A Look Under The Hood #3

“Melody always wins.”

Behind - no, actually at the forefront of - most music is a melody: a string of notes that, together, make up a musical idea. Melodies can be set prominently on top of a piece of music, or woven within the accompaniment, or deep in the bowels of the bass. A melody can be sung by a choir or the lead of a band, or it can be played by the strings or the horns or most other instruments.

If you do even the most surface-level digging on what a melody is, you’ll likely come across the notion that a melody is like a sentence - an idea which is stated not through words (though it may include lyrics!) but through pitch and rhythm.

Melodies can be  l  o  n  g, spanning eight or more measures. They can also be short, containing only a few notes.

But no matter the length, melodies are always important. They are the anchor for the listener - you, me, that person over there. The right melody conveys the right mood for the music.

Think about the theme from Star Wars: Brassy, punchy, heroic, it grabs your attention, and… it’s memorable. Most people will hear the theme and know they’re listening to Star Wars. Melody wins. Great writing, Mr. John Williams.

Now let’s think about the One Ring theme from Lord of the Rings. It’s eerie and gives the impression that you’re being watched. There’s mystery. There’s uncertainty. Again, most people would likely recognize the theme. Melody wins again. Great writing, Mr. Howard Shore.

What’s your favorite song? Whistle it (or sing it or hum it - I don’t care).

My guess is you whistled (or sang or hummed) a melody, right?

Melody wins yet again. It’s like a pattern or something. Hmm…

Write Me A Song, Piano Man

My earliest melodies (c. 2008-2013) were a mixed bag of shite and “hey that’s not terrible.” In retrospect, the shite melodies were because I had no clue how to write a melody and the not-terrible melodies were strokes of beginner’s luck.

While studying composition in college, I was clued into the idea that a melody is like a conversation: it should have substance and it should lead somewhere. His example, paraphrased: “I like chocolate ice cream. I like chocolate ice cream. I like chocolate ice cream. See how I’m talking but there’s nothing new being added?”

(He then proceeded to have me sing improvised melodies on the spot only to tell me they weren’t good lol #gaslit)

Obviously that lesson has stuck with me. And the evidence is abundant in Greater Music ™, from Mozart and Beethoven to video game scores. Melodies and their ideas evolve in each of these examples, offering newness and added information over time. Going back to my professor’s example (paraphrased: “It’s not enough to keep repeating that I like chocolate ice cream. I told you that already. But if I say ‘I like chocolate ice cream. It’s better than vanilla, and I like it cold of course but slightly melted. Oh! And with sprinkles! In a cone, not a dish.’ Now the conversation is interesting!”

But in order to have that conversation, it’s first important to establish the subject. Which means writing a not-shite-but-good melody to begin with.

Pop Goes The Kernel Start With A Seed

In grad school (for film scoring, a la the John Williams vein of music), we were encouraged to start each and every melody by writing a three- or four-note musical idea, which we would then use to flesh out the entire melody. This little few-note idea was referred to as a “kernel.”

I was never able to sink my teeth into this concept or naming convention - it just plain never made much sense to me about how a melody takes shape or can be used (sorry Hummie). A popcorn kernel explodes and forms the popcorn randomly (chaos theory? butterfly effect?), so for something that I’m crafting with my own decisions and my own intent, the term always seemed… counterintuitive.

Instead, I think of melodies as seeds - something that is to be grown and cared for and pruned and cultivated. Maybe, with enough care, the seed of a composition will grow into a lovely piece of music.

Creating A Seed

Recently, I set aside dedicated time to examine melodies of other composers, particularly those whose styles I wish to adopt into my own. I’m glad I took the time to do this, because what resulted was a fluid process for writing new melodies.

One of my biggest takeaways in looking at other composers’ melodies was a rhythmic consistency. Patterns. Every measure was the same, or every two measures, or every four. Maybe slight variations after repeating a pattern, but every melody had this rhythmic foundation.

After noticing this pattern across several melodies, I made a rhythmic chart (in 4/4 and 3/4 time) which lists every rhythmic permutation using whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes.

The first step I now take when writing a melody is not pitch, but rhythm (black writing in the picture). I pull two or three rhythmic ideas from this list and write them beneath my music staff. Starting with the rhythm first provides a strong foundation to apply pitch. Which leads me to…

Hot Cross Buns, as it looks using my melody-writing process. 1) Rhythmic markings below, 2) pitch notation on the staff, 3) harmony functions above.

My second step is sitting at the keyboard, applying pitches (red writing in the picture) to the chosen rhythmic idea (rhythmelody? I dunno). Again, the rhythm gives me structure and a sort of launch pad to wrangle a pitched melody. This step honestly doesn’t take too long because I have structure to work within, and I’ve had days when I write seven or eight 8-measure melodies in about an hour (compared to before this process when it would take me an hour to write one melody - woof).

It’s worth mentioning that I don’t set the rhythms in stone. If I’m plinking away at the keys to find the melody and the rhythm I wrote isn’t working, but a different rhythm that I’m playing is working, I’ll swap it out to keep the train moving down the tracks. No point in being my own speed bump.

The third and final step is writing chord ideas above the melody (blue writing in the picture). Typically this is just a quick scribble of chord functions (tonic, subdominant, dominant) rather than actual chord names (Cm, A, Gm/Bb, etc.). If there is a specific chord I want to use, I’ll write the chord name too, but in this step I try not to get bogged down by too much detail. That comes later.

Denouement

Melody is not more important than rhythm or harmony, but it’s difficult to argue that it’s not the back-to-back-to-back MVP of Greater Music ™. The right melody in the right setting or at the right moment is a magical thing. And now that I’ve unlocked my own doors as it were, I’m confidently writing new melodies in hopes of attaining even a small dose of that very magic.

I would love to know: what are some of your favorite melodies? I’ll go take a listen.

Thanks for reading, and make it a great week!