I am working with someone and trying to have them see the rhythm of a song's melody without being influenced by the pitch. Is there a simple way to move all of a melodies notes on to a single "pitch?" If I could figure that out, I would just assign it to percussion instrument.

I would like this person to realize the patterns of a melody rhythmically. It's a fun project...just not sure how to put them all on a single pitch. Then I could take any song he likes and do this!

Right now he is frustrated because he isn't really seeing the patterns.

If this has to be done is some simple non PG product that would be ok. If however, something in PG could do this, it's preferred!

Thanks!

Caaron,

This might do the job for you...

I nearly always enter my melodies into BIAB as a melodic rhythm in midi on a single note. In BIAB's notation editor, I then drag the notes' pitches up and down to shape the melody. I've found that this is the quickest way to do things (for me at least).

How I enter the melody is simply to record midi in BIAB. For the input, I use the bottom row of keys (C, V, B, N...) to play a note; I usually use M. I set BIAB playing and then tap the rhythm of the words in time to my singing them. This creates the rhythm of the words all notated on a single note.

To do this...

Activate the Keyboard Wizard by following 1, 2 on the image below.



It's then the option show on the second image below...



Once the above is done, set midi recording, get BIAB playing and tap out the rhythm using M (or B or V, etc.). (For your reference, the bottom two rows of the computer's input QWERTY keyboard become a simplified piano keyboard when the Keyboard Wizard is activated: the bottom row = white keys, next row up (ASDF...) = black keys.)

If you then go to notation view (Melody track), you'll see the notes. When you playback, BIAB will also track the notes so that you can see where it's up to (just turn the volume down so that you don't hear the monotonous single note).

Don't forget to deactivate the Keyboard Wizard once the melodic rhythm is recorded.

Regards,
Noel

Caaron. Send it to me and I will put it into Melodyne for you. Probably just the vocal will be best. I will also send you screen shots of the blobs. joanne at joannecooper dot co dot za

What DAW, if any, are you using? Many DAWs can do this, it just takes a little work.

As JosieC indicates Melodyne can do it. It you have Sonar it can do it as Sonar includes a version of Melodyne. I'm sure other pitch correction software, DAW or wave editors can do it.

I would, in Sonar, convert the lead vocal to MIDI then merge all of the different MIDI notes to one. This would give you one MIDI track with the exact timing as the vocal. Just choose your MIDI sound and you are all set. If you wish I could do this for you.

Ps- Probably that is what JosieC would do for you also.

I don't understand what "the rhythm of the song's melody" describes. Do you want him to sing a melody precisely based on a transcription? What would be needed beyond having access to the melody and the correct chords at the appropriate key? Pardon my ignorance -- seriously. Just curious.

Sometimes when we have some complex rhythms, I have my choir just "say" (not sing) the words to the rhythm of the melody to make sure they understand the rhythm. It's not on pitch, but each word will land where it's supposed to. Or sometimes we'll clap the rhythm of the melody to get a sense of where all the notes hit.

I think that's what's being asked here. Convert that melody rhythm so that, for example, a percussion instrument just hit the rhythm of the melody without the actual notes.

That way, you might have:

Some-where o-ver the rain-bow... which is:
half-half-quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter-quarter

so the percussion instrument just hits that:
half-half-quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter-quarter

(without actually doing the melody notes).

Thanks! If I now correctly understand it is what Janice and I would call phrasing.

Bud

"Phrasing" - good term to use; I should have used it.

Thanks, Bud

Now, hopefully, that's what it's actually all about (other than the hokey pokey, of course).

Wow! Talk about a lot of great responses! Thanks for that! Gotta love this forum!

Actually, I have someone I am working with that understand the scale side of music theory very well. Where he struggles is coming up with motifs. Then tend to go MUCH longer than you would ever sing. There isn't a whole lot that recognizable from repetition, and when it does, it's mostly by accident.

He is trying to learn how to develop short phrases/hooks. To me, it seems like he is mostly lacking the rhythmic side of things. When to stop a phrase, how much space to use, when to repeat, when to deviate. That is an art all on it's own.

So, I had the idea of just taking the midi vocal track of songs he likes and putting them all on a single note and percussion sound. Then he can visually appreciate what is going on. I strongly feel, he would see the rhythmic patterns and variations pretty easily.

Right now he is just too caught up in hearing what note it is.

That being said, the short version is I am looking for a simple way to move all of the notes in a melody to a sing note.

I thought I remembered seeing in some program, possibly rb, that you could select an entire line of midi notes on a single pitch and move them to any other pitch. So we would just have to do that for each note in the scale. That would be fine. I just don't remember what program on saw it on. Similar to how you could select a whole line of ride cymbal notes and drag them to the hi-hat line.

Any ideas?

Thanks again!

I think there're both gifts and training. Training can enhance a gift but the less the gift the less training can accomplish. Janice and I talk a lot about soul. If a singer has soul we like it - irrespective of genre. And I suspect that at the core of what we call soul is the manner in which the singer phrases. The subtleties that allow the singer to make the song his/hers. A lot of our favorite singers don't have the best technical vocal chops around...but they know their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. When they sing a song they own it. Pardon the ole part ramble. About the only style of singing, regardless of genre, that we absolutely cannot handle is the "follow the bouncing ball" stuff. All with the usual big FWIW.

Bud

Have you tried this?

DL a MIDI version of a song he likes; there are lot of free ones that you can DL. In your DAW (RB and BiaB can do this) take the melody line, using the piano roll view put all of the notes onto one line then assign that line to a drum/percussion sound. Save only the melody and you will have what you want.

A quick way to do this would be to open the song in RealBand, setup a MIDI percussion track, and then just record the phrasing of the song using a single note on an external keyboard to trigger the percussion to play. You don't even need to know the notes to the melody, just the rhythm of the melody. It takes as long as it takes to play the song. Even if you don't get it perfect, it should be close enough for what you are trying to do.

This is exactly what I'm talking about doing I'm just curious if there is a function in realband that allows you to select all of the notes on say "D" and drag them to "C". Then drag all the notes on "E" and drag them to "C"...and repeat that process until all of the notes are on "C"...of course then assigning those notes to a non pitched sound, like a drum of some short.

Can you select a all notes on a single pitch and move them to another in RB, or is there another program to do it? Just looking for simple. I would even prefer something free as then he could do this himself.

[quote=HearToLearn....

Can you select a all notes on a single pitch and move them to another in RB, or is there another program to do it? Just looking for simple. I would even prefer something free as then he could do this himself. [/quote]

I don't use RB but I did just experiment with it and yes you can. In the piano roll view and on the left side keyboard click on the key that note you want to move is on. They will change color. Press and hold the shift key and with the mouse over a note move that note to the desired note. All of the notes will move with it. Do this for each different sets of notes.

I hope this is not too confusing! Someone with more experience will probably have a better way.

Perfect! Thanks much! I will wait and see if there are any free alternatives, otherwise I do now have something that will do the job. MUCH appreciation Mario and every else too!