This was precisely how I 1st began composing vocal melodies! Nowadays, I mostly do it on a piano or my keyboard. Basically I’ll use bass notes & scales, which usually reveals the chords too. Occasionally though, I still find the notes & potential melodies within my chosen guitar chords. Sometimes I’ll have a melody in my head first, then build around it.
A bit of an extra note: with this approach, you'll only get chord tones. So if you find your melody but feel it's too simple, feel free to spice it up by experimenting with replacing and adding more notes to what you originally extracted from your chords. Have fun and happy creating!
Thanks! I have loads of ideas but lately work is kicking my ass and lots of personal life plans. Hopefully something this weekend. If you have anything in mind you'd like to hear about, feel free to leave suggestions!
Dude thank you. Been playing guitar for 10 years, writing for 4. I struggle with writers block and brute forcing the voice, or even finding the Melody that isn’t exactly following the voice of the guitar. This had some really good tips. Definitely earned my like.
Good stuff! The crucial ingredient for melodies that a lot of beginners don't realize though is to include repetition of groups of notes as well, and I did a vid on that I'd love to hear your thoughts on!
So using the notes in the chord to pick out the melody is what you're talking about? I've gotten that to work for a couple of songs lately so that I could make a bridge between verses in a song.
Could you please explain to me why regardless of the chord progression I'm using, my melody lines sound identical or very similar? Is it because my songs have the same melodic structure, where the highs and lows of the melody are basically in the same places? Is it just "my style" or is it the fact that I'm mediocre at best and incredibly lazy? I'm getting to the point where I'm considering giving up writing songs altogether because everything sounds identical to me. PLEASE HELP ME!