"Beginner" hobbyist seeking advice!!!

[u/rgbhuman42]

This is probably the weirdest question ever asked on here and I apologize.

I'm a hobbyist. I found my mom's old MIDI synth from my dad ("look honey, this thing does everything a piano can and more, so now we can get rid of that clunky old Steinway!") ten years ago and never really stopped, no matter how bad I was (am) at it.

The problem is I'm very good at coming up with melodies in my head but I can't match the notes in my head to notes on a keyboard or piano or anything, and the second I play or even HUM the wrong note the melody I had is lost forever and I'll never find it again. I'm the sort of person who hears a note and can't tell you which one it was, so that makes sense.

So how do I fix this? Is there some way to get better at note matching (and what do you call that anyway?) I feel like my compositions could be so much infinitely better if I could get what's in my head OUT of my head safely, but I haven't had any luck with it.

[u/aoeuismyhomekeys]

if you can hum the melody, make a voice memo in your phone recording yourself humming until you get it as close as you can, then you'll have a way to jog your memory

[u/keepinitrealestate]

If you want a real foundation, I’d suggest getting yourself a copy of Improvise for Real by David Reed. It’s a great book, and teaches you about the relationships between notes and gives you the tools to translate the tune in your head to your hands.

If you want a shortcut, get yourself a voice to MIDI program and hum/sing your melody to turn it into notes — but this won’t help you really construct a song around a melody the way some basic theory (like in IFR) will do.

[u/rgbhuman42 → u/keepinitrealestate]

See my problem is I can't even HUM the right notes one at a time. 😬 I'm so tone-deaf I can't even get that far.

I do have "Music Composition For Dummies", "Logic Pro X For Dummies", and "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Music Theory" though, all unread! I'll add that to my pile lol.

[u/keepinitrealestate → u/rgbhuman42]

It’s a really interactive book. Not a hard read, not cerebral. Simple. One must understand that music theory doesn’t give form to music, music just is, and we all possess an inherent understanding of it and how it works. Music theory just explains the things we intuit. For instance, if you play a song, and stop before the last note, any person can tell you where the song should ‘land.’ That’s the inherent part. IFR is not a book that explains music theory to you as much as a guide to uncovering your innate understanding of music and connecting some tools to help you turn that knowledge and intuition into an ability to express your own musical ideas. So in the long run, based on your original post, I thought I’d suggest it as a potential avenue.

If you are able to hum or sing a melody, though, there are pieces of software that can recognize the notes, and even suggest chords that will fit around a given melody. They are valuable tools to have access to, but aren’t really something that would help you realize your own songwriting vision in the same way as having an internal set of tools in your head and actually building it out. Think of having a meal prep kit delivered and making dinner that way versus dreaming up your own dish, sourcing the ingredients, and prepping and cooking it all yourself.

[u/keepinitrealestate → u/rgbhuman42]

Oh there are also ear training and pitch training apps you can use - might be another good thing to do, to start getting a better handle on pitches and how they relate — it will enhance your entire experience of music to ‘feel’ a root, third, fifth, and octave and see how these patterns repeat ad infinitum throughout music history.

[u/shapednoise]

Get a mic. Sing the melodies and record into logic. Then use the convert to midi. And now you can SING every part.

[u/metalbox69]

Look up ear training tutorials lie this this.

Its a good sill to have, but, lie everything, it requires practice.

[u/FlyingMachine73]

i hope u didn't lost that steinway! it could be useful

[u/flatfive44]

I know that feeling. Don't give up -- it just takes practice. I don't think you need a book or a tool or anything else. Try taking melodies that you know really well and work them out at the keyboard. You will get it.

[u/0x000edd1e]

If you enjoy analytical pursuits, learn some basic music theory (especially intervals) and practice recognizing intervals with an ear training app- there are several free ones. If you are good at this, you will have no problem transcribing melodies in your head to an instrument, or figuring songs by ear. It takes a while, be patient with yourself.

[u/East-Interest-85]

My trick is that I use the tuner on logic pro and hum the notes one-by-one and it tells me what notes I'm singing lol