When I first started making music, it was learning other people’s songs and putting them onto four-track. Like Beatles songs and stuff. When I started writing, I used the singing side of the production as a vehicle for melody and lyrical ideas.
I won’t deny a song or a melody. I can’t deny it.
In some types of music I’m working out all the chords one bar at a time – the whole structure, because it’s about that. And there are other pieces which are really about – okay, the melody is going to start here and play through to here.
But when you get to a song, not only do you have to do a vocal melody, you have to write words and not be redundant and make some semblance of a story.
I have never been able to remember the number of my driver’s license, and there have been times when I couldn’t even remember my own telephone number, but when I hear a song, sometimes only once, I never forget the melody or the lyric.
I’ve been kind of listening to the composer Britten and his rendition of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The opening track is a choral section where all the weird fairies, who are played by kids in the production, sing. It’s a crazy opening melody and chord sequence – really amazing.
I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap.
I think the melody is the first time I hear in a song and if I like the melody, then I’ll pay closer attention to the lyrics.
My style is simple. It is out and out melody.
We cling nervously to the melody, but we don’t handle it freely, we don’t really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it.
Hindi film songs lack poetry, and even musically, they aren’t appealing at times. Their lyrical qualities aren’t strong. I sometimes feel that singers aren’t singing, but shouting out loud. Where’s the melody?
I try to incorporate melody. Even though I’m screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming.
Sometimes I have a melody in my head; sometimes it’s just a verse. I read lines from a book or movies that I watch and grab a few quotes and start writing on paper. From there, I record a really rough version and work on the song.
A song just doesn’t have verse-chorus-verse. It could just be one line. There are Chinese love songs that you have to learn one melody for a three-minute thing, and nothing ever repeats. I like that.
By giving the public a rich and full melody, distinctly arranged and well played, all the time creating new tone colors and patterns, I feel we have a better chance of being successful. I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.
When I pick up the guitar, it’s a melody, and that’s what drives the lyrics. It’s bits and pieces of truth, but it is storytelling.
I’m a melody guy. To me, that’s a musical souvenir people take from a movie. They remember a theme or a feeling, and if they’ve had a good or bad experience it evokes that sensation whenever they hear it again.
Music critics think of lyrics first and don’t consider melody but so many songs are lyrically depressing but musically great, and that’s why they become classics.
Melody is a form of remembrance. It must have a quality of inevitability in our ears.
If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I’m a musician first. I’m not limited by the fretboard.
‘Despacito’ started with a melody hook that I had with my guitar only. The beat for this track came after I wrote the lyrics, which I wrote as if I was writing a ballad.
My guitar-playing always included bass lines, melody lines, and rhythm-guitar grooves.
The thing is, in English I’m able to write the lyrics as I’m making the song, once I’m done with the melody.
Getting a beginner publishing deal really helped me gain the skills. I just kept writing and writing. You just take everything out of life and turn it into an idea or a melody or a song and find the best writers you can to write with that fit you and know what you want to do.
There are certain choices you make as a songwriter, based on vowel sounds and melody and chord changes.
I try to tell the truth in my lyrics; write good melodies and make hard beats. So, basically, I just combine hip-hop with melody. That’s how I classify myself.
Normally when you write for an orchestra, you think about melody and harmony and countermelody.
Well yes, I think melody is still my forte.
Most people are oriented to words. When the public hears a melody, unless you put words to It, it takes longer to penetrate. It’s always been like that, but I don’t know why.
Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, ‘Oh, baby,’ if there’s a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.
The focus is on melody: If you get it right, and it connects to the mass audience, it doesn’t matter if it’s a studio album or played on the dance floor.
As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.
When I started writing material, I realised you could take a ballad like Usher’s ‘Nice and Slow,’ sing the same melody over a garage track, and everyone would be up and dancing.
I believe that melody is such a lost part of music and country music. People are either scared of it or not using all the colors that are available.
In music, you can use metaphors with ease – if a person doesn’t understand the parable, they can still enjoy the melody of the music. If, however, a person reads a book and misses the meaning of its metaphors, this will be extremely disheartening for both the reader as well as the author.
I never think about rhythm versus melody; I’ve always just played to what’s in my head.
‘Nova’ was one of the tracks that inspired me to create ‘Fade,’ which later became ‘Faded’. It has a beautiful melody, and the way it progresses throughout the whole track is just amazing!
It’s a combination of melody and lyrics, not one without the other. It’s a confluence of these different elements that makes something powerful.
The melody will tell me what the song should be about, the tone of the song. That’s when the intellect comes in. Because I have a list of possible titles and concepts, and I expand on that.
If you listen to a lot of the songs that are popular now, there’s very little melody in there. People love the beat. But to musicians, it’s melody, because we understand how elusive it is and how hard it is to hold.
Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines – I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn’t mean they’re more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.
Being able to say something lyrically, to say something that will do more than just be words, is really hard. It’s easy to do when you’re writing a chapter of a book or writing poetry, but it’s really hard to do when you’re confined to a melody line.
I get mad about something, and then I have this melody in my head, and then afterwards, the lyrics come.
When I’m writing with John Leventhal, the music that he’s written mostly comes first. And I’ll write the lyrics and the melody.
Melody wins every time. Melody is always gonna win.
Great melody over great riffs is, to me, the secret of it all.
I find it really easy to write on the bass, because you kind of get straight to the point: you do lyrics and melody without thinking about decorating the song until after you’ve finished it.
Hopefully people can look at our band and see that we’re a heavy rock band. We’re definitely not a metal band, but we’re a band that focuses on meaningful lyrics and melody.
With a good melody… music gets me through everything.
Some things have never changed in India. Melody, for one. The sound has changed, the rhythm has changed, and lyrics have become more contemporary.
A melody is not merely something you can hum.
I have come to the conclusion – and I don’t know why it took me so long, but nevertheless, I’m here now – that a lot of people tell me they don’t get enough guitar on my albums. So I decided to do an album where the guitar would be the singer, playing the melody.
I will never, never ever sing on stage, but when I’m in the studio, I do sing melody lines. When I’m working with singer-songwriters, and I hear melodies, I can guide them. I will be like, ‘Oh no, do this this this.’ But you will never hear my voice on a Martin Garrix track.
Why can’t jazz musicians just leave a melody alone?
Composers now just don’t have the depth of inspiration for melody. Most of the lyrics of the pop songs you hear today are repetitious. They’re almost nursery rhymes, as if written by children – which they are.
I liked the Beatles because there was so much melody. Jimi Hendrix is still one of my heroes.
Listen to the melody and the feel of the singer, and try to get inside the character of the guy who’s singing to find an answer to that or an accompaniment that is in that same pocket, that’s not showing off or playing above the song, or trying to put too much into it. Try to serve the song.
The world likes trap and EDM unless it’s a fire melody.
Most people know Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Histoire de Melody Nelson’ album, but what’s interesting is that in the early ’90s, he actually went into a dark, weird phase that French people don’t really like. They consider his music from that time weak. But for me, it’s the best.
