It can be enough with one or two phrases, each including one or two bars, as the foundation of a melody. You don't have to copy this method, but it is a common approach in playing melodies over chords.

One thing to notice in the picture above is that chord notes is chosen in every occasion directly when a new chord is played. Your browser does not support the audio element. Listen to the audio to hear the melody (solo piano) together with the harmony (several instruments). Look at the notes and you can see how the notes of the melody corresponds with the chords played. Passing tones is also suited to be included since variation is needed.īelow is an example with two bars showing the melody that is played with a piano over an arrangement with other instruments. The chord tones are strong melody notes and will sound great to play over matching chords. Tones that are included in the chord are called chord tones and notes that are between the chord notes in the related scale are called passing tones (e.g. To choose which notes to play for the melody, a central concept is to match the chords that are played. A melody can be created from a small musical idea, sometimes referred to as a motif. It is the melody you often remember from a song and maybe recapitulate afterwards by whistle it. The melody is often the most distinct part of a musical work. You will learn about melody and harmony concepts such as chord tones, passing tones and landing tones.Ī song usually consists of many things in which harmony, melody and lyrics (if it is not instrumental) are the main components. This article is an introduction about composing music.

Make synthesia songs