Good ideas

by Ken Laufer
(New York City)

The ideas in the free video about writing good melodies were very workable ones indeed! I have always improvised at the piano in an aimless way similarly to what you are saying, and once in a while, I got a good melody. I would add that we also need the knowledge of past and present music, so we can recognize when an idea of ours has been written already. However, we can sometimes make slight changes to a famous melody and get an essentially new one. I have done this, (without meaning to) and the melody was admired by Stephen Sondheim.