Questions tagged [melody]
A succession of notes which comprise the principal part in harmonized music.
371 questions
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Why do advanced piano keyboards use thirds and sixths in their harmonies instead of fourths when using their duet harmony feature?
A long time ago, I got a Yamaha PsR-192 or 292, I forget which, and I discovered that not only could you play chord accompaniments on the left-hand side, such as when improvising or using its built-in ...
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What are rests in the realm of rhythm and melody?
Are rests "spacers" between tones i.e. a phenomenon of rhythm, or rather "mute" tones in melody terms in your understanding?
Or is it both in a way, some janus-headed thing?
Or is ...
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Modal mixture- are ''avoid notes' a thing?
I know that in jazz, we have numerous scale options over any given chord.
If we have a C major 7 and want an alternative to playing C Ionian, we pick a different scale that has the same 3rd and 7th ...
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How do I find out early whether I'm accidentally plagiarizing known songs?
Similar to I accidentally composed a song that sounds like a famous song and Unintentional plagiarism while composing, now and then I accidentally write a song that turns out to already exist. For ...
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What does each part of a composition mean and do they makeup different “melodic pieces” (theme, subject)?: riff, lick, motif, phrase, ostinato
So basically, how many bars are each of these words and how many notes are typically in each part, and, are there more pieces that i’m missing? Like say we have a lick/riff is the smallest unit of a ...
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How to sing a tone and be sure?
For example I want to sing a C and then a D a capella (or for example a F then a G) whatever you want be a tone...
How can I be sure that I sang a tone by ear only ?
I know it's relative pitch but ...
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how to sing in tune when you have to sing a cappella without reference notes? [closed]
I learned that when an instrument plays a note (like pressing the piano keys) to reproduce them by ear at the same time as I play them
but without anything a capella we comment?
like there I don't ...
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Are there "safe" inversions for a simple melody?
I've noodled around on a keyboard, and created simple melodies with chords. I don't have the skill to play them well. So, I eventually port them to LilyPond and have it generate a score and a MIDI ...
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Why does my melody use only the white keys on the piano?
I've been trying to compose some melodies from my head using a DAW without any knowledge of music theory. After coming up with many melodies, I noticed they only use the white keys on the piano. I ...
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How to find chords that imply a certain melody
While playing around with chord voicings, I came across something I particularly liked - an AbM7:
e --x--
B --4--
G --5--
D --5--
A --x--
E --4--
While fiddling around some more, I came across a ...
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Why does this major-key folk song sound sad?
This is an old Scottish folk song. Why does it sound so sad, even though it is in a major key, and doesn't use any of the typical tricks songwriters use to make major keys sound sad (i.e. IV-iv-I)?
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Does lack of sleep impact on matching pitch and singing well?
As a beginner, I wanted to ask if it's normal to struggle with pitch matching, singing in tune, and vocal support when I'm tired or sleep-deprived. It feels like I can't hold a pitch, maintain a tune, ...
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Is adapting existing melodies a useful way to improve composition skill?
As the saying goes ‘immature talents borrow; mature ones steal’. When I write songs I normally start with chord changes and try to sing something over them, but this often results in uninteresting ...
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melody analysis according to chord or structural tones?
I have come across two ways of studying melody.
First way is with structural tones(melodic outline) and second way is with chords(chord/none-chord tones).
I assume considering melodic outline is only ...
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Can step-away structural tones have Neighbor tones?
As far as I understand, Neighbor tones(Upper and Lower tones) can only occur between repetition of structural tones as in the picture below.
but another picture suggests that between structure tones ...
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What is it called when the same melody is played at different speeds by voices with different timbre?
I'm imagining this situation:
A melody is played by a voice (by a "voice" I mean an instrument or an actual human voice).
The same melody or a very similar melody is played by another voice,...
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What makes a melody the “main melody” of a song?
A melody cannot exist with just one note, it requires 2 which implies that more change could be the biggest factor in making a melody the center of a composition. I am essentially making the ...
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How Are The Four Bars Here Sequenced Down A Step?
I see first instance of the melody, and then the second one instance descending. But I'm not sure what the text means by sequencing down across 4 bars since the melody isn't descending across 4 bars.
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What is the name of this music instrument? [closed]
I want to know which instrument is it for the music of raymans especially this
at the beggining, this who do the main melody ... a violin ? A midi synth in a computer ...
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Is there a term for having a sequence of notes that then change key while modulating?
Here's an example of what I mean.
It is a melody that is transposed down 1 whole tone every 4 measures.
I am wondering if there is a term for this transposing of a melody in music?
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Can there be no melody in some Scandinavian folk music?
I have a set of basic questions regarding melody and I’m not formally trained in music but I want to expand my knowledge on this and other subjects in music. Please advise if any of my terminology can ...
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Is this a melody or harmony?
I was playing four 9th chords in a 4/4 time signature. All whole notes.
Then I shortened some of of the notes of each chord by a quarter or half note by playing them late. For example, in a Cmaj9 ...
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D major with no C tone
I just played the melody of the famous German Epiphany song "Stern über Bethlehem" and thought it was g major. When I googled the melody, I saw it written in d major. I was confused but then ...
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In Organum and Species Counterpoint why is one of the voices always in whole notes?
Edit: It was pointed out to me that counterpoint spawned from the Organum style of music. For more context, here’s information from two sources I just read. “Two styles of Organum existed during this ...
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In the musical texture “monody”, can the underlying harmony be provided with a single voice?
According to these wiki pages
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monody
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophony),
in Monody, ”one solo voice sings a melodic part, usually with considerable ornamentation, ...
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What is the proper way to write an accompaniment part without using instruments? (Vocals Only) [closed]
I really want to be able to write songs without the need of using an instrument.
At first I was thinking it was as simple as starting with a drone in order to keep the lead voice in tune, but a great ...
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How do I add another composition [closed]
For my music class, we had to make a minor melody and a major melody. For the final project, we have to put these together in ABA format, so either major-minor-major or minor-major-minor. In ...
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Can two songs share the same melodic notes but still have distinct melodies?
This may sound like quite an obvious question. Admittedly my knowledge of music theory is limited.
I'm essentially wondering if two songs can use the exact same notes while still having original ...
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What would using only one Solmization(Solfège) syllable to sing the lyrics to a song be called?
For example, if one were to sing la or al (or other 1 consonant and 1 syllable combinations) to replace every morpheme of the words in a song. Is there a name for that idea, or is the closest thing ...
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Did Rimsky-Korsaskov really quote Beethoven?
It is well-known that "Russian Five" (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov) sought to compose purely Russian music and worked to avoid sounding "Western." I ...
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Does melody come from root progressions?
I’ve noticed that in a melody certain notes stand out and it’s always the root of the current chord or arpeggio. (also, are arpeggios only descending/ascending or can they be in a random order?)
In ...
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Why are these two songs nearly identical for 20 whole seconds? Could there be a theoretical explanation?
Disclaimer: this question is not about copyright. I am trying to understand why the voice melodies of the two songs are so similar. I thought the chord progression could be classical, and that there ...
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What is the music theory term for the study of the role and rhythm of each voice in multi voice compositions?
I’m looking for the for the study of the role and rhythm of each voice in multi voice composing. For example “lead part/voice/melody or supporting part/voice/melody”. By rhythms what I mean is the ...
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Why does Schoenberg think of "'semi-contrapuntal treatment' of the accompaniment" as a way of adapting a motive's melody to changes in its harmony?
Schoenberg says that the melody of a motive may be adapted to changes in the harmony "[b]y transposition," "[b]y addition of passing harmonies," or "[b]y 'semi-contrapuntal' ...
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Identifying a (psalm?) tune from its notes
I recently discovered four lines of numbers painted on the inside wall of a church bell tower in Wales, and I'm trying to interpret them. From the style of the writing, degree of decay and location, ...
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Why does this melody tend to be in the key of F Major rather than in the key of C Major
When composing, I generally start with C Major to be simple, but very often, I can hear that in the melody another key is suggested.
Here is such an example :
The melody starts by leaping to the VI ...
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Is there a technical term for when a song has two melodies which are combined in the final section? [duplicate]
I’m thinking of songs which have a melody in the first section, a different one in the second, and then both are played together in the final section.
is there a technical term of this?
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advice on Linus and Lucy, (Bridge PART)
I am currently working on the Vince Guaraldi song, Linus and Lucy; Am having trouble figuring out the bridge of the song, not really sure where to start on it. Any advice
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Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved - why single note outside mode?
In Bob Marley's song "Could You Be Loved" popcorn picking is used which is a percussive sounding rhythm guitar technique.
The song is in B minor key and uses these cords: Bmi, D, Emi, F#mi, ...
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Is there a name for the technique of alternating left and right hand in piano?
There is a technique in piano in which one plays a melody by alternating the left and right hand.
A well known example is in Bach's toccata and fugue in D minor, in the toccata part (right after the ...
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What is the best method to sing in a range where we are not comfortable?
to sing over an instrumental which has very high notes and I have a baritone voice, how do I do it?
I naturally sing an octave lower
https://vocaroo.com/1dU1HsGbiZrX
I force in fasletto
https://voca....
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Is there a word in English to describe instances where a melody is sung by multiple singers/voices?
I'm talking mostly in popular music / rock / etc. One prominent example of what I'm referring to is the start of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (pretty much up to the "I'm just a poor boy ... "; ...
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Why does this song sound sad even though it is uptempo-ish and in a major key?
"Rag Tag Army" by John Edmond
The song is uptempo-ish, and in C major without any mode mixture from C minor. There are A minor and E minor chords in it, yet none of them even end a phrase, ...
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Vocal Deviation?
Okay so this could be really simple but i don't know much music theory so it's difficult to search for... I want to know what it's called when a melody deviates from the regular melody in music. You ...
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How do I harmonize over a passing chord (chromatic)
How do I harmonize a melody over a passing chord? Especially if the passing chord has notes not found in the key of the song. Should I sing the passing chord tones, and harmonize with other tones ...
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What's it called when the Melody and Harmony are half a measure out-of-sync?
As an example in caveman speak, the melody goes ONE-2-3-4-ONE-2-3-4, and the harmony goes 1-2-THREE-4,1-2-THREE-4.
I'm not sure this is actually an example of what I'm talking about, but in the intro ...
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How should this passage be analyzed?
From a previous exam. Possible answers were D maj, G maj, d min or a min.
I think it’s a minor: if D or G then the F needs to be sharp and if it’s d the B would need to be flat. I think the c# is ...
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How do singers find the first note of the melody?
I find myself hitting the first note of the melody correctly when my singing teacher starts playing the song's chords on the piano, but I have no idea how I did it or how I found the first note. How ...
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How can I improvise singing a melody over a chord progression? [closed]
Do I sing the pitches I hear within the chord progression, or there is another way to do it?
What if I want to sing notes that are not in the chord progression how do I sing them?
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Why was Mozart so good at writing melodies?
I don't mean this in a "hurr durr IQ hurr durr GENIOUS" way. Do we know if Mozart specifically studied folk songs, lieder etc. over learning fugues and counterpoint?
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