Approaching Melody

[@pasht]

Why yes, I *do* want to learn from a music school dropout. Different perspectives bring different insights and that's a beautiful thing. Thank you for another theory video!

[@WachaOkami]

Damn right! Most of the people that studied music that I've met have told me that, somehow, they were almost unable to improvise... I feel like it's a strange phenomenon though, and I don't really understand how that would work.

[@BeastBeatzProduction]

@@WachaOkami Well if you're only learning classical music that is why you can't improvise. But people without music school have a much much harder time learning to play chords, especially in intervals.

[@apollozillion7820]

I'm a music school graduate and yet there are certainly people who either dropped out of, or never attended, music school - who are more educated on music school content than myself. Not just better in their own ways and their own strengths - literally better at the subject matter taught in music schools such as theory, history and genre conventions I myself have learned a plethora of new information independently post graduation

[@psyler_6305]

The subtle note editing is so awesome. I bet that took forever

[@MattMcConaha]

Probably not. He just recorded the midi and then there's some kind of plugin in the video editing software that'll show notes on screen based on the midi. At least that's the way any sane person would do it.

[@Shnowz]

@@MattMcConaha he probably did it in after effects the absolute madman

[@plazmotech5969]

It is awesome but I'm fairly certain it’s based on the MIDI input from the keyboard :) so a bit simpler than you might expect

[@RichGwilliam]

Possibly the most useful music theory ramble I've ever heard. 9/10, recommend you advertise yourself as LEARN MUSIC THEORY FROM THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK and retire from the view revenue.

[@joshuawatson9868]

PROFESSIONAL COMPOSERS HATE HIM FOR THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK

[@martingoldmannmusic]

@@joshuawatson9868 Thanks for the laugh :D

[@Ben-nx7yy]

I know you said you arent even that experienced but i think that is exactly what made your video click with me, most people get tooo technical and they lose me while they do that cause i end up not knowing whats going on

[@lozza9789]

Really great video Jeremy. Love the annotated notes ‘floating’ above the Keystep. Thanks so much.

[@TheGrrson]

I bought a practically brand new microKorg the other week for $200 off of craigslist. Last night I sat down and actually played music for the first time in years. I was trying to figure out "Song for My Father" by Horace Silver. It was so much fun. I'm definitely going to use this video as a guide to possibly writing a little music going forward.

[@BennyTheKidd]

Thank you talking hands, this helped. In all seriousness, this was fantastic! Experience is one of the most important assets that a producer can have, like you said. Thanks for sharing what you've learned with us!

[@alexcantsleep_]

This has without a down, been the MOST imformative, easy to understand, fun to learn and EYE OPENING video I have ever watched on Melody. Wow, I cannot wait to make more music with a better idea of thinking what tension am I creating and what am I really trying to say in music? I think I found myself feeling like I didn't need to know this stuff because it was "too technical" and every musician always says "let it come naturally, there are no rules in music" well NO actually the 6th note wanting to resolve into the 5 and the 7th note wanting to resolve into the 8th will actually be very HELPFUL when creating a melody so that I can think in more of a CHORDAL TONE fashion and REALLY express the sounds that I want. Thank you so much Jeremy! Just subscribed!

[@djinferno8690]

Honestly, I’ve been writing music since 2012 and this video has taught me a few things.

[@TheOfficialCzex]

This is perfect for both the beginner and the avid professional lost in the pursuit of perfection! Sometimes, it's good to go back to the basics and just knock out a few melodies until you find one sticks.

[@joshforgie9611]

Ya know, anyone can go get a table and some equipment and a camera but only RED can add the little sparkly graphics and endearingly rambing but also very informative narrative to go with it. Amazing work yet again. Thank you for all that you do.

[@MakeSomething]

Excellent! And I did find it informative. More blathering please!

[@RedMeansRecording]

You got it ;)

[@jordanray1537]

Best melody video on the site imo. Something about how you explained it and summarised it was perfect and now I’m gonna be practicing my scales. Honestly it would be amazing if you made more tutorials on music production. And obviously op-1 videos are amazing too.

[@exion101]

I've been a performing musician for over a decade, totally faking proficiency with my keyboard this whole time. Basic as the advice given in this video was, I still learned a couple of things. As ever, appreciate your content!

[@lennyvanriel1660]

Teachers, learn from this man. He drew my attention with the prospect of mastering melodies. That got me excited and lured me into a music theory lesson ... I graduated in music, for God's sake! Great video man. If I ever decide to teach again, this is exactly what I'm doing.

[@lehkitteh9927]

Currently going for my Bachelor's in Audio Production. I feel like the way you explain your thought process and your sense of humor in other uploads finally lets people know what it feels like to be a musician. That's what made me sub so long ago and keeps me coming back for every vid. Thanks for another great one, Jeremy.

[@bstrouble]

Hey any advice for audio production? I’m an incoming freshmen and I’m kind of scared about majoring in audio production since I don’t know how stable of a job is out there and the money aspect of things

[@lehkitteh9927]

@@bstrouble Well I'm by no means a professional but I would say the most important thing is to stay inspired. Never forget why you want to do it and let that keep you hungry to learn more. As for the employment side of things, there are plenty of places you can go with Audio Production. Sound is everywhere, and everywhere wants to sound good. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it'll be a walk in the park to do the branch you want specifically.

[@boarthefighter]

Dude YES every time I try to watch a basic music theory video on here I want to tear my hair out. This is nice.

[@lukeweston1234]

I've been trying to learn this on KZbin for a month and u you just took a month worth of content and made it intuitive and I understand it now. This is awesome

[@basti_marr]

Dude this is like a friend to friend conversation, this was so damn helpful

[@sleepypablo640]

Absolutely! I used to sit down with a guitar and just play with/against Final Fantasy and other RPG music. Video Game soundtracks are the best because they loop! This also helps with improvisation too.

[@treeoflife7151]

That's a great idea!

[@tronkiechannel]

I dropped out of a classical piano performance degree just last November. I'll always wonder what could have been, but I don't regret my decision. Even if it means I'm waiting tables right now and trying to do my best to provide value to others with my passions for art, music and collaboration and will never have a piece of paper to back me up. I just want to say, I really appreciate you and your content has been a huge inspiration to me. Some day's I've watched your content, even last year when I was at university and got a rush of giddy excitement with your Op-1 videos. Heck I even saved up and bought a bloody Seaboard after consuming a bunch of videos including yours which got me excited like a child on Christmas Eve about the possibilities this piece of tech might have. I'm yet to actually put it to use as I only this week bought BitWig and started to learn audio production for the scores I'm writing as gifts to fellow KZbinrs to use for their content. And now I've ended up in front of one of your videos and am watching it whilst sketching logos for my brand/s which I've been super excited to start and been working on for months now and have enjoyed every moment of getting up at 3-4am just to pursue my interests before my day job. So it's a long message, but I just want to share the impact you've had by simply being you're authentic self and want to thank you because I likely will never get the chance in person. I wish you all the success, and look forward to being inspired by you in the future and perhaps making it as one of your contemporaries in the KZbin / Music world in the next 10 years when I've provided enough value and practiced the craft enough to be one of it's ambassadors. Thanks for being you. Your Pal, Connor.

[@RedMeansRecording]

Thank you Connor. I hope you find a new happy footing. Music performance isn't for everyone but it's something you can carry with you forever.

[@DoloJones]

Really enjoyed this. Hearing information in a really informal way somehow makes you hear it differently and learn something new. Like when someone covers a song you've heard before but uncovers lyrics you thought you knew. :)

[@cchoge]

I just finished a short community college course where we worked through the first part of "Edly's Music Theory for Practical People", and I have to say it was a pretty great book. The chapters are dense, but well written with helpful exercises. It opened my mind up so muc, and is helping guide my practice to try and integrate the ideas taught in it.

[@isaacsmith1653]

The way you design the digital effects and how you use them to explain things are more useful then my ten years of music. Thank you thank you thank you!

[@floydc9482]

Great! I play by ear and never learned to read music. Now I know a few technical words to explain to some others how, where, and why I can hook melodies together and even include"out of key sounding notes" that transition into surprisingly attractive melodies while also creating the illusion of changing chords so much. Thanks a lot for the knowledge. The end of the video gave me a good laugh. Sad but true is the four note stars!

[@InventorZahran]

I love how you call musical instruments "input devices"!

[@kenyxkenyx]

So cool man,so cool.Love the effect when you play keys and their names show up at the same time.Very informative.

[@XiXora]

When you held that B, I was shouting at my screen for you to resolve that. ARGH! 😅

[@wickeddubz]

Grrreat! Lovely fluent blues melodies , and it’s nice to see that you share your experience and approach to music theory.

[@MuffinMachine]

Jeremy! Your timing of releasing this is perfect. Just last night I was trying to explain these concepts to my cousin and your video does a much better job than I did. My formal knowledge of music theory consists of half a year in high school where I sat in on a music theory class because I had no other class to be in. Great job and great timing. Thank you!

[@martingoldmannmusic]

I'll have to watch that Tutorial a few times as I grow playing on the keyboard. Really appreciate your work.

[@chadsix4838]

The floating notes were a great touch! Great info man!

[@WasabiNoise]

"It's effing four notes" 😅 No need to worry about academic background, your music speaks for itself so please tell us the secret sauce! I've been digging into music theory and learning classical piano, now I want to rewatch your old op-1 videos (free of NiN 1 sec songs), like "I Need U" to see and understand chord and melody relationships.

[@joshuawatson9868]

This is the best explanation of melody I have ever come across. I have never understood it until now. THANK YOU.

[@BinauralBae]

Petition: If a song has more than 3 "accidentals" in it we should now call them "On purpose"

[@picknicko13]

It's not a bug! It's a feature!

[@BinauralBae]

@@picknicko13 Ha!

[@znxster]

This is a nice simple instruction to melody. Really enjoyed the visual of the notes as well, I felt that helped the whole presentation.

[@michu1736]

Please make more theory blabbering videos! You are so good at explaining this stuff!

[@bobyatron7525]

This is great. You see so much of the same stuff rehashed on production channels. This was pretty novel to me and introduced plenty of new ideas for me to play with. Thanks

[@quentonparsons41]

I’m trying to teach myself music theory via KZbin and this helped out so much just understanding the meaning of playing in key

[@quentonparsons41]

Such an informative vid

[@RichardKhor]

This probably deserves more views.

[@thames21]

Richard Khor share it

[@thames21]

Didn’t mean that as if I’m being a dick. Honestly just meant to say, go share this, I will do so too. Jeremy should get what he deserves, and he deserves a lot. I love him, as an artist and as a person (for what I know about him thus far).

[@MattGreerMusic]

Some very excellent advice here. Solid fundamentals that I think would help a lot of folks starting to work on melodies. I use these techniques myself though I don't much think about it anymore. I guess with my melodies, I have this weird thing where I subconsciously sort of assign a thought or almost personality to each note and I tend think of a melody as telling a story where parts of the "sentences" flow and other parts punctuate the point being made. Not talking about lyrics, literally just notes but I feel them in that way. I guess I try to make my melodies "talk." David Gilmour from Pink Floyd is an excellent example of making his guitar talk which, in turn, I think results in more emotionally powerful audience response.

[@jaa1969jaa]

Pick a scale, start somewhere, make your way back to the tonic. A lot of melody is just round-about ways of resolving back to the tonic. Try it.

[@Soundwrecker]

Thanks J-man. This was a great intro to music theory and using scales over chords. I wish there was more of this kind of tutorial in the synth community. Love your video production chops; it's a pleasure to watch.

[@SuperZackJr]

Thank you for doing a video like this, I really enjoy learning from you. Please do more of these I will be at the front of the line for everyone ! Love ya bud

[@lukebogacik2793]

Thanks man,,,, closet music guy here,,, that was a lot of info quick. Beautiful ✌🏼🙏🏻❤️

[@conlinsauder8836]

This is actually helpful cus I’ve been just messing around on different music making things and haven’t come up with anything too good. I’ll learn my scales now!

[@Shade00a00]

this is incredible thanks so much for the explanation I always just heard people say "do what sounds good" but that doesn't mean anything to me.

[@timejumpertarot1114]

Great video. I prefer to learn from people who worked stuff out themselves.

[@DeepFriedFrog516]

I still don't understand how you don't have more subscribers... 🤯

[@cawashka]

I was just looking up how to come up with melodies 2 days ago, what a blessing!

[@kemasolar]

ᴛᴏᴍᴍy ᴠᴇʀᴄᴇᴛᴛɪ well I was looking for it, today! he knows what's going on in our minds, it seems

[@lumo_]

"You don't want to just play the easy notes" great insight, thanks

[@YourFavouriteColor]

dude. most songwriters today literally let whatever path of least resistance diarrhea fall out of their heads for their ENTIRE careers. sol mi sol mi sol mi re do sol mi sol mi la mi re do. Listen to how often you hear insipid non-melodic twaddle like that. I agree this is a pretty shallow demonstration, but "don't play the easy notes" is EXTREMELY crucial advice these days.

[@ct2034]

Really awesome video. I feel like everyone can learn something from this

[@bboymac84]

This was great! I’m definitely going to listen to music and play along

[@joeltrout]

Besides being interesting and informative, this video was lovingly produced. The notes floating off the screen was beautiful. Great video!

[@bobyatron7525]

i think he must have some program that does that from the midi input. His video production quality is really good but transcribing all those notes would be a massive chore.

[@swillm3ister]

This was exactly what I needed. Thanks very much Jeremy.

[@MatthewNoel]

Thank you! I really enjoyed this. I would watch more music theory videos if you make them. Thanks for always putting out great content and being inspiring.

[@StormBurnX]

there's so much intuition and gut feeling that goes into the sound - when you say things like "that wants to resolve to ___" it strikes me that people who are tone deaf, or not good with perfect/absolute pitch, will have no idea what this means. Sure, in my ears I can hear the tension in a bnat and how it needs to go up to a c to feel complete, but for many people out there this sort of explanation is just devoid of a connection with their ears. personally I loved this one from you and it's lovely to hear you just kind of free-talk without a heavily edited script and such, and for the sake of people I work with I hope some day a good balance between "you'll know it when you hear it" and "this is the mathematical arrangement of what works best" will be found :) p.s. the hint about keeping rhythm was very good, I'm going to have to share that with my friend that does not like learning music theory unless I hide it somehow :D edit: I wish I could heart that you keep hearting my comments

[@tobyjackson6514]

I struggle with really theory heavy explanations, we need more dropout music teachers !!

[@hazels7967]

Clear, informative, and aligned with what I already know of music theory. Well presented, and I enjoyed it. I'd like to see one about writing chord progressions at some point?

[@floatingsuburbia]

Informative! That would have been tedious to edit. Gold star for all of that work!

[@Soundwrecker]

I like to come up with melodies by starting with a chord progression or funky bass-line, then I kind-of hum over it to find a melody that I like, while trying to find what I'm humming on keys out of the scale of the song key. I get it and then jam it a little until baked to a golden brown.

[@TheCreateOutdoors]

This is why I never finish a song. I always get chords down, but the melody is where I get stuck because I know nothing about music theory. Thank.s Jeremy.

[@adzburg]

Thanks a lot, that really gave me another perspective on getting ideas for melodies!

[@everponderingstar]

You're visuals are so pretty and really help explain things! Thanks ! Great video

[@funkdefied1]

I love how plugged in Jeremy is into the electronic music he makes. Said “input device” instead of instrument haha Kepp rocking brother

[@adamturbot6737]

you're so humble man

[@Furock265]

I've needed this video for so long, and never even knew it! Thanks, Jeremy :D

[@tristanmeyers4717]

Cool note overlay!

[@Casual_Shots]

7:09 Sounds like Radiohead! edit Had to look it up, was thinking of Motion Picture Soundtrack.

[@dillipphunbar7924]

nice one jeremy..yes it was helpful/encouraging....i like my keystep...very handy

[@jonahjimenez7602]

THIS IS AMAZING STUFF!!! Please keep doing more of these videos!

[@enensis]

Thanks for sharing this I'm gonna start practicing this right away

[@JadanDuffin127]

That was a great video. I'd love to see you do some walk throughs like this when your making a tune on the OP-1, I think it would help me and Im sure others out there.

[@billykatsoulakis8258]

Thank you for the simplification! You've inspured me !

[@iamgeorgesears]

I think this is best video you've done so far. Thank you.

[@lyrical1999]

Thanks for the great video. I think the information you shared will help me a lot. Keep up the good work.

[@disarmsox]

This is more useful than those 6 months of tedious and painful traditional piano lessons I had...

[@pwhite102]

that F# at 5:40 reminds me of a song in the Black Tapes podcast. cool video!

[@shaofu424]

a concise, no nonsense music lesson good work \m/\m/

[@BoombapArt]

Thanks for an awesome video Jeremy! I don't know any theory at all, I just play what my ears like :) BOOM! (And I got kicked out of music school because I couldn’t figure out how to read notes)

[@dingus1115]

12:03 This is the first video of yours I've watched so I just guessed you were kid friendly but then you cussed which threw me off 😂🖒

[@Shugo819]

Every video you put out is so quality

[@brandonblasiola4735]

Your style is very much like mine, haha. I like the meandering nature of information as it comes to you.

[@stefan1024]

nice, starting on the quarte, the most ambivalent intervall there this :D

[@Captain.Mystic]

*talking about the song that played a single note over and over again* COMPLACIENDO PARA TODOS LAS BAILADORES CON ESTA ROLA QUE DICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! UN DOS QUES QUATRO!

[@yamanbusmaje]

i mean.. u do make some good teaching .. im sure there is a lot of ppl that want to learn melodies and such, and for me personally ive watched and read a lot of guilds. not gonna lie u did better than others at it so if u could, u can make a series and give ur advises for " how to music " id love to follow it!

[@bshort1974]

This is a great video! I'd love more content like this.

[@juliannaumann]

thanks, really learnt something, please make more videos like that!

[@LucaFabiano]

Wow thank you for a making this video! I hope to see more music theory stuff on your channel, bc you're great at explaining

[@marcosngr1845]

love you too, thanks for the sharing it help me so much

[@HairyHog77]

honestly it just flies over my head lol

[@SolarDrew]

Thoroughly appreciated this video. Thanks man

[@rafaelgonzalez6500]

Man, continue this videos please!

[@futureaztec5109]

I passed out. Then I woke up loving the beat at the end.

[@d3m3n70r]

Lol .. I've just ordered the Keystep yesterday.. Thy for hyping me up, Brother!

[@Soundwrecker]

Keystep is a really great piece of kit. You're going to love it.

[@d3m3n70r]

@@Soundwrecker I'm pretty sure, after all I've seen about it. Are you also utilizing it in your setup?

[@Soundwrecker]

@@d3m3n70r It's my midi keyboard for my whole hardware chain. I love the keybed and compact size w/ din midi out. I don't use the sequencer as I have separate sequencers, but it lets me switch midi channels in a flash to access different synths in my rig. And it's like $100; I don't know its equal in that form-factor at any price.

[@d3m3n70r]

@@Soundwrecker after spending almost 3 days jaming on that keyboard, I must admit, that this piece enhances my workflow a lot. I absolutely love it!

[@omarnomad]

HOLY CRAP! I loved this! ❤️

[@michaelluder4670]

Brilliant. Informative and esteem building. Keep injecting that positivity into KZbin please! x

[@screachog-reilige]

This helped me so much, thank you.

[@austinbru]

It was super informative and helpful! Thank you Jeremy

[@thetouffe316]

Melody: Oh? You're approaching me?