, Technology and Innovation
Berklee

[MUSIC]

Let's talk a little bit about melodies, shall we?

So there is this old saying that motion creates emotion.

So if you notice that your melodies really aren't moving around a little bit.

You might want to do something about that.

And we can kind of talk about some strategies.

So a lot of people, I think, they find the chord progression they like and

they start trying to find some notes to grab onto.

And the problem is, is sometimes you get stuck.

[MUSIC]

So if you notice that your melody is just staying in the same place, and

that maybe it just moves one step away.

That's not much motion right?

So that can be fine and especially if it's a song

where the singer is really heart broken and

you know they're kind of emotionally frozen, that can be fine.

Let's talk about some ways that you can kind of get some motion going on.

And first off, I've got to give a disclaimer.

I'm not a singer, I'm a producer.

I'm going to be singing a little bit just to give you an idea.

So the first thing you might want to do is notice, okay,

this is the note I was on right here, this is the third right here of the chord.

And we're in the key of C.

So we can try some what we call step-wise motion.

So we start here on the third, and we've got the scale that can go up and down.

[MUSIC]

So now, just even going step-wise motion, so just start moving the thing around.

Once you start trying some different things

you can get some different step-wise motion into your song.

Now the next thing to try is to get a little more fancy than that and

actually try some intervals, okay?

So, intervals are basically skipping notes.

You're not going step-wise, but you're skipping some notes.

And the first place to start is maybe with the notes in the chord.

So we've got the chord right here, and we're on the E.

So we've got this note, which is E.

We've got this note, which is G.

We've got C. We've got E, up there.

So you could actually jump around.

You could maybe jump from that E right there to the C.

Which would be a nice little way to start the melody.

[MUSIC]

>> Much better than just hanging out on that first note and

just hanging there over and over again.

The next thing I want you to try is actually to try a note that's

not in the chord, okay?.

And we call these rub notes.

So here is the chord.

[MUSIC] What if you started actually on

[MUSIC]

The note that's right next to that?

And you have a few of them, so each one you can have the next note in the scale.

[MUSIC]

So if we're starting here on the E, which is a third,

[MUSIC] What if we started on the four?

[MUSIC]

This is going to be a little sussy, and especially if, in the prosody of the song,

if maybe your character is a little unstable or

a little unsure of what's going on, not starting right on a tone that's in

the chord could kind of make it a little more mysterious.

[MUSIC]

Hear how it's got a little bit of a rub there?

We're getting a little bit out of the chord there.

And there's going to be notes like this next to every single chord tone.

[MUSIC]

And if you're on the G,

[MUSIC]

Or if you're on the C,

[MUSIC]

So start looking around, don't just grab a note and stick there.

And that brings up the next thing, which is if you are a singer, use your range.

Figure out how high you can sing.

Figure out how low you can sing.

Figure out what your high note and your low note is.

Don't forget your falsetto.

If you're a guy, think about jumping up into your falsetto and

using that part of your range as well.

Because ultimately, all of this is going to make it much more interesting.

So let's talk about where to use range.

You can certainly use range within every melody, but

you could also use range to differentiate between the different sections.

One of the things that makes a chorus pay off

is oftentimes it will be in a different range.

A lot of times the chorus will be set higher.

So the song may start with the verse in a lower range and then when it gets to

the chorus, the singer jumps up into their higher register.

Some examples of this is Sam Smith,

You're Not The Only One, and The Hills by The Weeknd.

The chorus jumps up to another part of the range and it can be very effective and

really feel like it pays off.

Now, you can also throw that on it's head.

Maybe you want the chorus to be lower than the verse.

Mix it up.

Do it with intention, and try and start getting a lot more motion in your songs.

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