How to compose great melodies

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to give some music advice on melodies.

Let’s get into it.

Hooks and how to use them

So actually I learned a little bit of hook theory from Ryan Tedder on a T.V. Show called Songland. 

And in the show he actually states, “write every line like a hook and save your best hooks for the chorus.”

So what that means is that every single line that we write is supposed to be catchy, but our best catchy hooks should be saved for the chorus. 

But how do we compose hooks, let’s talk about it.

 1, 2, or 3 notes with 3 being the sweet spot

So it is often said that making a hook with one, two, or three notes is the most ideal way to make a strong hook.

And actually they say that those hooks make for a very strong hook. 

So say for example you’re in the Key of G and you’re singing over a G Chord, then a common hook that you could use is to sing just a G over the G Chord. 

And that would make a great one note hook.

a great two note hook would make for a G and an F sharp. 

And going back and forth between those two notes would make for a really great hook over the G Chord. 

Now a three note hook, is actually the sweet spot for making a hook.

So say for example if you’re singing over a G Chord in the key of G, then you could sing, G,A, B in a rhythmic sequence and it would sound really good. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are more hooks than that

Now don’t get me wrong because you can obviously make more hooks with more notes than just three notes.

It’s just that it gets more difficult to make hooks with more notes. 

A Four note hook and a five note hooks is about as many notes as a pop song will usually have. 

again, I say you can make more than that, like the first line in Somewhere over the rainbow is an 8 note hook, but this is just for simplicity. 

Direction

So there are certain directions that you’re supposed to take your song in. 

Like a good song should use most of the notes within the octave of the key that you’re in. 

It’s not just supposed to be three notes being played over and over again. 

It should rise and fall and rise and fall again. 

So the way that you should do it is like this. 

Start off low, and end up high in the chorus. 

So say for example you are in the first verse in a verse-chorus song. 

Then you would start off at a low pitch note (hint hint usually the root of the key) and then build your way up an octave until you’re at an octave higher in the chorus. 

And then when you’re singing the chorus, hang around that hook for a little bit and hang around that range for a little bit and then fall back to the same part where you were in the first verse when you get back into the second verse. 

And then for the bridge, you could go to some notes that you didn’t sing so much in the verses and choruses and that would make for a great bridge. 

And then end strong and hit the chorus all the way at the end. 

So let’s make our very first pop song together.

Pick up your guitar or piano and let’s get started. 

For the sake of this blog post we’re going to pick a simple chord progression. 

The I V vi IV chord progression specifically. 

And we’re going to sing in the Key of G

So the key of G chords would be G, D, Em, C

and for the chords rhythm, you can select the rhythm that you want. 

And now it’s time for the melody. 

Since we’re following the rules above, let’s just keep it super simple and sing the root note of each chord. 

And the rhythm that we’re going to pick for the melody is just simple 8th or 16th notes for each note. So sing 8th note Gs, then D, then E, then C. And you are going to pick the lyrics that you want to sing. 

So now that we got the verses down. We can choose how long we want to make each verse. 

I usually make each verse, 2 stanzas long. 

So I will get through 16 bars worth of chords before I move into the chorus. 

with 2 bars for each chord that I play. 

So 2 bars G, 2 D, 2 Em, and 2 C and then back again. 

And great now we’re in the chorus. 

We’re going to repeat the verse chords and we’re going to make our sweet spot melody for the chorus which is right above and it’s the 3 note melody. 

So remember simple melodies is what we need. 

But the thing about choruses is that they’re special. 

And they need to change from the verses somehow and someway. 

So in this instance the verses were faster, so that means that we need to make the chorus slower and use whole notes and half notes and similar rhythms to that. 

And since we’re using 3 notes for the chorus. 

One option we could do is sing G,A, and B in a pattern, an octave higher than our verses, and sing it slow. 

Of course we would have to make lyrics to it, but you get the gist. 

And now we’re in the second verse, 

Keep the same melody for the second verse, but change the lyrics. 

Keep the same chords as well. 

And then in the bridge, change it up completely from the song, and have new lyrics or new chords or a new melody. 

And then finish strong and end up back to the chorus all the way at the end. 

Some people really like the chorus and will end by singing the whole chorus twice at the end. 

Some people will do the chorus indefinitely and with production techniques they fade away. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time.

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!