Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson, which is entitled Making More of Melodies.

My name's Mr. Norris and today we're gonna be exploring some of the ways that we can take melodic ideas and develop them.

This is such a key skill and a key tool as a composer.

So let's get stuck in.

The outcome for today's lesson is "I can extend the melody to create a short section of a composition." So that focus on extending and developing a melodic idea is going to go throughout.

Our keywords: Our first is sequence.

A sequence is a short melodic idea that's repeated in steps, either rising or falling.

Retrograde: when a musical idea is reversed, this is called retrograde.

Inversion: an inversion of a musical idea is when it's flipped upside down.

Intervals that went up now go down and vice versa.

So we'll explore all three of these concepts more as we get stuck into the lesson.

The first part of the lesson today is entitled Repetition and Contrast.

Repeating musical ideas is a common technique in composition.

I'm sure we can all think of songs or pieces of music that are based on repetition of ideas.

It makes the music memorable and recognisable, but it also gives it coherence.

It also makes it feel like one coherent, unified piece of music.

We're gonna explore how composers extend their musical ideas to make longer sections of music and also how they develop ideas within a section.

And there are various different ways we can do this.

Can you think of any ways to extend a melodic idea? I'd like to use the melody of "Happy Birthday" as an example.

So in what ways could we extend that melody or develop that melody? You can pause my video while you have a think.

So hopefully you managed to think of a few ways that that melody could be extended.

Let's have a look at a few specific examples now.

In his Fifth Symphony, Beethoven repeats the opening motif by using a sequence.

We can see here, the motif at the start and notes that that repeats throughout that short example there.

Each time it repeats, it changes in pitch.

And if we look at the second half of that clip there, you'll see it rises in pitch each time.

So we'd refer to that as a sequence.

Composers use sequences to develop their musical ideas, particularly when these ideas are quite short.

So sequences work best with short musical ideas.

To create a sequence, a musical idea must be heard at least three times.

If we only play it twice, it doesn't sound like a sequence to our ears.

They're particularly effective as a compositional device as they create a balance between repetition or unity and contrast/variety.

We get that repetition because it's the same musical idea repeating, where we get the contrast in the variety because it's a different pitch each time.

So to summarise sequences, we take that melodic idea and then we repeat it, either at a higher pitch each time or at a lower pitch each time.

And we need to hear it at least three times for it to count as a sequence.

Composers also develop melodic ideas by changing their direction, the direction of the notes.

They play them backwards or upside down.

That might sound a bit strange when you hear it, but hear me out here, we'll have a look at how that actually works.

We call these techniques retrograde if it's backwards and inversion if it's upside down.

Those are two really keywords there.

Retrograde means backwards.

Inversion means upside down.

In a retrograde, the musical idea is played with notes in reverse order.

Let's have a listen to the original idea that you can see at the top there.

Let's just have a quick listen.

(piano plays note sequence) So to do this, we start by taking the last note and we put it first, and then the second last note, we put it second and so on, working our way through all the notes of whatever the melodic idea we have is.

And that creates a retrograde where we've just reversed the order of the notes.

Let's see what that would sound like.

(piano plays notes in reverse order) So you can hear it sounds very different, but it still sounds a little bit familiar because it's using the same intervals and the same notes just in the opposite order.

So again, it's good for creating that unity and variety.

In an inversion, the melodic idea is flipped upside down.

So the retrograde will turn it back to front.

In an inversion, we flipped it upside down.

Let's hear that original idea again.

(piano plays note sequence) Let's have a look at the intervals in that example.

The first interval goes up a third, then down a second, then down a fifth and so on.

So we've got a third, a second and a fifth.

To flip it upside down to create an inversion, we're gonna use those same intervals but in the opposite direction.

So the first one goes down a third instead of up a third.

Then instead of going down a second, we go up a second.

Then instead of going down a fifth, we go up a fifth.

So we measure the intervals and then we just flip them.

So instead of down, we go up and instead of up we go down.

That would create, this: (piano plays inverted note sequence) It does sound quite different to the original, that one.

And it's a real useful and interesting tool for developing melodic ideas.

Composers can write a melodic idea upside down and back to front, and this is called a retrograded inversion.

We're combining, retrograding, when we turn it back to front and inversion when we flip it upside down.

So doing both at the same time.

If we compare these two, we can see that we've got the same intervals but we've reversed them.

So instead of going up, we're going down.

And we've also gone back to front as well.

So they're a mirror, a double mirror image almost of each other.

Let's just hear the original one last time.

(piano plays note sequence) And now the retrograde inversion of it.

So both retrograded and inverted.

(piano plays inverted note sequence upside down) So again, it sounds a little bit familiar 'cause we've got the same intervals, but it also contrasts because we've reversed it and we've flipped it upside down.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of the following is a retrograde of this melody? I'm gonna play you that melody at the top now.

Here we go.

(keyboard plays three note sequence) Play it one more time.

(keyboard plays three note descending sequence) And now let's listen to option A.

So which of these is a retrograde of that original melody? (keyboard plays three note ascending sequence) I'll play you A again.

(keyboard plays three note ascending sequence) Now B.

(keyboard plays three note ascending sequence) B again.

(keyboard plays three note ascending sequence) And then finally C.

(keyboard plays three note descending sequence) C for the last time.

(keyboard plays three note descending sequence) Remember before you answer, a retrograde is the reverse version, the back to front version of a melody.

So I'll give you a few seconds to finalise your answer.

And well done then, if you said the correct answer, which is B.

Tricky question, this one.

The reason it's B is because we've got the same note value.

So if we compare B to the original, we've got a B minim to begin with, and the original ends with a B minim.

And then we've got a crotchet on C sharp and then we've got a crotchet on D and that reverses the notes of the original.

If you said A, that's an easy mistake to make.

The thing we've got to make sure we're including is the note values.

So we also copy the note values of the original.

So the reason A is not correct is because there's not a minim on B at the start, whereas in the original, we can see that B uses a minim.

Well done if you got that one correct.

It's a tricky question that one.

For Task A, you're gonna create four different versions of this melodic idea.

There's a very simple melody there.

It uses four different notes and they're all crotchets in this instance.

Make sure you pay attention to the key signature there as well.

We've got a C sharp and an F sharp in the key signature.

And I'd like to use all four of the following compositional devices.

So the first one is a sequence.

Remember a sequence is when you repeat the melodic idea but either rising or following by steps.

So you would repeat it at at least three times and each time it would either be higher or it'd be going lower each time.

The second one is a retrograde, so you're gonna turn it around, reverse it.

So the last note is gonna be first and the first note is gonna be last and so on.

An inversion, remember that's when we flip the intervals.

So that first interval there we can see is a minor second, it's just a semitone.

So we're gonna be doing it the opposite way.

Instead of going down a semitone, we'll be going up a semitone.

And then finally a retrograde inversion.

So that's when you do both retrograding.

So you turn it from back to front and then you invert it as well.

So you swap the intervals from going up to going down, or going down to going up.

Once you've done that, you're gonna decide on an order of these four versions and play through all four as one melody.

So you're gonna take these four versions of this melodic idea and combine them back to back to create a more extended melody.

I'd also like to think about which you prefer.

So which one do you think works most successfully? So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot.

Let's move on to the second part of this task.

For this, I'm gonna play you a developed melody.

We can see the original four notes in the first bar.

I'd like you to think her about which techniques have been used to develop the melody.

So how has that first bar motif been developed? And which bits do you think work most successfully as well? Here we go, I'll play it for you now, try to follow the music through as we go.

(piano plays note sequence) I'm gonna play it for you one more time.

Here we go.

(piano plays note sequence) So just while coming up with your answer, you can pause my video.

Let's get into this one then.

There's quite a lot to dig into.

So we've got, first of all, a sequence.

We've also got inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion.

So well done if you picked up on any of those techniques there.

And well done as well if you noticed that the sequence is an ascending sequence, each time it gets higher.

So we've got it developed in four different ways.

The motif is repeated three times ascending, which creates a sequence.

Remember to make a sequence work, it has to play the idea at least three times.

This then links by step to the inversion in bar 4, but the leap to the retrograde version in bar 5 is less seamless.

And then in the final bar, we've got a retrograde inversion.

So some parts of that work better than others.

And generally, we tend to find when we're using techniques like this, it sounds more seamless, more effective if we're moving by step between different repetitions in the motif.

So well done if you got any of those points there, and well done if you identified all the different techniques as well.

Let's move on now to the second part of our lesson.

And for this we're looking at Developing Small Ideas.

Composers can develop a motif by extending it or creating a contrasting version of it.

And we've looked at some of the ways that we've done that so far.

I'd like to have a look at this melody here.

I'm gonna play it for you in a second as well.

So we're focusing on the melody, which is in the top stave there, in the right hand of the piano part.

What are the main features of this melody? What are the distinctive and sort of memorable features that you notice in this melody? Things that we might be able to go to develop? Let's have a listen to it.

Here we go.

(piano plays melody sequence) I'm gonna play it one more time.

Try and pick out what you would think are the main distinctive characteristics or features of this melody.

Here we go one more time.

(piano plays melody sequence) Okay, so there's a couple of main things you might have picked up on here.

So the first and most striking thing I think I've noticed here is that the melody mostly has descending leaps.

There's a couple that I've circled there, but there's also one in bar 4.

There's one in bar 5, the final bar right at the end there.

You can see a leap between the last two notes as well.

So that's a really distinctive feature of that melody, these falling jumps between notes.

The other distinctive part I would say is this stepwise movement towards the end.

And that's partly because the rhythm contrasts with the rest of it and we've got semiquavers there and it's also stepwise in scale.

Like it's going up and down the notes of the scale.

And that's really the only stepwise part of the whole melody.

It's not very much of it there at all.

So those I would say are the two most distinctive parts of this melody, descending leaps, and then that stepwise scalic movement.

Okay, so what we're gonna do now is we're gonna look at the same melody and have a look at how it's been developed.

If you look at the bottom there, you'll see the original melodic line with those descending leaps and with that stepwise scaling movement towards the end.

And what we've got above it is we've got eight bars of development of that melody.

If you look in the first stave, that's the right hand stave with all the semiquavers.

That's what we're gonna call Idea 1.

And what I'd like to do is I'm gonna play through this clip and I'd like you to try and work out, where has Idea 1 being taken from in the original melodic line? So just focusing on that first line of stave, the semiquavers, where is that being taken from? Where has it been developed from in the original melody at the bottom? Let's just have a listen.

(piano plays melodic sequence) Okay, so hold that thought.

Hopefully you managed to identify where that might have been borrowed or built upon from the original melody.

Now we're gonna do the same with Idea 2.

So the second stave, that's the left hand line.

This is a little bit trickier.

I'd like to try and work out, where has that been borrowed from or developed from in the original melody? What's the link between that Idea 2 and the original melody? I'll play you it one more time.

Here we go.

(piano plays melodic sequence) A little bit trickier that one.

Well let's get into this and let's see where they were borrowed from, where they were developed from.

So Idea 1, which is the right hand part, is derived from the semiquaver motif in the original melody, which has been repeated in a sequence.

So you might remember at the end of that original melody, we had some scalic semiquavers, you know, stepwise movement.

And here, the composer has taken that idea and they've repeated it in a sequence.

We can see the first three bars there all repeat the same shape, down then up, but in a sequence or ascending sequence.

So really well done if you identified that link there.

And that's a good example of how a sequence can be used with a very short melodic idea to develop it and extend it.

And they're more prominent in this new material.

In the original, the semiquavers were just a short little section at the end of the melody.

In this, they're quite obvious and quite striking.

They're the most obvious thing we can hear.

Now Idea 2, which is the left hand part, is the same as the original melody but played an octave lower and augmented.

So every note is twice as long.

So if you look at those first three notes, we've got A down to F and then jumping up to D.

Those are the exact same three notes as the original melody.

But instead of being one beat each, they're two beats each.

So that's what we call augmented.

And it's also played down the octave, so it doesn't clash as much with what the right hand is doing here.

So again, we've taken that melodic idea and I've used the same notes, the same intervals, but somehow developed it, in this case, by changing its pitch and augmenting it, extending the length of each note.

And we would summarise this then as saying the composer has used both the main melodic idea, which is that augmented one and some secondary ideas, which are the semiquavers to create a new section of music.

And that keeps this balance of unity and variety because it sounds familiar, we recognise the intervals, we recognise some of the short walk ideas, but it varied because they're being used in a completely new way, so that's striking that balance between unity and variety.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false? It's important to derive new musical ideas from motifs already in the composition.

Is that true or false? And then when you've thought of your answer for that, I'd like you to justify it using one of those statements below.

Repeating ideas means that the composition will be less interesting overall or repeating ideas, but with some development helps to find a balance of unity and variety.

You can pause my video just while you work this one out.

Let's go through this then.

So the correct answer is true.

It is important to derive new musical ideas from motifs already in the composition.

And the reason for that is that repeating ideas but with some development helps to find a balance of unity and variety.

So this is not just repeat the same ideas in the same form over and over again.

We have to develop them somehow and change them and adapt them.

However, it helps us strike that balance between unity and variety and that's so key in composition.

I'd like to have a look at this melody below.

This is a different one now.

And I like you to try and pick out the distinctive features of it.

I'm gonna play it for you now.

Here we go.

(piano plays melodic sequence) I am gonna play it one more time.

And remember we're looking for those distinctive features, the things that strike you and that really stick out and are a bit memorable about the melody.

Here we go one more time.

(piano plays melodic sequence) So while you're just finishing your answer, you can pause my video.

Let's review that question then.

So here are some of the distinctive features you might have picked out.

There's that rising fifth (vocalises rising fifth) in the first bar, that's quite distinctive, quite a clear interval, that one, quite a memorable one.

There's the rise and fall quaver motif in bar three.

(vocalising motif) The rhythmically interesting descending pattern in bar 5 and 6.

So we've got a bit more rhythmic interest there and it's this falling shape.

And then we've got repeated notes in the last two bars.

So the same note played three times.

That's quite distinct.

It might not sound that interesting as a little motif, but it is a quite distinct and noticeable thing about this melody.

And then we've got the gradually rising melody across the first four bars.

So if we have to trace a line across those notes, it'd be gradually rising from the low B in bar 1 to the higher B in bar 4.

So that's a distinctive feature that the overall shape of those four bars, it's quite distinct.

Well done if you picked up on any of those distinct features there.

Let's move on to the second part of this task.

And for this, based on those distinctive features or motifs that we've just looked at, I like you to choose one and use either repetition, a sequence, remember you need to repeat something three times, either ascending or descending to make a sequence; or retrograde, when we reverse it, turn it back to front; or inversion when you flip it upside down to develop it into a longer melodic line.

Remember you could combine retrograde and inversion to do a retrograde inversion as well.

So choose one of those distinctive features and using one of the techniques there, develop it into a longer melody.

You can pause my video now while you do this.

Now time for the final part of this task.

How has this melodic line been derived from the opening motif? And how might it be even more successful? And there's some things you might consider there: repetition, sequence, retrograde, inversion and augmentation.

So discuss what is relevant.

So I'm gonna play it for you now and you can follow the notation there as well.

How has this been derived from the opening motif, which was that upward step on B to F sharp? (vocalising) How has it been derived from that? Here we go.

(piano plays melodic sequence) I'll play it one more time and follow the notation through to help you answer this as well.

(piano plays melodic sequence) So pause my video just while you're finishing off your answer.

Okay, let's analyse this one then.

So it's used the rising fifth from the original that's in bar 1 and repeated the idea.

So bar 2 is a repetition of bar 1.

There's then a retrograde version in bar three.

So that's where the notes are reversed.

So the the F sharp comes second and now it's first and the B that comes first now comes second.

And then there's augmentation in bar 5 and 6 where the note values are doubled.

So instead of crotchets, we've then got minims. The sequence of the stepwise idea from the original melody creates variety effectively.

So we've then got that upward stepping movement.

And if you notice as well, the first note of those crotchets in bar 6 is a B.

And the final note of that pattern at the very end is F sharp.

So it's linking the two notes of this motif, B and F sharp together with crotchets.

One bit of feedback we might say is that this melody uses the same notes too often and could feel a little uninteresting unless it's combined with other materials.

So we've got a lot of Bs and F sharps repeating, whereas we might want to either combine it with other things so it stays interesting or develop it slightly differently.

So, well done if you picked up on any of those points there.

For the final part of our lesson, we're gonna look at developing your melodic ideas.

I'd like to think about some of the main melodic ideas in a composition that you're working on at the moment.

These might include the opening motif, so what's the opening part of the melody? Any other melodic motifs in the phrase.

So are there any distinct parts of the melody? Any interesting intervals, any interesting rhythmic ideas, or a descending or ascending pattern or shape.

So just pause my video while you have a think.

What would you say are the main melodic ideas in any composition that you're working on at the moment? So you should have a couple of melodic ideas in mind, having had a think about that.

And now what I'd like to think about is how might you extend the melodic idea or create a new section based on those.

What are some of the things you could use? You can pause my video again while you have a think.

So here are some of the ways that you might develop those melodic ideas: A sequence, repeating an idea in steps either rising or falling.

And remember it has to be used at least three times for it to actually count as a sequence and work as a sequence.

Using inversion, retrograde or both of them together.

Repeating it and extending it into a new melodic line.

Using the same rhythmic material but with different pitches.

So if you've got really distinct rhythm, you could play it using different notes and it would still sound familiar, it would still keep that unity.

Using an idea as the basis of a secondary part.

So taking a melodic idea and using it in the accompaniment, for example.

Playing the notes with longer or shorter durations, for example, playing them twice as long or twice as short.

And there are lots of options as to how you can develop your ideas.

The key is to make use of some ideas you've already used to give coherence to your composition.

So not just creating new ideas all the time, developing ideas that you've already got, so that there's that balance of unity because there's familiarity.

'cause we recognise the ideas, and variety because they're being used differently and developed, and we're not just repeating them over and over again in the same form.

So that's the key point here.

Get that balance between unity and variety.

Let's check your understanding.

Why is it important to use some of the same material throughout your composition? I'll give you a few seconds to have a quick think.

And hopefully here you came up with that it makes the composition more coherent or it balances variety and unity.

That's the key.

Balancing those two things.

And if we use some of the same material but develop it, it allows us to strike that balance.

For Task C, you're gonna consider how you can develop and extend your melodic ideas in your composition.

Some success criteria.

Firstly, you're happy with how your melodic phrases sound.

You're happy with what they actually sound like.

We sometimes forget that that's a really good measure of whether something works successfully, is if we actually like how it sounds.

So don't forget to keep checking on it, listening back to it, seeing if you actually like the sound of it.

You've developed your original melodic idea with devices such as sequence, retrograde, inversion or retrograde inversion.

The longer phrase or the new phrase captures your desired mood and character.

So it still fits within the mood and the expressive sort of character you're trying to create in your composition.

It doesn't sound totally out of place.

And then finally, you've considered wider compositional choices, including tempo, dynamics and articulation.

So there's a few things for you to be thinking about there as you're developing and extending your melodic ideas.

You can pause my video now and you can give that your best shot.

So for the final part of this task, I'd like you to consider how that success criteria applies to your developed melodic material so far.

Here's some questions to get you thinking: Which devices have you used to extend your ideas? Has using any of the devices created a longer melody that is interesting and coherent? So you've managed to extend a melody using those.

What mood and character is suggested by your phrase? So what kind of emotional mood does it create? And finally, have the chosen expressive elements helped to make this more vivid? So have the expressive elements, things like tempo, dynamics, articulation, have they helped to really emphasise that character and mood that you're creating? So you can pause my video while you have a reflection on where you're up to, using those questions.

Let's summarise today's lesson then.

Composers develop their musical ideas by exploring different ways of transforming the material.

Sequence, retrograde and inversion are compositional devices we can use to transform melodic ideas.

A balance of repetition and contrast is important in making your music interesting but memorable.

And we've used the words "unity" and "variety" as well.

New ideas can be derived from already established ones by developing a few interesting, distinctive ideas.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Thank you very much for taking part.

I hope these tools, these devices we've been looking at, have proved useful in helping you to look at new ways to develop your melodic ideas.

And developing those melodies, developing those motifs is such a key part of creating a successful composition and not an easy step either.

So hopefully these will give some ideas and give some inspiration as to how you can then go on and develop your composition.

Thanks for taking part and I'll see you in another lesson.