Beginner's lesson in melody writing

An example of a question with 20 answers.

3 questions, reply with 10 answers each

It's curious to note that melody can be understood from different angles. I always run away from "square" melodies:

15 minutes ago, Luis Hernández said:

It's curious to note that melody can be understood from different angles. I always run away from "square" melodies:

 

True, however this exercise had absolute beginners in mind such as Dailyduo, he wrote the, 'three pieces in the style of Beethoven', in the piano forum.

Beginning with a two bar question and a two bar answer is a good place to start in melody writing. In fact its a good exercise in composition fluency and musical imagination to see how many answers you can compose to a single question.  

From there you can move on to 4 bar antecedent and 4 bar continuation phrase that make up the 8 bars of the A section of a minuet. 

Over Mozart's career he wrote around 340 minuets, they are a staple of the classical style and its from this form that Mozart learnt the basics and the form he taught his students. Its the form I began with and continue to use to learn the basics.

You can introduce schema theory, 2 and 3 voice harmony, keyboard composition technique and other topics that help in composing minuets authentic to the style. In time it can lead to a beginning in improvising in the classical style. 

Beginning with a two bar question and a two bar answer is a good place to start in melody writing. In fact its a good exercise in composition fluency and musical imagination to see how many answers you can compose to a single question.  

resso