PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows In Praise of the Melodist!

Actually, I'm being as honest as I know how to be. Most of the time IMNSHO the Melodist turns out totally forgettable stuff. But like I wrote above, every once in a while it manages to put it altogether and comes up with something remarkable. So I'm not really all over the place. Just covering all the bases. Look, if you've never tried it, do as I recommend. Let the Melodist generate the chords, the intro, the melody, everything. What you'll probably experience is a lot of duds and then one piece will pop up that will really surprise you. That's all I'm getting at.



Well, ownership is 9/10s of the copyright. Maybe more. PG sez everything about BiaB is free with no copyright claims. Now, regarding intellectual honesty and the creative experience, that is something I've pondered at some length. But here I am admitting to the entire PG community that my 'puter is coming up with cool pieces of music without my input. So obviously I'm not trying to claim it as my own. But if I decide to publish any of it, you better believe I'll own the copyright. Because it appeared on my computer first, if for no other reason. Or did it? Hrm, that's something I've been wondering about. What are the chances that a piece that my copy of BiaB writes is the same or very very similar to a piece that another PG user's copy of BiaB came up with? Now, that's something I wonder about. I reckon the only way I'll find out about that being a possibility is if we start sharing some Melodist generated stuff. Be all that as it may, the process of developing a piece of music will progress well beyond just assembling a chord chart with a melody. Using my own non-Biab experiences as a guide, with all the pieces of music I've written in the past, every one has gone through a number of revisions before I was entirely happy with it. I don't see any tune "created" by BiaB as being any different. I'll still give it a close going over and there will in all likelihood be a considerable amount of revision.

Now for the creative bit. I don't have a problem with writing music. These past few weeks I've composed probably a half-dozen or more tunes (haven't been keeping track -- that's the way it is with me when the creative juices are flowing) -- chord progressions that I've plugged into BiaB and edited until I liked what I was hearing. Some of them I've written melodies for, others I've had the Melodist come up with passable melodies. But you know, after over 50 years of being a musician, I still consider myself to be a student of all this, so I like to study and analyze what BiaB is doing when it generates melodies and harmonies. Looking at many of the chord progressions that the Melodist comes up with ends up being a great study in chord theory and harmony in general. Melody is a lot more arbitrary and, as I wrote, most of the stuff the Melodist comes up with is discardable. For example, what is a hook? Can you analyze what it is about a piece of music's hook that makes it one? Not so easy, I'll wager. It's like as soon as you try to dissect it, it just crumbles away. Cuz all it is is an assortment of artfully placed intervals, isn't it? So when I analyze melodies, it is a good deal more difficult. Nonetheless, I'd like to think I'm absorbing some of this stuff and maybe even getting better as a result.

I'm gonna post a few of these tunes up at Soundcloud soon. I'll let y'all know when I've done so and I'll be looking forward to your feedback as well.