Writing Melodies

The three preceding lessons were analysis — taking an existing melody and deciding which notes fall outside the chord.

This lesson reverses direction: how to use these tools when writing a melody of your own. Analytical knowledge does not become generative ability by itself.

A melody has two layers

The most reliable way to produce a singable melody is to write it in two stages.

1. fix the skeleton — the large contour, using chord tones only
2. add the decoration — fill between the skeletal notes with non-chord tones

The order matters. Starting from decoration leaves notes that never agreed with the harmony sitting in the line. If the skeleton is made of chord tones, nothing you add afterward can stray from the harmony.

The two figures have the same shape: C at each end, a peak on G in the middle. All that changed is whether the gaps are leapt or walked.

The skeleton, and the decorated version

▶Skeleton only▶With decoration

Check: Confirm that the contour is identical. Both begin on C, climb to G, and come home to C. The first is all leaps, which makes the contour vivid but stiff; the second fills in and moves smoothly without blurring the shape. The point is the order — get the skeleton right and decoration can always be added later.

chord tones only

After a leap, walk back

A leap shifts the register abruptly. Left alone it sounds as though a hole has opened up over the range that was skipped.

Hence one principle: after a large leap, return by step in the opposite direction.

Two reasons. One is singability — consecutive leaps become hard to pitch with the voice. The other is shape. Walking back down from where you leapt gives the leap the meaning of “a climb to a summit.” Leaping and staying there makes it mere relocation.

Two ways of handling a leap

▶Leap, then return▶Keep leaping

Check: Both leap a fifth from C to G. The first walks down from there, so the leap becomes a peak. The second keeps leaping upward, so nothing establishes itself as the high point and the line never settles. The leap itself is not the problem — what happens afterward decides the impression.

contrary motion refills the gap

Check

A melody leaps from C4 up to A4, a major 6th. Which next note follows the principle?

D5, higher stillG4, just belowA4 againC4, far below

Check answer

Only one high point

Every melody has a highest note. Where you put it, and how often, determines the shape of the phrase.

The guideline is simple: one high point per phrase, placed past the midpoint.

If the highest note recurs, a listener cannot tell where the peak was. A note reached exactly once produces a structure on its own — an ascent toward it and a descent away from it.

One high point against a repeated highest note

▶One high point▶Highest note repeated

Check: In the first, G4 occurs once, and late. It registers as the peak without any effort. In the second, G4 occurs three times, so no destination establishes itself and the line sounds flat. The pitch material is almost the same in both; only the placement differs.

G4 occurs once, as the seventh note

Two numeric guidelines

Much of melodic writing is discussed impressionistically, but two guidelines can be checked while you work.

Range for a single phrase should generally stay within an octave to a tenth. That is the span a voice can manage without strain. The same holds instrumentally: beyond it, a line starts sounding less like a melody than like a run.

The proportion of stepwise motion should sit around 70 percent. Past 30 percent leaps the contour fragments; with no leaps at all it approaches a scale exercise.

Guideline	Range	What happens outside it
Range	an octave to a tenth	too wide is unsingable; too narrow is monotonous
Stepwise motion	around 70 percent	too little is fragmentary; too much sounds like an exercise
High point	one per phrase	several means no peak is established

These are starting values, not rules. Departing from them deliberately is fine. When you do, be able to say why.

Check

You have written an eight-measure phrase and leaps account for 60 percent of it. How should you read that?

Widening the range would fix itMore leaps is better, so there is no problemThe contour is probably fragmenting, so consider filling some gapsLeaps are forbidden, so convert everything to stepwise motion

Check answer

Sequence — the same shape at a new pitch

There is a device for extending a melody that works better than either leaps or decoration: repeating the same figure at a different pitch. That is a sequence.

A sequence is powerful because it generates length from a single piece of material. A listener cannot absorb an endless stream of new ideas, but the same figure returning at a new pitch is received as something already known. And because the pitch keeps rising, the repetition still feels like forward motion.

A sequence against constantly new material

▶Sequence▶New shape each time

Check: The first lines up one three-note figure three times, each a step higher. The repetition makes it read as a staircase climbing. The second uses the same register but scrambles the shapes, so there is no sense of where it is heading. Same length, very different amount of it retained.

the same figure three times

Three repetitions is the practical limit. Four or more starts to sound mechanical. Breaking the pattern on the third and landing is what makes that point the end of the phrase.

This idea of establishing a shape and then altering it is precisely the motive of the next unit. Melodic writing and formal analysis meet here.

Non-chord tones are about placement, not quantity

To close, tying this back to the three preceding lessons.

Adding more non-chord tones does not make a line more melodic. Where you put them is what tells.

• on the beat (appoggiaturas, accented passing tones) → strong tension, emotional weight
• off the beat (unaccented passing and neighbor tones) → smoother flow
• across a chord boundary (suspensions, anticipations) → the change of harmony is displaced, creating momentum

When writing, build the skeleton from chord tones, place one strong non-chord tone — an appoggiatura or a suspension — at the single point you most want heard, and connect everything else with unaccented passing and neighbor tones. That is the procedure least likely to go wrong.

▶ Build a melody in the step sequencer Enter the skeleton with chord tones only first, then go back and add the notes in between Step Sequencer → ▶ Run your melody through the labeling tool Enter a melody you wrote and it will report which notes became which type of non-chord tone Nonchord Tone Lab →

That completes Unit 6. Everything so far has concerned the interior of a single phrase. The next unit pulls back to ask how phrases assemble into a piece.