There's something fundamentally that I'm missing, and I'm sure it's quite a simple answer. I've been reading a lot of music theory from certified books (certified as I've been asking and people have been providing text book names that I've personally purchased), and I know I'm just missing one thing to bring it all together. I'm not quite sure how to ask it yet - but if I were to phrase it.
How do you decide what the melody is over chord progression?
(i recognize that it's the chord progression that decides the sound by designating what it is through the tonal / home chord, but you guys are starting to confuse me slightly by having the melody be somewhat synonymous with it being basically a scale played on top- in reference to modes, why would the scale be allowed to be played out of order to make it a melody? i.e modes are the scale moved over one, etc down to the 7th factor.)
hope this makes sense and if anyone has enough time to answer this b.s. i'd appreciate it :]
Because you're making music.....
Scales and chords hold relationships to one another, and like relationships, you can go back and forth between what you know. If you want to form new relationships, you have to form a basis for it, or a reference point.
It's not that it's playing it in order or out of order, it's playing the consonance or the perception of consonance from the perspective of the artist and the context behind the notes that are played.
So, you're looking for concrete rules that you can apply. You can't, because when it comes to creating, you can do what ever you want when you know how the structure of your reference point is created.
It's like designing a house. Music theory is the invisible forces that the engineer needs to take into account when designing that house. The engineer then begins to adjust the designs when the house is actually being built.
Now here are the underlining parts, to be an engineer means you gain the understand to be called that. That's similar to understanding music theory. Adjusting the house is similar to choosing what scale and chord progression to use, as well as what notes to use.
And all the other stuff not included in creating...
This is a barrier for you, and I sense that. Once you break this whole rule mentality, then you will be able to see the truth behind the ability to create what ever you want to create, given the limitations of what you know with music theory.
Those books don't help you apply your craft, they get you on the way to use what has been collected over hundreds of years, so that you can apply it in your current world.
After all is said and done, it becomes more of an introspection question, and that is what I offer more so than the technical side of things.
Edit:written on my phone, I'll edit when I get to my house
