Leaderboard

Then my work here is done. ...

I had a feeling that was the case ! The explanation was crystal clear, maybe not for a beginner, but I know what we're talking about and just trying to get better with more solid knowledge. At the end of the day, no matter what you learn, the most important principle in music is unchallenged - if it sounds good, it is good

Elaborate..? Not a lot, really, as there's no hard'n'fast rules about stuff of the sort. It's up to the composer to 'know' which notes are important and which are less so. Maybe a way of thinking it through could be to imagine a simple Major scale, then imagine an arpeggiator adding in-between notes to that scale. The 'key' scale notes stay the same, but the 'in-between' notes are 'optional'; they add colour and movement in some circumstances, but distract and even irritate in others. What's best..? That depends on what the composer wants. One way in to these rabbit warrens is to keep in mind the age-old adage of 'less is more', and start off by adding as little as can be got away with. An example, slightly off-track, could be the way many songs are composed, on a strummed acoustic guitar. This skeleton is then arranged, with maybe banjo picking, piano, horns, bass etc... In the end, the original acoustic guitar is removed, and the finished song stands just the same, without its progenitor. With chords and melodies, a similar notion can apply : does it all still make sense if the original melody line is removed..? This doesn't mean 'Remove it'; just see if the song still sounds 'right' when it's not explicitly there. Just a thought. Sorry if this confuses rather than clarifies; If I was any good, my own compositions would maybe be listenable..! In the end, it's your own taste and judgement that count, and only by doing it will you know if it's OK or not. I do have a few words of encouragement for these situations, though... 'It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly better.'

Another tip that I forgot to add : It's very often the last note of a song that tells us what key we're in, the note that gives a sense of 'it's over' (resolution...). From there, the other notes can be assigned their 'rank' in the scale. It doesn't work every time, as some song-smiths do strange things with 'standard' harmonic principles, but for a lot of stuff it's as good a starting point as any. Beware of thinking that the 'key' is the first note; it's very often not the case at all..! Just sayin'.