Melody Sense

[Rute Rodrigues]

Hey guys! Happy new year! Ive been listening to a lot of Dream Theater and Im always amazed how John Petrucci is so incredible. One of the things that I love in him is that he has a good melody sense. How can he write so beatifull melodies? For example, The Count of the Tuscany or Barstool Warrior. Listen to that songs. They are so melodic. Same thing for Syn, like the solo for The Stage.
How do I develop my melody sense like those guys, to be able to write beautifull melodies as them?

 

[idssdi]

Hey guys! Happy new year! Ive been listening to a lot of Dream Theater and Im always amazed how John Petrucci is so incredible. One of the things that I love in him is that he has a good melody sense. How can he write so beatifull melodies? For example, The Count of the Tuscany or Barstool Warrior. Listen to that songs. They are so melodic. Same thing for Syn, like the solo for The Stage.
How do I develop my melody sense like those guys, to be able to write beautifull melodies as them?

I pretty much exclusively listen to songs with good melodies and really focus on the vocal melodies a lot. I sometimes just sit down and try to play the vocal melody on guitar.

 

[Edward John]

For me coming up with melodies essentially starts with improvising, for a solo I usually just improvise for a while then take the parts I like and put them together, Jimmy Page did it, if it's good enough for him then its good enough for me.

 

[Chris Johnston]

Hey Rute, Happy hew year!

I fun thing to do would be to work out what it is about these melodies that you consider beautiful and chase after that sound. After while it will become part of your playing and you'll start to think more like the person who made the melody, if that makes sense?


One of my all time favourite guitar melodies in an A7X song is the very short 4 note melody that Syn plays in 'Welcome to the family' - that echoes the vocal melody at that point - after about 2:45 - Where he plays - Bb, A, C, D - Over a Bb Major chord - I just love the way it flows at the start with the semitone, then the big interval jump to C and the slide to D - just so tasty!

For me, I worked out that I enjoy the sound of big interval jumps and semitones and tried to work that into my playing.

But really it all just comes down to developing that sense of melody through listening to loads of examples of what fascinates you and trying to figure out what the player is doing with the harmony that makes you enjoy it so much

Hope this helps!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Developing good melodies can be done by practicing starting in different spots of a scale and note jumping around. Papa taught me to hear something a singer can sing and play it on the guitar. Some of A7Xs melodies started off as guitar leads and vice versa

 

[Rute Rodrigues]

Hey Rute, Happy hew year!

I fun thing to do would be to work out what it is about these melodies that you consider beautiful and chase after that sound. After while it will become part of your playing and you'll start to think more like the person who made the melody, if that makes sense?


One of my all time favourite guitar melodies in an A7X song is the very short 4 note melody that Syn plays in 'Welcome to the family' - that echoes the vocal melody at that point - after about 2:45 - Where he plays - Bb, A, C, D - Over a Bb Major chord - I just love the way it flows at the start with the semitone, then the big interval jump to C and the slide to D - just so tasty!

For me, I worked out that I enjoy the sound of big interval jumps and semitones and tried to work that into my playing.

But really it all just comes down to developing that sense of melody through listening to loads of examples of what fascinates you and trying to figure out what the player is doing with the harmony that makes you enjoy it so much

Hope this helps!

Developing good melodies can be done by practicing starting in different spots of a scale and note jumping around. Papa taught me to hear something a singer can sing and play it on the guitar. Some of A7Xs melodies started off as guitar leads and vice versa

That helped a lot!! Thanks guys!

 

[Edward John]

I love everyone talking about theory, got no idea what they are on about right enough, hahahaha!

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

also practicing to backing tracks are essential you can start to backing tracks with emotion on different styles, also learning melodic solos from other players, and analize them in a theorical way to see what is happening ( they are using other notes that are not in the scale? etc) that will help to understand how certain sounds or melodies are created and you can go further and add your own notes to that melodies, and then practice them to backing tracks

 

[Chris Johnston]

I love everyone talking about theory, got no idea what they are on about right enough, hahahaha!

Been there myself Ed! feel free to PM me if you want to chat that kinda stuff!

 

[Chris Johnston]

That helped a lot!! Thanks guys!

Glad it helped !

 

[Edward John]

Been there myself Ed! feel free to PM me if you want to chat that kinda stuff!

Ah well, Tony Iommi didn't know any stinckin' theory, hahahaha Its not so much that I don't know theory, its more that I go by what I think is good, what combination of notes sound good together, I would assume that you could probably break it down and find out what exactly it is that is happening, but, to me, it seems like work.

 

[Chris Johnston]

Ah well, Tony Iommi didn't know any stinckin' theory, hahahaha Its not so much that I don't know theory, its more that I go by what I think is good, what combination of notes sound good together, I would assume that you could probably break it down and find out what exactly it is that is happening, but, to me, it seems like work.

True that haha! You're totally right aswell, the best thing you can have is that ability to know if something sounds good and to be able to access it whenever.

I used to play completely by ear, and weirdly enough, the thing that expanded my ear + playing was being able to label the sounds that I was hearing, so I could reference them in my head and use them in other situations. Kinda like knowing which tool to select from a toolbox to get a certain job done etc.

I'd say it's totally worth the bit of work you have to do to get an understanding

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Hey guys! Happy new year! Ive been listening to a lot of Dream Theater and Im always amazed how John Petrucci is so incredible. One of the things that I love in him is that he has a good melody sense. How can he write so beatifull melodies? For example, The Count of the Tuscany or Barstool Warrior. Listen to that songs. They are so melodic. Same thing for Syn, like the solo for The Stage.
How do I develop my melody sense like those guys, to be able to write beautifull melodies as them?

Just keep playing with the lessons. And jam them. The melodies come from the rhythm or the track. The more you doodle the easier itll get for you. There isnt any real secret but to just do it. You have to be bad at it so you can figure out for yourself what you need to do to make it work.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

For me coming up with melodies essentially starts with improvising, for a solo I usually just improvise for a while then take the parts I like and put them together, Jimmy Page did it, if it's good enough for him then its good enough for me.

This has been turning into my routine. My improvs have started to become songs that I play. Some are a lot of fun to play. But beat way to get it out is to just jam it. You could also graph it and the play it hit that's very time consuming.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Ah well, Tony Iommi didn't know any stinckin' theory, hahahaha Its not so much that I don't know theory, its more that I go by what I think is good, what combination of notes sound good together, I would assume that you could probably break it down and find out what exactly it is that is happening, but, to me, it seems like work.

Nothing wrong with this. I played without theory for years. It worked.but learning my theory has helped kic k older habits like ni pinky usage. I use it a lot now.

But yeah.. if it sounds good.. no reason to change it. Everything could work together in a way anyways depends on how you use the scales.

 

[Edward John]

This has been turning into my routine. My improvs have started to become songs that I play. Some are a lot of fun to play. But beat way to get it out is to just jam it. You could also graph it and the play it hit that's very time consuming.

I cant imagine ever deciding to plan out a solo, as in methodically do it. I'm sure that Syn probably does this, but that just seems weird.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I cant imagine ever deciding to plan out a solo, as in methodically do it. I'm sure that Syn probably does this, but that just seems weird.

I read syn used to map his solos out before playing them but now is at a point where he doesnt need to cause he already knows what mode or scale he wants to play cause his repertoire is so big. I'm still mapping.. or well.. I usually play the solo in the normal scale. But now I've been debating on tweaking the riffs a bit to make them more interesting. But they are pretty good on their own as it is. Maybe future situations. My improvs are usually me sitting down and deciding what scales I wanna slip in. So that's kinda how I start.. then i just let the melody take route from there.

 

[Edward John]

I read syn used to map his solos out before playing them but now is at a point where he doesnt need to cause he already knows what mode or scale he wants to play cause his repertoire is so big. I'm still mapping.. or well.. I usually play the solo in the normal scale. But now I've been debating on tweaking the riffs a bit to make them more interesting. But they are pretty good on their own as it is. Maybe future situations. My improvs are usually me sitting down and deciding what scales I wanna slip in. So that's kinda how I start.. then i just let the melody take route from there.

What's your opinion on the Blackmore vs Satriani debate?

 

[Calvin Phillips]

What's your opinion on the Blackmore vs Satriani debate?

You'll have to fill me in on the debate

 

[Edward John]

You'll have to fill me in on the debate

Emotion vs Technique.