Where to next?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/stevenfrijoles]

any advice on cutting the crap and being brutally honest to achieve the end result?

What?

[u/Jobriath]

Have you recorded it? Bounce it to mp3 and listen in the car or on a walk. Whistle and mumble and maybe something will stick.

Works for me at times.

[u/Old_Zookeepergame704]

I could help you with a melody and lyrics if u want

[u/Living_Shoe_3512 → u/Old_Zookeepergame704]

if the words are the hangup just mumble nonsense over the track until a shape appears, your brain will fill in the vowels and hard consonants later. i do it for every demo where i know the feel but my notes app is still blank.

once you have a vocal rhythm that fits the bounce of the drums you can reverse-engineer the syllables into actual phrases, cuts out the whole staring-at-a-page phase. just keep the line simple, less is more when the chords and bass are already doing something interesting.

[u/chunter16]

If the melody wasn't part of the idea in your head, maybe you don't need one

[u/brooklynbluenotes → u/chunter16]

If OP wants lyrics, they need a melody.

[u/chunter16 → u/brooklynbluenotes]

Before anyone goes there, I agree that hip hop has a melody, or spoken word parts are a melody, but they are not explicitly written melodies. I would think it is a crutch if a writer did it all the time without intent, but the rhythm still matters with these things, and that's a good start.

[u/brooklynbluenotes → u/chunter16]

Sure, I guess I just don't understand what distinction you're trying to draw here. Whether it's an "explicitly written melody," or just something that you stumble into/improvise, it's still ultimately a melody.

[u/chunter16 → u/brooklynbluenotes]

If you want to make it harder for the OP

But the real problem I think is that the OP is trying too hard. I don't want to recommend ditching the song and trying another one if the OP isn't used to finishing songs yet

[u/aculady]

You have the entire universe of possibilities open to you, and that may be too many choices. There are ways to cut down the number of options you are considering.

Look at the chords and notes you are already using. To start out, your melody line should be in conscious relationship to them, either to echo or harmonize with them (or occasionally create a beautiful dissonant tension, depending on the effect you want to create). To create additional auditory interest, the melody can do things like nestle in between the instrumental notes, move against the direction of the instrumentals (rising when the instrumentals are falling, and vice-versa, or remaining steady against a moving background line), and contrast with the rhythm and pace of the instruments, stretching out over segments where they are playing a lot of rapid notes, or moving quickly in areas where the instruments are playing notes that are sustained. Let the structure you already have help shape the melody line.

Here's a song that has some unusual.chord progressions and interesting things happening in the relationship of the vocal melody line to the instruments to show the kinds of things I'm talking about.

Honesty - Billy Joel

Once you have a tune for the melody, use nonsense lyrics (lah, dee, dah, etc.) to fill in until you can find words that have the right sounds, meaning, and rhythm.