Great melody is more than just a series of patterns.
Great melody is hummable, memorable, a blend of the famliar and the unexpected — pleasant surprises, not nasty shocks.
Even the unexpected should quickly become familiar and welcome.
How exactly do you improvise a memorable melody?
it helps to have inspiration, but you can employ some very reliable techniques to ensure that you improvise a melody that works adn will stick int he listeners memory long after the solo is over.
There are 2 big differences between melodic improvisation and true composition.
The first is that composition involves creating both melody and chords, where improvisers only have to worry about them elody.
The second is that composers get to spend days or weeks or even months fine tuning their melodies; improvisers only get a minute or so to get it right.
FOCUS ON TARGET NOTes
Most melodies have some notes that are more imp than others.
More often than not, these target notes are key chord tones, either the root, or 3rd or 5th.
When improvising a melody, you aim toward these target notse, using approach notes, passing tones and evn short patterns to move the melody toward those notes.
You should probably position these target notes on the main beats of the meausre — on the 1 and 3, not ont he 2 or 4.
Nothing works better than putting $, 3, 5 on beats 1 and 3 of a measure.
CENTER ON THE HOME PITCH
Even when you are focusing on target notes, some arem ore imp than others.
THe fact: you dno’t want your melodies wander around all over the place like a dog looking for a place to do his business.
What you want: a hunting dog of am elody, one that knows where home is and at the end of the day, finds its way back tehre.
Home of your melody needs to be a specific pitch.
When you pick a home pitch — your melody can then revolve around the pitch.
You can start on that pitch — and you should end o that pitch.
Equally imp the other notes in the melody can play around that pitch — and even land on it occasionally.
Your hom pitch is typically one of the chord tones ofthe songs home chord.
While the home pitch could be the tonic of the underlying scale, it doesn’t have to be; you can make the 3rd your home, or the 5th, but probably not a 2nd or 6th or 7th cuz they are less related to the tonic traid of 1 3 5.
And tonic trid is important as it is very centered sounding.
You also wantt ouse t his home pitch to provide a logical and satisfying ending of your solo.
It is good if your audience can lsiten to part of your solo and based on the prominence of the home note, hum the end of the melody before you ever play it.
when you don’t end your melody on the expected note, you create an unresolved tension that can be unsettling to listeners.
Althou it is okay to insert that kind of tension in the middle of your melody, you dn’t want to end with that kind of tension.
You want to resolve your melody so that there is a feelign of completion at the end.
What you want to avoid is a meldoy that wanders around aimlessly.
If your melody wanders around in this type of faashion with no central core, you won’t know how to end themeldoy, you won’t know where home is.
Make your melody go somewhere.
While your meldoy should meander, it should not just sit in one place.
Musically your melody should go somewhere.
It should have a purpose, a feeling of motion, a sense of direction.
You can propel a melody rhythmically or tonally thru the motion of the tones.
IN this sense, motion refers to the progressive upward or downward direction of the pitches you play or what some call the contour of a line of music.
A melody that doesn’t go anywhere, the contour is relatively flat.
A good way to think about the upward or downward motion of a melody is to look at the starting note and the ending note, while for the time being ignoring all the notes in between.
To improvise an upward moving melody, make sure the ending note is at least a 3rd (ideally a 5th) higher than teh starting note.
Same thing with a downward moving melody — force the last note to be lower than the first one.
All the notes between the first an last notes help yo move to that final note.
The notes don’t all have to go in the same direction but have to gradually move up or down to where you want to end.
It is okay to have a melody that starts and ends on the same note.
What you ca do is make the midpoint of the melody higher or lower than the starting/ending pitch.
If you choose a higher midpoint, the first half of the melody will have upward movment, and the last half will use downward movement to return to the home pitch.
Create a smooth melodic curve
good melodies have curves.
they take advantge of large musical range.
Best melodic curves are smooth.
they dno’t jump jarringly from high to low or vice versa, they get htere over a measured progression of pitches.
You dno’t want your melodies to have jagged edges.
You want them to have smooth curves.
That means anticipating upcomign notes and developing natural progressions from one target note to another.
Don’t leap to a new pitch; smoothly work your way there.
It is a fact that many memorable melodies progress almost exclusively in small steps wehre each notes is only one step or two away from the previous ones.
the smaller steps between the notes in your melody, the more lyrical yur melody will sound.
Tell a story
A great melody tells a story.
Like a good story, a melody should have a beginning, a middle and an end.
A meldoy that doesn’t tell a story tends to ramble.
A meldoy that does tell a story has a purpose, a reason to get from point A to point B — which helps you to develop the melody’s shape.
Build to a climax
remember that you want your meldoy to build from start to finish.
Not only should your solo have a melodic curve, it should have an emotional and dynmaic curve.
Good melodies start quiet and subdued and then build in intensity.
When the meldoy reaches its highest emotional point, it is done.
You don’t want to start on a high point and end low.
Building intensity helps to keep the listeners interest and provides a focus fo ryour melodic constructions.
Obviously, using smaller steps between notes is not a had and fast rule.
There are memorable slow and melodies that employ leaps of anywhere from a 5th to an entire octave.
It is okay to leap as long as you know what you are doing.
Set up tension and release
divide your meldoy into 2 parts and set up a harmonic tension int he first part that is then resolved in the 2nd part.
this is old tension – and – relase technique.
When you apply tension and release int his manner, you give your melody a distinct form and its own internal logic.
it also helps to propel the melody tfom the first part to the second.
One way to create this type of melodic tension is to end the first part of yoru meldoy on something other than the tonic of the scale.
Practically you can create tension by ending a phrase with the 2nd, 5th or 7th notes of thes scale — assuming these notes fit inot the structure of the chord at that point in the progression.
You then have to relieve this tension by manipulating the 2nd part of your melody back to the tnoic of the scale — or to one of the notes int he tonic traid, the I chord.
The notes in the tonic triad are the tonic, third, and 5th of the scale, although the tonic and the 3rd probably work better for relieving tension.
That’s cuz the 5th is an ambiguous note, used in both the chord I and the chord V; it is best to end on an unambiguous note that is unique to the I chord.
Set up a call and response
this is wehr eyou set up a phrase in the first part of your melody and then answer that phrase in the 2nd part.
this is slightly diff form the technique of tension and release although the call does set up a certain tension that demands a tension – relieving answer.
to create a call and response type of melody, it helps to think of a question and its answer.
The first part of your melody should sound like the question, typically the ending of an upward phrase, and the 2nd part should provide an answer.
Employ symmetry
A technique that is somewhat implied in both the tension and release and call and response techniques is that of symmetry.
The 2nd part of your melody should be somewhat of a mirror image of the first part of your melody.
You can achieve this symmetry by mirroing rhythms or by mirroring tones.
When you make the 2nd part of your melody resemble the first part, you establish a familiarity in the mind and ear of the listener, so they know what to expect and feel comfrotable when you deliver it to them.
Use repetition and variation
you find a melodic or rhythmic figure that you like and you repeat it throughout the course of the melody.
This sort of repetition helps to unify your melody
it’s the melodic equivalent of a steady drumbeat, and serves as an identifying factor for listeners.
however too much of a good thing can get annoying.
If you repeat your figure too often, it will start to bore the listener.
It’s hard to say how much repetition is too much repetition but chances are you will be able to tell or your listeners will tell you.
When you find yourself using too much repetition, it is time to trot out the variations, or to add completely new melodic or rhythmc figures.
Balancing repetition and variety is an essential skill for all improvisers but partic so in melodic improvisation.
Find the hook
for a melody to be ruly memorable, there eeds to be a piece of it taht really reaches out and grabs the listeners attention.
In pop music, this is called the hook cuz it is the part of the song that hooks the listener.
the imp thing is to work toward a hook somewhere in your solo and once you play it repeat it.
Less is more
many improvisers think that to show their stuff they have to play a lot of notes.
nothing could be fruther than thet ruth.
A good melody doesn’t have to include fancy scales or complex rhythm.s
All you need to play are the right notes at the right times.
the most memorable melodies typically dn’t include a lot of notes.
the best solos are often the simplest.
Listen to and track yourself
when you improvise melodically, it is very imp that you track what you are playing.
you need to listen to waht you are playing.
then respond to and build on your own musical ideas.
One melodic line should lead to the next
one phrase should suggest another.
it is easy to fall into the trap of playing a series of disconnected melodic phases.
Instead you should develop a series of melodies that are all interrelated, where all follow natrually from each other.
the only way to do this is to consciously listen to the melodies you are playing, note the musical ideas and then use those ideas to create new melodic phrases.
Don’t forget the original melody
the art of melodic improv involves composing a new melody to an existing chord progression.
you dno’t have to reinvent the wheel
someone else has already composed a melody to th ose chords and there is no reason you can’t use it.
it is acceptable to refer back to the tune’s original melody and incorporate bits and pieces of that melody into your melodic ipmrov.
At the very least, you should examine theorignial melody to learn how the composer approached this particular chord progerssion, melody wise.
If nothing else, you can use some of the same approaches or even borrow the general contour or shape of the melody from the original.
refer to the original melody in this fashion also serves to ground your improv and provide a nice framework for both you and your listeners.
Summary
1. best solos are more than just scales and patterns; they incorprate completely new melodies improvised over the tune’s existing chords.
2. one way to approach melodic improv is to sing a meldoy over a chord progression, rather than trying to use traditional chord or scale theory.
3. to improv a memorable melody, focus on a series of target notes and make sure you cetner your meldoy around a home pitch.
4. improv meldoy should have a sense of direction, tell a story, and form asmooth melodic curve.
5. don’t feel compelled to create complex melodies with tons of notes and fancy rhythms, the best melodies are often the simplest.