Elements of Music: Melody
DEFINITION:
This is the soul of the song. The reason for writing it. Technically it’s the sum of all of the motives and phrases. This is the one that can be likened to a paragraph. When you add all the other elements of music to it: variation, dynamics, meter, tempo, and all of that, you have a composition.
Look at the melody above. This is a combination of the 2 phrases on the previous page. Together they create a memorable melody. Now let’s look at the shape of the melody.
When we say we’re looking at the shape of the melody we really are looking at the shape of the melody. We are connecting the dots in the staff.
Look at the dots in the staff above. By the look of it (up down up down) it looks like it would be a bouncy sounding melody. And guess what, it is. Generally speaking, the dots don’t lie. Even if you can’t read music, you can tell a lot about the mood and tempo of the melody by connecting the dots.
Look at this other portion of the same song.
First off the red note just means that the note should be on the bass clef. The altered tuning can take the blame for that. The first note is about the first part of the melody’s shape.
Essentially this melody, has a very flowing feel to it, just like the curve of the melody. It flows up, it flows down, it flows back up again.
This part of the curve, while crude and not very smooth, shows us a little dynamics in the melody. At the very beginning there is a huge leap up to the E (5th fret high E in this tuning) then a gradation downward until it show another little dip and a leap back up. This kind of melodic curve can serve as a couple of different things: a high emotional point, a surprise in the melody, a huge release of tension or anything to add drama to the melody.
Notice that after I stop my line the notes in the last bar stay almost all within the clef. The closer sequential notes within the clef stay together the smoother the melody sounds. There’s usually a more tranquil feel to it than with a dynamic curve.
Now let’s take a look at our intervals that we looked at a while ago in Theory 1. We talked a lot about their position and their inversions and all of that stuff. But now you need to start thinking about how they can add to your melody when they are showcased.
So we need to associate some emotions with the intervals so we can build our motives or phrases. Keep in mind that these are for melodies, one note at a time. When we get into adding harmonies we’ll do this again.
unison: emptiness or loneliness, solitude
minor second: slow moving, creepy, misery
major second: kind, partnership, smooth, calm
minor third: melancholy, think of a requiem (a composition for the deceased), a calm sadness
major third: joyous in an innocent way, delightful, happy, sunny
perfect fourth: majestic, powerful, strong, brave, like you’re making a loud and clear statement
tritone: misery, unrest, mystery, enchantment
perfect fifth: speed, strength, beginning, space, a shout but more like a victory shout than like the fourth’s declarative feeling
minor sixth: Spanish, unrest, hopelessness
major sixth: upbeat, chipper, in a bounce on your toes sense, unlike the happiness of the major 3rd, which is more of a profound happiness , can also be enchantment
minor seventh: (this one’s tough) unfinished business, funk, waiting
major seventh: a blue mood, a rainy day, leaving the party, quiet resolution
octave: powerful leap, power not unlike that of the fourth, falling, climbing
You should play all of the intervals yourself and make a list of descriptors for each. Just like I have done. Use it as a reference for when you are writing tunes, motives, phrases or whatever to boost your creativity.