Jamin Hoffman wrote:
Dear all -
As one of my happy duties as orchestra director at the
high school where I teach, I also teach a course
called "Beginning Electronic Music," wherein I try to
teach totally inexperienced and not-too-motivated high
school students (with no musical background, I might
add) how to "compose" using tools such as GarageBand,
Sibelius, and Logic.
Most of them just want to write "rap beats," which is
not a problem for me, but I really have been trying to
introduce them to chord progressions and melodic
composition, too. Obviously, writing good melodies is
tough for any composer, even the best, but it's the
area in which they definitely have the most problems.
So, here (finally) is my question - what do you think
are the best melodies out there, that I can use as
examples of successful melodies for my students?
(These can be from any genre - classical, jazz, pop,
etc.) Also, for those of you who DO compose (I
don't), do you have any suggestions for marrying a
melody with the chord progression? It's boring if it
matches too closely, and it can be jarring if it
doesn't match at all (yes, I know about polytonality -
we don't need to go there, yet) - so what do you think
is a good balance? Do you start with chords and then
go to the melody, or vice versa, or both (or neither)?
I'm sending this out to several lists at once, so my
apologies in advance for cross-postings. Thanks -
To point out how really simple it is to write a melody that will last
for years, you can point out how tunes such as My Country 'Tis of Thee
or the chorale tune to Beethoven's 9th symphony finale are constructed.
The question concerning wedding chords to melody is one that plagues
every songwriter -- and I think that you'll find that all songwriters
work both ways some of the time.
One way to start students on the road to writing their own melodies is
to take chord progressions from tunes they know and have them compose
new melodies on top of that. Or simply change the beat. The Beach Boys
tune "Wouldn't It Be Nice" has been used a lot recently (most notably in
Adam Sandler's 50 First Dates) so the youngsters may actually recognize
that. Turn that from a swinging/shuffle rhythm into a square rock beat
and have them write new melodies on top of it.
Or take a simple chord progression and play a dozen or so tunes on top
of that to show how easy it can be to fit tunes to harmonies.
There is no easy answer, I'm afraid, and it's especially hard these days
when the pop music scene is so fragmented and compartmentalized that
there's no way you can count on everybody in your class knowing even one
song in common.
But that might be another suggestion -- see if they can come up with one
song they all are familiar with, even if they don't all especially like
it, and then take it apart to show how the melody is developped, and
then show how it fits or clashes with the harmonies.
I don't envy you your class -- nothing can be more daunting than a class
of high school students who have no interest in what you're teaching
them but it's better than health class or geometry so they sign up for it.
Good luck!
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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