What Makes a Melody?

Indexed: 2026-05-20

[00:00:07][music] [music] [music] [music] >> And now, a message from our sponsor.

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[00:01:27]You can just buy it and it's yours to keep. And I think that's covered everything. So, that's the shilling done with. Now, back to the show. Hello chaps, welcome once again to John Robson guitar tuition. As always, I do hope you're well. That little tune there, 16 bars of yeah, fairly hummable melody even though I say so myself, is something that I cooked up basically to illustrate the point of today's video as in what is a melody or what makes a melody.

[00:01:56]Um I've spoken about all of these things I'm going to talk about today in separate videos. Um you know, videos on this topic or that topic, but I don't think um to my recollection I've ever pulled them all together into one sort of summarized version of um how all of these things I'm going to talk about work together. Here is the information.

[00:02:17]Here is the explanation. Okay, the first thing is know your chord sequence. What chords are you playing over?

[00:02:25]Um I don't mean oh well, I know it's in this key and I know what scale to use in that key. No, know your chord sequence.

[00:02:32]Uh that as you're going to see is going to become rather important and the chord sequence that we're playing over that I was playing over here is G >> [music] >> B minor E minor C A [music and singing] minor G over B C D >> [music] >> So, G, B minor, E minor, uh C, A minor, G over B, C and then D.

[00:03:05]And we're in the key of G major. All of those chords are in that key.

[00:03:09]Um so, you know, logical choice is going to be the G major scale or you can think of it as the G major pentatonic with a couple of extra notes added in, namely the C and the F sharp. Whichever way you want to think of it is um is perfectly fine.

[00:03:25]So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to choose a note from each of those chords. Over the G chord, I chose a G note.

[00:03:33]Over the B minor chord, I chose a B note.

[00:03:36]Over the E minor chord, a G note again.

[00:03:39]Over the C chord, an E note.

[00:03:42]Over the A minor chord, uh a C note.

[00:03:46]Over the G {slash} B a B note and then a C note over the C chord and an F sharp note over the D chord. How to figure out what notes are in the chord, um I've been through this many times, but just a quick recap. Basic major and minor chords which make up the meat and potatoes of most um you know, chord sequences in you know, rock music in its broadest sense.

[00:04:10]Um a major chord, take your root note like a G chord for instance, take your root note, then your next note is four semitones above that.

[00:04:19]We call that the major third, don't worry about that. Then the next note in the chord is three semitones above that one.

[00:04:26]And for a minor chord like um A minor, uh you just take that three and four semitone thing and reverse it. So, in an A minor chord, you have your A root note and then you go up three semitones, we would call that the minor third, and then up and up four semitones from that. So [music] in a G chord, you've got G, B and D and in an A minor chord, you've got A, C and D. So, just remember major is four plus three, minor is three plus four. Then you can dress that up in whatever jargon you you want to, but that's how I figured it out when I was first kind of um getting this sort of stuff. So, here is that chord sequence um just with the raw chord notes played at the appropriate times.

[00:05:16]>> [music] [music] >> And that is kind of the basis of the melody. Now, the next thing uh we need to do is include some sort of tension and release in there. Just some kind of little almost like mini cliffhangers if if this was a story. That's essentially what you're doing when you're playing a music, you're telling a story. So, we don't land straight on the um on the actual chord note in question. We go to either the note above it in the scale. So, G major scale, G A B C D E F sharp G.

[00:06:03]Um go to either the next note above it in the scale or the one immediately below it.

[00:06:08]And you know, so instead of going to the G there straight away as that G chord arrives, play the A note above it.

[00:06:16]And then resolve down to the G. That note there is not a wrong note, but it's not a particularly resolved note over the G chord.

[00:06:23]And then when you resolve it down to the G, it's a more satisfying uh experience because you know, it's it's relieved a little bit of tension. Here is though that same chord sequence again where I'm putting these uh approach notes, appoggiaturas they are called um if you want the technical term, uh where I'm putting these in immediately before each of the um kind of strong chord tones.

[00:06:52]>> [music] [music] >> So, that just makes it a little bit more melodic and the final thing, well, I think it makes it a little bit more melodic anyway. The final thing is to add a little bit of rhythmic interest, um little bit of syncopation. What do we mean by syncopation? Well, basically where you're playing uh kind of off the beat slightly, where you're putting an emphasis or an accent uh somewhere other than directly on the beat. That's what it is in simple terms. So, if I played like a version of um the melody uh without that, it might sound like this.

[00:07:41]>> [music] [music] >> Okay?

[00:07:49]And you know, it's kind of working, but if I was to then play it with um just that little bit of syncopation, uh it sounds more like this.

[00:08:00]>> [music] >> Yeah, you know, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Uh where are we? Let's go.

[00:08:16]That rather >> [music] >> that. Just that da da da where that kind of final note comes in essentially half a beat early. Um you know, it just makes it sound a little bit more interesting, a little bit less plodding and um little bit more melodic, which is what we're uh dealing with here. So make sure you know your chord sequence. Find what notes are in each of the chords and then decide which note you're going to target over each uh particular chord. Then place an appoggiatura, which remember is just the next note either above the chord note or below the chord note in the scale.

[00:08:56]Um you know, before each of those chord notes and then just add a little bit of rhythmic syncopation to it where you're placing one of those uh or possibly even the main uh chord tone, the uh the one that you've chosen from the chord in a in a sort of on a weak beat. So, basically if you're counting one and two and three and four and where you're placing that note on one of the ands and you're giving it a big old emphasis and you know, that is essentially what syncopation is. So, a quick little guide to um what makes things sound melodic.

[00:09:29]Now we know what to do. Go away and have some fun with And you get to a point where you can kind of do this sort of thing on the fly. You kind of know what the chord sequence is, you know whereabouts you are in the chord sequence, you know which chord is coming next, you know what notes are on in that chord. You can see where they are on the neck and you know, you can just as I say, bolt it all together in you know, you're basically build the plane as you're flying it as it were. On a good day, which isn't necessarily every day, but on a good day with a following wind, um I can improvise something nice and melodic like what you heard earlier. And that wasn't far off an improvisation. I think that was probably the third take, but what I did do in advance was, you know, I kind of plotted out which chord tones I was going to land on and choose for each chord and and that sort of thing. So, it wasn't quite It was a little bit worked out in advance. And as I say, I think that was about take three when I got something that I was um [snorts] you know, reasonably happy with. So, there you go. That is the video for today, folks. Hopefully, now you know what makes a melody. Hope you've enjoyed the video. And if that's the case, please hit the subscribe button and the notification bell if you haven't already done so. And why not drop me a like as well while you're at it. And don't forget the live stream, of course, every Friday 5:00 p.m. UK time where we drink beer and have a chat, basically. Great way to kick off the weekend and I'd love to see you there if you can make it. But for now, I'll bid you all a good day and say thank you so much for watching.

[00:10:54]Thank you for your time. Look after yourselves, folks. Stay well. Stay safe.

[00:10:58]And above all, stay sane. Bye for now.

[00:11:02]>> [music]