Q. How do you come up with a catchy melody? You know, the stuff where it all begins...
A. Most good melodies are actually the simplest ones, ones that use basic steps of a scale and don't stray too far from the tonal centre (or key). You usually want a lot of small steps, interspersed with a jump or two.
Another way to start is to improvise the melody over a chord progression you like. There are far too many chord progressions to name, but if you play them all in sucession, you can find notes in each chord that are close to other notes in proceding chords, and designate these as the melody. Having notes that are close together when changing between harmonies is known as voice leading, and it really helps to have the melody stay in a relatively small range. Jumps or Skips (going between intervals of more than a whole step) should be added for effect, maybe over a dramatic chord change or over a resolution.
If you want to get really advanced, you can read through the rules of counterpoint, which are general guidelines for writing contrapuntal themes. Also, buy the Well-Tempered Klavier by Bach, follow along in the music as you listen to it. In the fugues, try to follow one voice at a time. There's bound to be a melody or melodic fragment somewhere in there that you can rip off and use as your own.
Easiest Way to learn piano?
Q. Like learning piano chords and stuff
@Kameron I already know a bit of music theory. I have a private music theory teacher (as I want to learn to compose) , but not a piano teacher...
A. Learning chords is not what everybody seems to think it is. You don't just learn chords and how they work. You have to have an understanding of WHY they do. This comes from learning basic musical theory, and then applying it in learning some songs. The easiest way to learn piano is to study under a teacher. In the meantime you can study some theory on your own, which will start to give you an understanding of what chords are and how they work.
The best website for that is
www.musictheory.net
I suggest that you also practice scales, and arpeggios. Arpeggios are what turn into these all famous chords that everybody wants to learn, and they develop your technique far more quickly then just jumping straight to chords.
Good luck, and find a teacher.
EDIT: Since you already have an understanding of music theory, then I would continue to suggest learning arpeggios. They are the best way by far to continue to improve. Chords are simply blocking them together. (And usually augmenting, diminishing or using a 7th note of the scale). If you want to learn more about teaching yourself how to play these then the only way is to practice the individual chords. I suggest blocking 4 note chords using the root, third, fifth and octave note of each scale, moving up the next note in the arpeggio every time. (For example, Play CEGC,then EGCE, then GCEG then CEGC again). I would do this for a couple of octaves with each hand separate, then together.
Once you have done this with all of the major scales, move on to minor. Once you feel like you have mastered each and every one, do it again. Then you will be much better with all of them. In fact you can use this as your warm up in addition to scales and arpeggios. You can then start learning some of the various seventh chords. You can ask your "theory" teacher how to develop these if you aren't sure, again rotating through all of the scales. Then you will have the majority of the used chords down. You will continue to learn more as you develop new repertoire.
All the best luck to you,
When Playing Piano Chords (in a band setting) how do you know where to play them?
Q. I'm just confused on where you play them?! Are the Chords all around middle c or do they jump around? How can you tell? oh and how do you know how long to hold the chords? I am so used to sheet music that the chords seem really confusing. Please help! :)
A. Where on the keyboard you play them depends on the song, the sound you're using (piano, organ, strings etc.) and basically your own interpretation. Sometimes it's around middle C, other times it's an octave lower or higher or even more. How can I tell? I don't know, I guess by using my ears and intuition, it more or less comes naturally. How do I know how long to hold the chords? Same story. I tend to think in the bigger picture, like intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, outro. I'll fill in the details more or less automatically. I do pay attention to cues, like "when the drummer does this, it's time for the bridge", the guitarist nodding to signal it's the end of his solo or the singer putting his hand in the air to signal "watch out, here comes a break". When I'm playing in a band, I don't have much time to worry about the details, because I'm too busy paying attention to what the rest of the band is doing.
If you want to play in a band, my advise for you would be to put the sheet music aside and learn chord theory and scales, and to play by ear and from memory. It's easier to remember if you 'compress' the info. For example, it´s easier to remember a C chord than to remember C-E-G. Likewise, it's easier to remember I-VI-IV-V (a common chord progression) than remembering C-Am-F-G in one song, G-Em-C-D in another and A-F#m-D-E in yet another. Sometimes it can be as easy as "16 bar shuffle blues in A" or "Rhythm changes in Bb".
Good luck, and have fun!
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Title : Piano composers???
Description : Q. How do you come up with a catchy melody? You know, the stuff where it all begins... A. Most good melodies are actually the simplest one...