WHAT IS A MELODY?
A melody is a sequence of notes played or sung within a piece of music. A simple melody may consist of a single musical phrase—just a few short notes and nothing more. More complex musical ideas may generate far more elaborate melodies, like those you hear in jazz, operatic arias, and progressive rock epics.
TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL MELODY
If you're looking to craft better melodies for your own songs, there are many proven songwriting tips to help you in this pursuit.
- Follow chords. Start your writing process by improvising on a set of chord changes, and let a new melody come from the notes in those chords.
- Follow a scale. You can also come up with melodies by combining the notes from major or minor scales. Major scales and minor scales form the basis of most pop melodies, but if you want to push further, try a dominant scale, an altered scale, or a mode.
- Write with a plan. Freeform songwriting can be liberating, but you may find yourself writing better melodies when you start thinking holistically. Try writing your song's chorus melody first and then work backward. Think about what kind of verse or pre-chorus melodies would best serve the chorus. You can even add an intro section with its own melody that never shows up elsewhere in the song.
- Give your melodies a focal point. A focal point is a high note that a melodic line touches once but never again—or at least not in that section of the song. Make sure that the highest note falls within your singer's vocal range. Of, if you want to subvert the form, you can make your focal point the lowest note in your melody.
- Write stepwise lines with a few leaps. Most vocal melodies follow stepwise motion; this means that most notes are followed by a note that's only a half-step or whole-step above or below. Great songwriters then mix in leaps (two whole steps or more), which stand out from the stepwise motion.
- Repeat phrases, but change them slightly. If you come up with a short musical phrase, repeat it, altering the notes or rhythm slightly each time. Try inserting one different note on each repeat, or add some syncopation to the rhythmic pattern. You might end up with something far more interesting than if you'd just repeated the same exact phrase a few times.
- Put down your instrument. Writing away from an instrument is a great way to generate creativity or push past writer's block. Try singing vocal lines into a recorder app on your smartphone. Then, return to your instrument and transcribe what you sang.
- Get inspired by your favorite artists. Analyze your favorite songs and try to identify what it is about their melodies that hooks you. Then, borrow some of their techniques, whether that involves certain scales, leaps, or rhythmic patterns.