Overview
Welcome to Melody Making! In my opinion, this is one of the most overlooked, under-explained aspects of music education. Melody making involves all the most important ethereal stuff in music: repetition, arrangement, holistic attention - but it also requires specific and clear music theory understanding when it comes to keys, scales, and chord progressions.
By the end of this course, you'll have a better sense of how to make melodies AND how to apply these concepts to other areas of musicianship.
Recommended prerequisites:
- Music Theory for Guitar
- Music Theory Monday lessons 1, 3, 4, 5
Listening for this lesson:
"Hey, Good Lookin'" by Hank Williams •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•
"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•
"Two of Us" by The Beatles •SPOTIFY• •YOUTUBE•
The homework for this lesson:
Pick 5 songs
• Analyze either the verse or chorus melody
• Label the melodic phrases with A, B, C etc
• Phrases that seem the same to you should be labeled with the same letter (eg A and A or B and B)
• Make note of phrases that are NOT the same, but sound similar.
Remember, the goal of this lesson is to practice listening and writing down what you hear. You don't have to be right or wrong, just try to come up with reasons WHY you labeled phrases the way you did. This is one of those situations where you have to learn to swim by jumping in the pool.
Post your marked-up lyrics to the community forum on Melody Making 01.