Every once in a while, we can touch somebody’s life in a way just by writing a melody or writing some music, which is always really special.
Like a Star’ has a very simple melody, and when you play it, it’s only about three notes for ages, and it’s quite boring. But when you hear the chords, the chords are sort of different than the melody, and it’s pulling it around and making it mean something else.
‘Appetite for Destruction’ was the only thing written with lyrics and melody fitting the guitar parts at the same time. After that, I got a barrage of guitar songs that I was supposed to put words to, and I don’t know if that was the best thing for Guns.
As soon as ‘Still D.R.E.’ starts playing, you know what it is because of the melody. Most of the world’s biggest records are less chord-driven. They have that instantly recognizable sound.
Well, I tell you… the first chorus, I plays the melody. The second chorus, I plays the melody round the melody, and the third chorus, I routines.
The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.
I always write lyrics first and the rhythm and the melody come from the lyrics. It always comes from the lyrics: words have rhythm and words have melody.
I’m a big perfectionist, and I like to make sure everything 120 percent, from the production to the vocal performance to the lyrics, the melody and everything.
Though ‘KK’ is an urban film and has more scope for fast-paced numbers, I’ve made sure that there’s a bit of melody in all the songs.
We stuck the record head so it kept on recording over and over on top of itself and played keyboard notes into it to create this ghost repetition melody.
I just remember really loving words and writing about anything I could, and the way I’d remember things, like my library card number, was to make a melody.
I taught myself to play the guitar by listening to Paul Simon records, working it out note by note. He is an incredibly intelligent musician. He’s not someone who has a natural outpouring of melody like McCartney or Dylan, who are just terribly prolific with musical ideas.
Melody is king, and don’t you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they’re not; they’re just an accompanying factor. If they’re good, you’re really in good shape. Lyrics are written to be rewritten.
At school, I enjoyed playing the bassoon. I was in the orchestra and played the melody when the other boys sang hymns at prayers time.
I’ll just start laying out the melody exactly where I want it to fall. And then I’ll go back and fill it out. Whereas, in other pieces I’m really just going a couple bars at a time.
Only having one melody instrument in play at a time meant that we could improvise more in our practices.
When I first played ‘1234’ it was on stage in San Francisco at some kind of, like, sticky-floored club. And it felt like a punk song. I mean it’s ridiculous to say that now, but it had that kind of, like, piercing straight melody. And then this fist-pumping ending, you know that pa-dap-pada.
We’re basically a rock band – guitar, bass, drums and vocals. But we take it further than that. We can be rotten, dirty, and heavy as anyone, but at the same time, we’ve got a lot of melody.
The heart of the melody can never be put down on paper.
For me, the music dictates the melody. Give me a riff to sing over, you know?
Ever since we started, we’ve been trying to give people music that is pop music where you could just get into the melody and get into the performance of the band and be quite satisfied.
I really liked the Sex Pistols when they came out and I thought they had a lot of melody.
I’ve always known I could write. I have an ear for production and melody. It was just that, in those early years, I let everyone do it for me. To be honest, I was a little lazy!
I started writing music in a French way: more focused on lyrics than melody.
It’s really important to me that my sound is a combination of beats and melody. I love hearing strong, confident beats in music because I love to dance. At the same time, melody is really important to me because I love singing.
The human brain is a funny thing: it’s very susceptible to tempo and melody. You put the right words to it, and it becomes very influential.
I feel like music can affect you in so many ways. When you hear a song with a happy melody, it can change your mood; it can change your day.
Just the words and melody – that’s what moves your emotions.
Any kind of anthemic song, for the most part, they’re on the positive side of things. It’s not hard to identify when a melody is just one degree too complicated or one degree too simple and where that line of pop memorability lies.
I’m more particular about every line, melody. I try to listen, too, through other people’s ears, too. I like this song, but maybe it won’t carry across as well – I gotta figure out a different way to say what I want to say.
In my songs, I’m not saying something that’s never been said before. The have lyrics aren’t going to blow people away. It’s the emotion and the melody that drive it home.
‘NME’ and ‘Melody Maker’ were saying I was the next Lou Reed or Van Morrison. So, everyone has their own version as to when the height of my career was.
When I’m writing, I’m focusing more on just the basic melody and the lyrics.
Putting beauty in your life can be an amazing therapy. I love harmonies and a good melody.
I kind of always thought that I had a good ear for melodies. I think in terms of melody. I can just be walking and I’ll hear a melody.
I’m kind of a geek when it comes to talking about chord structures or melody, so I always loved in-depth conversations with musicians about things. I also enjoy when a fan can just put something on, and they really know nothing about music other than they like it and it touches them in some way.
Of all the soul divas, Gladys Knight was the one for me. Knight’s always been about tone and heart, none of the big showboating or extraneous doodling. She nailed a melody and only played a little around the edges like Ma Staple.
If people are given the right circumstances and the right track and the right melody, it’s about the conviction. It’s not necessarily about being a God-given virtuoso.
I find that I like what I like. I like a strong melody, I like an inventive structure and I have to like the singer’s voice or I have no interest in it.
I used to – my earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.
Through song you learn, and I think school systems need to learn that. Through the rhythm you can learn better, through melody, with something you need to learn; it’s a vehicle for it.
There is a lot of melody and things that sound familiar in hundreds of songs.
I really don’t think I have that much of the gift; I have a little bit, but I wish I were Schubert or Chopin or Beethoven, though Beethoven had a very difficult time writing melody, too.
Yet, it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully – love, lust, longing; joy, rage, fear; triumph, yearning and confusion.
When you use a sample in a big way, when you loop something in the way I did with ‘Runaround Sue,’ it’s like you have your chords and your melody and the quality of the song right there before you add your own production. It’s like the song is already made, in a sense.
Usually what I do is I write my vocal melody over guitar parts and then I come up with lyrics.
The feeling that you want the listener to get, you should get yourself when you first hit that chord, and that melody comes to mind.
I got really sick of playing just, like, ‘Bop-bop-bop-bada-bop-bop-bada-rapa-pah.’ Just playing that 190-beats-per-minute punk-rock songs, I didn’t feel it anymore. And I always loved melody – when you looked back on those early records, there’s always a hook buried in there somewhere.
I know colors like some people know a melody. And the tunes of my favorite musicians energizes me when I work.
I find I’m not one of these composers that are, you know, walking along a beach or walking on the mountainside in County Donegal that’s, you know, ‘Oh, a melody.’ It’s more a matter of eventually taking that moment with me to the studio, and it begins to evolve.
Music is about textures as well as melody.
I’m afraid of a cappella. I don’t read music, and I have a hard time harmonizing. Basically, I’m a melody singer only.
I write while I’m walking, on little scraps of paper. If I have a melody going, I can feel it for days.
My sense of divine brings with it a strange sound of music with its glories, a marvellous melody sounding like a multitude of flutes.
Melody has a certain way that it projects back to you. It triggers certain nerves in your body and certain instincts that normally wouldn’t be triggered by a normal voice.
Ever since we started, we’ve been trying to give people music that is pop music where you could just get into the melody and get into the performance of the band and be quite satisfied.
Melody is disarming. It’s anarchic!
From the time I could play the piano, I remember trying to write tunes. They were in my head, and I would just sit down and start noodling. Next thing I knew, I had written a melody.
