How to write a GREAT melody

Hello everyone, today I'm going to talk about how you

write

a

melody

, hopefully how you

write

a good

melody

and first of all I'm going to talk about the kind of theory behind it, what it is, and then I'll give you some practical tips that you can use in your music so that within an hour, hopefully, you will have written a melody that you couldn't now. It's a big question, but I hope by giving you a simple nudge or two. in the right direction, you will be able to think of something new, interesting and different that you are not currently doing or trying to write a melody better than what you are writing at the moment, now writing melodies writing melodies is something I have seen before and I will definitely do it again because there's no one, uh, 10 minute video, 20 minute video, that can figure this out because in some ways it's a lifelong study, but I have a secret and that's why I'm in the car on the way to a store and I'll explain what those people are you have no idea they just appeared on youtube oh my god they walk down the lane say hello no, they're on youtube who would have thought here's the secret ingredient garibaldi breasts you can't write a

great

melody without a garibaldi cookie so with our garibaldi cookies let's go back to the studio and get stuck in and equipped with the sunglasses of doubt because when it comes to melody writing we're going to need this and the creative inspiration cookies um we're going to get stuck in now there's stuff in life the ones I'm really bad at uh like changing duvet covers nightmare um trying to put those stretchy green screen things back on their foldable roll and that's also a nightmare and I don't actually do anything I'm really, really bad to do nothing, but luckily one thing I'm not too bad at is writing melodies and since that's what we're talking about, it's a bit of a thumbs up to that now, um, let's start, therefore, with the first rule of thumb. the tomb writing, there are no rules, this is a common problem, what people do is listen to a lot of good melodies and they think which of these melodies they got. in common, they proceed step by step, therefore a logical fallacy.

If I write a melody that progresses step by step, it will be a good melody. There are millions of really bad tunes that follow rules and therefore the rule, if you want a rule that is useful. thing to get to a final point the rule is not going to help you so what I would like to do is refer you to captain balboa from parts of the caribbean when he was talking about the pirate code the code is more what you call guidelines than actual rules, what we're looking at today are more guidelines than rules, but there are guidelines and the part of melody writing that I'm going to focus on today is repetition and variation, so first of all we'll look at the theory and then I'll put my money where my mouth is.

There's my mouth and I'll write, I'll write a song, why, why, why, why put a credit card in your mouth, boy, it's like one of those really literal, um, stock footage things, where He says you know a man standing without many possibilities? signs and stuff like that, no, don't be literal, right, let us get this show on the road, taking off the sunglasses of doubt, um, repetition and variation, that's what's at the heart of this style of melody writing which is really based on motives. look very briefly at a tune that I suspect you're familiar with from a master tunesmith, okay, it's the imperial march, you can see Darth Vader, you're not my son or whatever.

Okay, now how does that melody work? Let's see the reason. It's not very complicated, but what it does there is that if we take that melody, that basic motif and divide it into two halves, one is the tonal half and the other is the rhythmic half. If you start playing that motif without the rhythm, it's almost unrecognizable. Say what I can't, there's no Darth Vader marching towards me, man, whereas if you just play the beat, I'd say there's more Darth Vader in that beat than there is in the tone, so what I'm saying is that's the way it is.

Not just the notes you play, but rhythm is a vital part of making your motif interesting, so what does this master of the craft do for whom the sunglasses of doubt never come near his forehead? ? You repeat the reason. but it starts well, we are in cma. I've put this in C minor to make it easier to understand what's going on. He repeats the motif, so the first time now, the second time he repeats it, it starts on g, which is um the dominant. of C minor, so it starts on the top note of a C minor triad, but what it actually does is go down while keeping the same rhythm, but it goes down a chord from A flat minor, so it's playing with the chord shape as much as possible.

Okay, so you can hear that it's the same motif, but he's changing one element and leaving other elements the same, so you're changing the order of the pitch, that's where it starts, uh, you're keeping those three notes stained, but then, but because the rhythm is the same, that's how you get the element of repetition without getting bored, because let me put on the sunglasses of doubt. If you're just getting on the board, look, even a

great

opening can turn into a garbage tune if you don't add that variation. repetition alone won't do it just repetition alone won't do it just shut up buddy okay, there we have it so far, very good, but how do you tell yourself how, Mr.

Mitchell, I'm going to apply this to myself. music is a very good question and that's what we're going to do next because I think there's enough nonsense going on as we say it may be time to embark on writing some songs, let's see how we get on with this sort of thing now. is exactly what we do in some detail in this course how to write music is my online course that takes you through every step of the process how to start chord progressions write melodies develop and arrange your music six hours of exclusive video tutorials a text From the course packed with tips and a supportive online community, get more out of your music and sign up today.

The way we're going to start is we're just going to start playing around looking for a motif, most of the motifs that you're looking for as a rule. as a rule four five six seven notes something like that now I'll play a bunch of these little motifs and I'll hate that it's not that they're wrong it's not what it is sometimes it's not that they're bad so sometimes it is it's that I just don't care like it and this is important. The x factor when writing melodies, music in general, is your taste, it's what you like and you are the filter through which all this music goes and you make these selections many times.

Of the time, it's your taste that shapes the final product, so there's nothing wrong with any of these little reasons, these don't ring a bell, I'm sorry, go away, oh I know what's wrong, we haven't grown up and the man fights with him. Cookies surprise Icarno, that wasn't on the agenda, so I'll have to cut this, otherwise I'll never write anything good today, so ah, my secret ingredient is wrong and that's the secret to writing good songs, right? OK? Well, I quite like it, I mean, it sounds like a little house on the prairie or something, so it's such a Western corporation.

Now what you've noticed happening here already and, oh, gee, I've got creative inspiration stuff inside my mouth, um. No, I'm going to take off my sunglasses because I think we're headed right now. This is a very common tuned structure that you can use, so so far you have your reason four or five, no, I hope you can. By playing this at home you've given it a bit of rhythmic interest, no good, we got it. Now we're going to give this melody a structure and the easiest structure in the world and the one you'll see all over the world. buy is phrase one ends on the chord a phrase two ends on the dominant which in this particular case is going to be uh g because we're on c okay, so we repeat phrase one again up to the tonic that you're about to see so we have You have We have to have a final phrase that takes us back there, so you have phrase one that ends on a tonic, which is the main chord which is C, phrase two that takes you to dominant phrase three that takes you back to the home. and then something that rounds everything out differently than the other two, okay, that's the shape of a lot of melodies and you can use that shape and there are all kinds of things you can do to make it more interesting, but that's fine.

Let's look back at our melody, now that we're a western, I've gone to the 3rd chord, which is E minor, now this goes in B flat, g here, if I go to B flat, it's called 4 of 4. If I'm in C , chord 4 is f. called four or four is B flat and then it goes down to the five chord, which is about if I'm going to write a western anyway, sorry, cut, go, go, so look, can you start to see the way, okay, can you? How else could this vary? tune because that's just a simple way to vary it, to develop it is where the fun starts, so all I've done there is instead of going up to f, I've gone and then moved the chord.

As for that, I've gone to chord three, which is E minor, so I started on E, so move this fret, this motif to a minor mode, okay, let's start again, let's do another one. Better put them back on, I'm not sure. this is going to work, I mean, I know this might be a little off-putting because I've been doing this for a long time and my brain is wired directly to the keyboard, which is really helpful, so I can think about fine-tuning and somehow it happens, which saves a lot of hassle, it doesn't always work, but sometimes it works and I know a lot of you struggle with playing the keyboard or improvising, I mean, so you don't have to do it. that you can, you know, you can pick up the phone and do that, I mean, but most of the time I'm like okay, okay, okay, but it's nothing that reaches the forehead, okay, so let's transpose it to the chord four f. okay, she likes it, I should explain it, I'm sorry, okay, it's a very simple little mode, it has a rhythmic identity, it has a melodic identity, now, what I was doing here, okay, so, I'm going to go up , so I'm walking that g. up so it goes up this is a g g b D chord okay, then I'm raising the root so that it's a B flat natural D so you have okay, that's different but better if I had a if I had big hair if I had big hair hair uh , if they called me bob ross, i said yes, it was a happy little accident.

I like it because it's kind of palindromic, it's got a nice shape, and shapes are actually very important with melodies, you know? and it sounds, you know? um, remember the chariots of fire with those geezers running in slow motion on the beach while nailing that kind of tune? What do we think? But if you want help with composition, music technology, sample libraries to put it all together so you can write better. music, best songs, then subscribe because this is what we do all the time and we ring the little bell and then you will get a notification, okay, there are many ways this tune could have been, but it turns out it was on some kind of cars fire.

By the way, but if I do this like this and that definitely deserves the doubt sunglasses, you know what? Oh, you can't just let creativity fall to the ground, what are you thinking boy, a complete banana, but I think you'll see that cookies? of creativity, inspiration definitely works, so let me sum it all up, so there are no rules, there are guidelines and right at the heart of a memorable melody is repetition and variation, there is infinite subtlety there and you can pick that apart for weeks. The harmony of your melody, the chord progression is in constant conversation with the melody itself.

The rhythmic identity of your motif is as important as the images you use, so start with a small number of notes, create a motif that has both, that has a rhythmic identity and then find ways to vary it, the easiest way is to start with a phrase that ends on chord one, then repeat the phrase but have it end on chord five, then repeat the first phrase that ends on chord one again and then find a way to produce a new phrase that then ends again on call one, that little pattern has been repeated, you've known it for millennia and you'll hear it almost every day on the radio, so look, I hope you found it useful.

I would love to know what. you think it's your favorite cookie in the comments believe below of course um and I'd like to hope that you can um just follow your gut take off your sunglasses of self-doubt and write a song you'll be proud of see ya soon. you