Hey guys, this is my first post on these forums, hopefully I'll become a regular here. So, here's the reason why I started looking for help with my songwriting: I have written many, many songs over the past several years. What each one is is a set of lyrics with a vocal melody to go along with it, including everything from verses to breakdowns to choruses, etc. The strange part is that "I" play a minimal role in each song's creation--the words, AND the melody, usually just "show up" in my head, and then I just tweak them a little bit and add or take out whatever is necessary.
So what I'm left with is tons of lyrically- and melodically-sound songs that I have absolutely no idea how to turn into full-fledged music. The only instrument I play is guitar, and I have a very minimal understanding of music theory even though I can play pretty well. How does one go about taking a fully-formed melody for the voice and write a supporting guitar part for it? I've been writing down the notes I'm singing, but that doesn't really get me anywhere. Any help would be much appreciated.
--BurningMoose
Play it by ear and find the chords and strumming pattern which go with the melody.
If you ever make a demo, or play with a band, the Bass player just fills in that part, keyboards or strings blend in, and you can really get into it, by creating little fills, runs or lead parts that suit the chords. It's amazing what you and others can do. I think that there must be links to members' band-in-abox or computer musical tools too. Something like MIDI. :wink:
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
I would recommend reading some of the chord theory lessons on this site, this one for example.
Long story short, if you know the notes in your melody you should be able to distinguish the root note which will usually tell you what key the song is in. Knowing the key narrows your set of chords down to around 3-10, depending on how complex you want to be. You could just start with G, C and D chords if your root note was G. Play them and see what fits.
How's the songwriting? Anything new and exciting. Progress or improvement? 8)
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
