Day 2 – Melodies
Welcome back to the 5-day basic theory challenge!
Today is all about melodies.
If you want to visualize and audiolize the ideaz, check out my mug in the video lesson below.
And now, let’s dive in!
1. Types of notes
Before we begin, let me point out that the main difference between a melody and a chord is that in melodies, the notes are played consecutively, one at a time, which means that you can very easily go down the street singing melodies (or hide in a closet humming melodies), whereas you’d need a few like-minded friends if you want to do that with chords.
(Flash aside: you cannot copyright chord progressions, but you can copyright melodies.)
As for the types of notes in your melodies, they differ in pitch (higher or lower notes) and duration (shorter or longer notes).
That means that when you look at the notes in a melody, you can discern various melodic shapes (rising and falling pitch) and rhythmical shapes (mini grooves resulting from the combination of notes of varying duration).
2. Melodic shapes
Melodic shapes are closely related to intervals. Picture them as doodles plotting the pitch of the notes from left to right (as you would in a MIDI editor with rectangles).
If there is a string of notes on the same pitch — a series of unisons — as the beginning of the verse of Queen’s “Innuendo”, the shape is flat.
At the end of that phrase, there is a sharp fall — by a fourth.
The bigger the interval, the steeper the slope of the fall — or the leap.
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” begins with a leap up a fifth on the second “twinkle”, but the descent for the second phrase is much more gradual, as is the slope of the shape:
Melodic shapes are useful for repetition and variation as we’ll see below, and also as energy indicators.
Rising and falling shapes are often related to the energy charge in a melody, and sudden leaps or plunges could be powerful emotional triggers.
3. Rhythmical shapes
The combination of short and long notes inevitably creates rhythms.
Unlike percussion instruments which create rhythms by punctuating certain beats of the temporal grid of the song (more about that tomorrow), melodies create rhythms by letting certain notes sound longer than others.
In a MIDI editor that’s apparent by the size of the rectangles.
Can you guess which song the following rhythmical shape refers to without looking at the keyboard first just by clapping or singing la la la on a single pitch?
And how about this one?
4. Motifs or melodic cells
The beginning of Beethoven’s 5th symphony (above) is a great example of putting all of the above to work.
The first four notes — three short and one long, the first three on the same pitch with a drop by a third at the end — create a motif, which will be replicated throughout the piece across instruments and at varying pitches.
The replication of the motif is already evident in the second four notes. The rhythmical shape is exactly the same and the melodic shape is almost identical but for a slight change in the interval of the drop, which is a semitone smaller.
The use and reuse of motifs, or melodic cells, is a handy way of creating repetition and variation — a principle we’ll talk more about on Day 5.
Repetition and variation helps you engage your listener by giving them something they can recognize from earlier in the song, while at the same time keeping them interested in what is yet to come.
(People love it when somebody falls flat on their face, but appreciate being wowed if somebody pulls off the stunt).
How do you introduce variation?
Well, you can transpose the same shape to a different pitch, or add notes or scramble the notes — just slightly.
As far as rhythmical variation goes, you can change the duration of a few notes or misplace notes to change the pattern — the best way to experiment with that is to do it one step at a time. (We’ll talk more about that tomorrow).
5. Today’s challenge
Today’s assignment is the same as yesterday’s.
- Pull 3 different melodies out of thin air. Experiment with the elements we talked about today. If 3 is plenty, start with 1.
- Can you identify a shape or motif in your melody? Can you think of 3 ways to introduce variations in it?
- Another fun exercise is to take a favourite song and plot its melody and shapes, and then play around with those. If that sounds like heresy, stick to the first part. You’ll learn plenty just by analysing somebody else’s melody.
And that’s it for today!
Have fun and I’ll see you tomorrow for Day 3, which is all about grooves.
Don’t forget to share your ideas, questions or comments below.
And here’s today’s video:
