BLOG 3

Building a Melody & Writing Lyrics

After making a basic chord sequence and structure for my song, I wanted to start getting ideas for a melody down. As stated by Perricone (2000, p.2) ‘The melody is usually the most memorable aspect of a song, the one the listener remembers and is able to perform’. The first melody was achieved by looping the chords and singing anything that came to mind. Below is a starting point of the melody that I have come up with for the first verse that I have notated on the software ‘MuseScore’. This is so that I can remember what I have come up with and use in future when recording into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

After success with the first melody line, I started to struggle with ideas for the next melody, in this case, for the pre-chorus. I wanted to do some research into how songwriters create a melody and the specific techniques that they use. A video that I have found on YouTube by Charlie Puth, describes the process of how he creates successful pop songs such as ‘Attention’. This video has inspired me to try the same techniques that Puth uses, for example such as recording ideas straight to his phone when something comes to mind.

In order to record my ideas as inspired by Puth, I have done this by playing the piano and singing whatever comes to mind (click SoundCloud link to listen).

Similarly to Puth, my song is currently slow, sad and isn’t the style that I am hoping to achieve as an end result. However, as a starting point, this is perfect in the direction that I am hoping to attain and will be altered in the process in terms of tempo, instrumentation, rhythm and more when wanting to achieve the 90s Dance Pop genre sound.

Below is the melody for the Pre-Chorus that I have notated to remember when coming back to create and record.

For the melody of the chorus, I began by singing a melody, however, it did not quite fit the chords as well as I wanted it to. As shown below, I have made slight adjustments to the melody; before showing the melody going up the scale, but now the melody is going down the scale, initially fitting the chords better and producing an emotion. This will be further worked on in creation of the song in Logic Pro X and when recording my vocal in the studio.

Chorus Melody – Before

Chorus Melody – After

Lyrics – Draft 1

When recording my idea, some lyrics came to mind that fitted perfectly with the melody that I was singing, though this will be changed in the process so that the words have more meaning and fit the effect of the song. Below are the lyrics that I have come up with so far with direction notes, in order to remind myself that certain areas could be altered. It is vital that I work on these lyrics in order to create a story to my song, but so that it fits the genre I am hoping to achieve. Stolpe (2007)

‘Whether we are writing for ourselves or for someone else, the objective is always the same -to cause a significant experience in the mind and heart of our listener’ (Stolpe, 2007)

Reference List:

Perricone, J. (2000). Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs. Hal Leonard Corporation.

Rolling Stone. (2017). See Charlie Puth Break Down Emotional Hit Song, “Attention” [Online Video] 3 October 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU8BEMi8UyM [Accessed: 7th March 2019].

Stolpe, A. (2007). Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling. Nashville: Hal Leonard Corporation.