Melody: how a tune is made

A melody is a line with a shape

Draw a line through the notes of a tune and you get its shape, called its contour. Some tunes climb like stairs, some slide down, and many rise and then fall like an arch or a wave.

The shape changes the feeling. A tune that keeps climbing and stops high sounds excited, as if it is not finished yet. A tune that rises and then comes back down sounds calm and complete, like throwing a ball and catching it again.

• ClimbingA tune that climbs all the way up and stops high, still waiting.
• ArchA tune that rises to the top, then comes home.

Steps and leaps

When a tune moves to the next note of the scale, such as Do to Re, that is a step. When it skips over notes, such as Do to Sol, that is a leap. Steps sound smooth and are easy to sing. Leaps sound bold and bright, and they make you notice.

Most singable tunes use mostly steps with a few leaps. The famous "Ode to Joy" theme from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony moves almost entirely by step. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", a French tune first printed in 1761, opens with a leap from Do up to Sol.

A handy habit: after a big leap, many tunes turn around and walk back by step, filling in the gap they jumped over. It is a guide, not a law, but it keeps the line balanced.

• StepsA tune that only moves to neighbouring notes.
• LeapsSame rhythm and chords, but every move is a jump.
• Ode to JoyBeethoven's tune (1824): almost all steps.
• TwinkleThe 1761 French tune: a leap from Do to Sol right at the start.
• Leap, then step backTwo big jumps up, each followed by steps back down.

Motifs: a small idea that comes back

A motif is a short idea of just a few notes that you can recognise again. The opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a famous one: short-short-short-long, G G G E♭, then the same pattern a step lower, F F F D. Much of that movement grows from those four notes.

Composers reuse a motif and change it a little each time, so the tune feels both familiar and new. You can repeat it exactly, move it up or down to start on another note (a sequence), or flip its direction so that up becomes down. Listen to one motif, five notes long, used in three ways.

• RepeatThe motif, then the same motif again, then an ending.
• SequenceThe motif moved up one step, then up again, like climbing stairs.
• FlipThe motif, then upside down: what went up now goes down.
• Beethoven 5Short-short-short-long, twice: G G G E♭, F F F D (1808).

Phrases: where the music breathes

A phrase is a musical sentence. Many phrases are about four bars long, though they can be shorter or longer. Each one ends with a small rest point: a longer note or a short silence, where a singer can take a breath. That resting place is called a cadence.

A tune without breathing places sounds like someone talking without stopping for air. Listen to the same notes with and without breaths.

• With breathsTwo short phrases, each ending on a longer note and a breath.
• No breathsSimilar notes in one long stream that never stops to rest.

Question and answer

Phrases often come in pairs, like a question and its answer. The first phrase stops somewhere that feels open, often on Re or Sol over the V chord. That is a half cadence, a comma. The second phrase starts the same way but ends on Do over the I chord, a full stop. That is an authentic cadence.

Musicians call the pair antecedent and consequent. You can hear more about cadences in the "Harmony" lesson. Listen to the question alone, the answer alone, and then both together.

• QuestionTwo bars that stop on Re: it sounds unfinished.
• AnswerThe same start, but it lands on Do: done.
• BothQuestion, then answer: four bars that feel complete.

The high point

Many good tunes have one high point, the top of the hill, often reached only once and somewhere after the middle. The tune climbs toward it, arrives, and then walks home. Because you reach it only once, it feels special.

If a tune never goes anywhere, or hits the same top note again and again, it loses that moment. This is a guide, not a rule, but it is worth trying in your own tunes.

• One high pointThe tune climbs to one top note in bar 3, then comes home.
• No high pointA tune that stays in the same few notes the whole time.

Write your own four bars

Start with the five notes of the major pentatonic scale on C: Do Re Mi Sol La (C D E G A). They sound good together in almost any order, so it is hard to go wrong (see the "Scales" lesson). Clap a simple rhythm first, then give each clap a note.

Make bars 1–2 a question that stops on Re or Sol, and bars 3–4 an answer that starts the same way and ends on Do. Move mostly to nearby notes with only one or two big jumps, and save your highest note for bar 3. Here is an example made exactly that way.

• Example tunePentatonic, four bars: the question stops on Re, the answer comes home to Do.

Try it: on a piano or a phone keyboard, use only C D E G A. Play four bars: bars 1–2 end on D, bars 3–4 end on C, and the highest note appears once in bar 3. Sing it back. That is your first melody.

Keep exploring

• ScalesA scale is a set of notes climbing step by step, built from a simple recipe. Pick any starting note and hear major, minor, pentatonic, blues and more.
• HarmonyWhy some chords feel like home and others want to go back. Roman numerals, chord jobs, cadences and famous progressions.
• Song formSongs are built from parts that come back. Learn verse, chorus and bridge, how musicians name parts with letters, and the 12-bar blues.
• TextureMusic is woven from lines, like cloth from threads. Hear one tune alone, a tune with chords, two tunes at once, a round.