Of the essential elements of music, melody is the single most important ingredient in a song. You can think of melody as a series of notes, one after another, defined by the distance in pitch (interval) and duration. What makes a catchy melody? A great melody that withstands the test of time? An instant hit?
This course is ideal for anyone curious about song writing or using the right terminology in describing and analyzing music. Other music theory courses in this series include Harmony, Applied Music Theory, Music Theory of the Beatles, and the prerequisite Intro to Music Theory (a.k.a. Music Literacy).
Course Content
We will first review and consolidate the fundamentals from Music Literacy or Intro Music Theory Course, namely, the basic scales (chromatic, major, pentatonic, wholetone) and music intervals (stay, step, skip, jump, leap). Thereafter, we will cover the following topics, with homework assigned to be completed and discussed at the next class.
- Minor keys and scales
- Modes or modal scales: many songs are neither major or minor keys but modal
- Two types of pentatonic scales, application (songs that use it)
- Blues scale
- Fillers: passing notes, neighbor notes
- Lyrics and notes: syllabic, melismatic, neumatic
- Elements of melody: pitch, duration, texture, dynamic, tempo, contour (focal points)
- Melodic textures
- Application by examination and analysis of great melodies
Prerequisite: introduction to music theory (8 weeks) or equivalent (music literacy)
Testimonials
Anne Ku is a very skilled teacher. In Music Theory Melody you will learn about the components of a melodic line & about the use of various forms of dissonance to enhance the melody. I highly recommend her courses!
– a practicing psychiatrist & psychopharmacologist who played 1st the violin & then the organ for a few years as a child 50 years ago & have been taking piano lessons for only the past 3 years, have taken several of her classes, & have advanced my knowledge of music theory with each one. I hope to take many more.
This excellent Melody course was an exploration of what make a melody famous. You learn to understand the construction of a melody from the simplex intervals, arpeggios, scales, repetition, modulation to others keys, and non-tonal notes used by the composer. Learning to listening to the music and the mood that produce to the listener with the different tool used, add another aspect you learn in this course. All this was make easy by our teacher Ann, her explanation, material provided. The intellectual curiosity provided by other members of this class, make this course very enjoyable.