Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled "Fundamentals of Melody".

My name is Mr. Norris.

I'm gonna take you through today as we look at some of the key aspects of melody, typical melodic devices and some of the ways that they can be used in composition.

Outcome for today's lesson is I can describe basic features of melodies and different common methods of melodic development.

Some key words, motif.

This is a short musical idea that's heard multiple times in a piece of music.

Phrase, this is a section of a melody, usually lasting for one, two or four bars.

Augmentation, this is the process of lengthening all of the notes in a melody by the same proportion.

Diminution, this is the process of shortening all of the notes in a melody by the same proportion.

And finally, sequence, which is a melodic device in which a melodic idea is repeated at least three times, either rising or falling in pitch each time.

The first part of today's lesson is looking at analyzing melody.

When listening to melodies, we can analyze them in different ways.

We can consider melodic shape.

So is it ascending? Is it descending, the intervals, are they conjunct, disjunct, or are there any specific intervals we can identify and repetition and use of motifs.

We can also think about the phrase structure, which is something we'll look at in a little bit.

Let's start with melodic shape.

When we're analyzing melodic shape, it's important to identify if the melody is ascending, descending or a combination of both.

How would you describe the shape of these two melodies? Here's the first one.

(gentle music) And the second one.

(gentle music) Think about the melodic shape of both of those.

So we could represent these two melodies in the following ways.

The first one was descending.

That was this one.

(gentle music) We can represent it with a descending line.

The second one was ascending and then descending.

(gentle music) So that mixes both ascending and descending movement.

We can also consider where the melody uses conjunct movement.

That's small intervals or moving by step, and where it uses disjunct movement, which is where there's larger intervals and it's moving by leaps.

How would you describe the use of conjunct and disjunct movement here? Let's have a listen.

(gentle music) So thinking about the intervals in that where there are smaller intervals and larger intervals.

I'll play you it one more time.

(gentle music) So that one ascends with conjunct movement and then it descends with disjunct movement, and we can represent this visually with a steeper line for the disjunct movement.

So we could show it with just a simple shape like this, or we show a bit more detail where the conjunct movement, where the intervals are smaller, has a slightly gentler angle, and then the disjunct movement has a steeper line, and that shows a bit more detail in terms of the melodic shape.

Now we can have a think about intervals and we can hone in specifically on what intervals are being used in the melody.

Conjunct melodies use semitones or tones while disjunct melodies use larger intervals.

Have a listen to this.

What are the intervals in the descending disjunct section here? (gentle music) So sing that descending section back to yourself and see if you can work out or approximate some of those intervals.

Pause my video while you have think, very well done then if you identified that the descending intervals were fourth, third, and then another third, that's quite tricky doing it at that speed.

So even if you're just approximating those intervals, well done.

The disjunct movement there was based on an arpeggio, which is the notes of a chord played one after another.

An arpeggio, which is a type of broken chord, is used to form part of this melody.

So if we look at the start of this example, which is different to the one we just listened to, we can see the notes of an F chord there forming an arpeggio, and that's quite a common technique in melodies, particularly in lots of different types of classical music.

Let's just have a listen to this melody and try and pick out those four notes forming that arpeggio.

(gentle music) Listen one more time, try and pick out the four notes of that chord at the start.

(gentle music) This melody also uses scalic movement, and this is another type of common melodic movement.

This is where melody uses part of a scale, and it can either be ascending or descending.

In this case, we've got a descending F major scale in the second half of this melody.

So we've already covered that arpeggio in the first half, and then we've got the scalic movement in the second half.

Let's listen one more time.

See if you can pick out, first of all, the arpeggio in the first half in the ascending section, and then that descending scale in the second half.

(gentle music) So that melody there combines two very common melodic techniques.

Let's check your understanding, which two statements are true conjunct melodies move by step, conjunct melodies use tones or thirds conjunct melodies move by leap or conjunct melodies use semitones or tones.

I'll give you a few seconds to choose two answers.

And the two correct answers here were conjunct melodies move by step, and they use either semitones or tones, so they're using small intervals.

Melodies should also balance repetition and contrast.

Have a listen to this melody.

How would you describe it using the words repetition and contrast? Let's have a listen.

(upbeat music) So just have a quick think about how that uses repetition and contrast.

And we could have said here then, this melody uses some repeated ideas.

So bars one and two are repeated in bars five and six, with some slightly contrasting ideas in between them.

So there's a real balance there of repetition and contrast, and that's a really key feature of most melodies.

How could we describe the repetition in this example? Let's have a listen.

(upbeat music) So if we're thinking about the repetition in that, we might have said that this melody is based on a repeating or a recurring motif, which is a short melodic idea that repeats during a piece.

Just have a look at the notation of that melody there.

Can you pick out the recurring motif? So the short idea that recurs a few times, have a quick look.

So hopefully you spotted that that's our motif there at the start of each bar.

And many melodies use motifs to create a sense of familiarity and unity.

So it gives us common idea that goes throughout a melody, even as other things might be changing around.

What is a motif? Is it a long melodic idea that's heard once, a short melodic idea heard more than once, a short melodic idea heard once or a long melodic idea heard more than once? Pause my video while you choose your answer.

And the correct answer here is a motif is a short melodic idea that is heard more than once.

Complete the sentence, motifs create a sense of what or what? Think of two words here, pause my video while you do that.

And the correct answer is either familiarity or unity.

So they create a sense of something familiar because we're hearing this idea coming back and that unifies the melody.

Now, let's think about phrases.

A melodic phrase is a distinct section of a melody.

Now, a melody normally uses phrases that are the same length as each other.

So usually melodic phrases are either one, two, or four bars long.

They can be analyzed by considering the length of the phrases.

So how long are the phrases in this melody, the use of repetition, do any of the phrases repeat? Similarities and differences between phrases.

And we can also think about the overall phrase structure, and often we'll describe that using letters.

So you might have an A, B, A, C phrase structure where the A phrase repeats.

And then there are contrasting B and C phrases, for example, how could we analyze the phrases in this guitar melody? So have a listen, have a think about some of those features we just discussed and how would you talk about the phrases in this melody? (upbeat music) So play it one more time so you can think about how we describe the phrases.

(upbeat music) Here are a few of things you might have thought of then.

Might have said, there are four phrases, and each phrase is two bars long.

You might have mentioned that the first and the third phrases are the same.

So there's some repeated phrases, and you might have mentioned that the second and the fourth phrases are contrasting.

They're both different.

So you might have come up with an A, B, A, C phrase structure.

So as we can see there, there's lots of detail we can go into when we're talking about phrases.

Question and answer phrases are where the first phrase, which we call the question feels unfinished.

So it's like it's posing a question to the listener.

And then the second phrase, which is the answer, resolves it.

You might also sometimes hear this referred to as balanced phrasing because these two, the question and the answer create balance in the melody.

Let's have a listen to this question and then let's hear it with its answering phrase as well, and try and pick out how the question feels unfinished, and the answer helps it to feel finished.

Here's the question.

(upbeat music) So that's that unfinished feeling phrase, and now let's hear it with its resolving answer.

(upbeat music) So there's our notation, and we can see that the two phrases balance each other out.

The first is ascending and it feels unfinished, and the second is descending and it feels finished.

And this is a really common melodic technique in lots of types of music.

Let's give three examples of how a melodic phrase can be analyzed, pause my video while you think of them.

Hopefully you came up with some of the following.

You mention how long the phrases are, whether there's any repetition of phrases, if there are similarities or differences between phrases.

So if there's contrast, for example, and describe the overall phrase structure, for example, A, B, A, C.

Well done if you came up with three of those.

For task A, we're gonna listen to some examples and answer these questions.

We're gonna start off with example A, and for this we're doing question one and two.

Question one is describe the shape of each phrase and use the words, conjunct, disjunct, ascend and descend.

And then for question two, can you identify any distinct intervals, so any particularly noticeable intervals? Here's the clip, I'm gonna play you it three times, answering question one and two.

(upbeat music) Let's hear it a second time.

So answering question one and two.

(upbeat music) And now for the third time, making sure you're finishing your answers for question one and two.

(upbeat music) So if you need to pause my video to finish those two answers, you can do that now.

Now let's move on to question three.

So for this, we're gonna listen to this other example, example B.

I'd like you to write a paragraph discussing the phrases, repetition and contrast in this violin melody.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) Let's hear it for a second time.

(upbeat music) And now the third and final time example B.

(upbeat music) And now pause my video and finish off your paragraph.

Okay, let's review this task.

So for example A, you could have said, each phrase begins with a disjunct leap that ascends and then descends, and then that's followed by conjunct phrase that ascends and then descents.

And could you identify any distinct intervals? Well, each phrase begins with an octave leap that goes up and then that.

So that's a really distinct interval, distinct feature of that melody.

Well done if you picked up on some of those points.

For question three, here's an example paragraph and see if you picked out any of these points.

So the melody has four phrases.

Each phrase lasts for two bars.

The phrases use a question and answer effect where the first phrase of each pair feels unfinished and the next phrase resolves it.

You might have used the phrase balanced phrasing for that as well.

The melody repeats the same rhythms in the first three phrases.

The fourth phrase is more contrasting with different rhythms and a totally different melodic shape.

So then we've got quite a detailed paragraph going into lots of detail, focusing just on the phrases and the nature of the melody in those phrases in that quite short clip.

So that's the level of detail you want to be aiming for when you're describing a melody.

Now we're gonna look at melodic development.

Developing a melody by changing notes allows a composer to maintain a balance of repetition and contrast and that's one of the key themes that we'll come up when we're looking at melody is this balance of repetition and contrast or unity and variety.

If a melody is repeated in exactly the same way, the composition will lack variety, so it'll probably get a bit boring and tedious.

If it changes too much, it won't sound familiar, and the composition loses unity.

So it's important to strike this balance between repetition and contrast.

Composers use different strategies to develop their meds in ways that do this, that balance unity and variety.

Some common techniques and devices for balancing unity and variety include adding notes, changing the rhythm of the melody, using diminution and augmentation, using sequences.

And as long as the original melody is still recognizable, it can be considered a developed melody rather than a new one.

That's a really key point that we'll come back to.

Let's look first of all at adding additional notes.

Notes can be added within a melody to develop it, keeping its length the same, or they can extend the melody to make it longer.

Have a listen to these three examples.

We're gonna listen first to the original melody.

Then I'd like you to listen to two developed versions of it, how have additional notes been used to develop the melody in these examples? So here's the original starting melody.

(upbeat music) Now let's listen to example one.

So the first developed version.

(upbeat music) So have a quick think about how that's been developed with additional notes.

Now let's look at example two.

So how's this one being developed with additional notes? (upbeat music) Have a quick think about how that's been developed.

And now let's look at these in a bit more detail.

So this was the original melody, and this was the first developed version.

(upbeat music) Now, the length of the melody has stayed the same, but can you spot the extra notes that have all being added in? Just have a quick look.

And you'll see here there are lots of passing notes that have been added in that changes the rhythm.

So while the length of the melody and the overall shape of it stays the same, there are lots of extra notes in the gaps sort of filling them in.

In this second example, the first three bars are exactly the same as the original.

If you compare them both there, you'll see that.

However, this one has extended the melody with additional notes, how many bars have being added to the original melody? See if you can have a look and work it out.

(upbeat music) So well done if you spotted that we've got two extra bars added to that melody.

So that's a developed version of the original melody that's being developed through extension.

True or false, changing the notes of a melody creates a totally new melody.

I'll give you a few seconds, and the answer is false.

I'd like to have a think about why.

Why is that not true? And here we'd say that changing the notes of a melody creates a new version of the melody, but if it remains recognizable, it's considered a development of the original melody.

So it's only a totally new melody if it's unrecognizable from the original.

So if it's changed too much, it will sound like a new melody.

But if it's just changed a bit, it's a developed version of the original melody.

A melody can be developed by changing the rhythm as well.

Let's have another listen to this original melody.

(upbeat music) Now let's have a look at this version that's being developed with dotted rhythms. You can pick out the difference in rhythm.

(upbeat music) So in that example, those dotted rhythms develop the melody without changing any pitches at all, and that's quite a straightforward way of developing a melody.

We could also do it by making the rhythms simpler.

Let's listen to this version where the melodies have been made even simpler than the original.

(gentle music) Another tool we can use to develop melodies is augmentation.

This is where every note is made proportionally longer by the same ratio.

Let's take this example to explore that further.

There's an original melodic idea.

Now, we could augment it by doubling every note value.

So if you compare those two there, you can see that every note is twice as long as in the original version.

We can also do it by quadrupling it.

So in this version, every note is four times as long as the original version.

And as long as you're changing the length of each note by the same proportion, so you're doubling all the notes or tripling all the notes, then that's augmentation.

If you change the lengths of the notes by different portions, that wouldn't technically be augmentation, and it maintains the melodies' familiarity, but it gives it a different character by transforming the rhythm.

So the melodic shape and the pitches are still the same, but the rhythm feels quite different.

Diminution is the opposite of augmentation.

This is where the composer proportionally shortens all of the notes by the same ratio.

So let's take this example here.

That's our original melodic idea.

We could do some diminution by dividing it in half.

So every note here is now half the length that it originally was.

In this one, every note is a quarter of the length of what it originally was, so we divided it by four.

Both of those are examples of diminution.

So this is the reverse of augmentation, and again, this maintains the melody's familiarity, but the transformed rhythm gives the melody a different character.

So really thinking about rhythmic change here, what is augmentation? Is it lengthening some of the notes, lengthening all of the notes by different proportions, lengthening all of the notes by the same proportion of lengthening one of the notes, I'll give you a few seconds, and the correct answer is it's lengthening all the notes by the same proportion.

That's the really key point there, same proportion.

A sequence is another common melodic device.

Now this is the repetition of melodic idea where each repetition is increasingly higher or lower in pitch.

Let's take this melodic idea here.

(gentle music) Now we can develop it here with an ascending sequence.

Let's have a listen to what that would sound like.

(gentle music) So we can see here the melodic shape and the rhythm of each little melodic idea is exactly the same.

It's three notes, two quavers and a crotchet, and they're ascending by step.

So it's taken that original melodic idea and developed it using that ascending sequence.

And for a sequence to be a true sequence, it must repeat the idea at least three times.

If you just hear it twice, it's not really had an opportunity to develop fully into a sequence yet.

Let's have a look at this different example.

This is the melodic idea.

(upbeat music) And here, it's been turned into a descending sequence.

(upbeat music) So it's repeating that same idea, but each time it's slightly lower, it's working its way down the pitches.

And again, this allows composer to develop a melody or part of a melody, but still maintaining that sense of familiarity with some variety as well.

So that's a theme in all of these ways of developing melodies is the balance the contrast, the variety with the familiarity in the sense of unity.

Let's have a listen to this example.

I'm gonna play the original melody, then the developed version of it.

What technique or device has been used to develop the melody here? Let's have a listen.

(gentle music) Now it's here, the developed version.

What techniques or devices have been used? (gentle music) Have a quick think.

And in this example, that's our original melody.

This is our developed version of the melody.

So the rhythms have changed, and we've had some extra notes added as well.

You see some dotted rhythms have been added in.

We've got some semiquavers in the second version and we've got some slightly different notes that have been squeezed in as well, particularly at the top of the range.

Let's have a listen to this example.

So let's hear the original melody first.

(gentle music) Now, let's hear the developed version.

What techniques have been used to develop it here? (gentle music) Have a quick think, what techniques have been used there? And here then we'd say That diminution is being used and some extra notes have been added.

Real well done if you picked up on either of those.

So this is our original melody here, and if we look there, that melodic idea at the start uses diminution.

So it takes those notes of the first two bars in the original and squeezes them into one bar, changing them all by the same proportion.

So everything has been halved in note length.

And then we got some extra notes that aren't in the original that have been added in in bar two as well.

So we've got these two different techniques working together to develop that melody.

Which method of melodic development repeats a melody starting on different pitches? Is it augmentation, rhythmic change, sequence, or inversion? I'll give you a few seconds.

The correct answer here is sequence.

That's when we have the same melodic idea repeated for either stepping down through different pitches or stepping up through different pitches.

Task B, gonna listen to each melody in its original form, then it's developed version.

Write a sentence for each, explaining how the composer has developed the melody, and try and refer to the specific techniques that have been used where you can.

Let's start with question one.

Here's the original melody.

(upbeat music) Let's hear the original one more time.

(upbeat music) So now let's hear the developed version.

I'm gonna play you it twice.

How has this developed that original? (upbeat music) I'll play that one more time.

The developed version for question one.

(upbeat music) So pause my video while you finish your answer for question one.

Now, question two, here's the original melody.

(gentle music) Let's hear that again.

So the original melody.

(gentle music) Now here's the developed version.

How has it been developed? You'll hear it twice.

(gentle music) I'll play you it one more time.

This is the developed version of question two.

(gentle music) Pause my video while you finish your answer for question two.

Now question three, the original, here we go.

(upbeat music) Let's hear it a second time.

(upbeat music) And now the developed version.

How has this being developed, for the first time.

(upbeat music) And the second time.

(upbeat music) And pause my video while you finish off question three.

Okay, let's review this task.

So of question one, how has it been developed? Well, the first bar has been used to create a three bar descending sequence.

The ending stays the same in both cases.

So the sequence is the key thing we're looking for, and that extra information that is descending and it's based on the first bar of the original is really important.

Question two, the composers use diminution to shorten the notes of the first phrase.

So if you listen carefully, you'll notice that the first phrase proportionally shortens all of the notes and then augmentation to lengthen the notes of the later phrase.

The melody has a shorter total all length.

Then question three, the rhythm has changed to use some dotted quavers, and there are also some extra added passing notes which create a busier feeling to the melody.

So in both question two and question three, we've got a combination of different techniques that are being used to develop the melody, and these are just some of the different ways that composers develop melodies.

Let's review today's lesson.

So melodies can be analyzed by looking at melodic shape, intervals, repetition and contrast and motifs.

We can also think about phrases and phrase structure.

Most composers develop melodies to create a balance between repetition and contrast or unity and variety.

Adding notes and changing rhythms are simple ways to develop a melody.

And augmentation, diminution and sequences are also common methods for melodic developments.

There's lots of different tools you as a composer can use to develop melodies.

That's the end of today's lesson then, I hope you feel like you've got a really detailed understanding of how you can break down a melody and try when you're analyzing melodies from now on to go into the level of detail that we've been going into today using technical terminology and trying to pick apart all the different aspects of the melody that you can.

Thanks for taking part today's lesson, and I'll see you in another one.