Melody and Form

Scales

A scale is the ordered set of notes a piece is built from, running from one note up to the same note again. Every melody in this unit starts from one.

Same seven notes, completely different sound. The only thing that changed is where home is.

Written as quarter notes, up and down:

Number them 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 going up and 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 coming down (in MuseScore: cmd + L under the first note, then space between numbers).

Tonic and Dominant

Out of seven numbers, two do most of the work.

Tonic — note 1

Home. The note the scale is named after, starts on, and lands back on. Land on it and the music sounds finished.

Dominant — note 5

The note that points at home. Land on it and the music sounds like it is about to keep going.

You never memorize a dominant. You count to five, in any key.

Hear it: play the C scale and stop on G. Hold it — it wants to keep going. Now play G, then C. That is the sound of arriving.

Cadences

A cadence is the end of a phrase — the spot where the music comes to rest. It tells your ear whether the music is pausing or stopping. You only need two:

Cadences need room. A cadence note that goes by as fast as everything else does not sound like an ending. Give it a half note or longer.

The Ending Formula

Tonic note + long rhythm. In A minor: an A, held at least a half note, in the last measure. End on any other note and the melody sounds like a question.

Writing a Melody

• Only notes from the scale.
• Do not copy the scale. Straight up and down is not a melody.
• Mostly steps (to the next note), occasional skips. Nine leaps in a row is what a mistake looks like.
• Mix rhythms. Eight measures of quarter notes is a metronome, not music.
• Write about four measures, then reuse that material — the same shape starting on a different note, or the same rhythm with different pitches. Repetition is what makes a long melody sound intentional instead of wandering.
• End with the ending formula.

A question and answer: the first phrase ends off the tonic (unfinished), the second ends on it (finished).

Form

Form is the map of a piece — the order its sections come in, labeled with letters. The first section is A. The next section that sounds different is B. If A comes back, it is A again, not C, because it is not new.

Ternary is one of the most-used shapes in music because of the return: A sets up the piece, B leaves, and when A comes back it sounds better than the first time because you have been away. Verse, chorus, verse.

B has to be different, but not too different. If B sounds exactly like A, nothing left, so nothing comes back. If B sounds like a different piece, the return feels like a mistake. Copy A, then change two or three things: register, rhythm, direction, starting note, motion. See Copy, Paste, Vary.

B’s job is to make you want A again, so it ends unresolved — on the dominant, not the tonic.

Chords and Harmony

A chord is three or four notes played at once. A chord progression is a series of chords, one per measure or so, that a melody sits on top of. In A minor:

• Am is the tonic chord — home.
• E is the dominant chord — pulls back home.
• E → Am is a cadence: the period at the end of a sentence.

A Minor Pentatonic

A · C · D · E · G. Five notes that fit every chord in an A minor progression. Improvise with only these and there are no wrong notes; end phrases on A.

Key Vocabulary

Scale

An ordered set of notes a piece is built from.

Step

Moving to the note right next to it in the scale.

Skip (leap)

Moving past one or more scale notes.

Tonic

The home note of a scale (note 1).

Dominant

Note 5 of a scale; it points at home.

Cadence

The resting point at the end of a phrase.

Form

The order of a piece’s sections, labeled with letters.

Binary form

Two sections, A B.

Ternary form

Three sections, A B A — departure and return.

Repeat sign

A barline that sends playback back to the start repeat, so a section plays twice.