Lead Melodies in Modern Music

Your lead melody will ordinarily be on its own track and played by a lead instrument.

There are many types of lead instruments, the principle types being acoustic, electric,

and synthesized. Acoustic leads include guitar, piano, flute, sitar, violin, saxophone,

panpipes, harmonica, voice, harp, trumpet, vibraphone, and any other solo orchestral

melody-producing instrument you can think of.

Certain lead instruments naturally have immediate stylistic connotations that you can

make good use of either by exploiting them or deliberately breaking the mold. Obvious

examples are the acoustic guitar, flute, and harp with folk styles; the saxophone, muted

trumpet, and vibraphone with jazz and blues styles; the sitar with its connotations of

Eastern music; or the shakuhachi flute with its links to Japanese Shinto ritual music.

Electric leads include the guitar, organ, electric piano, and clavinet. Choice among these

instruments is diversified by the different varieties of each instrument, such as the jazz

guitar, which has a significantly different type of sound than a rock electric lead guitar.

And because the guitar you use will probably derive from a synthesizer or sampler

patch, there are also patches that offer emulations of various guitars as processed

through effects pedals to take into account. Similarly, among keyboards, the Rhodes

electric piano has a unique and highly valued sound that distinguishes it from a

Wurlitzer.

Synthesized leads are many and various, and they come in a huge number of different

varieties, many of which are again linked to certain styles. The huge saw lead of epic

trance is a fine example, as also is the sine-wave lead so popular in hip-hop. Consequently,

the choice of a lead synth patch comes very much down to style coupled

with what you can hear for the lead in your own mind. Here it is very important

that if you can hear a particular sound in your mind, you put in whatever efforts are

needed to find that exact...