ok I know this has been talked about a lot but I've never understood it. I listen to famous video game soundtracks and other musician's songs and they have such catchy and memorable melodies. I've watched so many videos on how to do it. Write bass first, write chords first, hum it out, make it singable, make it change with the chords, make it bouncy, make it fun. I've tried so much but every time I do it I try it, it just sounds cheesy and super boring. Most of the time, I end up taking an element from another song for my melodies, and I feel like I've never really come up with a proper melody. I always tack them on at the end, while really they are supposed to guide the song. Seriously, I don't get it, somebody give me something here. I just want to understand them

treating melody as the most important element of a piece of music is a choice and not an obligation! there is nothing that melody is "supposed" to do in an objective sense; theoretical statements to the contrary are just formalizations of a particular style or methodology.

there is also not a single "silver bullet" method for writing melodies. it looks like you've already looked at a lot of things that work for other people. what works for you and the music you want to create may be different, and may involve invoking different methods at different times when you get stuck

usually what i do is a combination of A) singing/humming over what i'm playing/tracking until it sounds right and B) looking at the chords. the rest of the process is intuitive rather than conscious

I agree, it does seem obligatory at times, and I feel a lot of my music is just that. but if I want to work on video game themed music, like nintendo inspired, for example, it needs a strong backbone of a melody. something that is just memorable and iconic, like so many other botbrs here. thanks for your input, though, that was helpful!

Oh I also tried to reproduced things from songs before but it was too hard. Then I got interested in ambient music, so when I pick up things from songs it's more related to the mood, textures of sounds, mixing and panning. I also tend to be careful to the instrumentation. Sometimes, I pick up rhythms because I find it easier to reproduce than melodies and harmonics.

For melodies, I just try things using the playback feature of my music software, when I got something nice I write it. To me, long samples with rich textures help a lot. You can try the Yamaha grand piano samples from the Waveworld pack or the acoustic guitar samples from Kiarchive, I think it's a good start if you want to make acoustic stuff.

Both packs can be downloaded here: http://tracker.modarchive.org/

If you're specifically interested in DS sounds, Tex made sample packs from DS games for the Unlocking Nintendo DS Samples battles:
https://battleofthebits.com/lyceum/View/XHB+series

EDIT: my bad I misread your last message, I thought you were interested in making Nintendo DS inspired melodies

hey, this still helps so much op! I'm always looking for more sounds =D

think about things like

a) contour - the overall shape of your melody, where it goes up and where it goes down and why - this is not altogether different from considering the arc or form or energy level of a whole piece, things like singular high points can be very exciting if you lead into them, and are well-placed towards the end of the whole phrase; hanging out around one pitch or range of pitch for a long time gets stale; a mixture of stepwise motion and bigger leaps at key points tends to work well. these are not Hard Steadfast Rules Where Only The Good Melodies Do Them but are helpful things to internalize as you explore building your own unique melodic sense

b) phrasing - when to leave open space to breathe, when to reuse a pattern and when to break from it, and how all that relates to the rest of your arrangement (or consider altering the arrangement underneath to support your phrasing)

c) motifs/licks on a base level. if you start with a small chunk of a few notes that sound cool, reuse that chunk to develop the rest of your melody - spin something slightly different using the same (or nearly same) rhythm, use new notes in a similar series of intervals (this is called a "sequence"), basically whatever you introduce along the way can be reused to develop the music further, which ends up doubling as cohesion and as "justification" for doing the cool thing in the first place

write with intentionality - mean what you put on the page! or screen! or whatever!

the "singable/hummable" thing can be helpful, i agree. you don't have to start with melody first always or anything like that, but it's good practice to start songs with different things on different occasions, and i find that Melody First produces a somewhat different kind of result, because then once you have your nice melody you get to focus on what to put underneath it, so the arrangement ends up being more informed by that and can come across as more delicate and well-thought-out. that doesn't mean you need to do that to write a good melody tho.

studying and transcribing others' melodies and considering why certain moments feel so effective to you will also be helpful

i think what i wanted to say about the intentionality thing is like... ok, if you decide for example to write a little sixteenth note run up in your melody, that's cool, now what else are you gonna do with that? tell me you mean it. now one of the things in your melody is a sixteenth note run up, so you need to do something else involving sixteenth notes (just the rhythm in general), or a similar pattern of notes going up (more sixteenths at other pitches, notes going up in a different rhythm, etc), or else your sixteenth note run up might just seem kind of random and thrown in there.

this all just takes practice to master, yeah. thanks dami!

more suggestions:

- memorable melodies usually make use of patterns like sequences or motifs
- the key's tonic and fifth are good points of rest; lingering on other scale degrees can make things sound floaty, or tense, or ambiguous (warning: parochial)
- listen to indian classical music -- it's very melody-focused, and easy to focus on the melody alone. this won't help you with melody's interaction with harmony, though (there are no "chord changes" or anything like that). other music traditions like arabic and persian music are similarly melodic in focus but i recommend indian music in particular because the sensibilities and tuning are very compatible with western music
- using different techniques to build your melodies will give different results. for me chord-scale type theory often yields weirder results than vocal improvisation (for better or for worse), especially over progressions with a lot of "chromaticism" (scare quotes because microtonality complicates things). and guitar or keyboard improvisation might yield different results than vocal improvisation!
- study and practice as always. develop your intuition, but give yourself tools to work with when your intuition fails, or when you want to trick it into generating something more interesting

Something I used to struggle a lot with in terms of melody writing was overcomplicating them; while writing it I would think it was cool and had a lot of musical interest, but then I'd listen back later and my ear had trouble following it. For me the best way to fix that was to take breaks in my writing, get the song completely out of my head, and then relisten with fresh ears.

To fix an overcomplicated melody it can just be a matter of adding more space like Damifortune said, or sometimes I split sections of the melody into different instruments or registers to give the listener a break from the lead voice.

Simple melodies can be incredibly effective when you have an interesting accompaniment. Also don't underestimate the power of articulation! Intentional use of vibrato, pitch slides, short stacatto notes, and volume swells can all seriously elevate a simple melody. I especially like alternating long notes and short notes for a bouncy feel.

I still feel like I have a long way to go in terms of writing amazing melodies, but those are some things that have helped me so far!

thank guys! didn't expect this much helpful feedback :)

@Jangler "the rest of the process is intuitive rather than conscious" - even from Philip Glass, J.S. Bach, etc.?

in 2 words: VOICE. MEMOS.

in more than 2 words: start humming/beatboxing melodies and random ideas in your head whenever you feel like, dont be shy. If you like what you're making with mouth noises, record the mouth noises right then and there. I have literally been at a social gathering or event and have stepped out of the room to awkwardly beatbox into my phone, but it's worth having the idea saved so you can work on it when you can.
I'm not sure if you have singing abilities, but it might help a lot to have some... if you're completely tone deaf this strat wont work

HAHA YES I do this exact same thing, nard! I have like maybe 20-25 voice memos on my phone of just a melody, bassline, drums, or even chords (individually) and I keep forgetting to use them. idk how well they function as a melody, but thanks for reminding me of this!

I am also not tone deaf, thankfully lol

nitrofurano: I would say yes, in that a deep enough intellectual understanding of a system is indistinguishable from intuition. I don't know anything about Glass, but Bach was, at times, under contractual obligation to write an incredible amount of music in a very compact period of time. under time frames like "composing a cantata to be performed every week", one does not have the liberty to think deeply about melody

contour, phrasing, and consistency are key, just like dami stated. something I learned about performing for choral accompaniment on the organ is that phrases have to breathe; lifting your hands from the keys gives the singers a chance to take a breath and keeps music from being exhausting to listen to. little moments of silence speak volumes!

@nitrofurano - i was only speaking about my own process; others may have entirely different experiences

+1 for silence and voice memos!