Tune Req: Can't get the melody

Subject: Tune Req: Can't get the melody
From: GUEST,Jeff Jacobs
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 12:05 PM

How is it possible to add a little lead guitar/mandolin, etc. to a particular song that i know the chords for. I play the guitar and mandolin and can read sheet music and apply it to either or, but I just can't make up the melody. What I mean is that I can pick different notes around a chord but it doesn't sound like the voicing for the song. Like take happy birthday if you pick the notes you can tell what it is, but you can pick a lot of notes around the chords but it doesn't sound like happy birthday. Any suggestions????

Clear as mud
Jeff Jacobs
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Subject: RE: Tune Req: Can't get the melody
From: M.Ted
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 02:07 PM

Start with the pulse, which is the underlying rhythm, (which is one of the main things that gives a song its character-if you just pound out the pulse with a stick, it will sound like the song)-- then you can create a variation on the pulse, create a variation on the melody, use a bit of counterpoint theory, and bingo! you've got a great solo!

Then, you can do it again, using different variations, and go on all night--

The trick to this answer, of course, it is only simple if you know your rhythms and melodies well enough to be able to improvise with them. It takes a lot of listening, a lot of practice, and creativity.
Any good teacher can help you to learn the rhythms, scales, rules of harmony, and all, but learning to create is a different situation entirely--

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Can't get the melody
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 10:23 AM

It's good to know by heart what the longest notes, especially the ending notes, of the song are. Then you pick up, down and around them, finally landing on the same note as everyone else to end it. Say the words of the song in your head as you do this.

Be sure you know what key you're in and stick to notes in that key.

If something sounds awful, play a new note ASAP.

It also helps to have the improvisation considerably higher than the melody. That way collisions are less noticeable. I'm told that bluegrass descants are a fifth above the melody.