Hi all,

this came up in Slack channel, but I think it might deserve a separate forum thread.

As we know, you can build really complex melodies out of huge variety of intervals not paying attention if they're are actually "nice" or not. As far as you like it, it's awesome. You can build chord progressions out of exotic chords with strange structures just to escape classic triads. You can build syncopated rythms so the whole thing feels jazzy and stuff...

But what if you are on the other side of the spectrum? What if you like the audience to connect with your song a lot. That means making pretty chords and melodies most of the time. Familiar chords, pleasant intervals, "nod your head" rythms. I've been happy with that most of the time, but lately it feels like there's a line somewhere. Line where "pretty" becomes "cheesy", too predictable, too simple.

How do you find that line? Do you try to avoid it? If so, how?

to me the cheese comes from a combination of sound and notes being played, this is how i feel when it comes to playing instruments.

vocals are a bit different, but tend to follow what notes are being sung as well as the tonal characteristics of the voice, so it's not that much different than the instrument.

There's ways to get around the whole cheese factor by being in a different scale and not hitting certain notes in succession. Linear play in the scale and chord progression also lends itself to the cheese factor.

You can almost tell when the music that's being written has some amount of soul to it. that characterization by the person entirely of that person.

that porter robinson track is a good example, because he wanted to do that. he poured himself into it. I am sure if some one else were to try and emulate exactly that, they wouldn't have a very good time due to the fact that the feeling might not be there.

You could boil down the cheese factor by having feelings and being one with yourself as you make the music you want to make.

I like my music to be very pretty and I use lots of undiatonic chord progressions. I don't think it makes it cheesy.

It's hard for me to say what makes a song cheesy musically. Lyrically though it's love songs. I stay away from them because in my experience most people don't know how to write one without it coming off cheesy. Some lyrical cliches can be cheesy as well. Stuff like..

Fading away
Love is blind
Lost without you
I'm down on my knees
Fly high

etc...

I guess if anything were to sound cheesy to me it's when I hear new producers use triads in there music but they're ALL in root position. You can tell that they don't really understand voice leading so it's like they just put there fingers in a 1-3-5 position on a piano and started picking random notes.

The cheesiest chord progression IMO is the I>V>vi>IV progression.

Here it is at 1:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IcnSj3Fas

AGAIN in this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fa-aN8GQQQ

Again this entire song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ

AGAIN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JV74i4yvcA

That chord progression to me is just pure cheese. I avoid it like the plague.

For example, I love the main melody in Years of War by Porter Robinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34thwBLMe4g.

So do I. Great song. Don't find it cheesy at all though.

to me the cheese comes from a combination of sound and notes being played, this is how i feel when it comes to playing instruments.

The last thing we want is more producers making music without any notes in it and just making sound design porn.

Quote from: Lydian on June 09, 2016, 02:10:00 pm

Fading away
Love is blind
Lost without you
I'm down on my knees
Fly high

Fire - desire!

...or the king of cheesy rhymes: Together - forever!