Creating Counter-Melodies and Additional (Parallel) Harmony Lines in VGM Remixes

[The Vodoú Queen]

Hey guys,

Dunno how to go about asking this, but I noticed a few colleagues of mine do this quite readily and frequently in MnP and PRC, and it has been recently brought to my attention in some criticism of my work in recent rounds...and this may sound real stupid or asinine to ask, but what is a good way to write counter-melodies or additional / extra harmony lines to a remix from a VG midi? At the moment I don't have a MIDI controller / keyboard to hand, but I am a bit at a loss for the technique of doing it. Been told with some of my work I don't explore melodies or harmonies enough?--or at the very least, they can be a bit underwhelming because I'm just using what I'm given, pretty straightforwardly. And it's getting to a point where no matter the additional content I slap onto a remix, be it a loop, a unique VST choice, or a sample / SFX, it isn't seemingly...IDK what's the right words...I guess bringing out enough potential in whatever I'm working on.

Want to see if anybody has some tips or tricks in making them, like I'm unsure...maybe breaking down whatever melody or harmony is already in the music and rearranging notes and stuff enough for it to go parallel with what's there, and enhance the experience, so to speak.

I figure this is the natural next step in trying to learn how to make music, trying to put your unique spin on it... So yeah, if anybody has anything that would be helpful.

[Wassup Thunder]

I decided to try and find something actually instructive to share, rather than just say "experiment till you find something that sounds good". I found this article here, https://medium.com/@NickEss/a-beginners-guide-to-counter-melodies-ebc5ae8b10cd, that shares some specifics and examples that might be helpful.
A couple personal tricks I use are making a counter melody that inverts the kind of notes the main melody is doing (IE, when the melody is fast short notes, a counter melody of long notes, etc). When making some melodic variation, I often take the melody's original notes and keep them the same structure (like, the quarter notes, 18th notes, half notes stay the same) but change the notes to make a new melody. Not sure if I wrote that out in a sense-making way...

[H36T]

I'm hoping I can come up with something more instructive like Wassup when I'm less sleepy but my tip for now is to listen to some true classical music (as in music from the actual classical era like Bach or Mozart). If you can read sheet music then going on YouTube and seeing the versions uploaded with sheet music to follow along may help too. 

If you don't like classical music (please don't force yourself haha) then I think learning some basic theory stuff if you don't know any (which is 1000% fine!) and try just playing things in thirds. Like insert the notes in your daw or however you like in thirds and just see how they sound. Use your ears and maybe move them around a bit. Have fun and see what sounds interesting! 

Although I'm classically trained, I still suck at remembering a lot of complex theory things so a lot of the time I rely on my ear and just fiddling around to see what may work. Some of the best things I've made were mistakes haha. So don't be shy and just see what works!

Last tip I have is to find midis of songs you like and literally just one to one them. Like find out which instruments are what (if they arent labeled) and load some VSTs and watch it play. Look at the notes or the midi blocks while the song is being played and see what is doing what. Isolate tracks on solo if you need to as well. And honestly if it sounds hot? Copy it. Add it to something else and see how it fits. Sometimes you'll be surprised at how well it does and when it doesn't, try and move parts of it around to force it to fit. Essentially what you are doing is learning about melody and harmony by deconstructing already made ones and hearing how they sound while seeing what they look like in your DAW. I know the word copy sounds like a no no, but at first that's all we are doing is copying. Later you can make it your own or even sometimes just copy it straight up if it's just a snippe of a basic harmonic or melodic progression and it fits your piece. Plagiarism in music starts when you are really straight up taking a whole musical line along with its placement in a piece and the other musical structures around it. But if it's a few notes or chords, then lord knows it's been done infinite times. As you become more skilled. You'll be able to do this less and rely more on your instinct. Which may still include things you like that you first heard from other places. But that's music imo. That's your heritage and you gotta own it sometimes. 

 

Anyway, sorry I'm rambling. I hope you find a path that leads to stronger melodies and harmonies! 

[The Vodoú Queen]

Hey, just an update:

Thanks you two so much for your kind words and lots of advice. I had taken the liberty of looking up some general tutorials on YT about it, as well as read that article @Wassup Thunderlinked, and it's been extremely insightful and thought-provoking, and I learned quite a bit just with doing the more basic stuff and trying to re-wrap my head around the theory of it all.

It's actually nice to put some of my (probably really old, we're talking 6th - 8th grade...) band experience back into play with the current composition I'm working on which is orchestral and me trying to strengthen melody / harmony. Trying to get used to reading sheet music again...(got all that crap from playing flute, keyboard and guitar lying around...although the latter two was me faffing about and the 1 course of it I took up in undergrad uni, respectively, TBH, so it ain't much.) And yeah, took up your ideas too @HarlemHeat360. Thankfully, I really like old classical music like Mozart and Bach. xD Had to take it up for band class, and it grew on me over time. Just, I always used that stuff to relax to, never really study and take a fine-tooth comb to. Suffice it to say, yeah, listening to some of it really helped to understand what you meant. I also listened to stuff from John Williams, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and some other peeps, just big-name epic film scores like "The Theme from Jurassic Park" and "He's A Pirate" (Pirates of the Caribbean) to also get a feel on that from that perspective.

Some real good shit.

But thanks again. Any more advice or insight is also welcome.

[Gario]

If you're looking to learn how to write independent lines that compliment an existing lead, there's an entire compositional art dedicated to just that called "Counterpoint". You can read "Fux Gradus Ad Parnassum" for a fairly complete presentation on how to do counterpoint, but for the short-short version:

Four types of motion (aka two notes moving at the same time) are used to create independence between lines, from "most" independent to "least":

Counter Motion (notes move in opposite direction)
Oblique Motion (one note moves while the other stands still)
Similar Motion (notes move in the same direction but by different amounts)
Parallel Motion (notes move in the same direction and by the same amount)

All of this motion can (and should) be used, but be careful when moving in parallel motion to not move in parallel unison (the notes will sound like the same note, losing the independence), parallel octaves (same issue as moving in unison - you lose the voice), and parallel fifths (fifths discourage motion in music, moving in parallel makes the lines sound disjointed). Furthermore, do not move in similar motion into an octave, unison, or fifth. Oblique motion shouldn't lead into a dissonance, but it can lead out of one. Overall chord intervals shouldn't be dissonant, so don't lead into dissonance between your two notes, but decorative notes (like passing or neighbor tones) can be dissonant without too much issue.

Aside from that, go nuts, the world is your oyster and all that jazz. This is a primer on traditional counterpoint, which kinda ignores some modern music (dissonance is generally more accepted nowadays, for example), but it should act as a nice guideline if you're having trouble making independent lines in your music in the first place.

This has been a crash course on basic voice leading and counterpoint from yours truly. Hope it helps.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Gario

[H36T]

On 8/2/2021 at 3:39 AM, Gario said:

If you're looking to learn how to write independent lines that compliment an existing lead, there's an entire compositional art dedicated to just that called "Counterpoint". You can read "Fux Gradus Ad Parnassum" for a fairly complete presentation on how to do counterpoint, but for the short-short version:

Four types of motion (aka two notes moving at the same time) are used to create independence between lines, from "most" independent to "least":

Counter Motion (notes move in opposite direction)
Oblique Motion (one note moves while the other stands still)
Similar Motion (notes move in the same direction but by different amounts)
Parallel Motion (notes move in the same direction and by the same amount)

All of this motion can (and should) be used, but be careful when moving in parallel motion to not move in parallel unison (the notes will sound like the same note, losing the independence), parallel octaves (same issue as moving in unison - you lose the voice), and parallel fifths (fifths discourage motion in music, moving in parallel makes the lines sound disjointed). Furthermore, do not move in similar motion into an octave, unison, or fifth. Oblique motion shouldn't lead into a dissonance, but it can lead out of one. Overall chord intervals shouldn't be dissonant, so don't lead into dissonance between your two notes, but decorative notes (like passing or neighbor tones) can be dissonant without too much issue.

Aside from that, go nuts, the world is your oyster and all that jazz. This is a primer on traditional counterpoint, which kinda ignores some modern music (dissonance is generally more accepted nowadays, for example), but it should act as a nice guideline if you're having trouble making independent lines in your music in the first place.

This has been a crash course on basic voice leading and counterpoint from yours truly. Hope it helps.

*hug*