Is establishing melodies a big part of writing music?

[Jericho-79]

Hey everyone. I own a lot of U2 and Green Day CD's. And I've read the liner notes for every one of those CD's.

 

In almost all the liner notes, the songwriting credits are denoted as "Lyrics by Bono, Music by U2" or "Lyrics by Billie Joe, Music by Green Day".

 

When it says "Music by U2"- Does it mean that the band created all the melodies, riffs, hooks, harmonies, and chord progressions while composing the music itself?

 

In other words- Is developing melodies a large part of writing music?

 

Thanks guys!

[L5Larry]

In other words- Is developing melodies a large part of writing music?

 

Short answer....YES

 

Legalese Answer: the credits as you list are "legal" agreements, The band has made a business decision to give individual credits to the lyricist, and full band credits for music composing. This gives publishing and songwriting royalties (income) to the entire band. John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a similar agreement during the Beatle years, all songs written by either one individually, or together, was credited to both.

 

The specifics of who wrote what, and what constitutes enough of a contribution to technically warrant songwriting credit is much more complicated, and fought out in courtrooms everyday.

[Tman]

Hey everyone. I own a lot of U2 and Green Day CD's. And I've read the liner notes for every one of those CD's.

 

In almost all the liner notes, the songwriting credits are denoted as "Lyrics by Bono, Music by U2" or "Lyrics by Billie Joe, Music by Green Day".

 

When it says "Music by U2"- Does it mean that the band created all the melodies, riffs, hooks, harmonies, and chord progressions while composing the music itself?

 

In other words- Is developing melodies a large part of writing music?

 

Thanks guys!

 

I think it is a huge part of writing. although I think melody development and writing lyrics are often 2 different things depending on how you interpret the statements you quoted.

 

I would suppose that someone comes up with a riff, presents it to to others and it gets developed into a song. In the case of U2, I have seen interviews with The Edge where he says he comes up with a guitar riff and Bono will write lyrics on what moves him. Developing the melody may be separate.

 

I know that ASCAP requires that the lyricist and composer are credited separately even if they are the same person.

 

I think developing the melody is the biggest part of writing unless you are writing a purely musical piece and even then, if you are not playing pure chords, you have to develop a melody. Someone like Jeff Beck who may write a purely instrumental song still writes a melody with his guitar.

[capmaster]

It's a VERY part of writing music, and combined with rhythm establishing intellectual property and copyright. Melody, from Greek μελῳδία, melōidía, "singing, chanting," and rhythm, from Greek ῥυθμός, rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry," are considered as the two ingredients music consists of.

[milod]

I think the folks pretty well hit it - especially the point about rhythm. One may take a rhythm of music and add a lyric, or have a rhythmic lyric and add a melody.

 

It used to be relatively common that one would take a tune written as an instrumental or "grounding" tune for a lyric, and add a lyric. That happened with all sorts of "folk" music and "christian" hymn tunes. A good example most of us know is how a lyric to a military "camp follower" with green sleeves from leaning on her elbows in the grass (alas my love you do me wrong), to "what child is this" in a Christmas carol.

 

One of my favorite pieces is the old "Deep Purple" that hit #1 in 1939 - and was an instrumental tune with lyric added.

 

Of course, declamation with a musical background also is far from a new concept and dates back more centuries than one might imagine. That gave us, among other things, talking blues, spoken sections of various songs, rap, etc.

 

m

['Scales]

For what its worth I'll give a very current example of how our band generally does this. (as background we are a very basic covers band with a good lead guitarist and a bunch of 'beginners' having fun but also trying hard to present decent music. We've played about 10 paid gigs in the past 18 months, practice most weeks, and have a couple of originals in our mix. Its time to add a couple more originals...). As (primarily) rhythm guitarist I tend to take the lead role in 'song writing' such as it is, and my basic formula is to try and develop a catchy riff and/or chord sequence generally using a mix of chords, partial chords, droning open strings etc... so it sounds acceptable to the audiences ears but a little edgy - in 'rock' style, and with 2-3 different sections (verse, chorus, bridge...whatever) and about 3-4 minutes long. Usually as intro, verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, (lead break), verse, chorus, chorus, outro. As I say - basic rock!

 

So, last week I write a song as above and take it to practice yesterday. I play it through and in doing so establish the flow, rhythm, key and 'vibe' for the band to consider. It has some 'unusual' elements and shifts so I explain these and why I think they are important to the song's individuality. it passes this test so the band ask for the chord sequence and we jam it to see if its all ok for drums, bass and guitar to follow with singer ad-libbing phrases spontaneously which he thinks might work for the 'vibe'. It passes the jam test and everyone seems happy to work it up.

 

This afternoon I'll record a basic rhythm track on my phone and email it around with some notes about the flow, what the chords are/approximate, where the solo would go and what it would be soloing over etc. The bass player and drummer will develop their initial stuff to play behind it, the lead guitarist will develop fills and comps and the bones of a solo, and the singer will write some first draft lyrics. Then when we meet up next week we'll see how it comes together.

 

Hopefully then in coming weeks we can refine until we have something good that is ready to play live! Concurrently we'll replicate the process for a couple more new songs.

 

Apologies to the real musicians and pros among us... but hopefully that's of some interest to others starting out on the journey and looking for ideas/approaches.

 

cheers.

[Jericho-79]

I'm just curious, guys.

 

In a band- Does the lyricist usually come up with a melody? Or is it a collaborative effort among all band members while composing the music itself?

 

Does it really depend on the band?

[capmaster]

I'm just curious, guys.

 

In a band- Does the lyricist usually come up with a melody? Or is it a collaborative effort among all band members while composing the music itself?

 

Does it really depend on the band?

It all depends on the individual persons, their way of conceiving songs, and also may strongly differ from song to song. In the following, I describe the varying approaches within my creative quartet.

 

When I am writing a song, rather personal lyrics are usually the first thing I create, then the melodies of the different vocal parts. Some parts may repeat, usually breaks and choruses, others don't, i. e. dedicated melodies for different versions or special rhymes for creating a particular expression. Usually the melodies call for the rhythms and the chords as well, and therefore sometimes appear dedicated chord sequences without repeat, too.

 

The drummer and the other guitarist tend to come up with fragments like riffs or grooves, and they often inspire me to instantly creating some lyrics for fun. These mostly are less personal lines spontaneously written, rather for matching style and mood of a song.

 

Our bassplayer thoroughly writes song lyrics, grooves and bass lines in most cases. Then us both guitarists develop matching chords, and I create the vocal melody in collaboration with the author and his ideas of groove and expression.

 

The solos mostly use one of the vocal backing parts. There sometimes are dedicated parts in different keys or using another groove.

 

Lots of the chords we play are extended or altered. We rarely use power chords or just triads. Usually one guitar plays four or five note chords, the other one lines or chord fragments. Sometimes we build up complex chords using both the guitars in collaboration.

 

Precise playing is the hardest part, but that's what makes it all melting together when hacks like us hobby musicians deliberately make elaborate noise.

 

However, our goal is playing sophisticated songs for easy listening. All that counts is that the thing rocks, and there are moments we get it.

 

Back to the topic. i. e. songwriting. :) The different approaches and attitudes lead to very different styles, for lyrics as well as accompaniment. We like it that way, and this is the very thing making it work I believe. And sometimes we even manage to play and sing to our own satisfaction.

['Scales]

J-79, those are more direct questions you ask. If I define a 'melody' in my own (and probably erroneous) simplistic terms as what I would play on a piano with one finger to replicate the vocals.... then I'd suspect the vocalist would often come up with the melody. Particularly in rock bands - may be quite different if there are instrunments like saxaphone or flute involved I guess.

 

In many cases the lyricist and vocalist may be one and the same, but then you've got examples like Geezer Butler writing Black Sabbath lyrics, or the scene in 'Some Kind of Monster' where members of Metallica and their producer (and shrink... ) are all sitting around writing lyrics and throwing them into the mix.

 

Obviously any prveviously developed chord sequences (and maybe even rhythms) are going to define some boundaries for many melodies, but if I could choose just one answer to your thought provoking questions I'd back the vocalist more often than not - but its gonna vary a lot - I've written vocals/melody for songs and sung them to the band but then someone else sings them in gigs...

[fortyearspickn]

Jericho, I bet you can answer your own question. Try transposing the melody to a straight forward old standard you know well. Then play what you've written down. Then listen to the original., and compare the two.You'll probably find you missed a lot of the notes, especially the ones at the ends of each verse. And, that with your slightly different notes, after listening to the original, you find your version has a very different feel. So, in a word "Yes!". The melody, which includes the rhythm of course, is at least half the song. What would "Jingle Bells" sound like if it had the melody of "Silent Night"?

[Izzy]

All I know is if I come up with the chords first, the vocal melody is limited.

 

If I come up with a vocal melody, chords to match are just a matter of course.

 

I don't know how others work and I don't always work this way.

 

I think when something sais, "written by the lot of us" its got more to do with legalities and keeping the peace. For all we know, only two dudes in a band write song A and then song B is written by two other dudes in the same band and by saying that they all (4) wrote the two songs there's no hard feelings about money when one of the songs makes it big and not the other song. Convoluted, but you get what I'm saying.

[Bender 4 Life]

jericho-79......youtube some music from 1950-1965 and you'll realize it's ALL about the melody.