How to write a song melody with chromatic notes

do you struggle to write Melodies would you like an easy way to spice up your tunes this video will help you by using alien or chromatic notes Melodies are basically just a series of notes usually these notes are played or sung whilst the chord is heard at the same time this relationship between Melody and Harmony is an important one in songwriting a basic chord is called a Triad because it contains three notes for example the c major chord has the notes c e and G if we write a melody using only notes from the chord that plays at the same time then it creates a very safe and harmonious sound these notes are also known as inside notes if you'd like to learn more about using chord notes in your Melodies then check out our video in the description below listen to this example that uses the c e and g notes whilst the c major chord plays hear how safe it sounds foreign [Music] this is a perfectly acceptable Melody but what if we want something a bit more interesting where we only used three notes of a possible 12 so let's use a few more you may have heard of scales before the major scale has seven notes in it for example the c major scale has the notes C D E F G A and B you can see that the three chord notes we used in our Melody are contained within the scale the remaining four are known as outside notes because they are outside of the chord notes using these outside notes will add some interest and drama to your Melody without sounding harsh or discordant if you want to learn more about the role of these notes in Melodies then check out our seven tips video in the description below listen to our next example that uses all seven notes of the c major scale remember that our chord notes c e and G are colored red yellow and blue here the difference in sound these notes create over the c major chord compared to the outside notes [Music] thank you [Music] we've looked at inside notes and outside notes let's now turn to the remaining five notes the alien or chromatic notes these disruptive notes add color and interest to a Melody but they come with more potential to dominate and even ruin your Melody so use some caution when working with them as a starting point they work best as short passing notes that don't fall on the beat notes that are played on the beat will naturally stand out more and notes on the first beat in the bar will be even more prominent this effect can of course be used to make your alien notes stand out so feel free to experiment let's take our previous example in C major and mix in a few chromatic passing notes you'll see that the chromatic notes are a mixture of the scale note colors either side of it listen out for how they change the sound of the melody against the underlying chord [Music] thank you [Music] chromatic notes help to add a touch of unpredictability to a tune this power can be particularly useful in a linear static Melody these are Melodies that move in a stepwise nature and don't spam many notes they look like a straight line on a page and are often the result of a reluctant or limited vocalist by adding a chromatic note to this limited range you can start to add a bit more interest without straying too far from the narrow melody in our next example we'll start with a linear melody in C major in the second half We'll add some chromatic notes to The Limited range listen to how this makes a static Melody become more adventurous foreign [Music] use of chromatic notes in A Melody is when the underlying chord progression has a borrowed chord in it a borrowed chord is a chord that doesn't belong in the key of a song because it uses a note or notes from outside of the relevant scale basically it introduces a chromatic note into the harmony because of this they are often used with caution one way you can make them sound more coherent is by using any of the chromatic notes they introduce in the melody at the same time let's look at a simple example to demonstrate this in the first half of the progression we play the one chord c major in the second half we use the borrowed chord B flat major the flat 7 chord is a common borrowed chord in major key songs check out our video in the description to learn more about this the B-flat major chord has one alien note in it B flat so we'll make a very simple melodic phrase with B flat in it we will repeat this over both chords listen to how it sounds different over the B-flat major chord that contains this note [Music] thank you [Music] as the last example demonstrated you have three sets of notes to consider when thinking about Melody the notes in the underlying chord the notes in the chord scale and the notes in the key scale so if we are playing the B flat major chord in a song in the key of C major as before we need to think about the notes in the B flat major chord the notes in the B flat major scale and the notes in the c major scale look at where they differ and think about these points of difference and conflict this is where the tension will be created and think about where the sets of notes are the same to resolve this melody is the art of tension and release another situation that can create chromatic notes is when we transpose or shift a melodic phrase up or down this is a common Melody writing technique where you preserve the rhythmic structure of a phrase and simply shift it up or down this idea of having something the same but different is an important one in songwriting let's explore this with an example we'll start with a Melody that uses the notes c b and a then we will repeat this a whole step or tone lower using the notes B flat A and G in the first version we'll do this over the c major chord in the second version we'll change the chord to the flat seven chord again this will accommodate our new note as previously listen to how changing the chord accommodates the chromatic note and combined with the repeated Rhythm provides a nice continuity also note how we've put the chromatic notes in a more prominent position this time but they don't sound so tense [Music] foreign [Music] foreign you've learned about chromatic notes but now you need to use them in a well-crafted phrase watch the video on screen now to learn about the art of phrasing

Channel: Write A Song

Views: 3,414

Keywords: how to write a melody with alien notes, how to write a melody with chromatic notes, chromatic notes, how to write amelody, melody writing, how to make melodies, melody maker, songwriting explained, write a song, write a song now, how to craft a melody, how to write a song, how to write a song melody, music theory, music theory lesson, songwriting technique, learn to songwrite

Id: EmZfFz6tbtE

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 30 2022