Simply put, the success of your music depends on your ability to write strong and memorable melodies. No amount of sound design or mixing can mask a poor melody. You can’t cut corners when writing melodies: you must put in the time or nobody will care about your song. The ability to write great melodies is a muscle: you must actively train it, continually growing your knowledge and skillset.

This guide will show you the core elements of a great melody. It’ll show you how to write a melody that relates to the rest of the song. Further, we’ll be looking at how to break down popular melodies, and ultimately discuss how to take what you’ve learned and apply it to your music.

The essential relationship between melody and chords

Before we dive into writing melodies, I want to talk discuss the arguably most important part of a great melody, that is, it’s relationship to the chords.

Melodies live or die on their relationship to the chords.

In essence, a melody must relate to the chords in a harmonious and purposeful way.

Without this, your melody will fail and your song will fall short.

Think of it this way: I can take your favorite melody of all time and put a chord progression to it that makes your ears bleed. The melodies and chords of your song must relate.

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So we get that chords and melodies are related, but how exactly do they relate?

When dealing with writing a melody over chords, it’s essential that you understand the relationship between chord tones and non-chord tones.

Chord Tones vs. Non-Chord Tones

Simply put, a chord tone is a note that is in the chord, and a non-chord tone is a note that is not in the chord (but still in the scale).

Chord tones will sound comfortable and satisfying, while non-chord tones will add tension and excitement.

Another way to think about it is chord tones are stable while non-chord tones are unstable.

To write a good melody, you must have a balance of both: non-chord tones that add tension, and chord-tones that resolve that tension.

Disclaimer: Even if your song doesn’t have chords, chords are still being implied by the baseline (or another melodic element in your track). If your melody is the only melodic element of your song, then the chords are implied by the melody, and this section doesn’t directly relate to that.

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Let’s take a look at a basic example.

We’re in the key of C Major, which contains all white notes, namely C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.

Let’s start with a C Major chord (C-E-G).

In this case, C, E, and G are all chord tones. Conversely, D, F, A, and B, and non-chord tones.

Thus, either C, E, or G will sound comfortable over the C chord, while D, F, A, and B will add a bit of tension to the progression

How To Use Chord Tones

It is important to recognize the overall relationship between chords and melodies. Not only should you be aware of when the melody plays with the chords, but also the notes in between.

In general, notes that play on strong beats will have more emphasis, and notes that play on weak beats will have less emphasis.

Further, non-chord tones want to be quickly resolved, especially if they’re played on a strong beat.

For those of you unfamiliar with strong/weak beats, in a 4/4 time signature divided into quarter notes, the first beat is a strong beat, the second and fourth are weak, and the third beat is a medium beat.

To summarize, Notes played on strong beats will have more of an emphasis, while notes played on weak beats will have less of an emphasis. Both add to the overall shape and power of the melody.

Lastly, Non-chord tones look to be resolved to chord tones, especially when played on a strong beat.

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Let’s look an example of this, using Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child”. Below is the midi for the chords and main chorus melody.

For clarity purposes, I’ve highlighted the melody. Now, let’s look at the melody and see what notes are chord tones.

I’ve highlighted every chord tone in the melody.

As you can see, the melody is almost entirely comprised of chord tones.

Every time a new chord is played, a chord tone is playing with it.

Remember, chord tones are stable: they help reinforce the chords.

Only one non-chord tone is played. It is played in an off beat and doesn’t add much tension to the progression. It adds a bit of early tension, which is immediately resolved by the next note.

Relatively speaking, this particular melody is very stable, being that it heavily follows the chords, both in rhythm and in melody. This is common for this “anthemic” style of music, which is highly emotive.

More often than not, melodies will commonly have more non-chord tones then this particular example.

Like a good movie, you’re melody has to have tension: it can’t be all smiles and sunshine, there must be some degree of conflict and resolution. You’ll need to create tension, and ultimately resolve that tension.

Knowing this, begin to pay attention to the your melody’s relationship to the chords, and utilize chord tones and non-chord tones to create dynamic and cohesive melodies.

Motif vs. Melody

A motif is a short musical idea. It’s composed of a few or several notes that relate to each other in a meaningful and purposeful way.

A collection of motifs played together creates a full music idea, or in other words, a full melodic phrase.

A typical melody is composed of several motifs, repeated and tweaked to create a complete musical idea.

The Core Elements of a Great Melody

Let’s discuss the core elements of a great melody. The main components of any melody are:

• Motion
• Space
• Rhyhtm
• Repetition

Let’s take a dive into each.

Motion:

The motion and contour of a melody is very important. When writing a melody, with each new note you’ll have to decide between stepwise motion and leapwise motion.

Stepwise motion is when a note moves to an adjacent note in the scale.

Leapwise motion is when a note moves more than one note away in the scale.

For example, let’s write a melody in the key of C Major. The example below is comprised entirely of stepwise motion, since we are always playing an adjacent note in the scale.

Conversely, let’s look at an example of leapwise motion. Below, our melody is composed entirely of leapwise motion, where we always jump at least one note in the scale to reach the next note.

Generally, a great melody uses primarily stepwise motion. Stepwise motion is easy follow and remember, and it is easier to sing. Conversely, leapwise motion adds tension and development, when carefully used.

This will ultimately vary on the style and genre you produce. Pop music will generally use heaps of stepwise motion, while other genres may use a balance of both stepwise and leapwise motion.

Likely, you’ll want to want to use more stepwise motion, with a balance of leapwise as well.

For example, let’s take another look at the melody in “Don’t You Worry Child”. You can see the melody below.

Below, I’ve highlighted every example of stepwise motion. As you can see, the melody is primarily composed of stepwise motion.

For the first bar and a half, the melody uses only stepwise motion. It isn’t until the end of bar 2 that leapwise motion is introduced. Below, I’ve highlighted when the melody uses leapwise motion.

As you can see, a good amount of leapwise motion is used. This creates a bit of tension, which is resolved once the chord progression repeats.

Remember that discussion of strong and weak beats earlier?

Notice how all of the leapwise motion (the tenser motion) is on medium or weak beats. This results in less tension than leapwise motion would have on strong beats.

The key here is balance: a great melody has a purposely balance of stepwise and leapwise motion.

Space:

The next element of a great melody is space. Again, finding the right spacing for a melody is about balance.

Too many notes will make the melody difficult to remember, and too few notes will make the melody boring and uninteresting.

The right amount of space is subjective, and will heavily depend on the style of music you are writing.

It’s common to feel the need to fill up the entire midi roll with notes; however, this can often be detrimental.

Similar to arranging music, you want a clear line for the listener to focus on, and you want that line to be easily understood.

When writing melodies, focus on the space between the notes. Be careful about not making it too busy.

Focus on what you want your melody to say, and say with as few notes as possible.

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For an example, let’s take a look at the chorus of Martin Garrix’s “In the Name of Love”.

Below is the midi for the main melody (vocal chop) during the chorus.

The melody is relatively busy, but has essential pauses on bar 2 and bar 4. Below, I’ve highlighted the break at bar 2.

As discussed earlier, melody notes have more of an emphasis when played on strong beats.

The listener is expecting a note at bar 2, given the active melody in the first bar. When the melody pauses at bar 2 this adds tension that wants to be immediately resolved (which it is).

The same goes for the break at bar 4.

Overall, this careful use of space contributes to the tension and development of the melody.

Rhythm:

As we’ve discussed earlier with chord tones, choosing which notes to play is essential. Nearly as important is when the note is played.

Like the notes themselves, the rhythm of the melody should be “simple” and easy to remember. 2-3 different rhythmic patterns in a melody is a safe bet, and will help make your melody easy to follow.

To start, let’s take another look at “Don’t You Worry Child”. How do the rhythm of the melody and chords relate?

The rhythm of the melody and chords are the exact same. This makes the melody easy to remember because it’s rhythmically the same as the chords.

This works great for this style of music, but more often than not you’ll want to create bit more tension with interesting rhythms.

It’s essential to look at how the rhythm of your melody relates to that of the chords.

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Let’s take another look at “In the Name of Love”. Below is the chorus melody.

There are two main rhythm patterns in this melody.

The first shape is present in bar 1 and bar 3. They’ve been highlighted below.

Bar 1 and bar 3 have the exact shame rhythmic pattern (and melodic pattern).

The second shape is present in bar 2 and bar 4. They’ve been highlighted below.

While bar 2 and bar 4 have a different melodic pattern, they share the same rhythmic pattern.

For simplicity sake, you don’t want to introduce a large amount of rhythmic patterns in a melody. The less rhythmic patterns there are, the easier the melody will be able to follow.

For example, although a new melodic phrase is introduced in bar 4 of “In the Name of Love”, it has the same rhythmic pattern as the motif in bar 2, making it feel familiar.

In general, familiarity is key to melodic development. In melody writing and throughout the songwriting process, you’ll want to make changes that develop and push the track forward, altogether making sense with what came before it. Familiarity breeds comfort, and will help keep the listener excited and engaged.

This leads us directly into the next section: repetition.

Repetition

The last component of a great melody is repetition.

It’s easy to want to continually introduce new ideas to a melody line, but repetition will help the overall melodic development feel natural and familiar. Repetition, when used correctly, can help to ease the listener, rather than continually bombarding them with new idea after new idea.

Repetition can reveal itself in a number of ways.

The main ways we’ll see repetition in a melody are:

• Melodic repetition
• Rhythm repetition
• Shape/Contour repetition.

Melodic Repetition

Simply put, melodic repetition is when a melody repeats.

Looking back at the chorus melody from “In the Name of Love”, the 3rd bar repeats the 1st bar.

You’ll obviously want to be careful with this, as a repeated melody may get boring quickly.

However, don’t be afraid to repeat a melody multiple times, especially if the melody is strong.

If your melody is great, the listener will want to hear it again.

Rhythmic Repetition

Rhythmic repetition is when a melody plays different notes with the same rhythmic pattern. As discussed above, in the chorus of “In the Name of Love”, the 4th bar repeats the same rhythmic shape as the 2nd bar.

To reiterate, this breeds familiarity while helping develop and push the track forward..

Contour Repetition

Alongside rhythmic repetition, melodies can also repeat shapes or contours. Melodies can be looked at having a shape, where they naturally rise up, fall down, and make leaps up and down.

Contour repetition, i.e. repeating the same melodic shape, is another way to introduce repetition.

Take the example below, a 2 bar melody in the key of C Major. While the first and second bar differ, they have the same exact melodic shape and rhythm. The only difference is the starting note.

This makes the 2nd bar feel familiar, despite it playing a different melody line.

All in all, the memorability of your melody relies on repetition. Repetition makes your song easier to follow, helping to strengthen the overall message of your track.

Learning From the Pros

As you’ve seen in the examples above, deconstructing the melodies of memorable tracks is a great way to learn how to write memorable tracks yourself.

Take it upon yourself to analyze and deconstruct melodies from your favorite tracks.

This will help find out the types of melodies you want to write. There is no right way to write a melody, and every great songwriter has their own way of writing a catchy and memorable melody.

Regardless, every melody you’ll look at will contain the elements discussed above. Take the time to break down your favorite melodies, deciphering why they work.

When analyzing melodies, look for:

• Motion
  • Does the melody move around a lot?
  • How big of an interval range does the melody cover?
  • Does the melody use primarily stepwise motion, or both stepwise and leapwise motion?
• Space
  • Does the melody use a lot of space?
  • Where does the space fall? On strong or weak beats?
  • How does the space of the melody relate to the rest of the song.
• Rhythm
  • What is the rhythm of the melody? Are there multiple rhythms.
  • How does the rhythm of the melody relate to the rhythm of the rest of the song.
• Repetition
  • Is the melody continually repeated?
  • Are rhythmic patterns repeated?
  • Are melodic shapes repeated?

Final Thoughts

Hopefully you’ve gained a better understanding of the main components of a melody. Melody writing is a constant struggle, but using the tools above you now have the knowledge to break down melodies and figure out why they work (or why they don’t work). If you actively focus on these components, I promise that in time you will become much more confident and competent writing melodies.