Medley Tips

[Brian]

As a big fan of medleys I decided to share my knowledge in the medley making process. I've heard good medleys and bad medleys here on OCR and elsewhere so I thought I'd take the time to write a couple tips on making medleys.

1. Have plenty of songs in your brain's music database (obviously).

2. Avoid repetition (keep it fresh).

3. Set an approximate time limit for your medley (people generally don't like it if it goes on and on).

4. Don't play the entire song. What's worse if you do this several times back to back, this is just basically slapping together a playlist of songs and not a medley. People want something refreshing, something creative and new. The more unpredictable the medley is, the better. If I can predict in the next 4 minutes that it's still going to be that same song, you're doing it all wrong.

5. Overlapping tunes:

If you truly want to overlap two or more tunes that doesn't sound like shit, apply your knowledge in music theory to see what works and what doesn't to avoid dissonance. If they're slightly different, you then have to alter the melody so it fits the chords or vice versa. My rule of thumb for overlapping tunes is to use a maximum of two melodies. Three is really pushing it. Four will sound like a garbled mess of incomprehensible sound (avoid at all costs).

The most Important rule of all!

6. Transitions must flow smoothly. Don't be a jackass and insert songs out of nowhere without putting any thought into it. Is there a song that you like but just can't use it? It's better to avoid it than forcing it in there and making it sound out of place. I get this all the time.

That's all I have to say. I'll add more if anything comes up.

[Rozovian]

it should be noted that medleys have some difficulty getting accepted on ocr due to the standards.

• Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together

[Gario]

It's not bad information, though. It's also geared towards a unified sounding track, so it also would help the medleys get accepted on OCR, too (OCR just doesn't want a stream of songs slapped together as one track, to my understanding).

[Brian]

yeah, making medleys isn't that easy if you only have a limited number of songs and the songs don't connect. If that's true, then it's better not to make it.

A lot of the medleys feel "forced." Forced as in they force songs in there when it isn't even necessary. Hopefully I can complete my Legend of Zelda medley to demonstrate a good medley.