Tips on How to Write Better Melodies

What is a melody and why is it important? Learn how to create both effective and memorable melodies. This guide will help you develop your melody writing skills.

Melody is a rhythmical sequence of notes that create a musical phrase or motif. A melody also consists of two parts: pitch and rhythm. We sometimes think of melodies as the vocal part of a song. However, a melody can also be the topline of your instrumental drop, a signature bassline, or even a unique vocal sample.

Melody also plays a significant role in our experience of a song’s emotion, structure, groove, and personality. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for hours or even days? What part do you singe repeatedly? Have you ever been to a show where everyone sings along together to a particular part of the song? That’s the melody!

Why do we want strong melodies in our music? Because an effective melody is what listeners sing along to, relate to, and remember. They are the most memorable part of a song. Also, your melodic material is often the primary focus or central element of your music.

Listen to a few of your favorite songs and pinpoint the melody part that is memorable. These melodies play an essential role in shaping the character originality of your song. The groove, sound design, effects, and sample choices are also invaluable in setting the vibe. However, they all create a foundation that supports your melody.

To define what a strong melody is, let’s first look at identifying weak melodies. Weak melodies lack a sense of signature or personality. They’re not memorable and don’t grab a listener’s attention.

Moreover, ineffective melodies lack repetition and structure. Humans like patterns in music. We like similarity because it feels familiar and gives us a sense of something we can latch onto. A melody without repetition or structure is similar to a story with no purpose or direction. There’s no sense of where ideas start, begin, or relate to each other.

Melodies can also become boring or redundant if you don’t create variation. For example, repeating the same idea becomes predictable. It also drains the excitement or interest from the listening experience.

A poorly written melody can also lack space or structure. We need spaces and breaks to “chunk” ideas together and process what we just heard. Avoid making your music sound like a run-on sentence or someone who talks without breathing. This can result in melodic ideas that lack purpose, drive, and memorability.

What are the elements of a strong melody? Melodies can be broken down to smaller ideas called motifs. Motifs are shorter melodic ideas that use different pitches in rhythm. Let’s look at these two variables and analyze how we can utilize them to our advantage.

Pitch is how high or low a note sounds. A melody comprises high and low-pitched notes played one after the other. Pitch also makes a melody singable and memorable. You can control pitch by placing notes along the vertical MIDI grid in your DAW.

Improve the way pitch influences your melodies with these tips:

The most compelling melodies combine stepwise motion and leaps. Stepwise motion is moving from one note to the next up or down in the scale.

Stepwise makes it easier for the listener to follow because the notes rise and fall smoothly in either full or half step intervals. It also makes it easier to play melodies without jumping between large intervals. For example, the key of C has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B. If your melody starts on an E, move up a step to an F or down a step to a D.

The song “Yesterday” by The Beatles uses stepwise motion effectively. The melody walks up and down the scale with very few leaps. That’s why it’s easy to remember and sing along too.

Leap motion is when the melody rises and falls with large intervals between one note and the next. For example, the interval from C to F is a leap.

Melodic leaps often grab a listeners interest. Melodies with few or no leaps can become boring because the stepwise motion is somewhat predictable. However, leaps should be very intentional and used with caution. This motion is considered a disjunct melody and is less smooth sounding. Also, too many leaps are difficult to process and sing along too.

The song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has an octave leap up followed by a downward stepwise motion resolution. This large leap makes the initial melodic statement memorable. However, it doesn’t have a sense of balance and makes the melody hard to sing.

Using the notes from chords is an effective way to maintain harmony. Placing melody notes on chord notes also emphasizes those chords.

For example, an A minor triad chord has the notes A, C, E. These are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes from the root within the scale. Using the notes, A, C, and E over an A minor chord will sound harmonic, smooth, and conjunct. Conversely, placing melody notes outside of the chord notes will sound confusing, unbalanced, and disjunct.

The verse of “Nocturnal” by Disclosure and The Weeknd uses notes from the chords to create the melody. The notes emphasized are D, F, and A over the chords G Minor and D Minor.

The Pentatonic scale is a five-note scale derived from either a major or minor scale.

Pentatonic melodies have several advantages. For instance, they offer increased chord progression choices, are easy to create and sing, and sound harmonically pleasing. Other scale degrees sound great as well. However, pentatonic scales are a solid place to start.

The song “Psycho” by Post Malone uses a simple melodic motif that hits the chord tones of the G# major pentatonic scale. But it also uses other notes outside the chords. This combination keeps the melody interesting while also making it sound correct over the chords.

When writing melodies and motifs, it’s also essential to focus on rhythm. The rhythmic succession of notes gives your melodies groove, vibe, and character. You can control rhythm by placing notes along the horizontal MIDI grid in your DAW.

Improve the way rhythm influences your melodies with these tips:

Syncopation varies notes in a pattern that deviate from a regular expected rhythmic pattern. Without syncopation, your music can become repetitive and monotonous.

A syncopated rhythm will often use 8th and 16th note patterns. This method also places stress on weaker upbeats. This contrasts with placing notes on the “strong” or predictable downbeat of the quarter note.

The most memorable melodic and rhythmic motifs often switch between notes on the beat and syncopated notes. Rhythmic variation creates a sense of tension and release. For instance, the listener is drawn in by the syncopation and returned to a stable place with an emphasis on strong beats. This push and pull rhythm between the straight and syncopated notes feel comfortable and intriguing.

The verse of “Quarrel” by Moses Sumney uses syncopated notes followed by straight rhythms. This pattern also resolves the rhythmic tension of the off-beats at the beginning of the melody.

Combining long “Legato” notes and short “Staccato” notes give melodies a different emotional impact.

The verse melody of “PYT” by Michael Jackson uses a simple rhythmic motif that hits long notes and short rhythmic notes. This method keeps the melody interesting. It also makes it sound correct over the chords.

What are the next steps? How do we put all these ideas together? And how do we create variation between sections using pitch and rhythm? Try these tips:

Good melodies feel effortless, like conversation or speech. Think of a melodic idea like a question and answer. Or, like the call and response of conversation.

A call and response succession creates musical tension and release. It consists of two distinct phrases. For example, a call phrase starts the melody like a question. Then the response phrase follows with a different, more conclusive resolution.

Analyzing phrase structures like ABAC or AABA is a helpful way to recognize melody creation. For example, the chorus of “Into You” by Ariana Grande uses the ABAC structure.

Keep your melodies interesting by creating variation between the different sections of the song. For example, add slight changes to the melody in the intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, etc. to keep things interesting. Here are ideas that add variation:

The song “Don’t Wanna Fight” by Alabama Shakes has a steady melodic rise between the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus.

Here are some other great melody techniques that will help you create strong and compelling melodies:

Improve your melody skills by practicing writing melodies often and regularly. Challenge yourself to write 3-4 melodies a day for a week. Or, write several melodies over a particular loop or chord progression. Just like a muscle, your melodic senses and instincts will improve when you use them frequently.