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Greetings, Fellow Fret Dancers.
It’s an open question whether, when writing a song, one should start with a chord progression/groove then fit a melody to it or the other way around. I’ve seen it mentioned here that melody first is better but to me it’s a question of which way your creative juices flow. Personally, I’ve almost always started with chords/groove and let the melody sprout from that fertile soil. Maybe that stems from my starting on bass; always having to come up with an interesting line to someone else’s chords. Seems more in line with the process of improvising, too – here are the chords, now create a melody.
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Hi Brian,
I concur with you. I almost always start with a chord progression, riff over chords, groove etc. and then mumble a basic melody over the chords. Out of this mumbling gibberish comes a key phrase or chorus line of lyrics. That’s typically how it works for me, but I know the writing process can be varied.
Greg
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I do it both ways. Sometimes I spontaneously hear just a short melody line, maybe a hook, where both the melody and the chords happen simultaneously. But not the whole song, just a short piece of it. But the person we should be asking is Brian, who has produced almost 600 lessons, and each of those is a proper original song.
Sunjamr Steve
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I do it both ways. Sometimes I spontaneously hear just a short melody line, maybe a hook, where both the melody and the chords happen simultaneously. But not the whole song, just a short piece of it. But the person we should be asking is Brian, who has produced almost 600 lessons, and each of those is a proper original song.
👍
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Often, compositions start with small melodic motives that are elaborated and developed into phrases, sections, and finally entire compositions. The harmonisation usually comes next.
That’s how music has evolved over time: it all started with melodies (in fact, it probably started with rhythm!). Harmony is a relatively recent invention in the course of music history.But it is perfectly legal (!) to start from a chord progression and work the other way round. Composers do this all the time.
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I feel like I should try to break out of the chord-first mold. Like anything that is different, it would feel strange and uncomfortable, but with practice it would become more natural.
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Brian, I think you should do what works best for you. Try not to push yourself too hard. The most important thing is that you enjoy playing and experimenting.
More Blues!
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It’s a yin and yang thing, really.
Given a chord progression, what (nice and compatible) melody can be added above it?
Given a melody, how can it be harmonized?Fundamentally, you are talking about the same thing, and the same set of “theory” skills.
In fact, a nice chord progression (harmony) is the result of a nice voice leading (melody).
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I think that’s exactly right. Whatever works and whenever it works , it’s all good.
Noel Gallagher describes song writing as like fishing. It’s not a bad analogy as there are many ways to go about fishing just as there are with coming up with melodies and chord progressions. They all work.
(Probably no musical equivalent to using explosives though 🤔)
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Brian, I think you should do what works best for you. Try not to push yourself too hard. The most important thing is that you enjoy playing and experimenting.
👍
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