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Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:57 pm
by james william
Hey, im training music production in LMMS and im having a hard time putting in the idea for the melody i have in my head onto the piano roll. I have some questions,

Do you have to figure out what key your melody is in prior to laying it out or can you just lay it in a random key and then rearrange the notes into a different key that you prefer?

If you want to know what key your melody is in, how can you figure that out? Sometimes i hum it out the root note or play it out as piano in my head but i get confused as to what note matches that note.

Further, what advice do you have for someone like me? I already learnt music theory, now i want to practice laying out melodies, chords and beats ( im alright with chords and beats, melodies are currently the issue ) before i move on to manipulating synths and stuff.

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:23 am
by musikbear
james william wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:57 pm
im having a hard time putting in the idea for the melody i have in my head onto the piano roll. I have some questions,

Do you have to figure out what key your melody is in prior to laying it out or can you just lay it in a random key and then rearrange the notes into a different key that you prefer?
Yes that would be my way
If you want to know what key your melody is in, how can you figure that out?
Are you familiar with keys and scale? You say you know music theory, so scales should be 'known' right. LMMS has a super scale-tool, maby the easiest way is to watch my scale videos..
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... cH1Rs56V8c

Here i use the tools a lot.

Further, what advice do you have for someone like me?
I made a vid on how to get from 'inside head' to piano-roll. Its best when the BPM is relatively low, but give it a try, and see if it works for you:
https://youtu.be/1LN9jivwRhs

Besides that, since you are new in Forum
Welcome james william
Here are all important links:
http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4740
-A few rules and useful forum instructions

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:23 am
by slipstick
For melodies I think the timing and the intervals between notes are far more important than the key. So I start almost everything off in C (all the white notes). and then when the timing and shape of the melody are about right I'll move it up or down to where I want it.

But that may just be me and I don't have anything like perfect pitch so the difference in sound between being in the key of say E (4 sharps) or F (1 flat) is not much at all.

Steve

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 3:02 pm
by brandystarbrite
Topic has been moved to Production Help.

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:01 am
by chinmoypborah17
the intervals between notes are far more important than the key. So I start almost everything off in C (all the white notes).

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:58 pm
by musikbear
james william wrote:
Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:57 pm
Hey,
Hi, Welcome to the Forum james william!
Here are all important links:
http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4740
-A few rules and useful forum instructions

Most of your questions can be, if not answered, then at least addressed in this video, where i take a melody from 'head' and plot it out in piano-roll:
https://youtu.be/1LN9jivwRhs
figure out what key your melody is
As you start getting 'good' notes plotted in, you can use a scale-finder
In our links to useful-resources we recommend
http://www.scales-chords.com/scalefinder.php/
If you want to know what key your melody is in, how can you figure that out?
Again that comes with the scale, but you can always go 'safe' and simply work from Amin or CMaj. Those are complementary scales, and are all the white keys!
Further, what advice do you have for someone like me?
Without sounding too precocious; being here and having the best free music tool available, is a great start!
Feel free to ask about anything, post links to your musical ideas, and enjoy our active community :)

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:46 am
by musikbear
srldiagnostic wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:40 am
..
Bot what is 22-10 ??

Account will be removed sunday
---------
Scratch that -You re-entered the ilegal links. Account removed!

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:40 am
by brandystarbrite
starklord wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 4:19 pm
the intervals between notes are far more important than the key
Really? How so?

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:39 am
by DaanishHanson
0011saif wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:16 am
I start almost everything off in C (all the white notes). and then when the timing and shape of the melody are about right I'll move it up or down to where I want it.

But that may just be me and I don't have anything like perfect pitch so the difference in sound between being in the key of say E (4 sharps) or F (1 flat) is not much at all.

Thanks for this anser saif sir.. btw i personally usse up and down keys to created sounds and lyrics when writing

Re: Translating a melody in your head to piano rollSupport

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:04 am
by mohan8755
Maybe start by recording yourself humming or singing the melody you have in your head. Then you can just have it in your ear.