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Many aspiring songwriters are having a hard time trying to write a melody for their songs.

They either can’t get the notes right, or they don’t know what kind of melody would sound good in the first place.

It’s not easy writing music, especially if you’re starting and have no idea how to write your melodies.

There is so much information on how to write songs but almost nothing when it comes to melodies themselves.

This blog post will give you tips on how to write a melody that are catchy, memorable, interesting and could sounds like something played on the radio!

Use a major key when you write a melody

The major key is excellent for making a melody because it makes the music sound pleasant and familiar.

The major scale comes from a musical mode, Ionian. The Ionian mode has set pitch intervals that make melodies catchy to listeners’ ears.

The distances between notes create an orderly progression of tones that people find pleasing.

However, you don’t have to understand music theory if you want to learn major keys, just think back to grade school.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, which we all learned in elementary school (probably singing that song in your head now, huh?), is this scale.

Try singing a couple of those vowel sounds out of order to create a little melody.

You can make a great and memorable melody from other signatures such as the minor key, but remember when you choose a key that most popular music is written in major.

Tip for writing:

• Learn the basics of the major scale and use it for the framework of your next song.

Use the pentatonic scale to choose notes

What’s a pentatonic scale? It may sound like something you find in the wild, but it what it means is playing five particular notes in a key.

The pentatonic scale, also known as the “five-tone scale” has been a popular musical device for centuries.

Focusing on just five tones per octave means fewer notes you can use than other scales, which may have seven or more steps between each note in their sequences.

Using the Do, Re, Mi example, you would leave out the notes Fa and Ti. So the 4 and 7 in the major scale.

Pentatonic scales are great to use when making original melodies for a song because it is easy to play a combination of music notes.

They can also be used as improvisational tools because these notes generally work over most chords in the scale.

Pentatonics can be found anywhere, from jazz and blues tunes up to rock songs by well-known bands such as Led Zeppelin.

Tip for writing:

• Record the chords of your song. Then play a pentatonic scale and see how many melodic ideas you can create in 30 minutes. Record them and revisit them the next day; you’ll be surprised at how strong some of them are!

Try writing a melody over a chord progression

Have a chord progression already mapped out will help you with your melody writing.

While there’s no “right” way for how to write a great melody, it can be helpful to write songwriting and melody ideas over the chords of an instrument.

Keep the melodies of different sections to the same octave (octave and a half max)

A great way to make an exciting and easy to sing melody is to keep it within an octave.

It will limit the number of notes to choose from and will keep you from making melodies with big jumps in intervals.

It’s also a good trick for making your chorus lift.

Try writing your verse melody in a lower octave, and then for your chorus, move up to the next octave to make your melody soar.

Tip for writing a melody:

• Write your Verses in your lowest singing register. Then with the chorus, move up an octave. If you have a vast range, then think about pushing it even further by extending your chorus melody into the next octave.

Keep it simple and easy to sing

For a song to be successfully catchy, the songwriter should keep melodies uncomplicated so that listeners will have an easier time memorizing them.

Creating your melodies in a stepwise (no big intervals) will help you accomplish this.

Also, to sing a song with too many complicated intervals can be difficult for the listener and the performer.

If you’re trying out different melody ideas on your instrument at home, try to sing along with them before deciding which melody is best.

Tips for writing easy to sing melodies:

• Count the notes (syllables). See if you can subtract anything to make the melody more simple.

Choose a note as your starting and ending point that isn’t the tonic (the root note) of the underlying chord.

Try singing a note that isn’t the tonic, or root note, of the chord you are singing over. Try starting on one of the other notes in the scale (keep the pentatonic scale in mind).

Let’s say you are playing in C Major, your first chord would be a C.

Try starting and ending your melody on E.

By trying this method, you will create more exciting melodies that will make your music stand out more.

Tips for writing:

•Look at the chords that you are playing and choose notes that aren’t the tonic of that chord progression. Try and do this for each chord change in the section.

Save a note for the chorus

This technique is to avoid a particular pitch until you hit the chorus. This songwriting tip works well if you save the tonic note (the root note) for the chorus.

If you dance around the tonic in the Verse and then finally hit it in the chorus, you give your audience a great payoff that will make your melody more interesting and catchy.

Think of it as foreshadowing your climactic scene.

Tips for writing:

• Try creating your melody in the verse with a note other than the tonic.
• Don’t hit the tonic note until you get into the chorus

Break your melody out in “blocks”

This tip is easier to visualize if you are working within a digital audio workstation (DAW). Everything is grid-based in those things!

Suppose you are working in a standard 4/4 time signature (each quarter note gets a beat, four beats per measure). Then you can break your melody into 4 bars or blocks.

Think of each section of your melody as a block. The key to this is to repeat melodic phrases more than once in this section.

Try having your musical phrasing repeat for blocks 1 and 2, then change for 3, then go back to the melodic phrase of blocks 1 and 2.

This process will make a melody more exciting and predictable, which is essential to getting a song stuck in someone’s head.

Tips for writing:

•Open up a DAW (Garageband, Logic, Pro Tools, etc.) and write different melodic phrases for each bar. Write out multiple phrases and then re-arrange them to see if you can find a better melody.

Use repetition in your melodies to create catchy songs

People don’t memorize things the first time they hear them. They won’t even remember it the second time they listen to it or the third or the fourth.

Some studies show that it takes a person eight times to hear and remember what you are saying (singing).

So remember this when you are writing your melody. Do not be afraid to repeat it and repeat it often.

If you have written a strong hook, don’t be scared to repeat it often.

If you feel like it sounds repetitive when you are playing it with just your instrument and voice, well, that is what a music producer is can fix 🙂

Tips for writing:

•See if you can fit your most potent melody into your song at least eight times without it being a distraction.

Don’t be afraid of repetition in your melody

A lot of popular melodies these days are heavy on rhythm and light on traditional types of melody.

Don’t be afraid to get inspiration from your rhythm in your musical motif and see how little of notes you can actually get away with.

The most important thing to remember for how to write a melody

There are no rules to melody making; however, there are basic techniques to help you write a great melody.

The most important thing to remember for how to write a melody is that it needs to have balance and repetition.

It should sound familiar enough to a listener yet still fresh and new.

It also doesn’t hurt if it can stand on its own as an instrument riff without accompaniment from other instruments or sounds.

There will be a lot of trial and error as you discover a process that works for you. These songwriting tips should be enough to help you develop your melody writing.

Remember that practice makes perfect, and don’t be afraid of writing some music that sounds basic as long as you are learning and developing your techniques.

Remember, music is fun, so have a good time with it!