Many producers have no formal musical education, doing their own thing by ear and not using any rules to define their melodies.
This may be working out for you, but even if it is, a basic grasp of some fundamental parts of music theory can help you know where to aim on the keyboard when looking for that perfect chord or riff!
Here are 5 quick insights if you're an absolute beginner that can help you to better understand how to write the kind of music you want...
1. Major and Minor
Changing a song's scale can drastically change a song's mood. A major scale results in a jolly, happy mood, whereas a minor scale results in a darker, more emotional sound. A quick way to test the different sounds is to play the scales on a keyboard.
Try it out:
Going from C, playing every consecutive white note until you hit the next C on the keyboard is the C Major scale, which as you can see comes across as dutifully cheery, whereas a minor scale would start to involve some of the black keys, which if you test out bringing them in things start to get much more serious!
2. Octaves
If you feel that the note you're playing is right, but it doesn't have the right tonality to it, try playing it an octave above or below. An octave is slightly confusing to define in words, but if we look at the example above with the white keys playing the C Major scale, the 8th note you play will be an octave above the 1st note.
Try it out:
Most MIDI keyboards come with "Octave up/down" buttons so you can hear the difference. It's the same note, just lower or higher in pitch. Playing two or more notes of the same key at different octaves at the same time is a great technique for making more powerful sounds.
3. Want something painful? Listen to dissonance!
If you play a chord or sequence that sounds pleasant, like it belongs, it is called "consonance". When you want to hear something less pleasant (Dubstep and other darker, heavier genres listen up!) you should be aware of "dissonance" - when some notes don't fit together.
Try it out:
For instance if you play a C at the same time as the first black key to the right of it on a keyboard at the same time, you'll hear that painful dissonant sound. It can be used to great effect in anything from Hip Hop (Dr Dre did it with pianos all the time!) to Hardstyle, Dubstep, Heavy Metal... the list goes on. Sometimes it's good to not stick to what sounds conventionally pleasant!
4. Harmony
If you feel your vocals melodies are thinner and not quite as powerful as those in pop music, maybe you should consider adding some harmonies. Harmony is usually a case of using simultaneous pitches on the same melody line, listen to the chorus of whatever is topping the charts and I bet if you listen to the vocal line, there will be another one sitting quietly above or below the main melody line, following it but hitting different notes.
Try it out:
With the C major scale, try going up playing two notes at a time - one finger on the C and one finger two white keys up. It's the same melody line, but harmonised.
5. Instant prettiness - thirds
...Which brings me nicely onto thirds. There are lots of chords out there but a quick way to make pretty sounds is what you just did when you harmonised the C major scale. Since your second finger was hitting the third note in the scale at the same time as the first, this is known as a third. A major third in fact.
Try it out:
Major thirds aren't the only ones out there though - If you moved your second finger
down to the black note closest to it when playing the C major third, it'd become a C minor third. Hear how the tone of the music becomes more tense and emotional? That's the power of minor keys for you!
There's obviously a whole world of musicality out there to understand, but hopefully these ideas will give you some ideas to try if you get stuck when making your masterpieces!
