im not very good with theory and have no idea what playing a melody on the 3rd even means, but for my own music this is how I write and record.
we will jam out a song in parts and the drummer will go away and write the parts for it.
once i have the drum track i will start with a simple riff, maybe 5 chords in a simple progression, then i will record that same riff an octave higher underneath it. when i have that i will then play a melody in the same octave or higher than the 2nd riff, playing it more like a solo on usually just one string. this cuts through the noise of the other 2 riffs and stops the sound getting muddy. it also gives me a lot more freedom because now i can have the riff playing in 3 octaves and it means i can introduce enharmonic dissonance without it being chaotic or even very obvious, there will just be a part of the song that catches the attention but maybe you dont know why.
once i have this, i will mock up a vocal track that almost follows the melody riff, but not completely. i do not like when the song is too structured and 4/4. thats what makes it sound generic. allow for some improvisation and empty space in the song, not every second of it has to be DADADADADADADADADADAADA!!!! let the song breathe a little.
once this is the done then the bass will play yet a another riff, different to the guitar but following the same pattern, more or less. like when the guitar goes to F5 the bass might miss that or go to a G5 for half a beat. again, its not obvious but it breaks up the chugga chugga and hold the attention better i feel. often the bass will only play the 1st and 5th notes of the scale in a walking pattern.
i do not play guitar solos. they hurt my head.
once all this has been done, i double track the guitars, adding a little reverb onto one track and turning it down in the mix, but raising the treble in production. the vocals are always the last thing to be done and i usually do them live and in one. this means that the music bleeds onto the vocal track but i like that.
nothing will stop the music sounding generic if you dont have good riffs, but as its hard to come up with a truly original one, the best way to stop sounding stale and generic is to mess about with sounds and timings and dont get too uptight about structure and arrangements. let the song flow naturally and never stop whenyou make a mistake. my music is full of bum and dropped notes but i think it sounds alive and exciting because of this. music should be visceral and not intellectual. never spend more time producing than you spend writing and playing the song. try to get everything in one take and leave the mistakes in if theyre not too bad, or hide them with a grunt or scream.
i was once asked by a professional musician, who was impressed by my music but not my methods and lack of theory knowledge, what I would do if the bass player said he wanted me to play a 4/6 riff in Gm. i said I would kick him out of the band.
