Melodies

Key Things to Keep in Mind

K.I.S.S. Method (Keep it Simple Stupid)

Just as the method suggests, it's best to keep your melodies relatively simple at first. If you listen to a lot of catchy melodies, you'll notice that a lot of them are simple. Take "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for example. It doesn't contain any tricky patterns, rhythms, or awkward intervals between notes which makes it easy for our brain to recognize and remember.

Simple doesn't always mean "easy". My first few compositions ended up terrible because I chose to jumble a bunch of notes together into one busy moving line. It sounded cool, but it wasn't "good". If I were forced to recall what one of them sounded like, I couldn't do it to save my life. That is not how any melody should be written.

It's hard to write simple things. Especially when we get so excited about composing that we come up with a bunch of neat ideas and jam them all into one piece. They may sound really good as single ideas, but when an entire piece is made out of a string of ideas that have no prominent relevance between them, it'll be confusing to the listener thus making it "not good". So keep a score for all of your ideas to be written down in and if one inspires you, make a piece focused on expanding that one idea.

Once you've made a simple and easy to remember melody, you may then embellish it in later repetitions. Listen to the Chopin Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72 No. 1 for an example. Notice how the melody is established in a simple form in the beginning. Then, in the proceeding repetitions, he embellishes with runs, harmonization, trills, ect. There is also a B section in the piece (we'll cover forms below) so don't mistake that for an embellished "A" melody.

Chords are (usually) Your Friends

It is usually best to write chords before the melody, because it gives the melody musical clarity and support. It is similar to a road; the chords make up the road while the car is the melody navigating through the twists and turns of chord progressions. Although, it doesn't always have to be this way. Sometimes chords are added after the melody line has been written. Other times both the chords and the melody line are written at the same time. I would only suggest this if the person has first tried making melodies of their own and has practiced the "chords first" approach.

If you chose to start with the chords first, I recommend playing them on a keyboard or having them played through a digital notation app and singing a moving line over them. Typically, you will naturally sing notes that harmonize well with the chords being played. So remember what you sang or hummed and write it down by the slow process of matching notes to a keyboard. Once they're written down, you'll have a great base melody to work with, and you can change things, add a few rhythms and notes, or leave it as is.

If you chose to make the melody line first, be sure to match the chords afterward, though. You may have a beautiful melody but if you add chords all willy-nilly, it will end up sounding at least slightly less beautiful. I recommend knowing the key you are writing in, then list all of the notes in that scale. With all of the notes in the scale written down, build triad chords on top of them. You'll have a diagram of all the possible notes available to you, and you'll be able to identify common notes between specific chords and your melody. From there, you match them up and figure out which chords sound the best to you because, remember, many chords share similar notes. *If you want further clarification on this (as I assume one would because it's confusing to hear in written form), please do ask me to clarify in the club.* Also, do be aware that there are "passing tones" which are notes that don't necessarily belong to the chord you're lining up with the surrounding notes, but don't feel the need to switch the chord every beat. Accept that the note is there because it's only a lead in to the next, more relevant note.

Here is a video discussing the relationship between the chords and the tune:

Remember that, like Guy says in the video, "the chords influence the tune while the tune also influences the chords"

Musical Phrasing in Melodic Lines

In melodies, there are certain tones or notes that make up the general melodic structure of a melody. These are known as chord tones, passing notes, and auxiliary notes. A chord note or tone is a note that is found within the supporting chord. These are usually found on the beats of a measure. In contrast, a passing note describes a note in between two chord notes that follows a certain step wise motion. An auxiliary note is a note in-between the same chord notes. Both of the passing notes and auxiliary notes are usually found on the off beats of a measure.

Now, melodies do not always have to follow these rules. There are many instances where melodies do not follow this principle, but it is, nevertheless a place to start. In the example below, we have a basic C-triad in its root position.

Notice the three notes in the first two beats of this bar (C-D-E). Look at the + of 1, the note D. This note would be considered a passing note because it "passes" from one chord note to the next in a step wise motion. If the first two beats did not follow a step wise motion, and the D is changed to an F, then the F would not be considered a passing note. It would most likely be considered a "jump" or a "skip". Now let's look at the next two beats of this bar (C-B-C). The note on the + of 3 (B), is not a passing note because on beats 3 and 4, the same chord note appears (C). Therefore, the note on the + of 3 is an auxiliary note.

This is the same exact example used in the video down below:

To simplify what musical phrasing is is to think of it as musical sentences. We speak in short phrases and sentences is, so it is only natural for our ears to naturally be more inclined to listen for phrases in music.

A musical phrase is simply a group of notes in a specific pattern and rhythm that have a particular line or shape to them. It's an abstract concept, so, think of when people as a question. "Do you hear how you read this in your head?" Notice how a question ends in a rising tone at the end of the phrase. We're able to recognize this in speech even though we don't literally say, "do you hear how you read this in you head question mark?" A musical phrase, similarly, may end with a note above the starting note of the phrase to indicate a question. The following phrase may contain an "answer" by ending with a falling tone (typically the note ends on tonic, the first note of the scale of the key you're in). Read this conversation out-loud or in your head for a better understanding:

• Can you tell me what this is? (Notice a rise in tone. Depending on how you read it, the place where the rise in tone may be noticeable may vary, but there should be a definite rise unless you're a monotone bore.)
• That's a rat. (Notice the falling tone at the end indicating the end of the statement.)

A continuation of melodic phrases can be thought of as a "musical conversation".

Here's another example:

Musical Forms and Repetition

A musical form consists of certain phrases or sections in a musical piece that contrast or are noticeably different to give that piece a sense of clarity and depth. It is the layout of a composition to give the whole piece a sense of structure. Musical forms use repetition to provide that sense of clarity, especially in the main melodic line. An example of a musical form would be the ABA' form, where section A is played and then transitions to section B (with a similar melodic basis/groundwork). Finally, section B transitions back to section A, but with a slight difference from what was played in the beginning of the piece to make the piece even more interesting (denoted by the ' next to the letter form).

There are a variety of different musical forms, which include:

• AB
• AA'
• ABACA
• ABBA
• ABCBA

There are many names for these forms, but it is not really necessary to know them. It is better to practice these forms, hands on. Again, notice how most music utilizes repetition and simplicity. Simple ideas can grow, while complex ideas or too many ideas are difficult to grow and develop. Think about using a system or a pattern of notes and stick with that pattern. Then, slowly expand upon that idea by manipulating the rhythms slightly or varying the notes being used in the melodic line.

Thinking in Bars of 4

It is often in best practice to think in bars of 4. What does this mean exactly? Well, most melodies consist of 8, 16, or even 32 bars of musical phrasing. This mostly applies to 4/4 time signatures, but like with most things, this standard does not have to be strictly followed. It is more of a guideline and less of a rule to follow. There are two interviews down below with the game "Civilization" composer, Christopher Tin, explaining his process of coming up with his Civilization VI theme, "Sogno di Volare" as well as additional points being made in the other interview that discusses his other piece "Baba Yetu" (left).

Chords Paint The Canvas