Writing Effective Melodies
There are countless tools, tricks, and schools of thought regarding melody writing. Let's look at a couple that have proven themselves time and again — through history, on the charts, and in the marketplace — to be fundamental to an effective melody.
Patterns Within PatternsOne of the keys of melodic success is in being able to create variations on a theme. In this way, you can start with a bit of melody and expand it to fit the section. If you happen on a combination of notes you like, try the same intervals a third higher, try stretching the same notes over twice the amount of time. Try them backwards and see what happens. Don't be afraid to experiment with any possibility for variation that crosses your mind. The advantage of using several variations on one melodic figure is that it can give the melody of the whole section a sense of cohesiveness.
While it may be okay to have the melodic elements of a section based around a single bit of melody, be careful not to do it too much from one section to the next. Otherwise, the chorus could end up sounding too much like the verse, and vice versa.
Sometimes the hardest part of melody writing is coming up with a second melodic figure that complements the first but that still sounds different enough to signal a new section. You can emphasize a slight variation in the melodic structure by changes in the chord pattern, groove, meter, and sometimes key of a new section. Differentiating sections of a song keeps the song from becoming boring.
Melodic HooksMelodic hooks are the ear candy that will make a song stick in someone's head. Quick, what song do you hate the most? You can probably hum the melodic hooks in your sleep. Now, what's your favorite song? Same deal, right?
As with great lyric lines, there may be more than one melodic hook in a song. The most important place to have a melodic hook is underlying the lyric hook, but ends of verses, intros, solos, and anywhere in the chorus are all good places for melodic hooks.
The melodic hook underlying the lyrical hook is called the “motive,” and it is one of the most often overlooked secrets of songwriting. In theory, that sounds pretty simple — all you have to do is make sure that the melody and meter that go with the hook complement and magnify that hook. When perfectly matched, a motive and a hook add up to far more than the sum of their parts.
Many successful songwriters either start with a motive and look for a hook, or vice versa, and then base the rest of the song around the result. Most motives are simple and contain just a few syllables and a few notes.
