Question about making melodies, and catchy ones at that.

Hey, I came across this site through the guy who made the "rhythm recycling" video, and that was very helpful, and I plan on using the technique in the future. I'm not sure how much help I'm going to get, because the genre of music I'm inquiring about is very simple, electronic based music, house music specifically for anyone who is familiar. I would say I have almost no music theory training; I have taken a semester at college that is about to end next week, and it has taught me tremendously about the basics of music. Its a theory/ear training class, and the ear training has been so helpful, I can now point out all the popular intervals, from a m2 all the way up to the P8. While the basics have helped me learn about how to write in a certain scale and what not, the problem I have is making a very "catchy" melody, and wanted to as you guys and girls about the following:

1. What makes a melody? (For example, when people build a melody, do you look at from the standpoint of "We'll ill go up a 5th here, down a minor 3rd here, then up a 4th, and return home")

2. Are melodies at all "technical"? for example, the C major scale is very technical, C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. Do melodies have any technicalities to them? Like rules, or guidelines? Or is it purely a "feel it or dont feel it" type of deal?

3. How do you initially come up with a rhythm for your melody? I believe using the rhythm recycling will help me here, but anymore info can be helpful!

The reason I'm asking these questions, is because I'm hoping someone can answer/tell me what I need to focus on when it comes to studying music. I will list examples below, but the type of music I'm interested if pretty simple, being based primarily on a single melody throughout the song. Is there anything anyone may suggest really studying to come to grips with this process? I've memorized the key signatures, my major and minor chords, and some basic ear training; is there something "study-able" that will help me understand and compose catchy melodies and "hooks"? Here are some examples of what I'm talking about, for all you classical musicians, please look past the sounds perse, as they are mostly synthesizers. I will tell you what time to skip to in each video so you dont have to listen to a genre of music you may not be fond of. If anyone helps, thank you SO much in advance.

The melody starts right away, and at 1:34 it changes.

Melody at 1:28, he brings in what i think are called a counter melody, or counter point at 3:00.

The melody starts at 1:00 he actually samples the Penguin Cafe Orchestra for this one, either way great melody.

Melody starts at 1:55

Melody starts at 2:00

Melody at 1:05.

ANY insight on any of this would be greatly appreciated, if you would like to know the notes of each melody I can do a video playing each one, just let me know!! Thank you!

In my viewpoint, melodies often flow spontaneously - but they can also be thoughtfully 'built'. You can harmonize any melodie and then play another different melody against that same harmony - if it works, then you can play both melodies at once and they will in fact form harmony - this is counterpoint.

ah okay, when going about making a melody is there any thought process at all? or does it just depend on the musician?

It mostly depends on the musician. There are examples of composers who had a gift for spontaneous melody (i.e. Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, J. Strauss, Gershwin) as well as thoughtful tune-builders (Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms). Also, a composer like Tchaikovsky got the melody as a starting point, and then setted out to build "around" it with technical skills.

If you're working with lyrics, the words themselves have a certain 'rythm' and sometimes even suggest a melody. If you don't need lyrics at all, you still could use a poem as an starting point for 'inspiring' a melody, even as it's merely instrumental (think about a 'song without words').

Okay, those are things we have yet to cover in my music class, thanks Phil ill do some research. Cheers.

one more question; when composing how many pof you find it easier to make the melody before the chord progression, or vise versa? im finding myself always searching first for the melody, but perhaps im working in reverse when i should have a solid chord progression first?

I second Phil's advice. BUT, here is what I'd do to understand better the music you like. If you have an equalizer feature on your computer or speakers use it - emphasize lower frequencies if you want to hear the bass and count the beat. Figure out how many beats are heard before the song changes in some way - either another layer is added to create rhythmic interest or the vocals start or we hear a melodic fragment. You should do this with your ear alone if possible.

Let's take the the third piece you posted, well listen to the most basic beat (it is the lowest sound). Basically it counts 4 beats before we hear a synthesizer offer a few fast notes that act as a pick-up to the 1st of the 4 beats. There is a repeating figure - not sure if it is the exact notes but - F#-G-B repeated then F# to E then to D. The song sneaks this in by burying beneath a few other rhythms but it gets louder and its sound predominates over the whole rhythmic track. We soon realize these tone will be used as the basis of the harmony for the melody.

The compositional principle goes back hundreds of years because it is very successful - hear the famous Pachelbel - 4 beats with the low notes anchoring the 1 st beat and the opening long notes held by the strings is heard throughout. Now strings provide a decoration of the basic "melody" and we hear the horns providing the melody ... AS we move one the orchestration is changed to change the color of the basic tune. Note the low bass notes serve as the basis of the harmony. The violins state this before elaborating it to create a melody .

Here is a bit of minimalism -

http://www.youtube.c...A20F6F0670368B5

This is all about layering and as the piece progress the feel of 1 2 34 slowly evaporates so that you loose completely the sense of beat yet, it has a sense of movement.

Anyway, my examples show that it is necessary to really study with your ears what the music is doing AND then see what has been done before to see where its foundations originate. This along with getting the nuts and bolts of music theory down will help achieve your goals. Just be patient - it is a long journey. Even the piece you posted, it took them a few years of getting down the basics of music and then learning audio techniques before they could do that stuff.

There are some various guidelines from the Common Practice Period regarding writing melodies. I'm careful to call them guidelines rather than rules, because, of course, there will always be exceptions. As others have mentioned, use your ears and your imagination as your primary guide, and really study what's going on.There's also some varying by historical period, but these are a good place to start, and should have a broad applicability.

The basic idea is that memorable melodies should be singable, even if they aren't meant for voice. This means avoiding intervals that are awkward to sing.

- In general, for a smoother melody, prefer "conjunct" motion over "disjunct" motion. In other words, move to an adjacent note in the scale (either a half step or whole step above or below) rather than skipping larger distances. (Counterexample: Amazing Grace uses a lot of skips. Mostly thirds.)

- Disjunct motion shouldn't be completely avoided, though. After (or before) a passage of scalewise motion, a skip -- especially a wider one -- can be an effective melodic "landmark" that really stands out. (Example: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star starts with a distinctive upward leap of a fifth, then uses conjuct motion almost exclusively for the rest of the song)

- Augmented and diminished intervals tend to be difficult to sing and are generally avoided. For example, in the harmonic minor scale, there's an awkward augmented second between the flattened 6th and the sharpened 7th scale degrees, which gives it an exotic modal sound.

- Often, a large skip in one direction is followed by motion (possibly scalewise) in the opposite direction. In your first example, the melody contains a rising scale, then changes directions with a downward leap. (Twinkle Twinkle is a counterexample here: after leaping up, it goes up one more note before it starts descending.)

- Wider intervals tend to be more awkward to sing. Sevenths should be used relatively sparingly, and anything wider than an octave, even more so (octaves can be OK, though).

- The total range of the melody shouldn't be too large. An octave and a half is starting to stretch it (e.g. The Star Spangled Banner).

- A lot of melodies have a vaguely arch-like contour, where they start low, ascend to a climatic peak, then descend back down. The peak may come early, about midway through, or near the end. This isn't the only possible contour: The opening phrase of Joy To The World has an inverted arch - a descending scale passage followed by an ascending skip.

- Don't be afraid to use non-harmonic (non-chord) tones, assuming you know the harmonic progression. There are all kinds of guidelines on how to prepare and resolve these (for example, here: http://smu.edu/totw/nct.htm).

Again, these are very general guidelines to make a melody singable, and are not hard and fast rules (unless you're taking a class in counterpoint, maybe).

Of course, rhythm is at least as important as the intervals, but I don't know any good guidelines for that, other than what's already been said about matching the rhythmic patterns of human speech. This will also vary depending on style. (Jazz is heavily syncopated compared to Classical music, for example).

EDIT: I should also point out that most of these guidelines just "fall out" naturally when you come up with a melody -- they're not necessarily an active thought process.

composerorganist, calebhines, thank you SO much, both of those explanations really helped shed some light. thats exactly what i was looking for... thank you so so much