As an electronic music producer, it’s easy to get pulled into a kind of ‘drums and bass vortex’ in the belief that nailing these components is the secret to creating a winning ‘beat’. But while these elements are certainly important, it’s often the topline melody of a track that can provide the all-important hook.
If you want to have a better understanding of how melodies work, you might want to check out the Melody Playground, a new section of the free online ear training platform ToneGym that encourages you to improve your melody analysing skills with 10 minutes of practice a day.
There’s a Melody Trainer, which encourages hands-on melody transcription, and games that are suitable for more in-depth practice. You’ll also have the opportunity to enter a weekly contest so that you can put your new-found melodic chops to the test.
Once you’re signed in - the game is free - you can choose to practice in any of the diatonic modes and set the number of voices and difficult level.
You can begin your melody training over at the ToneGym website.
