by Mark Simos
Practice conceiving of melodies as shapes or gestures—any visual imagery or metaphor that helps you retain and not inadvertently change the melody. As you sing the melody, move your hand in the air in front of you, letting height from the ground indicate shifts of pitch, with greater or smaller melodic intervals reflected or exaggerated by your movements.
Our song seed catching was preparation for this work, where I encouraged you to practice grabbing/isolating pure melodic seeds. Seeds are “discovered” material pulled out of context. The next step is to work with that seed material in active ways, and to be able to create new melodic material at will. Practice making up little melodies without words. Find ways to jot these down or record them to cross-check yourself. Gradually train your ability to hang on to those melodies.
Exercise 5.2. Strengthening Melodic Memory
Here are two simple ways to strengthen melodic memory: one a daily practice, and one more of a “game” you can play solo, with a partner, or in a group.
Morning Tune. Start with a melodic idea at the start of your day, and try to remember it at the end of the day. Upon awakening, create a small melodic seed: your “tunelet” for the day. It can be a melodic seed you wake up with (perhaps remembered out of a dream?), an already-captured seed, a fragment drawn from someone else’s music, or a melodic idea you invent for the exercise. Run over the melody in your mind a few times to get it set, then make a reference recording or notation of the melody (so you can check your work later). Then go about your day, making no particular effort to keep the seed idea in mind. At the end of the day, before going to sleep, try to recall your tunelet, as precisely as possible. Check your remembered version against the reference. Notice what you were able to retain and what you changed inadvertently.
As you devise your melodies for succeeding days, and as your melodic memory gets stronger, you can challenge yourself with longer, more intricate, or more stylistically unfamiliar types of material. Practiced over time, this exercise should improve both your melodic memory and the quality and coherence of your melodic ideas.
“Tunesmith Telephone.” This is a game I devised working with groups, modeled on the familiar game of “Telephone” (passing a whispered message around a circle to see how it changes), but using melodies instead of words, and with each “pass” audible to all participants. You can also play it in solo fashion—as a kind of “songwriter solitaire”—or passing melodies back and forth with a partner. In the first “calibration” pass, your aim is to pass the melody unchanged (harder than you’d think!). In the second pass, with each iteration, you change the melody by just one note—easiest at the end, then the beginning, hardest in the middle.
The game is simple in principle, but can be made as arbitrarily and fiendishly challenging as you like by working with progressively longer and more complex melodic material. At “melodic grandmaster” level, see if you can remember the entire chain of one-note transformations from the original! You can also adapt the game to working with rhythms, lyric lines, and even chord progressions.
Melodic Design
To write strong melodies, you need a sense for melodic design: an intuitive grasp, almost visual or gestural in quality, of how melody moves as shape, form, and contour. We’ll work first with a relatively loose notion of melodic contour, containing vestiges of rhythmic and lyrical elements. Then, we’ll articulate a more precise notion of melodic contour, which facilitates working more independently with melodic material in relation to rhythm, lyric, and harmony.
Melodic Contour
Melodic design involves an interplay between two complementary kinds of melodic sense, each of which can take on metaphorical qualities important for melody’s role in songwriting. At its most essential, a melody is a contour—a figure or shape—heard in the context of a pitch space: a set of distinct pitches arranged in characteristic patterns of varying interval sizes, establishing a tonal center and quality for a scale or mode.
As listeners, we might experience melodic contour temporally or dynamically, evoking gestures of human movement—an arm reaching out, a step or a leap in air. Or we might form more spatial associations and imagery: visualizing the contour as an ascending or descending arc, a stair step or zigzag, like a curving shoreline or a distant undulating ridge (see exercise 5.3).
We hear the curves of melodic shapes moving within a pitch space “curved” or featured in its own right—by typically irregular intervals of the underlying scale or mode. But we experience this curve more as a “landscape” over which notes of melodic shapes pass—as shadowed outlines of clouds might move across hills and valleys. Melodic design requires an ability to retain these different impressions, both separately and together—to hold them constant, and to transform them at will. We want to be able to change a melodic figure at its given spot in the landscape, move it within that landscape—or recolor the figure by changing the landscape itself, for example, by shifting the scale or mode.
Melodic Shape: Scales, Arpeggios, and Figures
Let’s dive more deeply into the specific shapes that make up melodic contour. A melody moves by intervals (pitch changes from note to note), characterized in terms of direction (up or down, higher or lower in pitch) and size (movement by a second, a third, etc.). In general, it’s easier to sing melodies with smaller intervals, but can be more dramatic and expressive to sing larger skips and
leaps. But the shape of the melodic curve—the sequence of intervals—also influences the quality, vocal ease, and effect of the melody, especially in harmonic implications. The following example shows four canonic contour types arising from varying combinations of interval direction and size. These features of melodic contour “in the small” strongly affect our experience
of melody:
FIG. 5.1. Melodic Contour Types. Labeled in terms of direction and size of successive intervallic motion.
Measure 1: Line or Slope. Moving the same interval (size) successively in the same direction produces scalar (by seconds) or arpeggiated triads (by thirds) motion. Scalar motion mirrors the underlying scale or mode: figure recedes to landscape. Movement by thirds tends to link more strongly to a harmonic region. (In 4/4 time, scalar motion also tends to outline harmonic regions, with alternating chord tones and passing non-chord tones.) Wider, less vocal-friendly patterns (e.g., 1, 4, D7, as shown, evocative of the original Star Trek theme) may avoid these obvious scalar or chordal effects, but also tend to weaken the sense of tonal center. Thus, the more we move in the same direction in uniform intervals, the less detailed the melodic shape we hear.
Measure 2: Sawtooth. Moving the same interval successively in different directions creates a sawtooth move: a dip down or bump up. The move can be to an adjacent (neighbor) tone or by a wider interval. If continued, this sawtooth pattern of melodic motion pulls toward rhythmic melody, where a few tones function as high and low drumbeat tones, or pitch contrasts in stressed vs. unstressed syllables of intensified, forceful speech. These rhythmic effects can be effective, as in the Motown classic “I Heard It through the Grapevine.” But often this contour is not strongly conceived melodic movement: the alternating notes are used to create surface activity in an otherwise slow-moving and static melodic contour.
Measure 3: Bend. Moving different intervals in the same direction, such as a step of a second followed by a skip of a third, creates more intrinsic shape and variety in the contour. It can also (though need not) avoid strong harmonic implications, with a degree of harmonic independence, implying a chord shift, a melodic tension, or chordal ambiguity.
Measure 4: Hook. Moving consecutively by different intervals in different directions form quintessential cells of melodic shape: little melodic elbows and turns that satisfy the ear through variety in both intervallic direction and size. In small steps and skips, such figures tend to shift out of a single chordal area. They can lock into such areas, though, executed in larger skips. Many ostinato patterns are based on these types of movements, as the last arpeggiated figure
shown in the example.
As you review various melodies that attract your ear, begin to notice regions that fall back on scalar, arpeggiated, or patterned effects, and more figural regions with potent melodic shapes. The key is to balance a pleasing variety in both direction and intervals of movement, to create distinct melodic figures and “imagery.” As we’ll see later in our exploration of melodic/harmonic connections, melodic figures with irregular contour tend toward more independence of harmonic and rhythmic interpretations.
Exercise 5.3. Write a Melodic “Ridgeline”
Write a four-bar vocal melodic phrase that uses a variety of the types of intervallic motion described on page 100; in particular, avoid extended passages of only scalar or arpeggiated motion (lines and slopes). Analyze your melody in terms of direction and size of motion, and annotate occurrences of the contour types discussed above. Strive for a variety of specific interval sizes and directions used, and to use most of the tones in the diatonic scale or mode of choice. The melody can be in an authentic or plagal range (i.e., with the tonal center toward the bottom or toward the middle of the range). Where scalar, arpeggiated, or sawtooth figures do occur, try disguising them with rhythmic effects, or by staggering or displacing them across metric boundaries such as bar lines. As you work with these melodic design principles, you should feel as if your melody takes on a distinctive shape, like the ridgeline of a hill seen from a distance.
Not every melody satisfying these contour principles needs to sound like a pentatonic bagpipe tune or a Hindemith exercise! You can try sticking to a strict pentatonic scale, but it’s more instructive to integrate a gapped semi-pentatonic feel with other kinds of melodic motion.
FIG. 5.2. “Ridgeline” Melody. This avoids extended scalar or arpeggiated passages.
The range is a plagal octave (D to D, with tonal center G). It’s a hexatonic rather than strictly pentatonic pitch set; all diatonic notes in the range are used except E (or E-flat, making the melody ambiguously Dorian or Aeolian in mode). Intervals used (in order of occurrence) include ascending fifth, second, third, and fourth (with a strongly suggested minor sixth in outline as well), and descending second and third. There are some implied or outlined chords (e.g., measure 3, an arpeggiated BD major and a descending D minor with a passing tone), yet the tune is far from chord-driven. There’s also some rhythmic interest in the phrase. Durations include eighths (15 occurrences), quarters (3), dotted quarters (2), and half + eighth (1). This establishes an eighth-note melodic pace, likely to align with the eventual lyric’s syllabic pace. But no rhythmic pattern is repeated throughout. Rather, rhythmic variation is used to break up passages of otherwise uninterrupted scalar motion (e.g., the descending D, C, BD, A and BD, A, G, F figures), as well as some of the sawtooth figures.
The brackets indicate where different types of melodic contour appear: slopes (in this case, almost all descending lines of a second), sawtooth figures (again, all downward dips of a second or third), bends, and hooks. The more “pattern-y” figures are broken up with rhythmic effects or metric displacement. The hooks occur at the start of the phrase and the second measure, acting as an initial landmark or anchor for the tune. The bends vary in intervallic size and direction, echoing each other with devices such as sequence and intervallic augmentation.
The Power of Pentatonics
Not coincidentally, pentatonic modes have intervallic variety built in. These modes are found in vocal melody in genres and styles around the planet, from Celtic to Motown to country to blues to African music. Even regular movement in a strict pentatonic scale still varies intervallic size after more than two steps from any tone in any direction, breaking up scalar or arpeggio patterns. The human voice seems to naturally fit around pentatonic tones and melodic sequences. We might speculate that intonation patterns of natural spoken language lend themselves to pentatonic realizations. For example, while the interval of a fifth reinforces the lower tone in terms of the overtone series, the interval of a fourth seems to lend itself to vocalization. (It may not be coincidental that many cultures with tonal languages, such as some Asiatic languages, also have strongly pentatonic musical traditions.)10
Melodic Transformations
As you listen and pay new attention to the shapes of melodies, and get better at accurately remembering melodies, you can begin to experiment with changing melodies at will, transforming melodic shapes in various ways. Practice making small, discrete changes, leaving the rest of the melodic idea undisturbed, aspiring to an object permanence of the melodic idea in your mind. This is hard work. You’ll try to change just one note, and the melody notes around the changed note will dissolve into a vague cloud—the melodic equivalent of trying to lift just your ring finger.
Working with melodic contours as shape and gesture opens up a rich repertoire of melodic operations and transformations: sequence, inversion, retrograde, truncation and extension, etc. Many of these devices have been discussed extensively in the context of ear training, composition, counterpoint, and melodic improvisation. These melodic devices have distinctive value to songwriters, though. This reflects characteristics of vocal as distinct from instrumental melody. Many attributes of melodic figures and shapes that make them work well as vocal melodies are preserved across transformations such as inversion, retrograde, sequence, etc. These devices can thus take us from familiar vocal lines to fresh, interesting melodic figures—perhaps not the first we’d instinctively sing, but eminently singable once discovered.
For most operations, the listener’s ear hears similarity in the derived shapes, and thus gets a sense of repeated melodic information. Transforming melodic motives, and then using both the original and transformed versions in a song section, is thus a primary means for creating melodic structure and phrasing. The technique yields melodies that combine the variety of transformations with the unity of their audible derivation from common material (“shared nativity” as opposed to common fate?).
FIG. 5.3. Melody reflecting motivic transformations
Sounding as if created by transforming just a few shapes or gestures, such melodies are memorable as well. Patterns and transformations can also overlap. The same melodic material can participate in multiple perceived shape relationships or transformations. Melodies that appear deceptively simple on the surface may conceal layers of such echoes and resonances, so that the listener hears them differently each time.
Even when they don’t wind up in the final melody, these gestures and transformations are tools for developing, refining, and revising songs. The richer your toolset, the better chance you have of tinkering with that starting idea until a pretty good melodic setting suddenly turns to a magical one.
Shifting Figure and Field
We’ve discussed how a melodic contour is created by a succession of specific pitches in the context of a key or tonal center and a scale or mode. We can picture a contour statically or dynamically—as shape, vs. as movement or gesture—against the backdrop of a pitch space: figure and field. Viewed this way, we can identify two complementary transformations of contour in relation to pitch space, of particular importance in songwriting:
Melodic sequence. Shift the contour as a whole to a different spot in the space—that is, starting at different scale-degree positions within a key. This is a distinct operation from transposing or modulating to a new key. In a sequence, each note shifts, along with its relation to the tonal center and, in a harmonic context, to the chord of the moment. But intervallic or contour relationships between notes are preserved, to varying degrees. Since sequence shifts the shape within a diatonic scale, sizes of intervals shift in accord with the particular scale’s structure: e.g., minor seconds become major seconds, and vice versa. Sequence operations do particularly cool things in modal scales—even more so when applied to pentatonic scales, where major seconds can shift to minor thirds, and vice versa.
Modal interchange. You can also transform a melodic contour, keeping it at the same scale degree (relative to tonal center)
but shifting the space itself, changing the scale or mode—the landscape over which the contour is overlaid or articulated.
Both types of transformation change the contour’s shape, and thus, its emotional and narrative resonances: sensory and image associations, lyric associations, etc. Specific intervals can shift through intervallic augmentation (increased size) or diminution. What’s preserved in each case is the pattern of directional moves in the contour. You need the skills to hear melodic contour preserved through these transformations, as well as an ability to respond to the changes and their associative qualities. It’s like looking at your hand in the water, refracted through the ripples. It’s still a hand—just a wet one!
Melodic Range
Sequence is a particularly important tool for the songwriter due to the aspect of vocal range. For popular songs, we want melodies that listeners can identify with and maybe even sing along with, not just admire from afar as pyrotechnic feats. We want compelling melodies that move in interesting ways within reasonable vocal limits. Even holding to about an octave plus a fifth in range, we can shift range in relation to the tonal center in different ways: with the tonal center at or near the bottom of the register, or nearer the mid-point of the range (i.e., the primary octave of the range stretching from the fifth below to the fifth above the tonic). 11
You can use this technique as a process tool, for exploring different range possibilities for a given section. A powerful exploration technique is simply to take a first version of a melody for a given song section and shift it—via sequence—a full fourth or fifth from its starting point—that is, from authentic to plagal range or vice versa. You’ll feel as if you’re replacing the initial melody with a harmony line, but since the interval of sequence is a fourth (or fifth), this will not be an obvious close harmony (i.e., tracking in thirds). Though you should try to preserve main outlines of the contour, adjustments will need to be made; even where the contour is preserved, the harmonic and therefore emotional and narrative implications will be quite different. 12