How to Make Melodies with the 3-Layer Method

[00:00:03]Let me show you how to make good melodies every single time using the three-layer method because especially in the beginning when you're starting out, you're just guessing, all right? Which there's nothing wrong with that, but if you need some type of structure, here it is. The whole concept is to work layer by layer and to start with the most important one and the foundation of your whole melodies, which are the bass notes. We are in the C minor natural scale. If you see the highlighted notes in the back, here basically you want to stick to these notes for now. Focus on the emotion that the bass notes would give you. So, let's say I'm going to go a bit up here.

[00:00:41]I do [music] this.

[00:00:46]This is kind of melodic, very emotional.

[00:00:52]This is a bit better. It's [music] kind of uplifting.

[00:00:57]So, this basically whatever you do here is pretty much going to decide the whole melody feel at the end.

[00:01:06]>> [music] >> You can just do this, too, you know?

[00:01:10]This is going to be a bit harder.

[00:01:12]But for this video, I'm thinking I'm going to do maybe, let's see.

[00:01:18]Go to 1, 4, and 7.

[00:01:21]>> [music] >> So, I'm going to do something moody but slightly uplifting because of this note here. All right. And now that we have this, we're going to work in four bars.

[00:01:34]>> [music] >> What you want to do now is just copy these, put them on C5, let's [music] say.

[00:01:42]And come up with your chords. We're going to create some crazy dark R&B-ish chords.

[00:01:48]>> [music] >> First thing you can do is a simple triad.

[00:01:55]But I want to add more.

[00:01:59]>> [music] >> This makes it happy. You see, you can go note by note.

[00:02:04]This is a triad to a C.

[00:02:07]>> [music] >> This is nice. It's a ninth.

[00:02:14]This is a bit uplifting.

[00:02:17]G is here. Okay, you know what? I'm going to go with the ninth right here.

[00:02:21]I'm going to put it here.

[00:02:28]Okay, now let's go to the second chord.

[00:02:29]I'm going to build a simple triad on this because technically, let's say if I just make triads, you'll see. Get rid of this one.

[00:02:44]All right, this this is great. Like, it just sounds perfect. It's kind of like a triad is always going to sound perfect, you know? But, if you want to add some color, let's add some notes in between.

[00:02:53]So, let's see what's [music] going to happen now.

[00:02:59]>> [music] >> Maybe here?

[00:03:04]Oof.

[00:03:05]This is darker. Now, let's make this [music] one darker, too.

[00:03:13]>> [music] >> This is nice. So, you see already, >> [music] >> we created some crazy chords.

[00:03:21]Okay, I'm really happy with this.

[00:03:27]>> [music] >> Perfect. So, essentially, look, I could just like use these chords the way they are or maybe even invert them like this if I want to, and it's going to give me something else. Maybe open them up just by command up.

[00:03:44]>> [music] >> It's going to give me the same vibe, >> [music] >> but played differently.

[00:03:54]Different color.

[00:03:56]You [music] can put this up here.

[00:03:58]Or maybe >> [music] >> See a better tension here.

[00:04:09]All right. So, now either I just pick the chords like that or I create a full range mini map and I go a bit crazier with the rhythm and everything. All right, so let's just do that.

[00:04:23]Okay, I'm going to do this like that.

[00:04:25]Okay. So, now I'm going to put this down let's say C3. This is good. Take this up, put it here.

[00:04:33]So, I'm creating a full range visual guides and that's going to help me for the melody creation. And this is the second layer. Think about this as the second layer.

[00:04:43]And let's go put this like that.

[00:04:47]Create a sampler. I created like over 500 of these extended chords and harmony blueprint. My pack can check in the description and you can try it for free.

[00:04:57]Just going to copy this, put in the sampler, get rid of this.

[00:05:02]Okay.

[00:05:03]So, now let's go back in contacts.

[00:05:08]So, it's right here. So, you see it all.

[00:05:12]All right. So, now I want to create some rhythm.

[00:05:17]So, what you can do is just [music] just pick a triad and just start like putting in a rhythm.

[00:05:24][music] And then we're going to change the whole note. So, either I can like arpeggiator, which I think I'm going to do for this video.

[00:05:36]>> [music] >> Yeah, let's do this. All right. So, check this out.

[00:05:42]Going to do something different here.

[00:05:49]>> [music] >> All right, simple rhythm.

[00:05:53]Going to quantize it. It's on the half a beat.

[00:05:58]>> [snorts] >> Okay, now we're going to take a look at this.

[00:06:05]So, I just added a bass note to help me stay grounded in the chord.

[00:06:11]>> [music] >> All right, let's see what we can do.

[00:06:21]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Sounds great. Sounds great. Okay, so now I'm going to pick this one.

[00:06:44]Put it right here, and it's going to change right here. Either I go down or up.

[00:06:51]And let's change these ones.

[00:07:01]>> [music] >> Maybe we'll go up.

[00:07:06]Actually, yeah, right here.

[00:07:12]Keep the same motion.

[00:07:14]Go on.

[00:07:17]Two, one, two, yeah.

[00:07:19]>> [music] >> Okay, and then it's going up.

[00:07:31]>> [music] [music] >> Super heavy.

[00:07:45]>> [music] >> It's a bit lighter.

[00:07:49]But you know what? Let's Let's put these here.

[00:08:00]Ooh, if anything, this is going to go down here, maybe.

[00:08:11]Let's get rid of the root notes just [music] to see.

[00:08:18]What if I put it here, actually?

[00:08:26]>> [music] >> This is nice. And you know what? I could change it now, okay? So, since we're working on the second layer, so remember, the bass notes are the first layer, part of the first layer.

[00:08:47]You can add some fifths on this just by doing this.

[00:08:56]But it's, you know, this is kind of a power chord at the bottom here. I'm going to keep it simple and change things on the second part right here.

[00:09:07]So now, just take the whole thing, and maybe I'll go up.

[00:09:12]Let's see what happens if I go up. And technically, well, we are using the same chords, but we're playing them differently.

[00:09:20]So if I go back here, I'm going here, here, and here.

[00:09:30]It's going up.

[00:09:32]But let's see if I do this.

[00:09:37]And then I'll go over here.

[00:09:41]>> [music] >> Yeah, and then maybe not here cuz it's the same, you see, but maybe like here.

[00:09:59]>> [music] >> And then do this.

[00:10:05]>> [music] >> And then these ones um since it's here, yeah, we can keep it there and just change like this.

[00:10:18]Now you see it's the same thing here, so I'm going to put it up just to switch it up completely.

[00:10:29]Okay, great. So you see how it makes sense? Like everything is I don't know why I'm calling it It's okay. Let's just like Let's hear it.

[00:10:41]>> [music] >> I kind of want to go up here. I'm feeling like it should go up almost.

[00:10:56]>> [music] >> See?

[00:11:06]>> [music] >> Oh, I almost got it here. I forgot to change this one.

[00:11:19]Okay, now let's hear this.

[00:11:25]>> [music] [music] >> Man, this method is just amazing.

[00:11:40]If you want to use the same chords, keep staying the same vibe, which is moody but uplifting because we're using this progression, and I'll show you guys the full range file name that is part of Harmony Blueprint.

[00:11:52]Uh but now we got the second layer, we got the foundation.

[00:11:57]It's the second layer, and then we're going to work on the third layer, which is the the melody, the top melody, a little sprinkle that adds It adds a lot, actually.

[00:12:07]But it the the whole vibe is really dependent on these ones, you know? And you can like switch things up. You can start with this and then put it down. Like that's what I'm doing recently. I'm just starting with the melody in the middle because it's kind of like the driving factor.

[00:12:23]This is really the driving factor, but this really like reinforces the vibe is the foundation of everything. All right.

[00:12:30]me start.

[00:12:32]Let me put like top melody. [music] Something like that. I'll put it in.

[00:12:50]>> [music] >> We'll see if we'll keep the rhythm at the end there, but you get the idea.

[00:13:00]All right, let me You know what?

[00:13:04]For the purpose of Oops.

[00:13:07]I'm just going to quantize it for the purpose of this tutorial.

[00:13:12]Uh if you really want to make it like sounding real, you there's, you know, you can leave it unquantized.

[00:13:20]>> [music] >> And uh I'm also going to to like connect them.

[00:13:30]>> [music] [music] >> Oops.

[00:13:49]So, you can hear it.

[00:13:51]>> [music] >> It's kind of going up.

[00:14:01]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Maybe I'll I will go up. Oops.

[00:14:30]Something like that.

[00:14:39]Let's make it uplifting.

[00:14:42]And then I'll just hold on option.

[00:14:46]Plug it a bit.

[00:14:49]>> [music] >> And then change it here, too.

[00:14:54]You see that that was pretty nice.

[00:15:00]Change Change it normally, and it's going to sound good.

[00:15:08]>> [music] >> And then I guess this is going to be this one. I mean, I could have done maybe here actually. Okay, let's let's just hear it and [music] see.

[00:15:37]>> [music] >> Let's Let's make it perfect.

[00:15:46]>> [music] >> Maybe I'll just go [music and singing] uh >> [music] >> Okay, I'll keep it like this.

[00:16:13]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Sounding pretty good.

[00:16:31]>> [music] >> Yeah, yeah, sounding perfect. All right, so now that we have the three layers we created with uh piano, I want to show you how you can actually use this in your beats, okay? So, the bottom layer we're going to find some crazy bass.

[00:16:53]And then I'm going to make it different like super different from piano in this example.

[00:16:59]Let's say I'm going to go in bass. Uh where is it? Where is it? Bass right here. And let's go mellow.

[00:17:07]We'll see. So, now you copy this, you put it right here.

[00:17:16]>> [music] >> Crazy. but >> [music] [music] [music] >> Oof, that's crazy.

[00:17:44]>> [music] >> Okay, perfect. I'll keep this one.

[00:17:51]Now, let's go for the middle part. I want to show you like what you can do.

[00:17:55]It's It's actually crazy.

[00:17:58]So, now I'm going to get rid of the top melody and the bass. All right?

[00:18:06]>> [music] [music] >> Even this is crazy. Sound like like a video game, like a Ninja Turtles, like Nintendo or something. [music] I used to play when I was young, but uh let's go find some uh what's called Omnisphere. Let's go find some uh melodic synth.

[00:18:32]>> [music] >> Some like saw waves.

[00:18:40]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> But, the tempo up it a little bit.

[00:19:14]You know what? This one's pretty cool, but I do want something like more powerful powerful. Okay, this is pretty good.

[00:19:26]>> [music] >> With the bass.

[00:19:33]>> [music] >> This is like it's going to be crazy.

[00:19:40]Okay, now let me get rid of everything on the bottom.

[00:19:44]Oops, and then just keep the lead.

[00:19:48]>> [music] [music] >> Okay, I like this.

[00:20:01]>> [music] >> I'm going to keep this one in the background, but just to like play you guys a final final final loop.

[00:20:13]Definitely just going to pick a nice pad so you can hear everything clearly.

[00:20:22]Pads pads pads. Uh yeah, right here.

[00:20:26]Okay.

[00:20:29]>> [music] >> Okay, this is better. All right, let's just >> [laughter] >> let's just listen to it.

[00:21:08]>> [music] >> Anyways, I just did this whole thing to show you guys the beginning and the end, like how it sounds. This piano [music] is a classic.

[00:21:24]It's always going to be great.

[00:21:26]But, you know, you can do whatever you want. If you're working layers, you can change your sounds after your instruments after and just create something like super interesting. All right, let me know what you think. Take care.