Composition
Composing a melody is much like improvising, just not spontaneous. That is, you can go back and modify what you’re written. Writing a song is a very personal and subjective thing and there’s no right or wrong method to doing it.
Musical Elements
There are 4 basic musical elements. And various genres of music place differing levels of importance to each of these elements.
| Musical Element | Genre |
|---|---|
| Melody | Jazz, Pop, Classical |
| Harmony | Modal Jazz, 12 Tone Serialism, Blues |
| Rhythm | Latin Jazz (Clave), Rock 'n' Roll, EDM |
| Timbre | Free Jazz, Punk, Thrash Metal |
But for most songs and genres of music, the most important element is Melody. So this lesson will primarily focus on this element.
Melodic Development
When writing a song, I would always start with the melody. Having a memorable and interesting melody is the most important part of any (most) song. The melody should be able to stand on its own without any chords and still be interesting and pleasant.
There are four ways to analyse, think about and write a melody:
- Intervallic – looking at notes themselves and the relationship between them ignoring rhythm
- Look at the highest and lowest notes in the melody. The highest note should be your climax and should generally (though certainly not always) happen about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through a song.
- Create melodies with a combination of steps, skips and leaps as these sound more interesting and less like an etude
- Steps – are movements of a semitone or tone and sound smooth, melodic, lyrical, singable (especially if diatonic).
- Skips – are movements of a minor third or Major third and can help trace out chords through arpeggios (see harmonic dot point below)
- Leaps – are movements of more than a Major third and sound more jagged and angular
- Pitch Contour – traces out the notes with a line, like a connect the dots. A smooth line within a narrow range tends to sound relaxing, whereas a jagged line that covers a wide range tends to sound more intense.
- Motivic – taking the intervals and rhythm of notes into account
- Create a Motif
- Repeat the Motif
- Use sequences (transposition)
- Motivic development (change the pitch (transposition) or rhythm, use inversion (upside down), retrograde (backwards), augmentation (slower), diminution (faster), and fragmentation (play fragment))
- Motivic embellishment
- Rhythmic density – this is the number of notes per bar. Different genres have different rhythmic densities. Swing has a low density, while Bebop has a high density.
- Scalar – looking at notes and their relationship to a scale
- Create a melody based on a specific scale
- Modal interchange – play a Major melody in a minor key, or a minor melody in a Major key, or an Ionian melody in a Lydian mode, or an Aeolian melody in a Dorian mode, etc.
- Harmonic – looking at notes and their relationship to a chord
- Arpeggios (traces out the chord or a substitute chord)
- Guide Tone Lines – a melody that targets the 3rd or 7th or each chord
- Guide Tone Lines generally resolve downwards
- Embellish a Guide Tone Line by adding passing notes, anticipations and delays, ornamentals, etc.
- Multiple Guide Tone Lines that move through a set of chord changes simultaneously.
Other Melodic Ideas:
- The Overarching Goal of any Melody (just like in improvisation): Build tension and resolve tension
- Ensure the Melody has structure
- Use Repetition (with Motivic Development)
- Use a Diatonic key or Tonality
- Use a mixture of steps, skips and leaps
- Melody should lead to a climactic point (highest pitched note)
- Use contrasts and opposites
- Dense & Sparse
- Intense & Relaxed
- High & Low Register
- But don’t use too much contrast so you avoid Non-Sequiturs
- A melody should generally flow naturally, follow a pattern, and change gradually (no drastic changes in rhythm, density, range or pitch).
- When the melody is static, make the harmony should move. When the melody is moving around a lot, the harmony should be static.
- When the tempo is fast, the harmonic rhythm (rate at which chords change) should be slow. When the tempo is slow, the harmonic rhythm should be fast.
- Humans are conservative creatures, we don’t like change. So have some references to the past and use of ‘Familiar Surprises’ – clichés, overused melodies, overused devices, etc. But also add a little bit of novelty – but only a little.
- Phrases should be of varying length.
- Try change melodic direction every 4 or 5 notes, so it doesn’t sound like a scale.
And the above could all be summarised in the classic Oscar Wilde quote:
All things in moderation, including moderation
The Doodling Method
So the above rules and ideas are all well and good. But if you’ll forgive my simplicity, I prefer just writing a melody that sounds good. There’s no reason to restrict yourself to a particular scale or key or intervallic pattern or harmony. I personally start by create an actual melody (or motif) ignoring all else. There’s a danger that you overthink a song and use unnecessary abstractions and theorising and all that. To begin with, don’t think about what key to use, or what form to use, or what rhythm to use, or what chord progression to use, or what meter to use, etc. These things are important, but having a nice and pleasant melody is more important. In a sense, all those other considerations should be secondary, they should come or develop naturally from the incredible melody you have created. And once you’ve created a witty and clever melody, then you can add in all the other aspects or elements of music.
Even when writing in a style that requires a strict rhythm (like the clave rhythm in Latin music) or harmony (like modal harmony in Modal Jazz), I would start with a nice sounding melody, and then manipulate it to fit a particular style or genre.
The Snowflake Method
A widely used technique when writing creative stories is the Snowflake Method. I recommend using something similar when composing a song.
- Doodle about on the piano
- Accidentally discover a phrase you like
- Use that phrase as a motif
- Develop the motif into a melody
- Find another motif and link the two motifs together somehow
- Embellish your melody (by adding ornamentals, passing notes, etc)
- Harmonise the Melody with Chords (see my lessons on reharmonization. The same principles apply here)
Aside: At this point, you’ve effectively written your own lead sheet.
- Arrange your composition (by adding a form, chord voicings, instrumentation, dynamics, etc.)
Have a Listen to
Have a listen to the following songs for melodic ideas:
- ESP (Uses intervals of 4ths)
- In Walked Bud (Uses augmenting intervallic leaps)
- Satin Doll (Uses sequences/repetition)
- Juju (Uses the wholetone scale)
- Autumn leaves (Uses a Guide Tone Line)
- All the things you are (Uses a Guide Tone Line)
- Any and every Bach song (Uses a Picardy third – a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key)
