How can I get started with melody writing?

Question

I have a basis in music theory(took an AP course, read a few online texts) and now seek to create melodies, though am never able to start. I'm aware that this has been asked before, though have not been helped by previous answers. What is the most methodical way you can describe your process of melody writing? I continually find it difficult to generate any compelling sequence of notes or rhythms. Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

One thing you have to keep in mind is: melody is rythmn.

We believe too often that melody is only notes (and a little rythmn), but it's the opposite.

Make the test: you can recognize almost every great melody just by playing their rythmn (without notes). In most cases, you can't or hardly recognize them just with notes (without rythmn).

So, if you want to learn to write melody, keep this in mind, and look carefully at the rythmn.

When I say "rythmn" here, like Grace, I don't mean time signature (4/4, 3/4, etc.). I mean "duration of each note" (half note, quarter note, etc.).

Don't forgot to study melodies you like. Look which chord notes are chosen (in lot of musics, melody is built on chord notes — if you play C major, the melody use C, E, G — see the well-known 545 sonate by Mozart, if you play F major, melody uses F, A, C — with "passage notes": F g A then A bb C for example, where "g" and "bb" are passage notes).

In conclusion:

• Take a harmonic progression. Say I, II, V, I (an excellent choice).
• Choose a tune. Say G Major. So: G, Am, D7, G
• Choose a metric. Say 4/4.
• Choose a carrure. Say 2 bars with G, 1 bar with Am, 1 bar with D7, 2 bars with G.
• You can choose a atomic rythmn. Say quarter note and half, semiquaver.

Now you know where to experiment:

• In the two first bars (G major), you can use G, B, or D. Try one passage note (maybe de A between B and G?)
• In the third bar (Am), you can use A, C, and/or E
• In the next bar (D7), you can use D, F#, A, and/or C. Try one passage note (maybe the G between A and F#?)
• In the last two bars (G), you can use again G, B, and/or D. Try two passage notes.

It could be a good start.

Answer 2

Start from the very basics. First, you need to devise your own rhythm. This could be 4 bars or 8 bars long.

Then you need to start writing the melody to the rhythm you've made. If you have never written melodies before, you should start writing melodies using notes of chords belonging to the key in which you want to write your melody in. Generally, you use chords I, IV, V, which is common in almost all melodies. These are called primary chords. As you go higher in level, you will learn to use chords which are other than these. Like chords, ii, vi, etc.

Always try to have melodies with a cadence - example Perfect, Plagal, Imperfect. Cadences generally appear in the middle & at the end of the melody.

Once you are well versed with the above, you can make the further melodies you write more interesting in a number of ways - rhythmically, melodically, etc.

I hope this gives you a general idea of how to begin with. Good luck!

Answer 3

As the other answer show, melody is basically pitch and rhythm.

Regarding pitch you can consider two really important concepts about the flow of tension and resolution:

• When a melody is based on chords - like @Grace's answer explains - you can use non-chord tones (NCT) to embellish the melody. There are many types of NCT movements and you can easily find descriptions online or in harmony textbooks. For a pop music style you may want to first look at: appoggiatura, suspension, and neighbor tone. NCT's add tension and expressive feeling to a melody.
• Tendency tones is another melodic concept involving tension and resolution. Within a key certain tones are stable and other un-stable with a tendency to move to stable tones. The tones of the tonic chord are the stable tones. Using solfege the tonic chord tones are DO MI SOL. FA and TI are tones with strong tendencies. FA moves down to MI and TI moves up to DO. RE and LA are sort of neutral, but basically RE moves down to DO and LA moves down to SOL.

Regarding rhythm you should consider the fundamental concepts of meter:

• The first beat of a bar is normally accented when the music confirms the metric sense. There are various ways to create an accent, but in terms of basic rhythm long note values will create the accent. What naturally follows is the idea of anacrusis (pick up note.) So, a short value before the bar line leading to a long, accented first beat is a pattern that strongly establishes a sense of meter.
• Any rhythm that runs contrary to the basic metrical pulse is called syncopation. Short values on the first beat can be a sort of syncopation, but probably the most well known syncopations are playing on the 'up beat' - the 'and' when you count "1 and 2 and" - or playing on the metrically weak beat like beats 2 and 4 in common time.
• Similar to using the pitch concepts of NCT's and tendency tones to control tension and expression, metrical and syncopated rhythm can be used to control the forward impulse and rhythmic energy of a melody.

The above isn't a "how to" method, but instead some fundamental concepts about what gives expression and movement to melody.

Answer 4

There's a nice (free) book called "Exercises in Melody Writing" by Percy Goetschius. It's available in PDF from several places. While somewhat old-fashioned, the basics are quite good. He covers lots of stuff about balance, intervals, diatonic vs chromatic melodies, periods, tonality, etc. There are lots of examples of good melodies with a discussion of what makes that melody good. Plenty of exercises.

The exercises start out with simple tunes then he proceeds to show more complicated constructs.

Some of the suggestions are nices; the "rules" often give techniques that I hadn't thought of. As with most compositional techniques, I found the suggestions most useful when I would get stuck wondering what to do next.