Melody Research, Analysis, and Recording Project

“Fast musical notes on a music sheet” by Horia Varlan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Summary

The Melody Project is all about how to make a melody and the way that different notes work together and how we can use them to create tension and release tension. We used hook theory to make our own melodies and listen to melodies from popular songs.

My First HookTheory Melody

I have prior musical knowledge but I just started working on writing my own songs so I am still learning how to create good melodies. For this melody, I was thinking about thirds and keeping the notes moving. I also wanted to end on the tonic so that any tension there was would release.

Melody Composition Terms and Definitions

  • Theme: A long, flowing melodic idea.
  • Motive: A short, rhythmic idea (Beethoven’s 5th).
  • Period: 8-12 measures or a musical sentence.
  • Phrase: Usually 4 measures.
  • Antecedent (Question) Phrase: First 4 measures of a period.
  • Consequent (Answer) Phrase: Second 4 measures of a period.
  • Scale Degrees (C Major Scale)
    • Tonic: C (1 , 8) – Stability and resolve.
    • Supertonic, Mediant, Submediant: D, E, A (2 , 3 , 6) – Moderate tension, useful for transitions and carrying on an idea.
    • Subdominant, Dominant, Leading Tone: F, G, B (4 , 5 , 7) – Causes the most tension, leads to the tonic.
  • Steps: Any movement using half or whole steps.
  • Leaps: Any movement using intervals larger than a whole step.
  • Conjunct motion: Melody is built primarily out of steps.
  • Disjunct motion: Melody is built primarily out of leaps.
  • Repetition: Repeated material (i.e. motive) used to create a link between two phrases of the period.
  • Contrast: Two phrases that contain contrasting material to create tension and interest.
  • Variation: Halfway between contrast and repetition. The two phrases include some recognizable material and some varied material (i.e. taking ideas up an octave).

One of My Favorite Melodies

Let it Be by The Beatles

What I like about this melody is that it uses the third scale degree as a sort f anchor instead of the tonic. This song is in the key of C major so the third scale degree is E and the tonic is C. Manny of the jumps are also in thirds and there isn’t a whole lot of dissonance. Dissonance can be really good and scary for many melodies but I like how this one is claiming because of the lack of dissonance and tension.

My Second HookTheory Melody

In this melody, I like the first half of the second phrase with all of the 8th notes because the rest of the melody is mostly quarter notes so it gives it some variety. I knew that I wanted the second to last note to be the dominant or the leading tone to create some final tension right before we returned back to the tonic (c) for the last measure. I also figured out how to use multiple octaves in Hook Theory so I took advantage of that.

What I Learned & Problems I Solved

During this project, I learned about Supertonic, Mediant, and Submediant and how they can be used to help create and release tension. The rest of the theory stuff was a good review. I also learned how to navigate Hook Theory because I haven’t used it in depth before so that was a challenge for me.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

April

Resources

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