About writing melodies…
I’m trying to write liquid drum and bass, but whatever I try my melodies keep sounding more like eurodance than liquid drum and bass.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
https://soundcloud.com/btadrumandbass/liquid-dnb-nieuw/s-jkHmI
What I did for this melody is I just used the same notes of the underlying chords to write the melody with. What else can I do? And how can I make it sound less like eurodance?
Maybe it’s your choice of lead sound and not so much the melody.
I’m not much of a DnB guy, but one thing I noticed is it seems awful repetitive. I think some modulation of the lead from a filtering perspective or something could help add some interest.
Regarding melodies…you can obviously use the same notes that are in the chords in your progression, but going outside of the notes in the chord as well as key at times will bring about a sense of tension, while then coming back to the notes in the chord (and sometimes musical key/scale) bring the sense of release that will really help bring some emotional feel to your music.
So for example, if you’re playing a C major chord in your progression, and therefore using C, E, and G as the notes as your three options melodically, but a C7 chord is actually C, E, G and B while a Dominant C7 is C, E, G, and Bb. (a lowered - or minor 7th note - I prefer dominant myself) So, try adding a natural B or Bb to the notes possible. You can keep going up two notes from the 7th, or the B in the C major example to add a D (the 9th) or F (the 11th) etc. and explore using the flat or sharped version of these to see what they do to the emotion of the music. This is the easiest way, but there are oftentimes 6ths (6th chord) such as the A for a C Major chord or 4ths (sus chord, sometimes the 2nd sus as well) which would be the F in the C major chord that can also be incorporated.
Thanks for the tips! And the repetition is mostly because it’s not finished yet, haha.
I’m gonna try to come up with something new, thanks for the advice 