I'm really curious to see what everyone's process is, if you have one at all. I personally tend to just mess around in a key until I find something worth delving into, but if anyone has a more organised process or a different way to go about things I'd love to give it a try. I've been really looking into how other people write music recently, because apparently there's a lot more variation than I thought.
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Los Angeles, CA
I set my arps up and then have those playing while I find melodies that harmonize pleasantly in certain spots with them.
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Melbourne, Australia
I generally have three ways. I use them for melodies, counter melodies and basslines:
1. For gameboy and other trackers I love doing this one. I do the melody blind. I choose a rough rhythm and place random notes, depending on where I want it to build to. So, if I want it exciting in the mid part I'll just make the rhythm faster and the notes getting higher. This usually gives something pretty unexpected which is normally surprisingly good and provides some nice ideas.
2. I jam on guitar or keys and record it. Once recorded, I choose small melodic phrases and loops, either build on them or loop them (basically sampling them). This again can give some nice ideas.
3. Probably my favourite one though is to sing or hum. To find in my head a melody that comes naturally (this is especially good for lyrics) and to put that in. This most often gives little flourishes that I wouldn't normally put in a melody when programming, and makes it sound much more natural and exciting!
Nice topic idea! I'm keen to hear what everyone does!
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Holland
Make up a fairly simple chord progression with a standard bassline and drums, whistle over it to get the melody to fit the chords, edit the melody to make it more elaborate / catchy, change the harmonies and bassline to become more interesting and support the melody better. This is basically how all xyce songs are made. :-)
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Chips & Dip :3
I literally just either borrow short tones I hear from time to time and make something out of that.
OR
I just input random notes into LSDJ at varying points, tweak 'em a bit, and BAM!!! a melody.
My methods aren't really that good tho 
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Michigan
I do normally follow Panda Chan's second and third methods along with Xylo's progression. This is something I do when I have an idea but no staff sheets to write it on.
I write out a series of numbers; -1,-2,-3,-4,-5,-6,-7,1(-8),2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16
Three octaves, just to play around with a melody and if it fluctuates to a higher tone or lower.
Each number is the note of whatever key you are in (number one would be your tonic, two would be supertonic, three is mediant, ect)
You have to start on one or five (reason for this is because no matter what key you're in, the tonic is your major and dominate is your minor)
Doubling notes is hard to explain, but should be kept to root,third,fifth,(and sixth or seventh for a fuller or jazz swing).
Listing a line of numbers now becomes your sheet music, that can be played in any key.
If anyone makes sense of what I just typed, try this out. I can throw an example but I'm getting ready for work at the moment.
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Chicago, IL
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Minneapolis, MN
metatronaut wrote:
I literally just either borrow short tones I hear from time to time and make something out of that.
OR
I just input random notes into LSDJ at varying points, tweak 'em a bit, and BAM!!! a melody.
My methods aren't really that good tho
This pretty much sums up what I do too.
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Åre, Sweden
Personally I love to record melodies or hooks whenever they pop up in my head (which can be just about any time at all, but usually not when I'm in front of the computer) on my phone as voice memos. Whistling, humming, whatever. That way I can browse 'em whenever I'm in the mood of composing and just port it to the tracker or play it on the keyboard.
Just forcing out melodies is way hard for me... and they tend to get less "organic" that way I think. If you can whistle it and it sounds good, you know it's a melody that can stick. My two cents.
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France (au milieu)
on my phone as voice memos. Whistling, humming, whatever. That way I can browse 'em whenever I'm in the mood of composing and just port it to the tracker or play it on the keyboard.
this too, but I never have the recording gear with me, and forget 99.9% of them...
I usually find mélodies fooling on a flute, or a guitar, a uke, a bass or whatever
I've noticed that ''good ones'' come back naturally, even after a while... once i have it in the head, I play with it with different instruments to hear how it sounds
and then try to make it on LSDJ
and fail...
and play some mystic quest or zelda on the B side of the card 
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TX
Usually, i start with a chord progression / rhythm that i want to use and not a melody. Melodies are easy* to improvise on the spot when they have something good to push against. I also will often go for a long walk and play around with melodies in my head (like rymdkraft, i use my phone to record them sometimes). Sometimes I use a guitar or something to help me write, as well.
*nothing's really easy
Last edited by Brother Android (Feb 26, 2015 3:53 pm)
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Montreal, Canada
Just wrote something on that topic a few days ago, give it a little read if you're interested:
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Whateverville, California
Chord progressions or melodies pop into my head, then I transpose them into a tracker. I have no formal musical training (or idea what I'm doing most of the time), so my structures and melodies can be pretty spastic and scattered. Luckily for me, that's the way I like it.
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Chips & Dip :3
Imaginary wrote:
Chord progressions or melodies pop into my head, then I transpose them into a tracker. I have no formal musical training (or idea what I'm doing most of the time), so my structures and melodies can be pretty spastic and scattered. Luckily for me, that's the way I like it.
This guy gets it
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Holland
I wrote a little something about this today. https://medium.com/@toffringa/xyce-on-m … 9eded6b8bd
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Dallas, Texas
I don't always use this, but when I'm in a pickle, I'll record a couple bars of this with the arpeggiator on, then figure out what the notes ended up becoming afterwards.
It's useful cause you can lock it in to any scale and basically 'button mash' until it spits out something you like. Record it, Transcribe it, Rinse, Repeat
Last edited by TylerBarnes (Feb 26, 2015 8:36 pm)