Melody

Chords to Melody

One way is to create a chord progression, and than to find the melody in the chords.

E3	D3	F3	E3
C3	B2	D3	C3
A2	G2	A2	G2

As mentioned before, the octave in Renardo is 2 steps above the usual, middle C is 5 not 3.

Lets do the chords with 93 bpm with A as Root note and minor scale:

Clock.bpm = 93
Root.default=”A”
Scale.default=Scale.minor

# Chords:
chords = var([(0,2,4),(-1,1,3),(0,3,5),(-2,2,4)])
s1 >> swell(chords, oct=5, dur=4, sus=5)

# Hit the drums can help find a good melody:
b1 >> play("<X....X..X..[X.].X..><..o.><---->",sample=0)

The easiest way to start a melody is to take the highest notes of the chords. However, you want to add some non-chord notes to your chord notes:

E4	F4	D4	F4	D4	G4	E4	D4

seq=[4,5,3,5,3,6,4,3]
s2 >> pulse(seq, oct=6, dur=[3,1,3,3,1,1,2,2])

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Melody to Chords

In this example we start with a melody in order to get suitable chords from it, here the melody.

A3	B3	C4	B3	E4	F4	C4	G4	E4	D4

Let’s set the tempo, the root and the scale:

Clock.bpm = 93

Root.default=”A”

Scale.default=Scale.minor

The originating Melody:

If you can’t remember the numbers on the scale list, use print(Scale.minor).

seq=[0,1,2,1,4,5,2,6,4,3]

Synth:

s1 >> saw(seq, dur=[2,1,1,4,3,1,1,1,1,1], formant=4, amplify=0.4)

The available chords (with 7th) for the notes played in the melody are as follows:

G4	A4	B4	C5	D5	E5	F5
E4	F4	G4	A4	B4	C5	D5
C4	D4	E4	F4	G4	A4	B4
A3	B3	C4	D4	E4	F4	G4

Here is a good example of a trip-hop-like track:

E4	D4	E4	E4
C4	B3	C4	G4
A3	G3	A3	C4

Let’s add the chords to the melody:

chords = var([(0,2,4),(-1,1,3),(0,2,4),(-1,6,4)])
s2 >> keys(chords, oct=4, dur=4, shape=0.4)

And a drum hit:

b1 >> play("<X....X..X..[X.].X..><..o.><---->", sample=0)

Add a counter melody (arpeggio)

Let’s keep it simple and use the chord notes to play with the chords. With the counter melody we want to add a rhythm to the track. As the 4th of the sequence in a 4-beat measure, we add the 2nd as shown here:

chords = var([(0,2,4),(-1,1,3),(0,2,4),(-1,4,6)])

becomes

seq2 = [0,2,4,2,-1,1,3,1,0,2,4,2,-1,4,6,4]

Now let’s add another instrument that plays the counter melody:

s3 >> karp(seq2, dur=1)

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Chords to Bassline

In the example below, the chord progression is based on A minor, while raising a root to a higher octave and lowering a root.

G3	G3
E3	F3	G3	G3
C3	D3	E3	E3
A2	B2	C3	B2

Let’s set the tempo, root and scale:

Clock.bpm = 128
Root.default=”A”
Scale.default=Scale.minor

Here chords and synth:

chords = var([(0,2,4,6),(1,1,3,6),(2,4,6),(1,4,6)])
s1 >> prophet(chords, oct=4, dur=4, sus=4)

The safe case is to use chord root notes as bass notes and lower those notes in the octave:

A1	G1	C2	E2

bassline1 = [0,-1,2,4]

Another way to create a bass line is to find notes within the chords (although the 7th can be tricky).

A1	B1	C2	B1

You can also change the duration of the bass line to get a rhythmic component:

Use dur=1, dur=[0.5,1], or dur=[1,2,1] instead of dur=4.

Another option is to move the root note of a chord one step up the previous chord row.

With dur=1:

bassline2=[0,0,0,-1,-1,-1,-1,2,2,2,2,-3,-3,-3,-3,0]

Or you use octave oct jumps:

bassline3=[0,0,0,0,-1,-1,-1,-1,2,2,2,2,-3,-3,-3,-3]

with dur=1 and oct=[3,3,4,3]

Finally, a melody as a bass line:

A1	G1	A1	B1	A1	G1	G1	A1	C2	C2	A1	G1	E1	E1	F1	G1

bassline4 = [0,-1,0,1,-1,-1,0,1,3,3,0,-1,-3,-3,-2,-1]

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Bassline to Chords

We’ll start with tempo, root note, scale, and a simple bass line:

Clock.bpm = 128
Root.default=”A”
Scale.default=Scale.minor
bassline=[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1]

Now let’s build chords along the minor chord, like: Am, Bm/A, G/A, Am.

chords = var([(0,2,4),(1,3,5),(0,2,4),(-1,1,3),(0,2,4)])

Bm/A and G/A mean “above A” because the bass line still keeps A as the root of the chord.

The corresponding synth examples for bass and chords are:

s1 >> jbass(bassline, oct=3, dur=0.5, shape=0.4) # Bass
s2 >> dirt(chords, oct=5, dur=[4,3,1,4,4], amplify=0.4) # Chords

Drums:

b1 >> play("<V....V..><..o.><....k..d>←--[--]>", sample=var([4, 2], 16), amplify=0.5)
b2 >> play(var(["[ss]",".[ss]"]), amplify=0.5)

Some additional notes on a bass line:

Only use one note at the time, as low frequency easy go “muddy”!