Questions tagged [melody]
A succession of notes which comprise the principal part in harmonized music.
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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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How come scales that differ in their ascent and descent tend to use raised notes going up and lowered notes going down regardless of musical culture?
A great variety of scales across the world differ in the way they go up and down. Some examples that come to mind are the Melodic minor that has A and B natural going up but Bb and Ab going down. A ...
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What makes the melody so counterintuitive in the chorus/refrain of Light my Fire? [closed]
In the song light my fire by the doors, the refrain of the chorus repeats: “c’mon baby, light my fire”
The last 3-4 syllables have something interesting going on in the variations that come with each ...
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What options do I have to utilize all my created riffs to their full potential?
Playing guitar, I tend to create a whole bunch of different riffs that flow one after the other in the same key. They all sound really good together but then I wonder how I could turn them into a song....
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What do you call it when two different melodies are combined? [duplicate]
Say that Alice has a theme song with a certain melody. Also, Bob has his own theme with a certain melody. But during a scene where Alice and Bob are together, both melodies are played together at once ...
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Question on the definition of a dissonant passing/neighbor tone?
I am currently trying to teach myself counterpoint following Jacob Gran's videos. When I was analyzing my exercises today, I thought of this question. If the first two notes of a dissonant neighbor(or ...
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Time signature vs. Melody [duplicate]
I have a very difficult time understanding the relevance of time signature in music. Does a musician think in terms of time signature when composing a piece, or thinks in terms of melody?
When I play ...
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What do you call it when someone sings a melody and simultaneously plays the exact same melody?
What do you call it when someone sings a melody while another instrument plays the exact same melody in unison?
For example:
"Crosstown Traffic" – The Jimi Hendrix Experience, intro: a ...
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What is it called when the main melody is playing in a different time signature from the harmony?
For example, in the Phantasy Star Online Intro song, the main melody starts to play in 3/4 time, whereas the overall song (and the harmony) remains playing in 4/4 time. (starts after 10 seconds, at ...
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How can I find a reference pitch when I practice singing a song by ear?
If I listened to a song for enough time, memorized the melody and the vocals of the original singer removed and now I am left with just the accompaniments playing in the background and I am going to ...
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Learning to sing a song: sheet music vs. by ear
Every time I want to learn to sing a new song, I get sheet music of the song and practice playing the melody on the piano before practicing singing it to match the pitch from the piano, memorize the ...
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Do I need to know every note I am going to sing?
If I am learning to sing a song do I need to know what notes and chords are in the song to find my reference pitch for the first note I am going to sing or singing the first note happens unconsciously ...
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Having a hard time writing a midi melody in my DAW [closed]
I have a problem. I am writing a midi melody in a part of a song in Reaper.
I'm having a hard time writing it because several notes sound out of beat and I have no reference (bar lines) so, being a ...
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Can a diatonic melody in one key sound like it is in another key?
Here is a simple melody I composed in C# minor but while listening to it closely, the part notated in red seems to me like the music has actually moved across to G# minor. Is it weird to say this ...
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More Terms for Melodic Functions in Narrative Situations
Leitmotifs (which in this context I mean as a motif or theme representing a person, place, thing, idea, etc.) are one of the only music theory concepts that have really escaped into (comparatively) ...
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Learning to sing: Some songs i can sing straightforwardly other i really cant is this normal?
I've been learning to sing for a year. And I noticed some great improvements but there is one thing that happens to me that is totally strange: When I listen to songs, there are songs that I can "...
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Does the Scarlatti's 'Cortege' really sound like Gaudeamus Igitur?
Every time I hear https://imslp.org/wiki/Keyboard_Sonata_in_E_major%2C_K.380_(Scarlatti%2C_Domenico), I think I'm hearing the melody for the third and fourth lines of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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The reading of a song: what a beginner in composition needs to pay attention when reading a song? [closed]
Firstly, I'm a beginner in composition and all of my songs were quite "intuitive". I'm at a stage where I really need to know music theory in order to produce better songs.
I) Introduction
...
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Where is the palindrome melody in Schoenberg Op.15 No.1
From Mindy Beth Horowitz's dissertation, "Vocal Melody in Schoenberg's Opus 15: Boundaries of Text and Register",
The song begins with an almost palindromic melody which ascents from B3 to ...
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A melodic 2nd above a simple minor triad has a unique feel, and a required duration. Explanations?
Examples
“Long” (first sung note) in Carpenters ‘Superstar’. B mel above A minor
“Far” in ‘Yesterday’ (McCartney). E mel above D minor
The effect is lost over a min7 (why?). Or without extended ...
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Keep moving hand while playing a melody?
If I play a melody with the rythm like fourth, eight, eight, how should I move my hands?
My books says it should be a downstroke on the first fourth, downstroke on the first eight and an upstroke on ...
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Can a Round Modulate?
I've been messing around with simple 2-part rounds recently, and also with modulation. The question occurred to me, can a round modulate? Initially I though not, since it would involve having parts in ...
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If a song has no scale degree 6, how to decide between aeolian and dorian?
I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I had "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" stuck in my head this morning (perhaps better known with lyrics about an ant colony, as popularized by a ...
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Melody Notes With Borrowed Chords [closed]
If I got a chord progression and I borrow a chord from a parallel mode is the tension/harmony between the melody and the underlying chord to the parallel, or the original chord, or both?
Let's say I ...
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Analysing melodies with mathematics [closed]
I am doing a statistics project in which I analyze the most streamed songs on Spotify to create one based on the data I get. I analyze the harmony, structure, key, tempo... I just don't know how to ...
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Melody notes Gouryella - Tenshi [closed]
I would like to know the notes of the melody of this song
I think the notes are like this:
In 1:11:
BBBB EEEE EEEE EEEE
AAAA CCCC DDDD DDDD
GGGG C#C#C#C# EEEE F#F#F#F#
...
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Help identifying chords/scale [closed]
I'm new to music theory and I am trying to reproduce parts of a song for practice. I really like the chords/scale that kick in at 2:36 of this song:
Open Form - Lost Desert, Amand, Reigan:
https://...
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What makes a song not sound like classical music [closed]
For example La Califfa, it is sung by a mezzo-soprano but the melody of this song cannot be mistaken for classical music. Is there a way to explain this? What exactly makes it sound modern?
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Melodic minor: Does 6 get raised when descending and then ascending immediately?
I found this embellished suspension in C minor:
The notes between S and R embellish the dissonant S. You can see that the leading tone 7 is raised in both descending and ascending directions, as well ...
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