Today, I'm going to show you how to write a melody in just a few minutes, even if you've
got no musical background.
So today, we are going to write a melody over a track, and take it from this...
To this...
I'm Will from EDM tips, and I'm going to share with you my humming technique today.
Yes...it sounds like a sex act.
...but in this context it isn't. This is actually a question I got
from EDM tips subscriber Mick last week, so thanks, Mick.
As I said, I read every email and comment, and I try where I can to create the videos
that you guys want to see. There are lots of different ways to write melodies, of course,
but this is a great technique if you struggle with music theory, or you want to get the
quick, soulful melody down without mucking around in the Piano Roll Editor, testing and
deleting, and wasting your precious flow, and your precious time.
This is just one of many tips from my course, Music Theory for EDM Producers, so if you
haven't taken it already, don't forget to check out the link below, and if you like
it, please share it with your friends, and thanks for subscribing.
Okay, so the first step is setting up a recording channel that you can hum into, or sing into,
and in Ableton Live, I'm just going to create a new audio track, and of course, you can
do this in any DAW. I'm just going to use this microphone, but it doesn't matter which
mic you use. You could just use the internal one from your laptop. The quality doesn't
matter, just that you can get the vocals in.
Okay, so we've got this loop that I've written, it's got a bass line, and it's got some chords,
so we want a melody over the top of this. So all I've done now, is yeah, I've just folded
it away so it's not confusing, so we've got the [Vox 00:01:52] channel, vocal channel,
and then what I'm going to do is just copy and paste the music loop a few times, so we've
got a chance to sing and come up with some ideas.
So that's step one and step two. Set up a channel to record your voice into, and then
loop the music you've done, so you've got a good amount of music to sing over.
Okay, get your pitch. So using a MIDI keyboard, or just the Piano Roll Editor, you need to
make sure that your voice is in tune with the music. So if you're completely tone deaf,
this isn't going to work, and if you're completely tone deaf, you probably shouldn't be making
music.
So I actually think that the root note of this song is F, and I think that this song
is probably in the key of F major. I just need to make sure that my voice is in the
same tune as the DAW, and the easiest way to do that is just play and sing a bit until
you get into the key of the song.
So that is there, and now you just arm your track to record into, your vocal track, make
sure you've got all the rooting set up, and then press record, and then just sing along.
And the important thing is here, not to be shy, because no one else can hear you. It's
not like you're doing it on YouTube in front of thousands of people, I mean, how embarrassing
would that be, right? You just wouldn't do it. So, let's have a go.
And have a few different ideas as well, and then you can just edit them together. Edit
them together, just like this.
As I said, it doesn't have to sound good, but now we've got a few ideas. Next step is
to pull it in time, because quite often there's a bit of delay or a bit of latency in the
system, so you've just got to make sure that you're more or less ... your singing is in
time, and you can do this in Ableton like this.
Move this marker here to kind of tweak it in time. You might want to hold CMD so that
you're not locked to the grid, or just grab the clip.
Okay, so that's in time, bosh. Okay, so next is chop up the recording to get the bits that
you like, and you can do this over and over. Sometimes it's good to get in a vibe, so you
might have a beer or two. Just get into the flow, try to just let your mind be free. Listen
to the music and then sing what comes to you, because that's most likely going to be how
you come up with something that's authentic.
So I like this bit, but then I sang this bit later that sounded more like a chorus, which
will be a main hook, so I like this even more.
But I wanted that note to stay in there, so remember, this doesn't have to be the exact
melody you're going to use, but it's a starting point, so when you've got it into MIDI, you
can tweak it. So this is going to be my vocal.
So it's in time, we've got the bits we like, and remember, you can kind of chop some bits
from one take, some bits from another take, compile them all together. Once you've shifted
it so it's all in time, it's very easy to do that.
So to translate it into MIDI, in Ableton Live to do this automatically, you can just right-click
on it, and go convert melody to new MIDI track, and this is going to be magic.
So now we've got the MIDI information, done automatically in Ableton.
Now as you can hear, this isn't exactly accurate, or it might just be that my singing was that
rubbish, that it's read it in wrong. So you'll have to tweak it.
So that's how you can do it automatically in Ableton, but if I was in another DAW that
didn't have convert to MIDI, and actually, I'd just do it manually anyway, but I like
having a bit more control.
And then I just have a MIDI keyboard, and go to the first part of the singing, and then
it's about either using a MIDI keyboard to work out which notes are there, or if you
know which key you are working in, you can draw in every note in that scale, so if we
are in the scale of F major, then I know that the note's in this scale, and then if I press
fold, the chances are most of the melody notes are going to be one of these, so it makes
it much easier and quicker.
And it takes a bit of time to do it.
And the note there I can hear, doesn't fall within the scale of F sharp major, so I unfold,
so I can add that.
And I want that note to hold and sustain at the end.
And of course, you can copy and paste if some bits are repetitive.
Of course, I choose a synth that doesn't sound like absolute gash to do it, so let's get
a serum. Everybody loves a serum nowadays, don't they? So let's get rid of the horrible
singing, AKA my singing, and just listen to what we've got. Let's chuck it up a couple
of octaves.
Now if you want to make it even easier, and you know the key that you are working in,
and if you don't, then I'll link to another video, which will help you determine which
key your song is in, but if you do, then it's easier just to program in the rhythm of the
melody that you sung first, just all on one note, so it would end up sounding like this
if you programmed it all in on one note.
But once you've got the rhythm in, then you can just move the notes up and down, and match
them to the melody that you've sung in, and that obviously makes things simpler, because
you are not having to think about the rhythm and the pitch at the same time.
So there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed my humming technique. I want to hear from
you, so let me know in the comments below what you think of this technique, and implement
it. Tell me. Let me know what are your results? You can download the free gift, and until
next time, cheers and happy producing.