Working on melodies

Over the last few weeks, I begun to focus in on my strengths and weaknesses as a songwriter. An area that needs improvement is my use of melodies. I typically find a chord progression and then sing over that progression. What typically happens is the melody follows the chords.

Below is the process I'm using to start working on melodies.

- Chose a simple three chord progression and played this progression four times (i.e. four lines of a verse).
- Chose a matching scale and played lead over the chord progression
- Selected some lead phrases from that scale. For the melody, I repeat a phrase for the first and second lines, moved higher in the scale for the third line, and then transitioned back to line one in the fourth line.
- Match my voice to the notes in the phrases
- Next step will be to write the lyrics (easier said than done)

The outcome of this process is a melody that I never would have come up with by just singing.