Quotes About Melody

For me, songwriting starts with a melody. When a musician plays a chord progression, either the words and vocal melody come to me, or they don't. That's how I determine who to write with. It works, or it doesn't.

The thing with One Direction songs is that you can probably break them all down to an acoustic guitar and vocal.

I think one of the biggest sleepers that people are going to be able to dig into later is 'Fermi Paradox,' it's the song before 'Exist.' To me it's got the coolest, it's just so bizarre because it's got one of the most melodic vocal melodies, but we put it over a black metal blast beats.

Making vocal hooks is my favorite thing to do. That's what I love about songwriting - making catchy stuff.

I like that Metallica has found a way to have these non-pedestrian arrangements but then the vocal melody is strong and intense. I've always appreciated that as a fan.

Usually what I do is I write my vocal melody over guitar parts and then I come up with lyrics.

Remixes come very quickly, because you already have the melody and the vocals. I have a great passion for music, so it doesn't matter to me if it's a remix or an original production. I don't think about it as, 'Well, I have to spend three hours on a remix or I have to do something all original.'

It's a particular skill, I think, doing backing vocals. You're blending the vocals between the gaps, between the music.

I love vocals and what they can do, and the different layers they can create, and I really want to bring that into folk music in terms of arrangements and stuff.

We're basically a rock band - guitar, bass, drums and vocals. But we take it further than that. We can be rotten, dirty, and heavy as anyone, but at the same time, we've got a lot of melody.

I've always loved the sound of female vocals.

With Rage, we wrote riff rock and had rap vocals, so we didn't really concern ourselves with melody for the most part.

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

The range of the cello is so big, it can play as low as the double bass and as high as the violin. It has the perfect shape, and its sound is the closest to the human voice.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.

To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony... that's the science and the craft.

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it.

I always find that there is a real communication between voice and violin.

I tend to think of the organ as part of the rhythm section, rather than a frontline voice.

My dad always told me that anyone's voice is just another instrument added to the music.

Folk music usually has an emphasis on the lyrics and melody. And those lyrics are usually relevant in some way. And it's populist in scope, which is also true of Bad Religion. So it's more meant to draw some parallels between the two. And I think even my voice and my delivery can be thought of as a little bit folky.

How much can you do with two voices? You can sing thirds or you can sing fifths or you can do a background harmony.

The sound of the Seekers, that four-part harmony sound, three boys and a girl, is so unlikely, you would not choose those four voices to blend together.

We've recorded over our voices once and double the harmonies, make them thick. The Four Freshmen do that.