# Melody creation - tips and tricks



## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

According to me, the most difficult part in composing is coming up with original, simple and memorable melodies that can transform into themes in a score, or become the chorus/verse of a song.

How do you guys come up with simple and memorable (hummable) melodies? Can you share some tips, tricks and advises here? Thanks in advance.


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## Tysmall (Nov 21, 2016)

Practice.


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## Lassi Tani (Nov 21, 2016)

Writing a melody is all about a story. Think of a story first, make it clear on your mind while composing, and usually a melody comes up easier. It's the same with drawing. If a teacher says, draw something, it's much harder to draw something on blank canvas than if you're given an idea, what to draw. Same goes with composing.

In practice, when I compose, sometimes a whole melody comes very easily, and usually the theme or the story is also very strong. Sometimes, I need to be more analytical, and think of motifs, repetitions, answers and development. A motif is a short idea about the melody, I might repeat it, then an answer could come to the motif, and then I would develop the motif forward.

In conclusion, if it's hard to write a melody, compose it in smaller pieces (motif, etc), and think what you're telling to the listener, what's the story behind the melody.


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## toddkedwards (Nov 21, 2016)

@ranaprathap Try and use chord tones (from the chords in your progression). Use scale wise motion, going up and down, have a melody start with a few whole steps or half steps and then try and jump up to higher notes in the scales, or lower notes depending on where you've started your melody line. The biggest thing that has helped me with melody writing is focusing on the rhythm of the melody. 

A few tips and suggestions, study/analyze some of your favorite melodies and see how your favorite band/composer wrote them. Another thing you can try is your melody singable, try to sing it yourself and really listen to see if the melody makes sense.

I hope these helps, let me know if you have any further questions?


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## FinGael (Nov 21, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> Writing a melody is all about a story. Think of a story first, make it clear on your mind while composing, and usually a melody comes up easier. It's the same with drawing. If a teacher says, draw something, it's much harder to draw something on blank canvas than if you're given an idea, what to draw. Same goes with composing.
> 
> In practice, when I compose, sometimes a whole melody comes very easily, and usually the theme or the story is also very strong. Sometimes, I need to be more analytical, and think of motifs, repetitions, answers and development. A motif is a short idea about the melody, I might repeat it, then an answer could come to the motif, and then I would develop the motif forward.
> 
> In conclusion, if it's hard to write a melody, compose it in smaller pieces (motif, etc), and think what you're telling to the listener, what's the story behind the melody.



Maybe a little off-topic, but your post reminded me of something. 

I have not done that much classical or film music writing yet, but often when composing more contemporary stuff I stumbled into a thing, that if I am not able to create sketches of all the different parts of the song at the same session or day, it many times became hard to create the additional or missing parts later on, because they felt like they were from a different realm than the parts that I had made before. The energy was not the same and it often felt that they did not belong together. 

For me it is like a stream of consciousness and you pick from there what you can - or in many cases they will be forever gone.


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## thesteelydane (Nov 21, 2016)

Do this course. It's excellent, Alain is a master teacher. 

https://scoreclub.net/course/memorable-melodies-through-motivic-mastery/


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## Lassi Tani (Nov 21, 2016)

FinGael said:


> Maybe a little off-topic, but your post reminded me of something.
> 
> I have not done that much classical or film music writing yet, but often when composing more contemporary stuff I stumbled into a thing, that if I am not able to create sketches of all the different parts of the song at the same session or day, it many times became hard to create the additional or missing parts later on, because they felt like they were from a different realm than the parts that I had made before. The energy was not the same and it often felt that they did not belong together.
> 
> For me it is like a stream of consciousness and you pick from there what you can - or in many cases they will be forever gone.



Interesting, I've experienced that too. I try to make sketches as much as I can in one session. Then later on, it's easier to connect back with the piece. I have a few or actually many unfinished songs, and I've tried to finish them, but many times I feel disconnected with the piece, and I actually start to produce material to a totally new song.


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## Baron Greuner (Nov 21, 2016)

ranaprathap said:


> How do you guys come up with simple and memorable (hummable) melodies? Can you share some tips, tricks and advises here? Thanks in advance.



The mistake a lot of us make, is to try and write long melody lines. This can start to sound arduous and turgid after a while, especially if the orchestration stays the same. In other words, boring.

Melody lines are not a trick, but try and keep them short. The guitarist from Deep Purple said that the knack of playing lead breaks, were to keep them short and in phrases, most importantly with breaks or gaps. A lead break can be and sometimes is, just really a melody line.


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## Rodney Money (Nov 21, 2016)

ranaprathap said:


> According to me, the most difficult part in composing is coming up with original, simple and memorable melodies that can transform into themes in a score, or become the chorus/verse of a song.
> 
> How do you guys come up with simple and memorable (hummable) melodies? Can you share some tips, tricks and advises here? Thanks in advance.


What is your background? Do you perform live, solo, in a band or ensemble. This is a weird question, but do you go to church? What music do you listen to, and what do you do "for fun."


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> Writing a melody is all about a story. Think of a story first, make it clear on your mind while composing, and usually a melody comes up easier. It's the same with drawing. If a teacher says, draw something, it's much harder to draw something on blank canvas than if you're given an idea, what to draw. Same goes with composing.
> 
> In practice, when I compose, sometimes a whole melody comes very easily, and usually the theme or the story is also very strong. Sometimes, I need to be more analytical, and think of motifs, repetitions, answers and development. A motif is a short idea about the melody, I might repeat it, then an answer could come to the motif, and then I would develop the motif forward.
> 
> In conclusion, if it's hard to write a melody, compose it in smaller pieces (motif, etc), and think what you're telling to the listener, what's the story behind the melody.



Thanks for the useful advice. It is true that it is much easier to have a melody idea when there is a story or picture to refer to. And I need to practice developing motifs without it being repetitive.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

toddkedwards said:


> @ranaprathap Try and use chord tones (from the chords in your progression). Use scale wise motion, going up and down, have a melody start with a few whole steps or half steps and then try and jump up to higher notes in the scales, or lower notes depending on where you've started your melody line. The biggest thing that has helped me with melody writing is focusing on the rhythm of the melody.
> 
> A few tips and suggestions, study/analyze some of your favorite melodies and see how your favorite band/composer wrote them. Another thing you can try is your melody singable, try to sing it yourself and really listen to see if the melody makes sense.
> 
> I hope these helps, let me know if you have any further questions?



Thanks for your help. I really liked the idea of taking apart the melodies is some of my favorite songs. But when I do, those tunes are so simple that I end up wondering "why did I not come up with this?" And good advice on focusing on the rhythm, because I realize that more often it about the rhythm than the notes itself.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> The mistake a lot of us make, is to try and write long melody lines. This can start to sound arduous and turgid after a while, especially if the orchestration stays the same. In other words, boring.
> 
> Melody lines are not a trick, but try and keep them short. The guitarist from Deep Purple said that the knack of playing lead breaks, were to keep them short and in phrases, most importantly with breaks or gaps. A lead break can be and sometimes is, just really a melody line.



I agree with you that short phrases makes the melody more hummable and memorable. Yes sometimes, the pauses are as important as the notes itself. It all depends on the context too - sometimes you just can't go without having a long soaring legato line as your melody.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

Rodney Money said:


> What is your background? Do you perform live, solo, in a band or ensemble. This is a weird question, but do you go to church? What music do you listen to, and what do you do "for fun."



I come from a piano background. I have performed live - both solo and in a band. When I did, I played other's music. 

I haven't gone to church before, because of a different religious background. 

I listen to a lot of Indian classical music, Indian film music, fusion music(western classical-Indian classical), film scores, trailer music (the soft variety), New age (eg.Yanni), World music(eg.Tinariwen), Dubstep, soft rock, modern western classicals, etc etc

I am primarily a doctor, and for fun, amongst other things I watch tutorials on music production, listen to demos of sample libraries, and compose music when asked to, when I get the time.


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## Baron Greuner (Nov 21, 2016)

ranaprathap said:


> sometimes you just can't go without having a long soaring legato line as your melody.



Then a technique to use when doing that, is to embellish it with a sort of question and answer routine to try and break up the possibility of any monotony to the listener. Examples



An old one below with not brilliant use of samples I admit.


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## Rodney Money (Nov 21, 2016)

ranaprathap said:


> I come from a piano background. I have performed live - both solo and in a band. When I did, I played other's music.
> 
> I haven't gone to church before, because of a different religious background.
> 
> ...


My sincere apologies for the abnormal questions, Doctor, but I have always personally believed that composing melodies are affected by one's background and what type of music they both listen to and perform. I have a 3 year-old daughter named Molly in which we sing, play instruments, and dance constantly since she was born, and we even sang to her in the womb. Now we play this game called, "Sing a new song," that she invented where she will just break out into a very melodic song with her own words. I will ask her, "What are you singing, Molly?" And she will say, "I just made it up," then she will put me on the spot and say, "Now Daddy, it's your turn!" We play this game all the time. Once we were in Target and she just belted out a wonderful theme for a march. I looked at Momma and said, "I'm stealing that one!" The songs she listens to are mostly children's nursery rhymes, tunes, and spirituals, but in the different styles of Disney, jazz, country, and rock. When her mother and I sing songs with her we don't sing in "child's song voice," but sing it how we would perform, and it's amazing just to see a child mimic our performances emulating singing in tune, adding vibrato on whole-notes, and even emotion and correct style, example swinging the eight-notes. She is also the one child that loves to go to church, and she is expose to a wide range from traditional hymns, contemporary Christian, Bach chorales, madrigals, chant, Yiddish, and modal. I do not say all this to preach religion, but what all of these religious styles have in common, with probably the exception of chant, is that they are all extremely heavy melodic and she is truly absorbing that style.

My whole point of this story is that if you want to write melodies you must first listen and perform music that has great melodies. So many times I have listened to people's music and while their production skills are top notch, their music doesn't truly hit that lasting level because they fall into what I call "the epic loud legato whole-note horn melodies that are made up of arpeggios and perfect 5ths trap" With a little more work and attention to details those lines could absolutely become more melodic making their music even more "epic." My own music is heavily melodic even my "atonal" music. If you want me to go in more detail I can if you wish how I personally develop a melody.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Then a technique to use when doing that, is to embellish it with a sort of question and answer routine to try and break up the possibility of any monotony to the listener. Examples
> 
> 
> 
> An old one below with not brilliant use of samples I admit.




Thanks, I understand the point you are trying to make here, especially with that second example.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 21, 2016)

Rodney Money said:


> So many times I have listened to people's music and while their production skills are top notch, their music doesn't truly hit that lasting level because they fall into what I call "the epic loud legato whole-note horn melodies that are made up of arpeggios and perfect 5ths trap"



That is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid. There is a lot of music out there that sounds great while listening but do not have a melody that stands out, making it immemorable.



Rodney Money said:


> My whole point of this story is that if you want to write melodies you must first listen and perform music that has great melodies.



The Indian classical style of music is extremely melodic, and poorly harmonic. But these melodies are based on Ragas (Indian classical equivalent of scales) making it suitable only for the Indian audience. And that is fine.

I guess it is time for me to widen my musical palette, and listen to more melodic content.


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## Morodiene (Nov 21, 2016)

I agree with what's been said here. Mainly, feed your mind great melodies. A lot. Some analysis, sure, but as you said, the best ones are simple. Just by listening you will begin to imitate, and soon come up with your own.

Get some staff paper (or print some online) and a pencil. Write 4 or 5 8-measure melodies - however long that takes you to do. Then let them sit for a day and come back to them and play them back, and pick the best ones or the best parts of each. Throw out anything that isn't great. If you don't like any parts of what you have write another 4 or 5. Keep doing this until you come across the "gold". Keep that, throw away the rest.

The good stuff will often give you inspiration for other parts or where it will lead.

Also, improvise melodies at the piano. At first, you may just want to "doodle" on the keys if you're not sure what to do. Set limitations for yourself: only the black keys, only one note at a time, things like that. Don't worry about modulations or creative accidentals. Keep it simple. Then if you come across something you like, something that tells _you_ what to do next, that's your gold.

There are many, many other ways to go about this, but the main point is that you do it often, and learn to discern what is interesting or good by how it sparks ideas in you, or how it sticks in your head afterwards.


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## Arbee (Nov 21, 2016)

Just my random 2 cents, and not from an especially educated place:

Phrase length - are you making a statement (a short motif), a sentence (2 - 4 bar phrase) or having a conversation (e.g an 8 bar phrase). When I used to write radio/TV commercials I became trapped in short phrase thinking, a period in my career that I wish I'd skipped for several reasons.

Tension (e.g resting the initial phrase on 2nds, 4ths, 6ths, 7ths) and release (e.g. resolving the answering phrase to 5ths, 3rds, tonics).

Melodic rhythm - does the melody sound interesting without pitch when you tap it on the table, with just the right amount of rhythmic interest, repetition and variation.

Pitch direction - like melodic rhythm (and in conjunction with it), and without focusing on the specific notes, does the pitch generally flow, leap, change direction etc, in interesting ways.

Tonic fatigue - does your melody revisit the tonic too frequently. If it does, and if you're happy about that, be sure to move the bass note elsewhere to stop the melody sounding too dull and unexciting.

Just thought of another one: if you over-syncopate the melody, particularly if you avoid the first beat of the bar, it's like avoiding eye contact when you talk to someone, lacks impact.

Not sure if any of that resonates.....


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## Dan Drebing (Nov 21, 2016)

I don't know how to write a great melody, but I know that to do it you don't have to get fancy with harmony. I think that the Force Theme is one of the best themes ever, and it's pretty much just v-I. It gets dressed up a little more than that in the second half of the theme, but the first statement really is just that simple. 

One thing I try to be cognizant of is writing melodies that fit into chord progressions that resolve (1-6-4-5 or the like, I don't know the proper musical term for it) vs writing melodies that don't have a "circular" underlying harmony. I think the two lead to very different feels.

The notes that hit on down beats are important (take a look at the Force theme), and as was previously mentioned hitting chord tones is important.


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## Saxer (Nov 21, 2016)

something which helps me is to build little exercises: desrcibe something before you write it.
i.e. write a melody that is
- question and answer in the melody
- question and answer between melody and chords
- contains a big interval up with added half step approach to the upper note
- start with a climax and than go down
- avoid every third note on a downbeat
- main target note in a melody is outside of the key and needs chord change
- motive repeated one step above first, than a third above
- a melody that follows the line of the horizon when you look out of the window
- hold notes over chord changes and move while chords stay
- etc...


possibilities are endless. to find new ones just listen to music and describe what you hear. The first four examples I wrote up there fit on:
- Twinkle twinkle little star
- Don't get around much anymore
- Maria (from West side story) or Bewitched
- Somewhere over the rainbow or Night and Day


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## euanatkinson (Nov 22, 2016)

I was taught a brilliant way recently, basically begin with a chord sequence and try to make the chords as weird and un-related as possible, literally anything,
it may sound terrible at first but once you add a melody it sort of contextualises the harmonies, stick to the notes of the chords you're writing over when doing the melody, so if your first chord is C, use notes from C, then you go to F sharp major, stick to notes in F sharp major, use whichever you think sounds best and play around with it

sometimes i do this on piano playing completely unrelated chords in succession and trying to fit melodies to them, you use your ear and intuition to a degree, but also get completely unexpected results, was also told it's how Rachmaninov wrote. A lot of his works modulate very rapidly to unexpected keys


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## ranaprathap (Nov 23, 2016)

Morodiene said:


> I agree with what's been said here. Mainly, feed your mind great melodies. A lot. Some analysis, sure, but as you said, the best ones are simple. Just by listening you will begin to imitate, and soon come up with your own.
> 
> Get some staff paper (or print some online) and a pencil. Write 4 or 5 8-measure melodies - however long that takes you to do. Then let them sit for a day and come back to them and play them back, and pick the best ones or the best parts of each. Throw out anything that isn't great. If you don't like any parts of what you have write another 4 or 5. Keep doing this until you come across the "gold". Keep that, throw away the rest.
> 
> ...



Thanks, I will start doing daily melodies. I like the idea of looking for tunes that will tell me what to do next.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 23, 2016)

Arbee said:


> Just my random 2 cents, and not from an especially educated place:
> 
> Phrase length - are you making a statement (a short motif), a sentence (2 - 4 bar phrase) or having a conversation (e.g an 8 bar phrase). When I used to write radio/TV commercials I became trapped in short phrase thinking, a period in my career that I wish I'd skipped for several reasons.
> 
> ...



Thanks, a lot of good advises here. I like the idea of trying to tap out a melody to see if it sounds good. I don't like over syncopating stuff too. I think pitch direction will be the hardest thing to nail here.


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## ranaprathap (Nov 23, 2016)

Dan Drebing said:


> I don't know how to write a great melody, but I know that to do it you don't have to get fancy with harmony. I think that the Force Theme is one of the best themes ever, and it's pretty much just v-I. It gets dressed up a little more than that in the second half of the theme, but the first statement really is just that simple.
> 
> One thing I try to be cognizant of is writing melodies that fit into chord progressions that resolve (1-6-4-5 or the like, I don't know the proper musical term for it) vs writing melodies that don't have a "circular" underlying harmony. I think the two lead to very different feels.
> 
> The notes that hit on down beats are important (take a look at the Force theme), and as was previously mentioned hitting chord tones is important.




Good advice on not needing great harmonies for great melodies. The simple stuff if often the most memorable ones. I will also keep the tip about circularly resolving chord progressions in my mind. Thanks.


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## RyanMcQuinn (Nov 23, 2016)

It's amazing to me what ends up being catchy. There's a commercial where I live from "Appliance Direct". There's no music, just a boisterous business owner saying Appliance Direct in a sing song way that makes you remember it (and like it for being funny in my case).

In my writing, I usually am composing because I've had a melody occur to me that feels meaningful to me. I don't know how to generate a melody that will be meaningful to someone else other than just putting myself out there and hoping someone relates to it.
A lot of times I'll have a melody occur to me in the shower due to the sound of the water and zoning out. Or it could be while doing chores, driving, you name it. I have a simple voice recorder app on my phone and I try to capture it before I forget. So , whenever it is that a doctor is able to zone out and just be, it's in those moments that you may experience melodic inspiration organically. I think the most important part is vulnerability. Can you allow a melody to speak an emotion that you may otherwise keep hidden? Those are the ones that people connect with because they too don't talk about these emotions and are thankful for a chance to relate.

I don't know if this method is common, but it works for me. I hope it helps. Best of luck.


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## Will Blackburn (Aug 8, 2017)

Holistic Songwriting has some good stuff on Melody writing.


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## HenrikSkram (Oct 24, 2017)

Very often I find that useful themes/melodic material emerges from the counterpoint of what your struggling with.. That is; alway create a counterpoint (second line) to your melody


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## skyy38 (Oct 25, 2017)

Dan Drebing said:


> I don't know how to write a great melody, but I know that to do it you don't have to get fancy with harmony. I think that the Force Theme is one of the best themes ever, and it's pretty much just v-I. It gets dressed up a little more than that in the second half of the theme, but the first statement really is just that simple.
> 
> One thing I try to be cognizant of is writing melodies that fit into chord progressions that resolve (1-6-4-5 or the like, I don't know the proper musical term for it) vs writing melodies that don't have a "circular" underlying harmony. I think the two lead to very different feels.
> 
> The notes that hit on down beats are important (take a look at the Force theme), and as was previously mentioned hitting chord tones is important.




Could you please define "v-I"?


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## Dan Drebing (Oct 26, 2017)

I just mean the movement from a minor dominant to a major tonic. Calling it v-I is probably a little too simple, but I don't know the proper music theory terminology for it.


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## jhughes (Oct 28, 2017)

1)I sing in my car a lot. I carry a piece of paper with me just about everywhere. If I hear or come up with something then I jot it down via solfege.
2)I sometimes let an interesting harmonic change lead me to a melody. The last song I wrote I sat down wanting to write a song that began on a min7b5 chord and then move to another chord. I just banged on those two chords until I found a "theme."
3)In order to write nice melodies you have to put a lot of nice melodies in your head and fingers. Sometimes there are nice seemingly "insignificant" melodies in someone else's work that aren't the focal point or go by in passing almost unnoticed. You can take those and write an entire tune around it.


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