Got it. To write better melodies, become a skeleton. Always knew flesh was weighing me down.

"I hear a lot of melodies from student composers that seem to go nowhere. They just aimlessly revolve around the same pitch center and don't have a satisfying contour and basically they just feel stuck". Wow, never have i ever felt so targeted in 10 seconds of video ! Great stuff as always Ryan, thanks for this video !

I like to think we all have a skeleton within us

Step 1: opening pitch on I chord (principal notes): Root =Stability/Tension 3rd=Least stable/most mobile 5th= Controlled Tension/Balanced force Tip: Don't overthink your selection Step 2: melodic cadence (last 2 notes): Option 1: II - I Option 2: VII - VIII Steps 1 and 2 set up the beginning (step 1) to reach a goal to achieve (step 2 ) Step 3: outline a contour Draw in the air then sketch on the staff then fill out with notes in between Tip: Don't overthink your selection. See it as a guideline to help give direction but you don't have to be so strict with it. Step 4: Write Melody (9-16 notes) Write 4-5 at a time Wide leaps (try to prep and resolve) 2 leaps in a row, one of them should be a 3rd Avoid leaps of tritone or where lowest and highest notes =tritone No tones should appear +3 times in a line Prepare and Resolve wide leap Pre= step into 1st note then leap into opposite direction Res= Step away from 2nd note in leap in opp direction Hit Apogee (do not approach or leave by leap) and Perigee once (okay to approach/leave by leap) Make it singable

This video came in like a message from the universe. I was just struggling to write a melody because of structural problems. Hope this video helps!

This is still by far the best music channel on KZfaq. The man just doesn't miss

Thank you for this one! There’s a piece I wrote a while ago where I was really unsatisfied with the most important section. I’ve gone back now and wrote a couple drafts using this technique and it’s helping tremendously.

LOL That Skeleton could before I took your course, now I can give him a run for his money. You helped me learn to write better melodies-Thanks Ryan

I've already experimented with drawing contours on staff paper, but those "rules" you mention, and that concept of a skeleton with those chosen notes as anchor points sounds great! I'll try it out! Thanks, Ryan 🙂

👉 You’ve got your first 8 bars! But now what?? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hppka5WqsMXXZKM.html

Huh, this is really interesting. Until recently I've been mostly self-taught on the compositional front, and I'd observed some similar phenomena to this, but articulated it very differently (and more clunkily). See, first of all I'll usually find myself writing out a melody with sentence or period form or whatever. Most of the time it's just jamming out on the piano, but sometimes it's inside a DAW (the former are usually more organic, and the latter more complex, so I usually clean up the DAW-originating melodies by playing variations of them on the piano until they feel right). What you're calling the "skeleton" here I've been calling the "macromotif," generally comprised of the downbeats across a phrase or two. This is based on the idea that the "real core" of your melody is actually what it is when you've gotten rid of as much as you possibly can, yet keep a semblance of its identity. In this framework, most of the melody is extraneous distracting decoration, and it should work to some degree even without all that stuff. Ideally, this should be interesting in its own right (and I like to mess around with it to make it somehow match a motif in the melody). If the macromotif is just "C C C C" then maybe it's not as interesting as it could be if it were "Eb C D Eb" or something. Sort of like the same principle behind sequencing, just a little less restrictive. The nice thing about this approach is I can take a melody, look at the macromotif, decide if it's working or not, tweak the macromotif, and then adjust the other "distracting" notes as needed to keep some semblance of contour. It's also useful for figuring out the harmony--the "distracting" notes absolutely matter (especially for arpeggios and things), but writing the harmony based primarily on the macromotif can limit how much is in my brain at one time. Of course, I proceeded to take this to unhealthy extremes, such as "what is the macro-macromotif for the entire piece, using only the "down-downbeats" of entire phrases?" and "can a symphony actually just be one single note as a macro-macro-macro-macromotif?" and "really how many notes are ABSOLUTELY required for this melody to be required? Throw them all out!" and things like that. This method also has trouble with melodies that don't have important notes on downbeats. And is a little varied depending on whether maybe you actually can't just get away with beat 1, but also need beat 3, and also 2 and 4 for that matter, and really everything except the 32nd flourishes are important, but this other one doesn't need that...and of course, what would you do going the other way? A macromotif is made of motives, and motives are logically made of micro-motives, and at that point how far do you take it? Figured I'd share this just in case it interests anybody.

Thanks for another great video Ryan. I really appreciate content like this from you. As a beginner, it is sometimes hard to zero in on some important/key messages from books like this. So getting a viewpoint on topics like this feels like a jumpstart. I'm still primarily focused on the Hooktheory books right now, but Harmony Through Melody is in my library and once I've started reading in earnest I'll be paying particular attention to the points you've made. Looking forward also to your new short course! Nov 1st! See you there 🙂

Plz more like this! Thanks Ryan!

Thanks Ryan! I’m pretty devoid of musical talent, and have been struggling to add intentional decisions into my writing process. I’ve tried learning species counterpoint, which is quite similar to this idea(writing a cantus firmus and all that) but still didn’t have an order of operations to work from, now I do. Thank you!

I thought we where summoning a melodic skeleton to help me write. Not only am I disappointed, that trip to the cemetery is time that I am NOT getting back. I should have watched the whole video first...

A very good and interresting lesson! Thank you.

This is the kind of lesson on melody that my hyper-analytical robot brain has needed for the past 5-6 years. Really great stuff. Oh, I also love that you used that piece from the 3D World soundtrack too; recognized it instantly. This is the first video I've seen of your channel, and I think I may be sticking around for a while. lol

Even if you wanna get wacky with the notes, doing this is such a good way to get used to stucturing a dynamic melody that takes you to places you can understand relative to everything else. I used to get SO lost in the sauce trying to be interesting while also moving around, it'd sound okayish, then I'd listen back later and I'd just hate it. A good exercise from there is to really listen to chord progressions and drone notes over it to see how they sit in the harmony, as one of the notes you might want to focus on when moving around. Then you listen to how other notes interact with those, choosing based on color but also coherent movement and motives etc. (Just to immerse yourself before you write with your preferred method)

Este é um dos melhores canais de música e composição no KZfaq. Aprendo muito aqui, parabéns!!!

Accurate and useful, I agree, great stuff

Awesome content! The pacing was a bit fast for taking notes; I rewound and paused it quite a bit. I’m really excited to apply this technique. Thanks so much!

Hey nice video! One important thing you forgot to mention was to attempt to create a rhythmic arc that starts at rest and shows effort to reach the high and low points, and then slows to a halt at the end! Love the video!

Very interesting topic, thanks

I feel like creating a catchy melody is really easy, but harmony and good voicing is the tricky part. This melodic skeleton seems a bit too mechanical to me, but maybe I'll try it out one day because trying new things is a great way to get creative inspiration.

IMO opinion those videos about composition structure / form are the only ones worth watching in this channel. You inspired me to read books on those topics. Keep it up!

"No tones should appear +3 times in a line" *Drake has left the chat*

1:00 - In terms of starting on the tonic, I suspect an exception that would not change things much, would be starting on an anacrusis (pickup note/figure) into the tonic, such as a leading-tone or dominant landing on the tonic.

Ouch, that burn!..

"Avoid highlighting tritones" Metal composers: "No, i don't think I will"

Hey Ryan! I've been struggling with writing longer music and my problem with the ABA form is that I have the structure but it's not as long as I would like it. And I don't know how I should continue after that. Could you help me out somehow? Also, your channel is a huge help and the best at helping beginner composers! Keep going!

" Harmony through melody"book will check it out

According as you suggested sir, the melody won't sometimes/always sound similar? Cause one could follow the rules and then repeats

[5:40] "Avoid highlighting tritones"... Yep, but the example doesn't highlight a tritone but a diminished fifth, which in tonal music tends to be felt as expressive, doesn't it?

You can see that in addition to the global highs and lows, each of the four segments in this period (6:46) have their local highs and lows.

What is the score you use in the example at 6:45? I really like it!

Please tell someone which piece is this at 6:51 ?

5:05 A wild Gondor theme has appeared!

Why do I feel like I'm just back in my counterpoint class here, lol...

Basically, writing a good melody is hard.

🔥

Ryan: Stick to the Tonic when starting a melody Liszt while writing his Faust Symphony: we don't do that here.

I’m thinking that the skeleton concept could also be used to chart out the advice you give us regarding the structure of pieces, forms of sections, starting notes and cadences suited to each section, and so forth. I learn a lot from the videos, but retaining it all is another thing. So I’m going to give this idea a try. It would also be something I can scribble on as I work my way through your channel.

I will create a list of all the rules you mention and try to follow them as closely as possible.

Thanks for giving people a box to think inside, makes it easier for talented people to stand out from the crowd.

Would these rules/guidelines help with creating different kinds of moods and energy with the melody? How much could these be played around with in the purpose of creating, say, an purposefully unsettling vibe (like going through a dark cave in an RPG and you want to music to help put the player more on edge)? Would that just be more picking a minor mode/scale and then applying the same guides?

Speaking of skeletons (horrible segue, sorry not sorry) - since you sometimes cover games and anime on your channel, have you ever considered doing a breakdown on the music of Undertale/Deltarune? Even as a layman, I've always found it fascinating how Toby fox can take a leitmotif and rework it into different contexts that completely transform how it makes you feel even though the notes themselves are mostly the same.

Anyone else hear Ryan’s melody in B Phrygian?

Strawberry Fields - "Liv-ing-is-ee-zee-with-eyes-closed" Whoa! 8 notes of the same pitch in a row! >:-(

Great video. But wait, what was the score playing at 06:46?

Some people say that to make a melody you should think of it in two parts, the note you want to hit and the passing tones. I don’t really like this approach since it makes it feel like some notes are more important than others. Every note is equally important. You can also make a good melody by not following a single rule in this video, but it is a good start.

The problem becomes when I need to bridge two sections in the middle of everything. Then I often end up with one melody that works very well in itself, but doesn't connect very well with the continuation; perhaps you don't want a very strong candace right before a seccion that contains several pronounced candences, for instance. So then I fix the problem and the music flows much more smouthly, but now my melody is weaker instead! Damn it!

Have the god kings of all the god kings sent you here to teach us these amazing foundational principles? Patching some holes in my foundational knowledge, many thanks!

Wow! Interesting and surprisingly this correlates with Hindemith's teory of main tones of melody (I don't remember the actual name). It was very interesting and fascinating to watch! Thank you Ryan for all the videos!

No examples on melodies that sound "stuck" why not?

I was hoping for some clarification on the "do not approach or leave the apogee by a leap" advice, maybe I'm misunderstanding what is meant by "leap", but it looks like you do approach the apogee by a leap at 7:37 ??? If I'm not mistaken, the apogee is a 6th higher than the previous note, or a 5th higher than the note before that, so I guess this means we are PREPARING the wide leap, so is that why it doesn't count as an "approach by a leap"?

3:24 - Not important, but I just noticed the Chinese characters in the composer-name place (upper-right): 西木康智, which I would translate as something like, “Westwood health wisdom.” Just curious what that refers to…?

I disagree with your dismissal of their process as “overthinking it”. Sure, you could just pick one of the three notes to start with, but the problem with most people who try to convey how to write music is that instructions like this are usually just given without discussing WHY you do something. And I’m someone who needs to know why in order to understand something. I can’t understand something unless it can be quantified in concrete, logical terms. So for me personally, it’s really helpful to know that 1 and 5 are the most stable, and 3 is the least stable because that is useful information to help you map out where you want the melody to go. It gives it context and helps you understand the concept of tension and resolve.

I don't get how this approach can be used with motifs, I guess it's possible but how ?

0:15 sans?

That's a fact

Why is this book so expensive???

‘Harmony through Melody’ £73 for a book?! Exsqueese me?

What if emphasizing the quirky, out-of-place character of the tritone is the whole point, like in the opening to the Simpsons theme?

Not sure that the skeleton can write melodies as fleshed out as mine

isn't this just the first step of writing species counterpoint?

Taylor swift does a lot of one note melodies focused more on rhythm. It seems to be quite common now with many artists. What’s your view on this? Pros and cons?

in my view, a sense for melody is what a composer should really aim for, and likely that is precisely what the authors developed and relied on in order to suggest such a method... the video does well in presenting the method, but it seems likely that such methods can actually work against the development of a melodic sense, of hearing one's own « mind's ear »... in other words, it might lead one to overly rely on recipes, rather than on striving to hear what music wants to say...

Great video but I feel like this really only touches upon classical music.

I just listen to a ton of different types of music, steal some intervals i like, hum them a bit, mash them together, and to add interest i think of notes that would harmonize with the intervals i have and i swap them out here and there. Basically all you have to do is not be afraid to hum while doing the dishes or sing do do do in the shower for 25 years. Also you should have some idea of what picture story or emotion you are trying to convey before you start writing or it isn't going to evoke anything in the listener. Compelling is always more important than correct.

I like your video, but depending on the experience level of the composer, this can be spurious and perilous advice. 1."singing your melody." -this is very good advice IF the composer is experienced with deep listening and singing strong melodies. Dance of the sugarplum, Yesterday, Gaston, take your pick. The problem is, those melodies, like all great melodies, are not all intuitive. There is a lot of counter-intuitive stuff. dissonance, arpeggios, implied harmony. The problem with "sing your melody" to a very inexperienced composer is that usually what "just falls out of your head" and is intuitive and easy to sing tends to be awful. It tends to be in a very small range, all stepwise, static, predictable rhythms and accents. So I believe this advice should come with the caveat. Learn and sing and listen to a lot of great melodies for a good long period before attempting to trust your own singing along as you write. Don't get me wrong. Melodies should, at the end of the day, "feel" and "seem" intuitive to sing like they've always existed and just fell out of you in the shower. The irony is, it's often highly counter-intuitive and requiring of immense craft to make music seem inevitable. 2. target notes/contour without knowledge of harmony. -Assuming we are writing tonal music, you cannot separate harmony and melody. The tonic-dominant relationship that creates the glue in a basic tonal system needs to be understood before tasking an inexperienced composer to focus on contour and target notes. In my opinion, an inexperienced composer must first start with tonic-dominant exercises, composing little "phonemes" of music that clearly implies a tonic, using tensions and resolutions to a dominant, then using tensions and resolutions back to a tonic. Then expand this into a tonic-subdominant-dominant exercise. Eventually you can try minor tonality with harmonic minor, and some secondary dominants so the composer gets an ear and a sense for gravity around tonal centers and accidentals. The reason this is so important is evident in Ryan's melody at the end. I mean no offense, but although his melody follows the rules of the exercise, the example melody he wrote is unmemorable, kind of herky jerky, and, despite having a contour/a beginning, middle and end and a resolution, it doesn't sound musical. It sounds awkward. IMO the main reason for this is lack of implied harmony. There is no sense of tonality or harmonic progression. If you sing Yesterday, "all my troubles" is already throwing in sharp notes that imply a secondary dominant, which creates a n inevitability and excitement towards a destination. I'm sorry to get into the weeds here. I just want to caution beginner composers and songwriters that this exercise does not paint a complete picture, and without understanding the fundamentals of 1st species counterpoint(which just means one note against one note,) in 4 voices, they won't get the benefit of this exercise. I know I'm typing into the void here and nobody cares, but it's just my two cents from one trained composer to another.

well, this sounds more counterpoint rules...

Hey nice video! One important thing you forgot to mention was to attempt to create a rhythmic arc that starts at rest and shows effort to reach the high and low points, and then slows to a halt at the end! Love the video!