Как написать мелодию на текст песни

1. 

   1

   Determine the tone of the lyrics. The tone of your song will guide a lot of the choices you make regarding the tune. For example, lyrics that are sinister and dark would be suited to minor chords or scales, which generally sound gloomy, somber, or creepy.^[1]
   

   • A bright, happy sounding song would work well with major chords and scales. Experiment to find what works best with your lyrics.
   • Light, frolicking lyrics could work well with quick, split note rhythms, like runs of eighth or sixteenth notes.
   • Dramatic lyrics can be highlighted with power chords. Use these to punch up drama at points throughout the song.

2. 

   2

   Allow the imagery of the lyrics to shape the tune. Your tune should have contour. A gentle rise and fall in the tones of your tune would be suitable for soft, mellow, or soulful songs, like pastorals or songs about natural beauty. Large tonal jumps can add edge, heightened emotion, and showmanship, like might be suitable for a rock ballad.^[2]
   

   • Ask yourself, «What is the setting of this song?» Use this question as a guide for the choices you make when producing the tune.
   • What images are brought to mind when you read the lyrics? If you see gentle, rolling hills, you could decrease the tonal contour of the tune to imitate this quality.
   • Setting includes weather and atmospheric lighting. Songs that might be useful for gaining a sense of this include «L’orage» (The Storm) by Burgmüller, «The Planets» by Holst, and Prelude, Op 28, No. 15 («Raindrop») by Chopin.

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3. 

   3

   Reflect the living world in your tune. Your song may have a quality similar to a living creature, like «The Flight of the Bumblebee» by Rimsky-Korsakov. In this song, Rimsky-Korsakov uses quick runs of broken notes to imitate the chaotic, rapid fluttering of wings and the industriousness of bees.^[3]
   

   • Your lyrics may have the sense of a creeping predator, like a large cat stalking its prey. This could be imitated in the tune with a flowing tonal contour that builds to edgy minor chords.
   • There may be a point in your song that moves at a gallop, like a horse. Include broken note runs and bright, free sounding major chords.
   • Other songs you might want to listen to for a better understanding of the living quality of songs include «Dragonfly Keeper» by Phildel, «Madama Butterfly» by Puccini, and the French horn (wolf) part of the opera Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev.

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Write out your lyrics on staff paper. Staff paper has groupings of five lines on which musical notes are drawn. Alternatively, you can type up your lyrics in a music making program on a computer. Placing the lyrics side by side with the staff will help you to connect each word/syllable of your lyrics with its associated part in the tune.^[4]
   

   • Some music making programs you can use on your computer include Ableton Live, Fruity Loops (FL) Studio, Steinberg Cubase Pro, and Apple Logic Pro.^[5]
     
   • It’s best to use a pencil when drafting your song on staff paper. You’ll likely have to make changes as the song develops.

2. 

   2

   Break each word into syllables. This is a simple way of making sure each syllable gets a note. In some cases, you may want to sustain a note through several syllables or break up a note into a run for a single syllable.^[6]
   

   • Even if you plan on stretching a note out over many syllables, breaking lyrics into syllables will help you keep track of the beat.

3. 

   3

   Choose a note/tone for each syllable. Generally, each syllable of the lyrics should receive a tone. This forms the main throughline of the song, which is often referred to as the «melody.»^[7]
   Keep the overall contour, imagery, and alive (animalistic) qualities of your lyrics in mind while choosing the range of tones for your tune.^[8]
   

   • Sometimes, at the end of a musical phrase, a sustained note can add impact and feeling. Experiment with sustained notes to find what works best for your lyrics.
   • In some cases, you may want to leave out music to showcase the lyrics. This is called a «rest» in music. Try inserting a rest for certain syllables to add tension.

4. 

   4

   Listen to your melody. If you’re making music on your computer, you’ll likely be able to play the melody you’ve composed through headphones or speakers. Listen to the recording throughout the composing process, and adjust it to suit your preferences and style.

   • Listen to your track and the various parts you add to it throughout the music production. Sometimes tones, chords, or instruments that you expect will work won’t sound very good, and vice versa.
   • Continue to make adjustments to the parts you’ve written or the parts you’ll add later as your song takes shape. Change the music with your pencil and eraser or composing software on your computer.

5. 

   5

   Add in other instruments. Be sparing with the instruments you add. Too many can contribute to a muddy or oversaturated sound. Limiting the number of instruments (including voices) you add to your song to seven or fewer will help prevent this.^[9]
   

   • Create harmony between the main throughline of your song (melody) and the parts played by other instruments.
   • Add more instruments to the mix when at high energy, dramatic, or emphasized moments in your lyrics. Doing so can amplify these qualities.

   EXPERT TIP

   

   Halle Payne

   Singer/Songwriter

   Halle Payne has been writing songs since the age of eight. She has written hundreds of songs for guitar and piano, some of which are recorded and available on her Soundcloud or Youtube channel. Most recently, Halle was a part of a 15-person collaboration in Stockholm, Sweden, called the Skål Sisters.

   

   Halle Payne
   Singer/Songwriter

   Halle Payne, singer/songwriter, tells us: «Most songs build and develop over the course of the track. You might start with just piano, then stack guitar, vocals, and vocal harmonies on top as the song builds. Later in the song, you might strip all of that away, and then come back for a big final chorus!»

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Get feedback on your song. It’s likely you’ll spend a lot of time working on your song. This makes it easy to miss certain things. A fresh pair of ears can help you identify trouble spots. Ask for specific feedback and use this to adjust your song or create new songs.

   • Your family and friends may not be completely honest with you to protect your feelings. For this reason, you should also play your song for people who don’t know you as well.

2. 

   2

   Upload your music to a digital platform. Record your song, if necessary. Post it on platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, BandCamp, Spotify, and more. Use appropriate tags and labels when you post, like «drum and bass,» «folk music,» or «hip hop.» Without proper tagging and labeling, your uploaded music will be hard for listeners to find.

   • Remember to include sub-genres or associated tags. To the tag «drum and bass,» you might add, «uptempo,» «sunny,» or «liquid» to provide more information on your song at a glance.
   • Use the public reaction to your song to improve it. However, take online criticism with a grain of salt. Some critique may be unfounded or even cruel.

3. 

   3

   Build your online presence. Use social media, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and similar social media sites to connect with fans. Post information about new releases, merchandise, and upcoming performances. Communicate and network with other music professionals through these sites.

   • Building an online following can take a lot of work. Many professional songwriters have their online accounts managed by publicists and agents.
   • Hold contests through social media to drum up fan involvement. For example, you might give away free merchandise to certain fans through a social media raffle.^[10]
     

4. 

   4

   Connect with other songwriters and music professionals. Relationships with other songwriters and music professionals can open up new opportunities for your career. These people can put you in touch with event staff, help you promote new work, and might even be valuable collaborators down the road.

   • A business card will make it easy for you to pass off your contact information to suitable individuals even at distracting or loud events.
   • Send a friendly message through email or social media to new acquaintances after you meet them.^[11]
     

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Advertisement

• Copying a tune note for note is plagiarism and can get you into legal trouble.

Things You’ll Need

• Staff paper (or computer program for writing music)
• Lyrics
• Pencil
• An instrument

Did this summary help you?

1. 

   1

   Determine the tone of the lyrics. The tone of your song will guide a lot of the choices you make regarding the tune. For example, lyrics that are sinister and dark would be suited to minor chords or scales, which generally sound gloomy, somber, or creepy.^[1]
   

   • A bright, happy sounding song would work well with major chords and scales. Experiment to find what works best with your lyrics.
   • Light, frolicking lyrics could work well with quick, split note rhythms, like runs of eighth or sixteenth notes.
   • Dramatic lyrics can be highlighted with power chords. Use these to punch up drama at points throughout the song.

2. 

   2

   Allow the imagery of the lyrics to shape the tune. Your tune should have contour. A gentle rise and fall in the tones of your tune would be suitable for soft, mellow, or soulful songs, like pastorals or songs about natural beauty. Large tonal jumps can add edge, heightened emotion, and showmanship, like might be suitable for a rock ballad.^[2]
   

   • Ask yourself, «What is the setting of this song?» Use this question as a guide for the choices you make when producing the tune.
   • What images are brought to mind when you read the lyrics? If you see gentle, rolling hills, you could decrease the tonal contour of the tune to imitate this quality.
   • Setting includes weather and atmospheric lighting. Songs that might be useful for gaining a sense of this include «L’orage» (The Storm) by Burgmüller, «The Planets» by Holst, and Prelude, Op 28, No. 15 («Raindrop») by Chopin.

   Advertisement

3. 

   3

   Reflect the living world in your tune. Your song may have a quality similar to a living creature, like «The Flight of the Bumblebee» by Rimsky-Korsakov. In this song, Rimsky-Korsakov uses quick runs of broken notes to imitate the chaotic, rapid fluttering of wings and the industriousness of bees.^[3]
   

   • Your lyrics may have the sense of a creeping predator, like a large cat stalking its prey. This could be imitated in the tune with a flowing tonal contour that builds to edgy minor chords.
   • There may be a point in your song that moves at a gallop, like a horse. Include broken note runs and bright, free sounding major chords.
   • Other songs you might want to listen to for a better understanding of the living quality of songs include «Dragonfly Keeper» by Phildel, «Madama Butterfly» by Puccini, and the French horn (wolf) part of the opera Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev.

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Write out your lyrics on staff paper. Staff paper has groupings of five lines on which musical notes are drawn. Alternatively, you can type up your lyrics in a music making program on a computer. Placing the lyrics side by side with the staff will help you to connect each word/syllable of your lyrics with its associated part in the tune.^[4]
   

   • Some music making programs you can use on your computer include Ableton Live, Fruity Loops (FL) Studio, Steinberg Cubase Pro, and Apple Logic Pro.^[5]
     
   • It’s best to use a pencil when drafting your song on staff paper. You’ll likely have to make changes as the song develops.

2. 

   2

   Break each word into syllables. This is a simple way of making sure each syllable gets a note. In some cases, you may want to sustain a note through several syllables or break up a note into a run for a single syllable.^[6]
   

   • Even if you plan on stretching a note out over many syllables, breaking lyrics into syllables will help you keep track of the beat.

3. 

   3

   Choose a note/tone for each syllable. Generally, each syllable of the lyrics should receive a tone. This forms the main throughline of the song, which is often referred to as the «melody.»^[7]
   Keep the overall contour, imagery, and alive (animalistic) qualities of your lyrics in mind while choosing the range of tones for your tune.^[8]
   

   • Sometimes, at the end of a musical phrase, a sustained note can add impact and feeling. Experiment with sustained notes to find what works best for your lyrics.
   • In some cases, you may want to leave out music to showcase the lyrics. This is called a «rest» in music. Try inserting a rest for certain syllables to add tension.

4. 

   4

   Listen to your melody. If you’re making music on your computer, you’ll likely be able to play the melody you’ve composed through headphones or speakers. Listen to the recording throughout the composing process, and adjust it to suit your preferences and style.

   • Listen to your track and the various parts you add to it throughout the music production. Sometimes tones, chords, or instruments that you expect will work won’t sound very good, and vice versa.
   • Continue to make adjustments to the parts you’ve written or the parts you’ll add later as your song takes shape. Change the music with your pencil and eraser or composing software on your computer.

5. 

   5

   Add in other instruments. Be sparing with the instruments you add. Too many can contribute to a muddy or oversaturated sound. Limiting the number of instruments (including voices) you add to your song to seven or fewer will help prevent this.^[9]
   

   • Create harmony between the main throughline of your song (melody) and the parts played by other instruments.
   • Add more instruments to the mix when at high energy, dramatic, or emphasized moments in your lyrics. Doing so can amplify these qualities.

   EXPERT TIP

   

   Halle Payne

   Singer/Songwriter

   Halle Payne has been writing songs since the age of eight. She has written hundreds of songs for guitar and piano, some of which are recorded and available on her Soundcloud or Youtube channel. Most recently, Halle was a part of a 15-person collaboration in Stockholm, Sweden, called the Skål Sisters.

   

   Halle Payne
   Singer/Songwriter

   Halle Payne, singer/songwriter, tells us: «Most songs build and develop over the course of the track. You might start with just piano, then stack guitar, vocals, and vocal harmonies on top as the song builds. Later in the song, you might strip all of that away, and then come back for a big final chorus!»

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Get feedback on your song. It’s likely you’ll spend a lot of time working on your song. This makes it easy to miss certain things. A fresh pair of ears can help you identify trouble spots. Ask for specific feedback and use this to adjust your song or create new songs.

   • Your family and friends may not be completely honest with you to protect your feelings. For this reason, you should also play your song for people who don’t know you as well.

2. 

   2

   Upload your music to a digital platform. Record your song, if necessary. Post it on platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, BandCamp, Spotify, and more. Use appropriate tags and labels when you post, like «drum and bass,» «folk music,» or «hip hop.» Without proper tagging and labeling, your uploaded music will be hard for listeners to find.

   • Remember to include sub-genres or associated tags. To the tag «drum and bass,» you might add, «uptempo,» «sunny,» or «liquid» to provide more information on your song at a glance.
   • Use the public reaction to your song to improve it. However, take online criticism with a grain of salt. Some critique may be unfounded or even cruel.

3. 

   3

   Build your online presence. Use social media, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and similar social media sites to connect with fans. Post information about new releases, merchandise, and upcoming performances. Communicate and network with other music professionals through these sites.

   • Building an online following can take a lot of work. Many professional songwriters have their online accounts managed by publicists and agents.
   • Hold contests through social media to drum up fan involvement. For example, you might give away free merchandise to certain fans through a social media raffle.^[10]
     

4. 

   4

   Connect with other songwriters and music professionals. Relationships with other songwriters and music professionals can open up new opportunities for your career. These people can put you in touch with event staff, help you promote new work, and might even be valuable collaborators down the road.

   • A business card will make it easy for you to pass off your contact information to suitable individuals even at distracting or loud events.
   • Send a friendly message through email or social media to new acquaintances after you meet them.^[11]
     

Advertisement

Advertisement

• Copying a tune note for note is plagiarism and can get you into legal trouble.

Things You’ll Need

• Staff paper (or computer program for writing music)
• Lyrics
• Pencil
• An instrument

Did this summary help you?

1. 

   1

   Learn about music theory. If you want to write melodies well, it’s a good idea to know at least the basics of how music works before you get too serious about composing. Of course, this isn’t required. However, the more you understand about music, the easier it will be to understand when musical concepts are being explained.

   • We will be using musical terms in this article because it is difficult to explain these ideas without them. Some will be explained but others are too complex to cover in a simple sentence. If you do not understand things like beats, measures, and time, you might want to do some reading first.

2. 

   2

   Choose your song form. The song form is sort of like a gender but for music. All music generally falls into a set shape, or form, which determines what parts sound like what other parts and when changes happen. You are probably most used to this concept in popular music, with the ideas of chorus and verse. Now, you don’t have to follow these set forms, but it can help give you a road-map to work with when writing your melody.

   • The most common song form is called AABA. This means that there are two «verses», a «chorus», and then another «verse». In other words, a section that sounds one way, then another that sounds the same, then something different, then a return to the theme of the first section.
   • There are many different forms however, so do some research to find which one is best for you. You can consider AAAA, ABCD, AABACA, etc. Or you can break from this entirely, of course.

   Advertisement

3. 

   3

   Study genre considerations. Some genres of music have a certain style to them and if you want to achieve that «sound», you’ll need to write your melody in a particular way. Read up on the genre of music you’re trying to write for before writing, to find out if there are any unique features of that genre in terms of the structure, key, or progressions.

   • For example, the chord progression for blues and jazz follow particular forms. Jazz makes heavy use of particular chords, so you’ll want to look up jazz chords before writing songs like that.

4. 

   4

   Think about the musician. No matter who is performing the piece of music you write, they’re going to need a break at some point. Fingers will need a moment of rest and singers will need to breathe. You should understand how breaks are put into a song and then add in moments like this. Try to space them evenly and make them frequent enough that the song is not impossible to perform.

5. 

   5

   Break down your favorite songs. One thing you can do to help your melody writing skills is to start by breaking down some of your favorite songs. Gather a handful of songs with great melodies and then put on your listening ears. Usually when we listen to music, we get lost in it, right? But you’re going to make a road-map from it…so focus!

   • Write down how the notes change. How do they build? How does the key make you feel? How does the melody work with the lyrics? What’s good about the melody? What doesn’t work or what could be better? You can transfer these lessons to your own melodies.

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Try not to start from lyrics. If you’re naturally a better lyricist, you might find that you’re inclined to start from lyrics. However, this is tricky and is not recommended, especially if your musical training is very limited. When you start from lyrics, you need to base your melody on the natural rhythm of the words and that can be very difficult, especially for a beginner. However, if you want to, you can start with lyrics.

2. 

   2

   Play around! It seems kind of silly but many of the best melodies were born from someone just hitting random notes on a piano. If you have an instrument that you can mess around on, try this. Just play around, making patterns or just jumping around until you find something that sounds good.

   • If you don’t have an instrument, you can sing or use an online instrument. You can find many free pianos on websites and on apps available for your mobile device.

3. 

   3

   Transform a simple idea. You can take a really simple idea for a melody, just a progression of three or four notes, and transform that nugget of an idea into an entire melody. For example, take a small group of notes that you found using the playing around from the previous step. Think about where you feel the melody should go from there.

   • People who are naturally musically-inclined will often just come up with little bits of music like this, like how an artist might get an idea for a painting. If this describes you, keep a digital voice recorder or a notebook (if you know any kind of music notation)

4. 

   4

   Start from chords. If you’re used to making chords, you can find a melody by playing around with chords as well. This is common for people who play piano or guitar, since those instruments rely heavily on chords. Do the same sort of playing around that we talked about in Step 1, but with chords, until you find something that sounds good to you.^[1]
   

   • You can find websites that play chords for you if you don’t have an instrument to work with or you don’t know a lot of chords.
   • Try humming along to the chords and mess around with ways to make it more complex. Since you can only make one sound at a time, you’ll find you have a melody before you know it. Don’t worry about lyrics right away: professional musicians almost always write a melody first and use nonsense sounds in place of words.

5. 

   5

   Borrow from an existing melody. Stealing someone’s song sounds like a pretty bad idea, but like taking a transplant to grow your own garden bed, you can take the tiniest sliver from another song and transform it into something completely different. If you take only a progression of four or so notes and make enough changes, then your music is still perfectly original. Just remember that you’re making it into something completely different.

   • A good exercise is to borrow from a different genre of music. Say you want to write a folk song, for example. Try borrowing from rap. Want to write a country song? Borrow from classical.

6. 

   6

   Build on a motif. A motif is a set of notes that form a musical «idea». Many songs take a motif and then repeat that set of notes, with small changes, in order to create the melody. If you’re struggling to come up with a melody, this is a great fallback option since you only need to start with a handful of notes.^[2]
   

   • One of the best examples of this is the allegro con brio from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. He took just a basic motif and repeated it over and over again and created one of the most iconic pieces of music ever.

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1. 

   1

   Form a bassline. With your melody in place, you’ll want to write a bass part to go with it. Yes, you might not have a bass in your piece (you could be writing for a trumpet quartet for all we know). However, a bassline is for more than just a bass. The bassline refers to any background part for a low pitched instrument. This bassline acts as a sort of spine for the musical piece and provides .

   • A bassline can be simple or it can be complex, can be fast or it can be slow. In some genres of music, the bassline follows a particular pattern, as in jump blues where it is almost always a scale of quarter notes. The only important part is that it fits with and supports the melody you have written.

2. 

   2

   Add chords if you haven’t already. If you didn’t start by working with chords, you might want to add some now. Chords will make your song sound more full and complex, although you can leave them out or use only very simple chords if you want a more melancholy, bare sound.^[3]
   

   • Start by establishing what key your melody was written in. Certain chords sound better with certain keys than others. For example, if your song starts with a C, then a C chord will be a natural place to start.
   • When you switch between chords will really depend on your song, but try to time the changes to significant sounds or changes in the melody. Generally, chord changes will happen on the downbeat, at or towards the beginning of a measure. You can also use a chord change to lead into another chord. For example, in a 4/4 song, you might have one chord on the downbeat of one and then another on 4, before leading into the chord change at one in the next measure.

3. 

   3

   Experiment with other song sections. A melody will account for a large portion of a song but many songs also have sections which break from the melody or make use of a second melody. This might be a chorus or a bridge, or even another type of section altogether. Breaks from the melody like this can add a bit of «bang» or drama to your song, so if you’re looking for that kind of feeling, consider this break from the melody.

4. 

   4

   Try it out on other people. Play your melody for other people and get their opinions. You don’t have to take all of their ideas but they might see (or rather, hear) things that you don’t. If several people give you the same feedback, it might be necessary to make a change to your melody or the additions you made.

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Video

• Listen to melodies of other composers. Pick a favourite and try to figure out what makes it good.

• Learn about the intervals, what a phrase is, and what a theme is.

Did this summary help you?

1. 

   1

   Learn about music theory. If you want to write melodies well, it’s a good idea to know at least the basics of how music works before you get too serious about composing. Of course, this isn’t required. However, the more you understand about music, the easier it will be to understand when musical concepts are being explained.

   • We will be using musical terms in this article because it is difficult to explain these ideas without them. Some will be explained but others are too complex to cover in a simple sentence. If you do not understand things like beats, measures, and time, you might want to do some reading first.

2. 

   2

   Choose your song form. The song form is sort of like a gender but for music. All music generally falls into a set shape, or form, which determines what parts sound like what other parts and when changes happen. You are probably most used to this concept in popular music, with the ideas of chorus and verse. Now, you don’t have to follow these set forms, but it can help give you a road-map to work with when writing your melody.

   • The most common song form is called AABA. This means that there are two «verses», a «chorus», and then another «verse». In other words, a section that sounds one way, then another that sounds the same, then something different, then a return to the theme of the first section.
   • There are many different forms however, so do some research to find which one is best for you. You can consider AAAA, ABCD, AABACA, etc. Or you can break from this entirely, of course.

   Advertisement

3. 

   3

   Study genre considerations. Some genres of music have a certain style to them and if you want to achieve that «sound», you’ll need to write your melody in a particular way. Read up on the genre of music you’re trying to write for before writing, to find out if there are any unique features of that genre in terms of the structure, key, or progressions.

   • For example, the chord progression for blues and jazz follow particular forms. Jazz makes heavy use of particular chords, so you’ll want to look up jazz chords before writing songs like that.

4. 

   4

   Think about the musician. No matter who is performing the piece of music you write, they’re going to need a break at some point. Fingers will need a moment of rest and singers will need to breathe. You should understand how breaks are put into a song and then add in moments like this. Try to space them evenly and make them frequent enough that the song is not impossible to perform.

5. 

   5

   Break down your favorite songs. One thing you can do to help your melody writing skills is to start by breaking down some of your favorite songs. Gather a handful of songs with great melodies and then put on your listening ears. Usually when we listen to music, we get lost in it, right? But you’re going to make a road-map from it…so focus!

   • Write down how the notes change. How do they build? How does the key make you feel? How does the melody work with the lyrics? What’s good about the melody? What doesn’t work or what could be better? You can transfer these lessons to your own melodies.

Advertisement

1. 

   1

   Try not to start from lyrics. If you’re naturally a better lyricist, you might find that you’re inclined to start from lyrics. However, this is tricky and is not recommended, especially if your musical training is very limited. When you start from lyrics, you need to base your melody on the natural rhythm of the words and that can be very difficult, especially for a beginner. However, if you want to, you can start with lyrics.

2. 

   2

   Play around! It seems kind of silly but many of the best melodies were born from someone just hitting random notes on a piano. If you have an instrument that you can mess around on, try this. Just play around, making patterns or just jumping around until you find something that sounds good.

   • If you don’t have an instrument, you can sing or use an online instrument. You can find many free pianos on websites and on apps available for your mobile device.

3. 

   3

   Transform a simple idea. You can take a really simple idea for a melody, just a progression of three or four notes, and transform that nugget of an idea into an entire melody. For example, take a small group of notes that you found using the playing around from the previous step. Think about where you feel the melody should go from there.

   • People who are naturally musically-inclined will often just come up with little bits of music like this, like how an artist might get an idea for a painting. If this describes you, keep a digital voice recorder or a notebook (if you know any kind of music notation)

4. 

   4

   Start from chords. If you’re used to making chords, you can find a melody by playing around with chords as well. This is common for people who play piano or guitar, since those instruments rely heavily on chords. Do the same sort of playing around that we talked about in Step 1, but with chords, until you find something that sounds good to you.^[1]
   

   • You can find websites that play chords for you if you don’t have an instrument to work with or you don’t know a lot of chords.
   • Try humming along to the chords and mess around with ways to make it more complex. Since you can only make one sound at a time, you’ll find you have a melody before you know it. Don’t worry about lyrics right away: professional musicians almost always write a melody first and use nonsense sounds in place of words.

5. 

   5

   Borrow from an existing melody. Stealing someone’s song sounds like a pretty bad idea, but like taking a transplant to grow your own garden bed, you can take the tiniest sliver from another song and transform it into something completely different. If you take only a progression of four or so notes and make enough changes, then your music is still perfectly original. Just remember that you’re making it into something completely different.

   • A good exercise is to borrow from a different genre of music. Say you want to write a folk song, for example. Try borrowing from rap. Want to write a country song? Borrow from classical.

6. 

   6

   Build on a motif. A motif is a set of notes that form a musical «idea». Many songs take a motif and then repeat that set of notes, with small changes, in order to create the melody. If you’re struggling to come up with a melody, this is a great fallback option since you only need to start with a handful of notes.^[2]
   

   • One of the best examples of this is the allegro con brio from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. He took just a basic motif and repeated it over and over again and created one of the most iconic pieces of music ever.

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   1

   Form a bassline. With your melody in place, you’ll want to write a bass part to go with it. Yes, you might not have a bass in your piece (you could be writing for a trumpet quartet for all we know). However, a bassline is for more than just a bass. The bassline refers to any background part for a low pitched instrument. This bassline acts as a sort of spine for the musical piece and provides .

   • A bassline can be simple or it can be complex, can be fast or it can be slow. In some genres of music, the bassline follows a particular pattern, as in jump blues where it is almost always a scale of quarter notes. The only important part is that it fits with and supports the melody you have written.

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   2

   Add chords if you haven’t already. If you didn’t start by working with chords, you might want to add some now. Chords will make your song sound more full and complex, although you can leave them out or use only very simple chords if you want a more melancholy, bare sound.^[3]
   

   • Start by establishing what key your melody was written in. Certain chords sound better with certain keys than others. For example, if your song starts with a C, then a C chord will be a natural place to start.
   • When you switch between chords will really depend on your song, but try to time the changes to significant sounds or changes in the melody. Generally, chord changes will happen on the downbeat, at or towards the beginning of a measure. You can also use a chord change to lead into another chord. For example, in a 4/4 song, you might have one chord on the downbeat of one and then another on 4, before leading into the chord change at one in the next measure.

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   3

   Experiment with other song sections. A melody will account for a large portion of a song but many songs also have sections which break from the melody or make use of a second melody. This might be a chorus or a bridge, or even another type of section altogether. Breaks from the melody like this can add a bit of «bang» or drama to your song, so if you’re looking for that kind of feeling, consider this break from the melody.

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   4

   Try it out on other people. Play your melody for other people and get their opinions. You don’t have to take all of their ideas but they might see (or rather, hear) things that you don’t. If several people give you the same feedback, it might be necessary to make a change to your melody or the additions you made.

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• Listen to melodies of other composers. Pick a favourite and try to figure out what makes it good.

• Learn about the intervals, what a phrase is, and what a theme is.

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