Chords to Melody and Back Again...

OK - one more super ignorant about music theory question:

So I am happily strumming away many songs. But I want to throw in a few meolody pickings here and there to wow the audience. (My audience: wife and two small children ages 3 and 1 - they're my devoted fan base.)

How does one know what to pick?

Do I just pick notes equivalent to the chords? Or is it more complicated then that?

In short: How do you find the right notes for the melody riff?

There are several approaches.

A good couple of places to start are scales and arpeggios.

Getting ready to leave the office now, but I'll chime in with more later if no one helps out in the meantime.

GreyPoupon said:

In short: How do you find the right notes for the melody riff?

Click to expand...

The same way you find the right note for a melody when you're singing: You take a stab at what you think the right note should probably be. Does it sound too low? Try singing higher up. Does it sound too high? Try singing lower down. Eventually you zero in on the "right" note, and ideally you remember it.

Anyone who has been singing for a while--which is most adult humans--can do this trick of estimating pretty well, and then do the "correcting-if-you're-wrong" part very, very quickly. You won't be quite as efficient at this when you're using the uke at first. But like anything else, this is something you get better and better at the more you do it.

Start simple. "Ode to Joy", "Happy Birthday", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", etc.

The note, incidentally, doesn't necessarily have to be one of the notes that's in the chord. Quite often the note will come from the same scale that the chord comes from (this ties in with the concept of a song being in a particular "key"), but not always. (A bit of music theory knowledge will help with your "guessing at the right note" skill, by giving you an idea of probabilities. But the ear is going to be the final key.)

JJ

Yup. I'd certainly go along with that.

I still reckon it'd do no harm to learn at least some major scale patterns. When you know the scale in the key of a song, it gives you some reference points.

As JJ says, your ear is the main tool that will guide you (is that note too high? Too low?), and the more you practice the more you'll start to instinctively know where to find the notes you're after. However, there will be occasions where you hesitate. You might be pretty sure that the next note you want is on that 3rd fret... or is it the 4th fret? If you know the scale pattern for the key of that song, and if (for example) that 3rd fret note is in the scale but the 4th fret note isn't, well that can be the clue you need to confidently fret the note at the 3rd. It'll usually be right.

Along with your informal ear/finger association training, practising scale patterns can reinforce the link between what you hear and where the fingers go. Maybe not just going up and down the scale, as that is DULL, but playing along with a backing track in the appropriate key and experimenting with notes from within the scale works pretty well.

Arpeggios help in a similar way. They are a bit like scales, but each arpeggio contains only the notes from one chord. They are a way of finding the chord notes at various places on the fretboard. Chord/Arpeggio notes are safe notes. They provide strong anchor points that help to give solos and fills a context within the chord progression.

The main thing certainly is to use your ear and learn to coordinate it with your fingers, but some of this stuff can give valuable clues.

Here are some links for you.

Scales from GrumpyCoyote

More scales. A different approach by AcousticMonster

Newbie music theory courtesy of NukeDOC

Thank you! It seems I am in denial about the need to just hunker down and invest some serious sweat equity in developing real skills as opposed to just strumming and havin' a good old time.

Again, thank you!

GreyPoupon said:

It seems I am in denial about the need to just hunker down and invest some serious sweat equity in developing real skills as opposed to just strumming and havin' a good old time.

Click to expand...

It's all in how you look at it.

In my book, hunkering down is havin' a good old time.

JJ

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you should check out THIS, if you haven't already. Goes into the wheres and whens of solos. I'm finding it helpful anyway.

HoldinCoffee said:

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you should check out THIS, if you haven't already. Goes into the wheres and whens of solos. I'm finding it helpful anyway.

Click to expand...

Thanks Holdin. I had discovered the Rigk Sauer book and Lstratchey's book on creating chord solos, but did not know Aldrine had this out.

I apreciate the points about learning scales - but are there any excersises you could recommend on finger picking chords? Common sequences of strings, things that make the transition between chords sweet? Finger picking is my next challenge!

So here is a new video on YouTube that really is a great example of what I would like to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pkgwHt191c

First off, this video is awesome for a number of reasons.

But the main reason I post it here is that this is a very simple song with two chords, but he spices it up a lot, with a number of tricks, but the one I am focused on right now is: how did he figure out the riff for the melody?

From the above I understand that one just works it out by ear until you find something that works. And more scale practice and knowledge better educates your ear on where to reach. Yes? It's as simple as that?

GreyPoupon said:

From the above I understand that one just works it out by ear until you find something that works. And more scale practice and knowledge better educates your ear on where to reach. Yes? It's as simple as that?

Click to expand...

I am not sure I would say its easy, since it requires a lot of work, but from what I have been able to learn in the short time I have been playing, I would say that pretty much captures the idea. Marc Occinero (http://www.youtube.com/user/markocchionero#p/u/29/rKelBed18vw) is one of my favorite YouTube players, and a master at wrapping jazz chords around melodies and vice versa. He has a couple of great tutorials on how to play some of them, but they are very complicated. He expounds on the above idea a lot in the article below, but its still the same basic thing. Read what he has to say here:

http://playukulelebyear.blogspot.com/2010/01/3-questions-with-mark-occhionero.html

As far as the more simple licks (riffs?) between chords, I think most players just pick them up from either experimentation, or hearing others play them and then make them their own. I know Ken Middleon has a few pages downloadable on bluegrass "licks," but I haven't run across too many others yet.

Knowing the theory of harmony will shorten the trial and error in the following way. You will know the key of the song so that will tell which notes are candidates for the melody. Also if you know the notes of the chords you generally know the which are the important notes that form the backbone of the tune at that point in the song (especially if you get to complicated stuff like Jazz where you sometimes change key in mid song). Knowing this will make it easier to figure out songs and to improvise. A great book is this one:

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title...tical-Guitarist-Vol-1-The-Big-Picture/5106166

Its for guitar but the principles are the same as for Uke. Its a great book and very easy to read and comprehend.

The steps to learning this are:
1. Learn how music is built from scales and chords and how each key has its own family of notes and chords.
2. Learn where the notes and chords are on the uke - here it will help to learn the scales and basic chords for one of the most common keys (start with G ). Once you know one the others come easily.
3. Learn how to build chords and scales all the way up and down the fretboard in all the keys.

A good teacher could really help you with this.

Even for people who play totally by ear, a little theory is very useful.

I know it has been recommended before, and I have not read it myself, but this book has a whole section on developing "licks" in various keys.

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Roadmaps-Ukulele-Essential-Patterns/dp/1423400410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1264388391&sr=8-1

It's arguable that "popular" music (chord/melodic interplay) can be more closely based on chord structure with jazz more based on scales (not to say there aren't jazz chord approaches or even solos).

Knowing/learning the neck is what it comes down to, whether arrived at by scale study/practice or ear-based attempts at melodies.

In general, chord/melodic play does not depend on always playing full chords but partial chords as well, and the unspoken directly thing is getting your right hand/fingers roadworthy.

Be patient with yourself...amid hours of playing and practice. And listen to a lot of music. The best to you.