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Everytime I hear this piece, it reminds me of the general principle "less is more". This composition is carried by only two melody parts, for clarinet and double bass. The rest is arrangement and production.
Listen how these melodies just "stand there", upright and proud, straight and honest. Feel how this conveys intensity and strength. Although nothing especially loud and dramatic is happening here, the piece builds up anticipation and tension and is telling us a story.
Mecholup by Floex
(https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/track…)
The reason I picked this example is I wanted to encourage Synfire users to take the challenge and experiment with their own simple yet powerful melodies. You will be surprised what you can come up with. With Synfire, this is now easier than ever before.
Check out the "What is Synfire?" video on YouTube (linked to in the right column of this page) where I show a basic counterpoint example: Same figure, shifted and transposed, played by different instruments, that's all you need to make a dramatic theme raise in front of you. Less is more.
Go find an expressive melodic sound, no matter whether it's a physically modeled instrument, an analog patch, or a sampled natural instrument. Put lots of reverb on it to hide small imperfections and get your imagination flowing. Don't get distracted by to much sound tweaking. Focus on melody. Add a little counterpoint (= corresponding other melodies) that are based on transformations of the same figure or parts thereof. Incorporate rests, so the background instruments get some attention too. Stick with one simple theme and build on that.
The worst moment for a composer is the "white sheet". If you can not get started easily, listen to the music you love and try to reverse-engineer it: Copy its tempo, meter and instrumental patterns and textures. Then transform it to build something new with Synfire.
Feel free to post your comments or snippets you've built here!
Mo., 26.11.2012 - 10:46 Permalink
Yes, i try to do that and i found some interesting midi files which are good composed in Mulab and they show some composing ideas to use in a own arrangment.
The worst moment for a composer is the "white sheet". If you can not get started easily, listen to the music you love and try to reverse-engineer it: Copy its tempo, meter and instrumental patterns and textures. Then transform it to build something new with Synfire.
Also to get more into the subject of the melody : melody in songwriting (berklee press : Jack Perricone ) or composition for computer musicians and also the complete idiot's guide : music composition gives enough backgroundinformation to construct a melody in SFP/E
Mo., 10.12.2012 - 12:05 Permalink
Completely different example, now a straight pop song: "If a Song Could Get Me You" by Marit Larsen (2008). This song may still be relatively unknown in the US. If you google for it, be sure you listen to the original that was released 2008. If you look a bit further, you may find a full length version. Otherwise, those $1,99 are well invested, if you want to learn something about great songwriting.
This very crafty composition features a melody that follows a very simple pitch pattern (basically chord tones with a few passing tones only). The special magic here lies in subtle rhythmic variation performed by Marit. If you listen to this song in full length, you will notice that the singer adds accents and rhythmic variation to make a simple melody more lively and swinging.
This is, by the way, is a technique that also works great for instrumentals: Simple melody with slightly varying rhythm.
I heard this song two times on the radio in 2009 and it is still in my head today.
The song also features an unusual middle part with a wonderful chord progression that reminds me of falling snow. Didn't find the time to check whether Marit actually wrote the song herself. The songwriter is a genius. I have no doubt this song will be playing on radios across Europe for the next decades, much like similar songs from Alanis Morisette, Norah Jones, or Natalie Imbruglia.
