4 quick tricks how to write a better melody

Some people say that melody is probably the most important element in making your music recognisable. Mainly because it is the one thing that you can sing along to with your voice. Of course, you could beat-box a drum beat along with your favourite song, but since the majority of pop music is in 4/4, most drum beats sound a lot like each other (to all the drummers: please don’t get angry with me).

Songwriting has never been a clear-cut science where you can always apply the same formulas and magically create a great melody. There are however a few tricks we could use to improve like opening with a large interval, using a rhythmic phrase, using stable vs. unstable notes, and going up & down.

Of course, there are way more tricks we can use, but for this article, I wanted to focus on just these four because for me they have been the most important ones.

#1: Open your melody with a bigger interval to make it more memorable

Why are small intervals less memorable?

Small intervals are of course perfectly fine to use sometimes, however, they are let’s say... less adventurous than larger intervals. When you are writing a melody you are obviously using notes from any given scale. And when you are going up or down, the most predictable way is by playing the tone that is next in line in the scale.

So that's why larger intervals are more interesting to use, because they skip multiple notes from the scale, and therefore are less predictable.

Should you always start with a large interval?

Go up an interval or down?

No, that would eventually become predictable again, and that is specifically what we don’t want to be too much. When writing a melody, you are constantly trying to balance between being predictable and unpredictable.

#2: Use a simple rhythmic phrase

(melody is built by phrases that are built out of a motif).

By using a simple rhythmic phrase, you can give the listener something to hold on to. But by changing the pitch every time, and by changing the chords the listener still gets the feeling that they are going somewhere. So you have everything of both worlds:

Stability + change = balance.

You don't want this phrase to be too long, and preferably not too complicated. Because it will be way too difficult to sing (if you are writing for a part that is going to be sung that is).

#3: Use stable Vs. Unstable notes

Did you know that in the scale of C major you can arrange all notes in this order (going from stable to unstable).

The stable notes give a sense of rest and the unstable notes create tension. Knowing this can help you write stronger melodies.

For instance if there is a word in your lyrics that needs to create tension because the word has some sort of heavy connotation to it, you could use an unstable note for that word.

And vice versa with a lighter word that needs a stable note.

You can also try to start a phrase with a stable note and end it with an unstable one, and then flip it around to prevent your melody from getting too predictable.

For more info on music theory, check out my mega blog post on how to learn music theory fast.

#4: Go up and down

Well, this is quite an obvious one, isn’t it? Still, it's an important principle of writing great melodies. If you stay too long in the same region of notes, your melody is getting too stale again.

To prevent this you could draw a straight line in each phrase to analyse the average direction they are heading in.

Is it going up, down? Does it start up, goes down, and then ends up again, or the other way around?

You can establish a pattern, and thus an expectation, by having a few ascending phrases. But then break the pattern with the expectation that comes along with it, by writing a descending phrase.

It's all about the balance you are creating within your melody.

For more info and explanation in video form, check out my YouTube video on this subject here:

4 quick tricks how to write a better melody

4 quick tricks how to write a better melody

#1: Open your melody with a bigger interval to make it more memorable

Why are small intervals less memorable?

Should you always start with a large interval?

Go up an interval or down?

#2: Use a simple rhythmic phrase

#3: Use stable Vs. Unstable notes

#4: Go up and down

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