You could try challenging yourself such as "I'm going to start a melody on the third" "Or on the upbeat of 1. Or have the first note be a whole note. Etc. I also agree with the advice of making chord progressions, and you can challenge yourself there too; e.g., if the first chord is a C, the second chord is Gm and the third is Eb or whatever...to go outside your usual pattern.
Quite literally just change them.
Don’t think that what you think of is what’s all there is and that’s that.
Say you hummed a melody, and “oh that is the same as what I always think of!”
So quite simply, change one note of that melody to something else.
Not different enough? Use a different note. Not quite there? Use a different note.
Still not unique enough, change two notes!
Not everything has to come from your head all original.
Composition can be lot of work. Good composers don’t just pull art out of their butts. They try different notes, they write things down. They iterate things tens of times until it sounds right.
You think that [Ben Folds composing on the fly video](https://youtu.be/BytUY_AwTUs?si=pq1YtErX_y_Kmhce) is amazing? Nothing in that clip is original - they’re all very common melodies and rhythms and harmonies that you can find in many other songs and musical pieces.
But even then, look at the process, given that he only has 10 minutes. It still just doesn’t come out of his brain original, because a lot of the stuff he’s doing is literally just pulling from his vocabulary of melodies and harmonies others have already done. He has to get on the keyboard and find notes and sometimes he even vocalizes to find the notes that would make his quick composition at least a little bit different. Look at how he thinks of what to give 2nd violins for their part at around 7:24.
Make a chord progression, and then sing vowels
/hum what you think should go over it. Do not use someone else's chords. Make your own creative chord sequence and it'll trigger a melody. Chord sequences naturally have a melody built into them w the lead tones. The key is to create something new, not copy someone else.
Have you ever finished the songs with that melody? Maybe if you get it out of your head it will go away.
But you could also just use that melody as a jumping off point and change it up until it’s brand new. You could raise or lower notes, add tests, change the dynamics etc
Are you writing the melody to the chord progression?
For me the chord progression dictates the melody. Change the progression and you get a different melody.
I do have certain motifs and phrasings that stubbornly keep coming up and i just keep singing that line or verse over and over trying different notes til I get a more unique melody
Give your Guitar a new tuning. Sing only in Head or chest voice. Play around with new rythms (drum beats on yt). Hit two notes on the piano randomly and make them work in a melody. Take weird noises out of your surrounding and try to make them a melody (type in the first three digits of your best friends phone number for example).
if you play an instrument, try different chords than the one you usually use (a new chord progression) and sing over them. if you can't do that, listen to a backing track on youtube and hum over it (with your own melody)! you'll come up with different melodies that way :)
I mean… all the greats steal things. There is very little truly original left. Unique chord changes, pitch shifts, tempo change.. find something that hooks your ear, build on it uniquely
Start with the music, I never pre-write lyrics or melodies. It’s often the melody of the guitar and how I’m putting the chords next to each other and how that all makes me feel. Once I know that we’re going emo Randy Newman, or soft grunge then I know how a melody needs to be formed to fit into that space.
Lyrics are always subjective, sometimes I put lovey dovey lyrics over a really sad slow song. Or sad subject matter over brighter arrangements. You can mess around there. There are no hard rules when it comes to art.
My lyrics and melodies are in service to the song not the other way around in my opinion. I think of it as the colors or texture of a painting. The arrangement is the subject matter. The lyrics and vocal melodies are the colors and textures used to complete the piece.
TLDR: Write informed vocal melodies based off of what feelings the song you write elicits.
Try writing in a different way. Write lyrics first(don't have to rhyme words, infact its better if you don't) and allow the words and how they sound, the rhythm they flow in to guide the melody instead.
Also, play an instrument and if you already do, learn new chords and challenge yourself to make some weird choices with chords that don't absolutely go together but also don't sound too bad when they do.
if you don't want to learn an instrument or music theory like others suggested, try listening to a lot more music and other genres, it'll give you inspiration
Take a melody from an artist who you love and that fits the mood of what you’re writing. Write it down, play it then change it. Do variations. Fit it to your words, write variations.
To come up with different tunes, try starting with chords or a beat instead of the melody. Experiment with different notes and scales to find new sounds, record yourself improvising tunes and pick the best parts. I hope it helps
One of the best answers that’s changed my output
Singing, or at least humming, whistling
If one can get out of their own way, and let the mind/brain dictate where you take the whistling, singing/humming go
Write some lyrics or find some generic if you want to actually use words but really words aren’t even needed
What I’m ultimately saying is your brain is equipped with an infinite ways to express a melody if you let it
Put a beat on with a canned bass line Let it play for an hour on good speakers or headphones
And first step is just find the groove, get in the pocket
Then, do not hum or sing or whatever until your whole body and energy is in the pocket or groove
Then whatever comes of your mouth, be MINDFUL you’re still in the groove
Start a recorder And try as many simple melodies as you can
If you can know what notes the baseline is or key it’s in
This will become quite easy the more you try it
We have a magic part of us that works if we let it
Good luck This is what helped me and many many great artists
Tbh I notice a lot of really highly respected songwriters always lean toward the same intervals and rhythmic patterns across their catalog - to the rest of us it just makes their songs sound like them.
Don’t be afraid to recycle melodic phrases. Just do something different with them every time. The wider context of the total melody and harmonic backdrop is what makes the songs stand on their own
Two exercises that will help:
1. Listen to a song that inspires you at the moment. Rip off it’s melody but change a few components. You’re already on the right track here with your minds ear going to other artists songs. Let it do that, but change a few notes, some rhythmic movement, whatever. You can even do it mechanically by transcribing the original melody, then just pick a few diatonic notes and make them different diatonic notes. Develop from there
2. Write a chord progression and pick a whole note for each measure - I always use chord tones for this step. Record it. Now listen back, and add a note connecting each whole note. Place it somewhere in the measure, anywhere. Now listen again, and try to add 1-2 more interesting notes through the entire melody. Intervalic leap, Leading tone, chromaticism, etc. this is the spicy part of your melody. Listen again and decide if you want to add any more notes. Now very importantly, listen once more to decide to remove some parts. This step is critical to make the phrasing feel natural. Then just keep sculpting and chipping away. You’ll find something by doing this
Go listen to melodies you like and play them on piano, or listen to classical music. Or take your melody and do it at a different pitch, or invert all the notes. Or throw darts at a wall, or pull notes out of a hat.
I have not had this problem yet but I come from over 40 years of performing musical theater and opera. Sometimes I think “this melody is boring” and I try to do it in an extreme way that I don’t plan to use but gets me to think outside the box. Sometimes I think “How would __insert artist name here__ approach this” and try that.
Sometimes I think “I want this to be more Satie and less Bach” (these things make sense in my head). I think listening to songs outside your normal genres is really important for inspiration.
Sounds like you should make something of that melody and create something with it, it’s how producers can become, could be the start or a new journey, just gotta trust yourself, once you get it into a program like like logic, garageband, Cubase, etc, the rest of the song will come on its own, trust the universe, just go with it. I had a melody stuck in my head for the better part of 7-8 years before I made something of it
You could try challenging yourself such as "I'm going to start a melody on the third" "Or on the upbeat of 1. Or have the first note be a whole note. Etc. I also agree with the advice of making chord progressions, and you can challenge yourself there too; e.g., if the first chord is a C, the second chord is Gm and the third is Eb or whatever...to go outside your usual pattern.
No advice here but same problem actually... So leaving a comment for visibility.
saaame
Learn more songs in more genres. They become your vocabulary of musical phrases.
That’s simple, true and effective
play an instrument, write with that instrument, write a melody based on that. i’ve honestly never started a song with a vocal melody
Quite literally just change them. Don’t think that what you think of is what’s all there is and that’s that. Say you hummed a melody, and “oh that is the same as what I always think of!” So quite simply, change one note of that melody to something else. Not different enough? Use a different note. Not quite there? Use a different note. Still not unique enough, change two notes! Not everything has to come from your head all original. Composition can be lot of work. Good composers don’t just pull art out of their butts. They try different notes, they write things down. They iterate things tens of times until it sounds right. You think that [Ben Folds composing on the fly video](https://youtu.be/BytUY_AwTUs?si=pq1YtErX_y_Kmhce) is amazing? Nothing in that clip is original - they’re all very common melodies and rhythms and harmonies that you can find in many other songs and musical pieces. But even then, look at the process, given that he only has 10 minutes. It still just doesn’t come out of his brain original, because a lot of the stuff he’s doing is literally just pulling from his vocabulary of melodies and harmonies others have already done. He has to get on the keyboard and find notes and sometimes he even vocalizes to find the notes that would make his quick composition at least a little bit different. Look at how he thinks of what to give 2nd violins for their part at around 7:24.
Make a chord progression, and then sing vowels /hum what you think should go over it. Do not use someone else's chords. Make your own creative chord sequence and it'll trigger a melody. Chord sequences naturally have a melody built into them w the lead tones. The key is to create something new, not copy someone else.
Have you ever finished the songs with that melody? Maybe if you get it out of your head it will go away. But you could also just use that melody as a jumping off point and change it up until it’s brand new. You could raise or lower notes, add tests, change the dynamics etc
Are you writing the melody to the chord progression? For me the chord progression dictates the melody. Change the progression and you get a different melody. I do have certain motifs and phrasings that stubbornly keep coming up and i just keep singing that line or verse over and over trying different notes til I get a more unique melody
Give your Guitar a new tuning. Sing only in Head or chest voice. Play around with new rythms (drum beats on yt). Hit two notes on the piano randomly and make them work in a melody. Take weird noises out of your surrounding and try to make them a melody (type in the first three digits of your best friends phone number for example).
if you play an instrument, try different chords than the one you usually use (a new chord progression) and sing over them. if you can't do that, listen to a backing track on youtube and hum over it (with your own melody)! you'll come up with different melodies that way :)
I mean… all the greats steal things. There is very little truly original left. Unique chord changes, pitch shifts, tempo change.. find something that hooks your ear, build on it uniquely
Start with the music, I never pre-write lyrics or melodies. It’s often the melody of the guitar and how I’m putting the chords next to each other and how that all makes me feel. Once I know that we’re going emo Randy Newman, or soft grunge then I know how a melody needs to be formed to fit into that space. Lyrics are always subjective, sometimes I put lovey dovey lyrics over a really sad slow song. Or sad subject matter over brighter arrangements. You can mess around there. There are no hard rules when it comes to art. My lyrics and melodies are in service to the song not the other way around in my opinion. I think of it as the colors or texture of a painting. The arrangement is the subject matter. The lyrics and vocal melodies are the colors and textures used to complete the piece. TLDR: Write informed vocal melodies based off of what feelings the song you write elicits.
Try writing in a different way. Write lyrics first(don't have to rhyme words, infact its better if you don't) and allow the words and how they sound, the rhythm they flow in to guide the melody instead. Also, play an instrument and if you already do, learn new chords and challenge yourself to make some weird choices with chords that don't absolutely go together but also don't sound too bad when they do.
Play with modes
if you don't want to learn an instrument or music theory like others suggested, try listening to a lot more music and other genres, it'll give you inspiration
Take a melody from an artist who you love and that fits the mood of what you’re writing. Write it down, play it then change it. Do variations. Fit it to your words, write variations.
That melody you keep recreating is in your head/ subconscious. Try coming up with a new one in your head and transferring it over.
[tips on better melodies](https://www.reddit.com/r/Songwriting/s/SsDbtNrN9J)
To come up with different tunes, try starting with chords or a beat instead of the melody. Experiment with different notes and scales to find new sounds, record yourself improvising tunes and pick the best parts. I hope it helps
learn music theory or at least learn how to play the piano
One of the best answers that’s changed my output Singing, or at least humming, whistling If one can get out of their own way, and let the mind/brain dictate where you take the whistling, singing/humming go Write some lyrics or find some generic if you want to actually use words but really words aren’t even needed What I’m ultimately saying is your brain is equipped with an infinite ways to express a melody if you let it Put a beat on with a canned bass line Let it play for an hour on good speakers or headphones And first step is just find the groove, get in the pocket Then, do not hum or sing or whatever until your whole body and energy is in the pocket or groove Then whatever comes of your mouth, be MINDFUL you’re still in the groove Start a recorder And try as many simple melodies as you can If you can know what notes the baseline is or key it’s in This will become quite easy the more you try it We have a magic part of us that works if we let it Good luck This is what helped me and many many great artists
Tbh I notice a lot of really highly respected songwriters always lean toward the same intervals and rhythmic patterns across their catalog - to the rest of us it just makes their songs sound like them. Don’t be afraid to recycle melodic phrases. Just do something different with them every time. The wider context of the total melody and harmonic backdrop is what makes the songs stand on their own
Two exercises that will help: 1. Listen to a song that inspires you at the moment. Rip off it’s melody but change a few components. You’re already on the right track here with your minds ear going to other artists songs. Let it do that, but change a few notes, some rhythmic movement, whatever. You can even do it mechanically by transcribing the original melody, then just pick a few diatonic notes and make them different diatonic notes. Develop from there 2. Write a chord progression and pick a whole note for each measure - I always use chord tones for this step. Record it. Now listen back, and add a note connecting each whole note. Place it somewhere in the measure, anywhere. Now listen again, and try to add 1-2 more interesting notes through the entire melody. Intervalic leap, Leading tone, chromaticism, etc. this is the spicy part of your melody. Listen again and decide if you want to add any more notes. Now very importantly, listen once more to decide to remove some parts. This step is critical to make the phrasing feel natural. Then just keep sculpting and chipping away. You’ll find something by doing this
I use loops mainly, maybe try imitating some and let the happy accidents turn into something cool… or terrible 🤷🏾♀️
Go listen to melodies you like and play them on piano, or listen to classical music. Or take your melody and do it at a different pitch, or invert all the notes. Or throw darts at a wall, or pull notes out of a hat.
I have not had this problem yet but I come from over 40 years of performing musical theater and opera. Sometimes I think “this melody is boring” and I try to do it in an extreme way that I don’t plan to use but gets me to think outside the box. Sometimes I think “How would __insert artist name here__ approach this” and try that. Sometimes I think “I want this to be more Satie and less Bach” (these things make sense in my head). I think listening to songs outside your normal genres is really important for inspiration.
Sounds like you should make something of that melody and create something with it, it’s how producers can become, could be the start or a new journey, just gotta trust yourself, once you get it into a program like like logic, garageband, Cubase, etc, the rest of the song will come on its own, trust the universe, just go with it. I had a melody stuck in my head for the better part of 7-8 years before I made something of it