Eight Sources for Creating Motives
The most productive source for creating motives is the human ear. Good motives arise from acute, analytical listening. Look to the following sources for creating original motives.
Human speech
Language is a rich source for musical motives. Pitch changes, rhythm, cadence …. All of these are sources for creating motives. The good news is that the variety of human speech is infinite.
Sounds of the environment
Bird song, waves, trains, wind, squealing brakes, roller skates, opening a letter, a garbage disposal, a drippy faucet……. Every sound around us has the essentials to make a motive – pitch changes, rhythm, cadence, time.
Noodling (both melodically and harmonically)
Play riffs and short progressions your instrument. Record the results. Farm these files for useful motives. CAUTION: muscle memory can betray you. Your hands and fingers tend to go to places of comfort. Your mind tends to return to patterns of chords that were successful in the past. Noodling to creative motives can lead to quoting yourself – you end up writing the same song over and over and over.
Scales and Modes
Get out of the prison of do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do
Create motives in modes of the major scale or unfamiliar scales. One productive way is to re-write a public domain melody in a different mode. This will change both the melody and the harmonic support. Small tweaks to the melody will create a new and unique piece of music. This link provides audio samples of many unfamiliar scales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_scales_and_modes
Copying
If a tune or song inspires you, copy its motive (NOT the entire melody!). Develop that motive in your own way. The tune will be original and yours. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, all the masters used these technique. Trained composers are taught a technique called “Theme and Variation”. The “theme” need not be original. But, today composers must worry about the legal consequences of plagiarism.
Plagiarism in contemporary music can occur in two ways — using another composer’s musical idea (motive or an entire melody) or sampling (taking a portion of an artist’s sound recording and reusing it in your composition).
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/songs-on-trial-10-landmark-music-copyright-cases-20160608
https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/05/10-famous-instances-of-alleged-music-plagiarism/
Melody from Contour
http://edmprod.com/ultimate-melody-guide/
Mathematics – Random number generators, formulas, even the alphabet
This is a mechanical process. However, it can jump-start creativity
Software
MIDI can be of help in creating melody and hearing how chords support melody. Some composers use MIDI as their exclusive tool to generate melody.
There are many software packages available that will generate melody. The results tend to be most successful in the genera of electronic dance music.
UGH! If you must…… some links that may be interesting…….
https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-C1ngy3k0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpjjCBJf24
Human speech
Language is a rich source for musical motives. Pitch changes, rhythm, cadence …. All of these are sources for creating motives. The good news is that the variety of human speech is infinite.
Sounds of the environment
Bird song, waves, trains, wind, squealing brakes, roller skates, opening a letter, a garbage disposal, a drippy faucet……. Every sound around us has the essentials to make a motive – pitch changes, rhythm, cadence, time.
Noodling (both melodically and harmonically)
Play riffs and short progressions your instrument. Record the results. Farm these files for useful motives. CAUTION: muscle memory can betray you. Your hands and fingers tend to go to places of comfort. Your mind tends to return to patterns of chords that were successful in the past. Noodling to creative motives can lead to quoting yourself – you end up writing the same song over and over and over.
Scales and Modes
Get out of the prison of do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do
Create motives in modes of the major scale or unfamiliar scales. One productive way is to re-write a public domain melody in a different mode. This will change both the melody and the harmonic support. Small tweaks to the melody will create a new and unique piece of music. This link provides audio samples of many unfamiliar scales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_scales_and_modes
Copying
If a tune or song inspires you, copy its motive (NOT the entire melody!). Develop that motive in your own way. The tune will be original and yours. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, all the masters used these technique. Trained composers are taught a technique called “Theme and Variation”. The “theme” need not be original. But, today composers must worry about the legal consequences of plagiarism.
Plagiarism in contemporary music can occur in two ways — using another composer’s musical idea (motive or an entire melody) or sampling (taking a portion of an artist’s sound recording and reusing it in your composition).
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/songs-on-trial-10-landmark-music-copyright-cases-20160608
https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/05/10-famous-instances-of-alleged-music-plagiarism/
Melody from Contour
http://edmprod.com/ultimate-melody-guide/
Mathematics – Random number generators, formulas, even the alphabet
This is a mechanical process. However, it can jump-start creativity
Software
MIDI can be of help in creating melody and hearing how chords support melody. Some composers use MIDI as their exclusive tool to generate melody.
There are many software packages available that will generate melody. The results tend to be most successful in the genera of electronic dance music.
UGH! If you must…… some links that may be interesting…….
https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-C1ngy3k0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpjjCBJf24