triweeklyllama

thank you very much for the reply it was very helping. One other thing, if i the next underneath chord is Am, would i play the melody in the scale of Am once changed to this chord.

Thx again.

Burning Down

Well the melody should harmonize well with the chord accompanying it - in this case Am. So you would just play notes found within the chord.

triweeklyllama

ok thanks you have been of great help.

ThePhanastasio

If you're really so worried about a song being in a particular key and understanding the rules of the key, etc., I don't know if songwriting should necessarily be your focus right now.

If you're intent on writing a song that follows those "guidelines" so strictly, you'd probably be better off just working on the music theory learning aspect instead of mucking it up by adding in the songwriting itself - just my two cents.

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Stone Birds

as far as theory goes you can play whatever and still be correct in music that's the beauty of it you can play whatever scale you want major, minor, ionian, hawaiian, ryuoko (i think i spelled this wrong), blues, egyptian, you can even make up your own. you can play whatever notes within Key of C while holding the C chord they can all be complentary (the F might sound weird but if you like it go with it.) same thing with Em (the F and C might sound weird but if you like it go with it.) the things in parenthesis depend more on whether they're in a higher octave than the chord, if it's higher than they're true if it's lower than B ; ____ (if you play these in the key of C with the Em every note will sound fine.) respectively, but it's okay to use those notes in that way it's your sound.1

have fun composing

personally for me it was much easier to understand theory THROUGH songwriting/composition.

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Howard the Duck

just hammer it out - there are listeners of all kinds out there

do it acapella, do it without a tonal centre (no anchoring key), do noise even, invent the wheel not spin it, do it atonally, don't follow any scale, eschew melody, wail, scream, shout

(and put it up for us to hear)

KeithT

Hey there, my best advice like some of the others are saying is to just play anything that feels right/good.

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Why does nobody get music theory. Music theory is not a way to tell you how to write a melody, it's a way to describe melodies that have already been written.

With the exception of ancient pre-avant garde classical there's not a genre out there that follows them tightly. In fact, that's why they have to completely rewrite the theory book every single time something new comes out. This music is generally boring compared to more daring post 1800s composers(I don't care what anybody says: FACT). It was only really a means so snobby aristocrats can keep their music sounding snobby, and aristocratic, and give them the illusion they were superior to the folk melodies the violinist on the street was playing, and they were stealing from.

I agree with 90% of the posters above me. Just play what sounds good. If you want to learn to a particular style, learn the scales of that particular style, but only use it as a guideline. Go through the excersizes while watching TV, or subconsciously, and then write without thinking about what you're writing. Play around, improvise, break the rules a little. Make music that's your own.

Christ, man, this is the reason why we had free jazz!!!

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Sljslj

Exactly. Good post.

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Seu

Hi
Just follow for heart. Really.

There will be times music comes first and times lyrics do.
You will find in the way, what works for u best.

Good luck, music is power!