What about melody??

What is the most important step you can take to become a great melody writer?  Well, this guy doesn't really say this, but to me it's listening to great melodies.  I grew up listening to great melodies played as instrumentals and my dad pointing out the sections where the hair should stand up on my arms.  Then he introduced me to the great lyric and melody writers, with Bacharach and David high up on the list.  Listen to "A House is Not a Home" or "Do You know the Way to San Jose?"  Or perhaps the Beatles "Something" or   any Beach Boys song from "Surfer Girl" to "In My Room". You may know the lyrics, but it is invariably the melody that sticks in your head and moves you from the opening notes of the song.

Sadly, melody is seldom an important component of much of modern popular music. Beats, vocal sounds, attitude, etc. have nudged melody to the side in pop and country music.  But so as not to sound like a curmudgeon I absolutely love when a modern artist manages to marries these elements with a good melody to create something memorable. Think Walk the Moon's "Anna Sun", or "Pressure" by Company of Thieves.

Taylor Swift is a master (or mistress) of marrying melody and lyric.  

But I digress.  This gentlemans little article is actually about writing melody without any knowledge of musical theory.  Enjoy.

How to Write a Song Melody Without Knowing Music Theory

AUTHOR: Gary Ewer

No Theory Required

Is it possible to create attractive, appealing song melodies without having a strong background in music theory? I believe it is, and I say that as a person who has had a career-long interest in teaching music theory.

Every so often, someone will write me with a question that goes something like, “Can I have this chord follow that chord?” or “Am I allowed to [insert musical idea here].” In other words, they want to know if music theory “permits” their musical brainwave to exist. Are they violating the rules of music theory by going ahead with their idea?

My answer is always, in the nicest possible way, “Who cares?” Music theory was never meant to tell people what to compose. If that were the purpose of theory, music composition would never rise above selling pencils as an artistic activity.

Music theory has its place, and I believe that songwriters who have such a background benefit greatly. The story that music theory stunts creativity is a ridiculous myth. Theory doesn’t close your mind, it opens it. Theory allows you to communicate musical ideas to others easily, and improves composition without actually telling you what to write. And theory allows you to understand why other musicians’ ideas work.

And because theory teaches you common musical constructs and explains how and why they work, the study of music theory improves your ear.

Nonetheless, can you write attractive, appealing song melodies without having a theory background, or even being able to read music? Yes, for this simple reason: composition fuels theory, and not the other way around. The theoretical rules of music evolve over time, by composers writing what they want to hear. Theory, in turn, merely explains; it doesn’t dictate.

So how can songwriters create beautiful melodies if their knowledge of music theory is scant or missing entirely? Here are some ideas:

1. Use your musical instincts. One might argue that it should actually be easier for a songwriter who doesn’t read music to do this.
2. Even without music theory, most musicians know scales, and so keep this basic rule in mind: most melodies should move mainly by scale steps, with only occasional leaps. (There are notable exceptions to this: “The Star-Spangled Banner”, for one, the opening melody of which is quite leapy.)
3. Good melodies tend to have a “climactic high point”. This is a spot in the melody that is usually a coinciding of a high pitch with a structurally significant chord (the tonic or dominant chord).
4. Good melodies incorporate a recognizable shape, called a motif, which tends to repeat (either as-is, or modified) throughout the song. This motif is part of what makes a melody memorable. A good example is Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”, which repeats that catchy melodic hook over and over.
5. Good melodies should place high-emotion words higher in pitch. There is a natural pulse to language, and you should set your words to reflect this natural pulse.

And more about point number 1, above: The study of music theory sometimes gets a bad rap in songwriting circles because there is sometimes a tendency for theory-trained musicians to limit themselves to what they understand. This is sad; it’s like an artist not using a colour on their palette because they don’t know what to call it.

I encourage any songwriter to study rudimentary theory as a way of improving your creativity and opening your musical mind. In the meantime, keep those five points in mind. It is very possible to write very fine music without specific theory instruction.