Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Mansil and I'm gonna be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can write an effectively structured 16-bar melody using balanced phrasing.

And the keywords for today are, tonic, that's chord one, which feels finished.

Dominant that's chord five, which feels unfinished.

An imperfect cadence.

That's where part of the chord sequence finishes on the dominant chord that's called five, which feels unfinished.

And anacrusis.

That's when a melody starts before the downbeat or beat one.

So today's lesson on creating a 16-bar melody is in two parts.

Part one is creating a 16-bar harmonic structure and part two is creating a 16-bar melodic structure.

Let's get started with part one.

Why do you think this is a successful 8-bar harmonic structure so far? Pause and have a think.

So it starts with the tonic that's chord I which emphasizes the key.

Then it briefly moves to the relative miner using chord six, and then it resolves with a perfect cadence back to the tonic in bar eight.

Remember that perfect cadence is chords V to I.

The first eight bars feel resolved because they finish with a perfect cadence, five to one.

An effective 16-bar structure might follow this model.

So the first eight bars feel resolved, bars nine to 12 feel unresolved, and bars 13 to 16 feel resolved.

This harmonic structure works effectively because it establishes the key in bars one to eight, creates tension and uncertainty through bars nine to 12, and then resolves that tension by returning to the tonic in bars 13 to 16.

Take a look at this chord sequence.

How is it successful? Have a listen to it.

(soft music) The first eight bars start and finish on the tonic chord, establishing the key.

In bars nine to 12, the harmony is based around the dominant chord that's chord five.

It finishes on chord five to create an imperfect cadence, which feels suitably unfinished.

Have a listen.

(soft music) The harmony in bars 13 to 16 returns the tonic and resolves with a perfect cadence, which is the same at bars five to eight.

Have a listen to bars 13 to 16.

(soft music) A typical 16-bar chord sequence might do the following.

So in bars one to eight, start and finish on one and use a perfect cadence in bar seven to eight to feel resolved overall.

Bars nine to 12, avoid one and finish on five to feel unresolved.

And in bars 13 to 16 finish on one and on a perfect cadence to feel resolved overall.

Let's do a check for understanding.

In a 16-bar chord sequence, which four bar phrase should sound most unfinished? Is it A, bars one to four? B, bars five to eight? C, bars nine to 12? Or D, bars 13 to 16? Pause and have a think.

Well done if you've got C, bars nine to 12.

What chord does an imperfect cadence finish on? Is it chord one? Chord four? Chord five? Or chord six? What do you think? Well done if you got chord five.

So we're going to have a look at extending an eight bar chord sequence to create an effective 16-bar chord sequence.

Bars nine to 12 should be based around chord five and finish on an imperfect cadence.

Have a watch of the video to see how that's done.

<v Instructor>I'm gonna create a chord sequence</v> for bars nine to 12.

And it's gonna finish with an imperfect cadence.

That means it's gonna finish on chord five, which gives it an unfinished feeling.

This is a really common harmonic structure for this point in a chord sequence where we've already had the eight bars that feel finished on chord one, then we have these four bars that feel unfinished, then we bring it back to chord one at the very end.

What I'm also gonna try and do in bars nine to 12, is avoid using chord one.

You don't necessarily have to do that, but I'm gonna try and do that so it feels really unfinished and far away from that home chord if possible.

So I've already established that I'm gonna use code five in bar 12.

So the end of this section, it's gonna be based on chord five.

And that will be a G code in this key.

(piano music) And then what I do with the rest of the bar's really is up to me.

I might decide to start on, let's try chord four and then I can maybe try another five there.

And one chord that works really effectively actually before chord five is actually chord two.

So I might try and put that in there.

Two, five is a really common pattern for imperfect cadences.

So let's see what that would sound like.

So chord four, this is my first one, that's an F chord.

(piano music) Chord five is G.

(piano music) Chord two is G minor.

(piano music) Chord five is G.

(piano music) I'm quite happy with that pattern there and I'm gonna stick with that, but you might use something totally different.

Just make sure that you try and finish on that chord five for that imperfect cadence.

And probably try and avoid using too much of chord one as well.

Now once I've come up with the four chords I'm gonna use, I can think like I did before about the inversions.

So I've got my chord track here and I'm gonna try and find versions of those chords that don't require too much jumping around.

(piano music) So the big jump here is to chord two.

(piano music) That's quite a big jump, but instead I could play chord two here with an inversion.

(piano music) So I'm gonna go for that, so I've got four and then five.

(piano music) Then an inversion of chord two to keep it nice and close.

(piano music) Then chord five.

(piano music) So that's my four bar chord sequence.

And then the final thing I need to think about is matching the broken chord pattern that I've already created.

Let's just have a listen to what I've got.

(piano music) ♪ Do do do da da do ♪ ♪ Do do do ♪ That's the kind of pattern that we're using.

So for each of these chords, I'm gonna try and use that pattern and record in here.

(piano music) That's my pattern there, I quite like that.

So I'm gonna record it in.

(piano music) And that's my chord part done.

And then if I was doing this using notation software, then again I would just have to take my chord track, my chord pattern, sorry, my broken chord pattern and put it into the correct four bars here in the treble clef of my chord track, my piano track to copy that pattern and to fit the notes of the new chords.

<v Miss Mansil>Then you want to create</v> a simple base part for bars nine to 12 based on the root notes of each chord.

Let's watch the video and see how to do that.

<v Instructor>Next are the very simple baseline</v> based on these four chords.

I'm looking for the root notes of these chords.

So chord four is an F chord.

(piano music) So root note F.

Give is a G chord, (piano music) root note G.

Two is a D minor chord, so root note D.

(piano music) And then five is a G chord.

So the root note is G.

(piano music) So I've got F, G, D, and then G.

(piano music) Now I just need to think here a little bit about the pattern that I used in the first section.

So if I have a look here, I will notice that I've used this pattern.

(piano music) So a dotted minimum three beats and then a crotchet on each note.

So I want to copy that when I'm creating it here in bar nine to 12.

So what I might do is just copy the rhythm to make it a bit quicker.

Then I'm gonna find those notes.

So that's F my first note using that same rhythm as before.

Then G.

Then I'm looking for D.

Then I'm looking for G.

Let's have listen to what this section sounds like here.

(piano music) So that's fairly straightforward and if I was doing it using a door, then I could just record that in my chord track as well.

For mine, I've been using this piano track so I could just record it in and if I record it at that lower pitch then it will fit underneath those broken chords and won't like sort of delete their recording as such.

(piano music) And now if you listen to that, we should hear both of those parts together.

(piano music) <v Miss Mansil>And then we want to copy the chords</v> and base part from bars five to eight into bars 13 to 16.

And let's watch the video about how to do that.

<v Instructor>Finally, we're gonna look at bar 13 to 16.

</v> This is our final four bar phrase.

And for this it's dead simple, we're gonna copy our chord sequence from bar five to eight.

That creates real symmetry because we're hearing something that we've heard before, but it also means that we finish with that perfect cadence so it feels complete and finished at the end.

So let's write in these chords.

It's gonna be six, then two, then five, then one.

That's my final four chords.

But I don't actually need to record them in 'cause I've already recorded them between bar five and eight.

So I'm just gonna be copying.

Now if you're using a doll like this, you might have one long region like I've got here where if I try and copy that, I'm gonna copy the whole of one to eight.

So what I actually want to do is I want to split this region in two.

I'm gonna chop it at bar five so that I can just copy this section from bar five to eight, rather than the whole thing.

On GarageBand the way you do that is select the region, put the playhead where you want to cut it, and then right click and you'll see that option split at playhead.

And now it's chopped in two, I can just copy that bit and paste that bit.

So just copying the bit from bar five to bar eight.

On different doors, there'll be a similar function.

You just might have to search around a bit to find exactly the button that you have to press to do it.

And now that's me created that chord sequence and with the broken chords and with the baseline for that section there.

If I was doing this on notation software, I could do the same thing.

I'll just have to copy my chords, my base in bar five to eight and I'm gonna copy them into bar 13 to 16.

And then let's have a listen from bar nine all the way through and out to bar 16 and see what that sounds like.

(piano music) So we can hear that it sounds really finished and resolved at the end of that perfect cadence.

Goes a bit on a harmonic journey with that imperfect cadence in bar 13.

Then our relative mind accord in bar 13, but I think that's a really effective code sequence and I'm happy with that.

<v ->Let's do a check for understanding.

</v> A what cadence should end a 16-bar chord sequence? I hope you got a perfect cadence.

And which two chords create a perfect cadence? Well done if you've got five and one.

So let's move on to Task A.

You're going to create a called part and baseline for bars nine to 16 creating an effective harmonic structure.

The success criteria for this are bars nine to 12.

Don't use the tonic that's chord one.

Bars nine to 12 have a base part based on the root notes of chords.

Bar 12 uses the dominant, that's chord five, creating an imperfect cadence.

Bars 13 to 16 are the same as five to eight and finish with a perfect cadence, remember that's five to one.

And you should record or notate your chord and base parts using the same rhythmic patterns as in bars one to eight.

So have a go at creating your chord part and baseline for bars nine to 16.

I hope you got on well with that.

Let's have a look at this chord sequence.

How does this 16-bar cord sequence match the success criteria? And how could it be improved? Have a listen to the chord sequence.

(soft music) And now have a think about how could it be improved.

What did you think? Bars 13 to 16 are the same as bars five to eight and they finish with a perfect cadence.

Bars nine to 12 could be improved by avoiding chord one, finishing on chord five in bar 12, creating that imperfect cadence.

Let's move on to part two of our lesson, creating a 16-bar melodic structure.

Let's have a listen to these melodies.

What key differences do you notice between them? Let's listen to melody one.

(soft music) Melody two.

(soft music) And melody three.

(soft music) What differences did you spot? They all start at different points in the bar.

This technique enables us to make melodies more unique and memorable.

So have a look at this melody, which starts after beat one and have a listen.

(soft music) And then listen to this melody, which starts before beat one.

(soft music) When the melody starts with an upbeat to the bar.

So before beat one, this is called an anacrusis.

Quick check for understanding when does anacrusis start? Is it A, on beat one? B, before beat one? C, after beat one? Or D, halfway through beat one? Which one is it? Well done if you've got B.

An anacrusis starts before beat one.

So we are gonna look at extending an eight bar melody to 16 bars.

Your melody should mirror the structure of the harmony, using four 4-bar phrases with a contrasting third phrase.

This is the melodic structure, AABA.

So let's have a look at developing a full 16-bar AABA melody.

So in bars nine to 12, we're going to compose a contrasting section of melody.

This should finish on a duo chord tone, which feels unfinished and start either after beat one or before beat one on an anacrusis.

Let's watch the video.

<v Instructor>Let's look at creating a melody</v> for bars nine to 12.

And the key here is I want this melody to contrast with the rest of my melody.

So I'm gonna be trying to create melodic shapes, rhythms and patterns that sound a bit different and a bit contrasting with my main melody so far.

Let's just have a quick listen to a bit of that.

(piano music) So I've got an idea in my head of some of the sort of melodic shapes that we hear.

There's a lot of this sort of shape.

(soft music) Sort of scalic, this conjunct movement between chord tones and it's quite a small range there.

There aren't many big intervals.

There are a couple of leaps, but it's mostly quite small intervals I'm using there.

So I'm gonna be bearing that in mind when I'm trying to create some ideas for bar nine to 12.

Let's have a look at my chords in this section.

Then I've got chord four, chord five, chord two, chord five.

So chord four is F.

(piano music) Five is G.

(piano music) Two is D minor.

(piano music) And five is G.

(piano music) So I'm gonna be having to use those chord tones just like I did before as the basis of my melody.

And where I'm using this junk with movement, I'm making sure that I'm only leaping between chord tone.

So in bar nine if I do any leaps, it's between notes in that F chord and bar 10 if I'm doing any leaps, it's between notes in the G chord and so on.

The other thing I want to make sure I do is finish on a chord tone, a long chord tone from the chord five, that's from my G chord.

So I'm gonna be finishing either on a long G.

(piano music) A long B.

(piano music) Or a long D.

(piano music) And that will help it feel sort of unfinished in this section, which is what we want with our imperfect cadence.

Right, so let's get on with this.

And I'm gonna try and use here anacrusis.

So I'm gonna try and create a melody that starts before the start of bar nine.

So I'm actually gonna start my playing a bar earlier here.

I'm just gonna improvise some ideas, see what I can come up with.

(piano music) Lots of different ideas there.

And you notice that when I'm doing anacrusis, my first notes actually clash with the end of this melody here in bar nine, in bar eight, sorry.

So what we'll need to do is I need to shorten that last note in bar eight, so that I've then got space and there's no overlap with my melody that I'm recording.

Okay, so I've tried lots of different ideas, I'm gonna record in there and I've got this anacrusis.

I'm gonna start my melody a little bit before bar nine to give it a bit of contrast.

And I'm trying to create contrasting shapes, here we go.

(piano music) So let's have a look at what I did there.

I did this pattern, (piano music) so I'll follow up, had your falling broken chord.

(piano music) And some longer notes.

(piano music) So it's a totally different shape, it's mostly based on descending shapes.

There's lots of disjunct movement there and I've ended on that long B, which is a chord tone in chord five.

So that really emphasizes there, that imperfect cadence.

So I'm really happy with that.

I think it contrasts nicely with the rest of the melody and creates that nice contrast in this section.

And if I was doing it using notation software, then I'd just be notating my melody in these bars, obviously 'cause as anacrusis, I'm gonna be starting it at the end of bar eight.

So it's important just to remember that.

And it might mean I have to adjust the note value of that long note at the end of bar eight.

<v ->And then for bars 13 to 16,</v> you should copy the melody of bars five to eight, removing any anacrusis notes at the end of bar 16.

Have a quick watch of the video to see how that's done.

<v Instructor>For the final section of the melody.

</v> So bar 13 to 16, just gonna be copying the melody from bars five to eight.

So if I'm working in notation software, I can literally copy and paste.

There's just one thing in particular I need to focus on, which is if I've used anacrusis at the end of bar eight, obviously I don't want that at the very end of my melody 'cause it'll sound a bit unfinished and a bit unusual.

So I'm just gonna extend my last sustained note.

So I'll finish on a sustained note based on a C chord rather than having the anacrusis playing.

So that's how I'd copy it in notation software.

If I'm on a door, then again, same thing, I'm just gonna copy it over and get rid of the anacrusis when I copy it.

However, I might have to split my track again as well.

So I want the section from bar five to eight and in garage band here, this has all been joined together.

So I move the playhead to where I want to cut the bar five, right click split the playheads do the same at the end of bar eight.

Now I've got just this section that I can copy, paste it over.

And then I'm gonna get rid of those two notes of my anacrusis and just extend my final notes.

So I end on all along C.

Let's have a listen to my entire melody and chord sequence together then.

(piano music) <v ->Which of these is a typical 16-bar melodic structure?</v> Is it ABAA? ABBB? AABA? Or AAAB? It was answer C, which is AABA.

So now we're going to do task B, which is creating your melody for bars nine to 16.

The success criteria is bars 12 to 16, contrast with the existing melody and start either before beat one, that's anacrusis or after beat one.

We want bars 12 to 16 to feel unfinished because they end on a chord tone from chord five, that's gonna be a G chord.

Bars 13 to 16 use the same melody as bars five to eight.

If you're going to use disjunct movement, move between chord tones only.

So have a go at creating your melody for bars nine to 16.

Let's reflect on how you got on.

Assess your 16 bar melody in chord sequence against the success criteria and identify how you can improve your composition.

So as a reminder, the criteria are that there is a perfect cadence.

So that's chords five to one in both by seven to eight and 15 to 16.

Bar 12 uses chord five, that's a G chord, creating an imperfect cadence.

You mostly use primary chords, those are chords one, four, and five.

Your base mostly uses root notes, especially in bars one, seven, eight, 15, and 16.

The melody in bars five to eight is the same as in bars 13 to 16.

The melody in bars nine to 12 contrasts with the rest and doesn't start on beat one.

And the melody ends on a long chord tone from the C chord in bars eight and 16.

And from the G chord chord five in bar 12.

So have a look back at your melody and chord sequence and assess them against those criteria.

Pause the video and do that now.

Let's summarize today's lesson on creating a 16-bar melody.

A typical 16-bar classical melody has a contrasting section of harmony and melody in bars nine to 12.

This usually ends with chord five, creating an imperfect cadence.

The melody in harmony in bars 13 to 16, typically copy bars five to eight ending with a perfect cadence.

An anacrusis is an interesting melodic feature that can help to make a melody sound more unique and interesting.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.