Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled creating a musical melody.

My name is Mr. Norris.

I'm gonna be taking you through today as we look at how we can use melody as a starting point for a creative composition.

So without further ado, let's get into it.

Our outcome for today's lesson is I can explore creative processes to compose short melodies as starting points for free composition.

So we're gonna be looking at a few different ways we can use melody as a starting point for composition.

My key words, the first is disjunct.

Movement by leaps in the melodic line is disjunct.

Conjunct, and this describes movement by steps in a melodic line, for example, tones and semitones.

Interval, an interval is the distance between two notes.

And then finally articulation, and this is how the note is played.

For example, legato, staccato, or accented, for example.

The first part of our lesson today is entitled creating a melody.

Good melodies have a distinctive shape that is memorable.

Think about a melody that you know well, it might be from a a song, it might from a piece of classical music, it might be from a film or a TV show or a video game.

In a minute, I'm gonna get you to try and sing it.

And as you sing it, I want you to think about, what is it about the melody that helps you remember it? What is it that makes it memorable and distinctive? Is it the shape, so the way that it rises and falls, for example? Or does it have distinctive intervals or rhythmic features? Is there a really distinctive jump or distinctive noticeable interval in it, or distinctive rhythm? So you can pause my video, think about a melody, and see if you can pick out in that melody what it is that makes it distinctive and memorable.

You can do that now.

Okay, so melodies need pitch and rhythm, and composers need to consider the choice of notes and any distinctive rhythmic features.

So there are a few components that go into writing a melody.

I'm gonna play you a melody now.

It's a famous one that you almost certainly recognise.

I'd like to think about what do you notice about the shape of the melody and the intervals, so the steps all leaps between the notes? Here we go, let's have a listen.

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) Just a few more seconds just to think about the shape of that melody and the intervals.

Let's reflect on that then.

So this melody uses conjunct motion and hopefully when you're thinking about intervals, you notice that almost all of the notes move by step.

So there aren't any leaps really between notes, any bigger intervals than a second or a tone.

That's the biggest interval we have.

The melody also uses repetition to make it memorable.

So if we compare those two lines there, they're very, very similar.

So by the time we hear the second line in the melody, it's already a little bit familiar because it uses very similar ideas to the first line.

The only difference you might have spotted is in the last bar there, that's the only bar that's different between those two lines.

So we've got this conjunct motion, moving by step, and we've also got the use of repetition.

When a melody moves by larger intervals rather than in steps, this is described as disjunct, and you might have also heard this referred to as moving by leap.

If we have a look at this example here, let's just have a look at the very start of this music.

♪ Da da da da ♪ That's our first phrase.

♪ Da da da da ♪ So if we look at the intervals there, we can see they are bigger than moving by step.

If you are playing that on a piano, you wouldn't be playing notes that are next to each other, and then that carries on further on as well; towards the end of that example there, we can see some big intervals as well.

I'd like to just have a look at that, and based on the notation there, what is repeated in this example.

And this is from Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony." This is from a piece of classical music.

What's the idea that links all of this melody here? You can pause my video just while you have a look.

Let's get into that then.

So although the repetition is not exact, the melody of this entire example is derived from that opening motif.

♪ Da da da da ♪ And that same idea, that four-note pattern, three notes, da da da, and then a lower note, da, repeats throughout this example and throughout this whole piece of music.

♪ Da da da da ♪ So this is a really good example of where we have a motif that has then developed and forms the basis of the rest of the melody.

Now we're gonna think about slightly different one, the "Happy Birthday" melody.

What do you notice about the intervals in this? ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to ♪ That's the melody we've got there.

So have a think about the intervals there.

What do you notice? So one of the things we might pick up on is that there are disjunct intervals in this, and these are one the distinctive features of this melody.

If you look carefully, you'll notice that the pattern of intervals actually gets wider.

So the first big disjunct interval we have, that first leap, is a fourth.

Then we have a fifth two bars later, and then we have an octave leap as well.

So it builds and it builds to this climax through increasing the size of those intervals.

That's a really interesting use of disjunct intervals.

Another one you might have heard of is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." This is a really well-known song, and this is really famous as well for its disjunct intervals.

The opening interval is an octave.

♪ Somewhere ♪ That's our first interval there, and it's such a distinctive and memorable feature of that melody.

So when we start to compose, we need to choose the notes to start with.

One strategy to help with this is to use a set of numbers to dictate the intervals and a starting note, and it's a slightly artificial process, but it works quite effectively to give us that initial creative sort of stimulus, that initial idea.

So here are eight numbers, and these are gonna dictate the intervals that we use in our melody.

Lemme show you how that might work.

So our first number is three.

I've chosen my starting note, and then from there I'm going to either go up or down by an interval of a third, so by three notes.

My next one you can see there is three.

So that time I've decided to go down by three notes, to about third.

Then we've got two.

So that's just a step, that's gonna be your second.

Then we've got a bigger interval of a fifth, and they've decided to jump a fifth.

So those numbers are determining the intervals of the different notes, and all we decide is what our starting note is and then whether we want to go up or down by those intervals.

Let me play you what this example would sound like.

(gentle piano music) We'll play it one more time.

See if you can follow the notation through as we're hearing it this time.

(gentle piano music) So it's quite a distinct-sounding melody, that one.

And partly that's because we've used this process of creating a set of eight numbers, and then basing the melody on those intervals.

Let's check your understanding here then.

So here we've got three melodies, and I'd like to match each one to the correct term.

I'm gonna play them now and we've got conjunct, disjunct, or both disjunct and conjunct.

Here is our first example.

Is this conjunct, disjunct, or both? And you can see the notation there in our first clip.

Here we go.

(gentle piano music) So finish your answer for that one there.

And then we're gonna move on to our second example.

Okay, here's the second example you can see in the middle of the slide, here we go.

Is this conjunct, disjunct, or both? (gentle piano music) So finish off your answer for that one, and then get ready for our third and final question.

And here we go then with the bottom example, is this conjunct, disjunct, or both? (gentle piano music) I'll give you a few seconds to finish your third and final answer, and then let's review these answers then.

So our first one was disjunct, that was this one.

(gentle piano music) And we can overhear and see in the notation there that there are leaps between the notes, so there are bigger intervals than a tone.

Our second one was conjunct.

And again, we can see there just looking at notation that the notes are all next to each other, that there are no big intervals.

And then our third one was a mixture of both.

There are some bars where it's conjunct and some bars where it is disjunct.

So well done if you correctly identified all three of those.

So your task for task A is to compose your own short melody.

Here are a few steps.

Choose your own set of numbers and a starting note.

Then you're gonna go up or down as you work through your numbers.

So the number indicates the interval, if it says three, you are gonna either go up or go down by a third, and so on for all of your numbers.

And then finally, once you've done that, play your complete melody to hear how it sounds.

And you might decide that there are certain bits you want to get rid of or certain bits you want to tweak, but use that as your starting point.

And then a couple things to think about is, is it conjunct or disjunct? And how do you use repetition? So remember, those are two features of melodies that are really useful to use.

So you can pause my video now and have a go at that task.

Okay, let's move on to move on to the second part of our task.

I'm now gonna play you a melody line.

What makes it distinctive? Here we go.

(gentle piano music) I am gonna play it one more time.

See if you can come up with something that you think makes that distinctive or memorable.

Here we go.

(gentle piano music) I'll give you a few seconds to see if you can come up with this one.

And let's review that question then.

So the melody line uses mainly conjunct movement, but there are some larger intervals, disjunct intervals, which make it very distinctive, and it also repeats that opening motif.

So this makes it more memorable 'cause there's some familiarity in what we hear as well.

Let's just hear it one more time and see if you can identify first of all those really distinct disjunct intervals and also the section that is repeated.

Here we go.

(gentle piano music) So hopefully there you managed to pick up on that larger interval and also hear that repetition.

Well done if you did so.

For the second part of our lesson, we're gonna look at experimenting with rhythmic values.

What do you think makes a melody memorable? Is it pitch or is it rhythm? We're gonna try a little task here.

I'm gonna play you two rhythmic pieces of music that have no pitch, and I'd like to see if you can recognise the famous melodies just based on the rhythm.

So we've taken the pitch out.

Can you recognise what melodies these are? And they're really well-known melodies.

Here's the first one, then, what melody could this be? (lively music) (lively music continues) Really tricky one that one.

Let's try the second one, see if you can get this.

(lively music) I think that one's slightly easier, but still a really difficult task this one.

And this sort of gets to the core of what we're trying to demonstrate here.

So with the pitches, these well-known melodies are even more recognisable.

The first one was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and the second one was "Happy Birthday." So well done if you got either of those.

And what makes a melody is not only its rhythm, but its pitch as well.

So it's the combination of both of these things that makes a melody distinctive.

If you just have one or the other, it loses that distinctiveness.

In speech, we vary the way that we emphasise different words to help create interest for the listener.

We can use rhythm in the same way when we're composing.

So if you think about when we are talking, even just now I'm emphasising certain words, I'm saying some words slower, I'm saying some of them louder or changing the pitch as I'm talking to emphasise different words.

And we can use rhythm in the same way when composing.

Different rhythmic values can help some notes stand out more than others and create interest for the listeners.

So just as when I'm talking, I might hold some words for slightly longer to really emphasise them.

Doing that while we're writing with rhythm is also really effective as a compositional tool.

The mood and the character of a composition can help you decide the approach to rhythm of your melody.

So thinking about the kind of mood and the kind of feeling you're trying to create will determine how you want to use rhythm in that melody.

Some melodies have a recurring rhythmic idea, so a rhythmic idea that repeats over and over.

Let's have a listen to this one here.

(lively music) Just before I show you, can you pick out what the recurring rhythmic idea is in this one? Let's have a look then.

So the recurring rhythmic idea in this is that phrase that has two quavers and a crotchet.

And this becomes really defining feature of the melody, not only in this short example, but also in this whole piece of music as well.

And that's just a really simple rhythmic idea, two quavers and a crotchet.

Some melodies are more vocal-like in their approach to rhythm, so they use a longer and more sustained note values.

Let's have a listen to this one.

(warm music) So this uses some of the same note lengths and also some longer minims, just really sustained notes, and you could probably imagine somebody singing that melody.

That's often a good starting point as well.

If you could imagine someone singing that melody, it might work really effectively.

So this is the idea of lyrical-sounding, vocal-like melodies.

And then find way some melodies have a wide range of rhythms that help to create an expressive and expansive character.

Let's have a listen to this example here.

(soft music) So that melody, it's a really beautiful and powerful melody, that one, and that has a range of different rhythmic ideas.

It's got some repetition of rhythmic ideas in there, but it's also quite varied as well.

We've also got the dotted rhythms there that are quite a defining feature.

So then the rhythm of that melody is really distinct, really memorable.

Let's check your understanding.

Which two of the following are suitable to create rhythmic interest in your melody: Using a variety of different rhythms; using a rhythmic idea that keeps recurring; or using different rhythms in every bar? So which two would be the best two approaches to using rhythm? And the best two answers here then would be to use a variety of different rhythms or to use a rhythmic idea that keeps recurring.

We wouldn't want to use different rhythms in every bar because that would be too varied, whereas we want some familiarity and some repetition in there to an extent.

Well done if you've got those two correct.

For this task, we're gonna add some rhythmic value, some rhythm to your melody.

Firstly, consider what mood and character you would like to create with your melody, and then choose one of the three options.

You could use a recurring rhythmic idea like we had in that two quavers and crotchet idea that kept repeating.

You could use some longer note values to make it expressive and give it that vocal-like kind of sung style.

Or you could use a wide range of rhythms for a more expansive melody, so you can have a bit more variety in there, a bit of a balance of different rhythms. Experiment with a few different ideas.

And as well, you wanna consider the instrument you're composing for.

Some rhythms and some rhythmic ideas will work better on some instruments.

So have a consideration, have a think of that as well.

So you can pause my video now and you're gonna add some rhythm to your melody.

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

And for this I'm gonna play you this melody that we can see on the screen there.

What rhythms have been added that make this quite distinctive? So not just what rhythms have been added, but what is it about the rhythms that are distinct in this melody? Here we go.

(gentle music) I'll play it one more time, see if you can think about what rhythms are really distinctive and memorable here.

(gentle music) You can pause my video just while you complete your answer to this one.

Let's reflect on that then.

So this melody has been made more vocal-like with the longer note values.

We can see those three minims circled there, but we've also got that pair of quavers that make it feel like it's moving, like it's quite fluid and help it sort of flow and feel quite lively as well.

So we've got this balance of these two different varied rhythmic ideas.

Well done if you picked up on either of those.

Now we're gonna move on to the third part of our lesson.

And for this we're looking at making it musical.

As well as pitching rhythm, composers make choices about how the music should be played.

It's important to consider the expressive qualities from the beginning.

Have a look at this melody here.

What expressive features have been considered.

So how has the composer added some expression to that melody that we've just listened to? Pause my video while you do this.

There are a few points you could have said here.

It's been made expressive with a tempo marking, dynamics, and articulation.

We've got andante as the tempo, a moderately slower tempo.

We've got the dynamics that crescendo throughout the phrase and then the decrescendo at the end as well.

So that adds a lot of expression.

Starting quiet, that mezzo piano, that MP, building up to forte and then decrescendoing at the end.

And then we've also got the use of legato.

So that gives us that smooth movement between notes.

And we've got some accents, that's our articulation, that emphasised the notes.

So all three of those things have taken this quite simple melody that didn't have any of that in before and given it much more character and much more expression.

To check your understanding of this, which three of the following are ways of adding expression to your melody? Indicating a tempo, changing the rhythm, using dynamic changes, or considering the articulation? You can pause my video just while you come up with your three answers.

Let's review that then.

So the correct three answers were indicating a tempo, using dynamic changes, and considering the articulation.

Those are three really effective ways of adding expression.

Changing the rhythm is not a way that we've tend to do that, or it's not the simplest way of adding expression, anyway.

For this task, you're gonna think about how you can add some expression to your melody.

Some success criteria are that your melody uses a mixture of intervals, your rhythms capture the design mood of your melody, and that you've considered tempo, dynamics and articulation to add expression.

So here you're taking that melodic idea you had before and you're gonna complete it by adding some expression.

So you can pause my video as you do that, good luck.

Let's move on to our final task.

And for this, I'd like you to answer the following questions about your composition to help you reflect on where it is at the moment.

Are the intervals effective? Are they mainly conjunct with occasional disjunct intervals? Maybe we want that balance between the two.

What mood is suggested by your choice of rhythm? And then finally, what expressive elements have you used at this point? So you pause my video, have a reflect on that, and this should give you some ideas as to how you could then go on and develop and improve your melody further.

And pause my video now.

Okay, hopefully that was useful for helping you identify some areas of strength and weakness in your melody and some ways you could develop it.

Let's review today's lesson then.

Good melodies have a distinctive shape.

Composers consider choice of notes including use of conjunct and disjunct intervals and distinctive rhythmic features.

And these can help make the melody more memorable.

Composers also consider expression by using tempo, dynamics, and articulation.

And when we're composing, the most important thing is to consider how the melody will sound.

So ultimately it all comes down to that.

We can think about all these different features and techniques and processes, but really what we want is we want a melody that sounds good, that's really effective and that expresses what we want it to express.

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

Good luck with your composition.

I hope you found these processes really useful for giving you a good melodic starting point for your composing.

Thank you.