12-12-2016, 10:33 AM
(12-11-2016, 06:34 PM)Bitronic Wrote: If you have piano, midi keyboard, virtual keyboard or whatever, just play randomly twiddle on scales until you get something that sounds like it would be good.
Then build on the riff you made, make variations of it, invert or reverse it, play it on different keys, or make another different sounding riff that's related to the previous one (a subtle way to do so is through sharing the same rhythm), or combine some or all of the techniques above.
If you want to really get technical, a good "guideline" would be following how Cantus Firmi from early western music are composed; combining leaps and stepwise motion (scales), having only one point where the melody "climaxes", no giant leaps greater than a fourth.
This video may also help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl-V2IsUprQ
Funny enough, what you told me to do in the first paragraph is already what I do. Sometimes, it can be quite slow though. (Maybe it's just experience that helps others go faster.)