thazklein Wrote:
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> So I've been wondering, and trying to sing.
Uh-oh... :-D
> But
> ideas won't pop in my head when I'm playing the
> chords on guitar. While, when it comes about base
> melody and solos I can deal easily with. I also
> have a feeling for blues, but I think everyone has
> feeling for blues since its really easy. When it's
> about blues songs I have ideas to sing. But the
> thing here is: when its a song not in blues, a
> normal song in any scale not bluesy scale, I think
> its too complicated to sing...
>
> so I'd like to know, is there anything I can do to
> have ideas popping in my head when playing normal
> chords? I also discovered that playing one chord
> only is easier to hum along with it, then I move
> to other chords after I have something to sing,
> that's something that works for me. BUT, there
> comes another thing, humming along with chords
> doesn't give me something that I like, something
> that I listen and "oh, that sounds pretty good",
> so there is another obstacle, having something
> actually GOOD to sing and listen to.
>
> I know it might be a little messy to understand,
> because my english is not the best and I had so
> many things to say in a single post, but here it
> is, I hope its understandable after all...
>
> plus: is there any exercise I can do daily to
> increase my ideas to sing with the chords, since
> I'm not doing any vocal classes? Thanks!
Humming along to chords is definitely a good exercise to help train your voice and your ear.
Of course, it may not produce anything you like, because really it's just an exercise - tuning yourself into the chord tones that stand out (or that you can reach with your voice).
I don't think you should expect good ideas to just "pop into your head" that way. It may be that you need to keep trying the same exercise (with the same chords) over and over, and eventually you may hit something you like.
Why not try thinking of a verbal phrase that could make some lyrics, and try singing those words instead of just humming? You might find that the words make more sense of the notes you're humming - a tune that might sound dull if just hummed might be good enough with (good) words attached.
But in general, writing good melodies is about having a fund of melodic
vocabulary to start with. As I'm sure you know, when writing in English, you can say what mean much better the more words (and better grammar) you know. The English didn't just "pop into your head" - you had to study and learn it. When you began you could say very little. Now (while it's not perfect) you can say a lot more.
Same applies to composing (or improvising) music. You have to learn the vocabulary. That's not just the notes in a scale, or the chords in a key. That's like learning the alphabet. It's the "words and phrases" you need. You get that from listening to (and copying and playing) lots of good songs by other people. It doesn't mean stealing ideas from other songs - it means absorbing the shapes of tunes, which notes sound good with which chords, how melodies are phrased: rhythms as well as notes. You can sometimes steal
small parts, and combine them with small parts from other songs (so the mix is not recognisable). But mainly it's just about immersing yourself in the whole thing, for years, until you have so much in your head that ideas really can "pop out" (not "pop in", because they're already there!).