Composing melody: over chord progression or standalone?
My piece of advice is to learn to do both things: compose a melody over a chord progression (or a figured bass) and compose a standalone melody (which will then need to be harmonized).
Indeed, there are situations when you will have a chord progression that is a given (e.g. when writing variations where you wish to keep the harmonic framework), or when you will have the melody (e.g. when harmonizing a tune for a SATB setting or when writing a fugue) and will need to find the underlying harmonies.
Depending on what I compose, I can even do both things at a time, i.e. find a melody, try to harmonize it, see that it is not practical for the style of what's already existing in the piece and have to adapt the melody to the most suitable harmonic progression derived from the original melody.
Good luck,
Raphael
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