Make Your Melodies Memorable and Original

Today’s melodies and many of the great melodies of past rely on a handful of tricks to create that special something that makes them insanely catchy and memorable.

Here are three tips that will help you make sure your melody has everything it needs before you launch it into the world.

1.Use your melody to create unforgettable song structure.

If your song has a VERSE / CHORUS structure, make sure listeners know where they are by creating plenty of contrast in the melody between these two sections. Melodic contrast grabs attention and keeps your melody from sounding like it’s wandering aimlessly. Listeners like to have a sense of “place” in a song. They want to know where they are. 

  • Try a big leap up (or down) in the melody to launch your chorus. Then stay up there for a couple of lines before gradually dropping down to the verse note range. You can hear this is big hit songs like Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” and “Roar” by Katy Perry.
  • Use a choppy melody in your verse with plenty of fast-paced notes. Then change to a smoother melody style in the chorus. Check out “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz or “Vertigo” by U2 to hear this type of melody structure.  

Songwriting: It’s Like Riding a Bicycle

Bicycle in your mind

Remember when you learned to ride your first bicycle? It wasn’t easy. You fell down a lot, but you kept trying. At first you needed someone to hold on, keeping you steady. Then you used training wheels to help you stay upright as you pedaled. Then, finally, you were able to ride on your own. You had found that complicated thing called balance. After that, it was a breeze! The process of writing songs is a lot like riding a bike. It’s all about finding a balance!

Get the Most From a Simple Chord Progression

Current hit songs in all mainstream commercial genres tend to stick to a few basic chords and lean heavily on the repetition of simple chord progressions.  If you’re racking your brain trying to come up with complicated chord progressions, you may be better off limiting your chords to I – IV – V and VI,  for instance, C, F, G, and Am.

You can hear these chords used as repetitive progressions in big hits like OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).” These are just two Top 10 hits that rely on a basic, repetitive chord palette. There are dozens more.

So, how does that work? Why do listeners like these songs? Why don’t these repeated progressions become boring?

The secret sauce of simple chord progressions

The secret to successfully using today’s repetitive chord progressions lies in the way the melody relates to them. The chord progression provides a solid, steady foundation on which a rhythmically interesting melody can be built.

Beyoncé’s Pop/R&B hit “Halo” is a great example of a rock-steady, repeated four-chord pattern with melodic phrases that begin in between the chord changes. This is one trick that keeps these repetitive chord progressions interesting: The melody doesn’t always emphasize the beat on which the chords change.

Interview with Ryan Tedder

Check out this excellent interview with Ryan Tedder, lead singer and songwriter of OneRepublic and an hugely successful record producer. It’s straightforward, useful information on everything from songwriting to producing to arranging. If you got my recent newsletter and tried the top-line writing exercise, you were writing to a track by Ryan Tedder.

Here are a few short excerpts from the excellent interview by Tom Cole for NPR. (A link to the complete interview below.)

On the importance of melody: “Melody is the single most important thing to any song, period. I don’t care what anybody says, it trumps everything. Not because that’s my opinion but because I think it’s actually indisputable fact. The human brain retains melody easier than it retains words. It’s that simple.”

I love this quote on the difference between Indie and Commercial artists: “I think the best songs are being written by the very under-stated, under-appreciated indie artists. The thing that separates them from mainstream success is they either consciously or unknowingly refuse to deliver on a big chorus.”

On instrumental hooks: “I think a riff can be complementary but when you go from complimentary to primary, then it becomes the hook to me.”

Don’t miss this. It’s worth your time. Here’s the complete interview by Tom Cole on NPR’s “The Record”: Ryan Tedder Interview: A Fan of Music Talks About the Craft of Songwriting

The Eight Note Dilemma

A songwriter recently asked me: Is it copyright infringement if I use eight notes of a hit song melody?

ANSWER: When you think about it, there are only 12 notes in an octave. And only a few of those sound good in a melody. So, really, any eight notes are going to be in plenty of songs. The trick is to make sure your eight notes don’t remind listeners of a song that isn’t yours.  If they do, that’s called “substantial similarity.”

Substantial similarity is one of the tests for copyright infringement. If your eight notes are in the same order and have the same melodic rhythm as a hit song then there’s likely to be too much similarity. And that’s not good.

The truth is there’s NO hard and fast rule that determines how many notes of someone else’s melody you can use in a song of your own. It may only take two or three notes if they feature a very recognizable interval jump or rhythm. But here are some ideas that can help you out.