Songwriting Craft: melody, lyrics and structure

01

Melody from the scale

In simple words

A melody is the tune you hum. It is made of notes going up, down or staying, like walking up stairs, down stairs, or standing still.

Before this course: Music Basics: Rhythm, Chords, Songwriting (course 11.4). You should already know beats, time signatures, note lengths, the major scale, major and minor triads, I-V-vi-IV and the verse-chorus shape. This course turns those tools into finished songs.

Key facts

A melody is a line of single notes with rhythm. It is usually the part people sing.
Notes of a scale have numbers (scale degrees) 1 to 7. Degree 1 is the tonic, the "home" note. A melody often feels finished when it ends on 1.
Steps (moving to the next scale note) feel smooth. Leaps (skipping notes) feel exciting. Most good melodies mix many steps with a few leaps.
Contour is the shape of the tune: rising, falling, arch or wave. A chorus melody is often higher than the verse.
Repetition with variation: repeat a short idea (a motif), then change one note or rhythm so it stays interesting.
Range: keep the melody inside a range you can sing comfortably.

Scale	Notes
C major	C D E F G A B
G major	G A B C D E F#
D major	D E F# G A B C#
A natural minor	A B C D E F G
E natural minor	E F# G A B C D

Step by step

Pick a key from the table and play or hum its scale up and down.
Make a short idea of 4 to 6 notes using mostly steps. Record it on your phone.
Repeat it, but change the last note.
Add one leap, then come back by step.
End the phrase on the tonic (degree 1) and listen to how finished it feels.
Change the idea to end on degree 2 or 5 instead and listen to how unfinished it feels.
Check: you can hum your phrase from memory and say where the leap is.

Watch on YouTube

How to write a great melody (over chords)David Bruce Composer · YouTube · youtube.com

How to write a melody: the ultimate guideWrite A Song · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Melody from the scale

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:15

Voice

Read the video script

[Host at a keyboard] "A melody is just a tune. Let's build one from the scale."
[Text on screen: Steps feel smooth. Leaps feel exciting.] "Move by steps most of the time and add a leap now and then."
[Screen: short motif repeated with a changed last note] "Repeat an idea, then change one note. That's variation."
[Host] "End on the home note, and the tune feels finished."

Try it now

Write three 2-bar melody ideas in one key from the table. Write the scale-degree numbers under each (for example 1 2 3 2 1) and mark which ones end on 1.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Songwriting Craft: melody, lyrics and structure" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Melody from the scale".

What the lesson teaches:
- A melody is a line of single notes with rhythm. It is usually the part people sing.
- Notes of a scale have numbers (scale degrees) 1 to 7. Degree 1 is the tonic, the "home" note. A melody often feels finished when it ends on 1.
- Steps (moving to the next scale note) feel smooth. Leaps (skipping notes) feel exciting. Most good melodies mix many steps with a few leaps.
- Contour is the shape of the tune: rising, falling, arch or wave. A chorus melody is often higher than the verse.
- Repetition with variation: repeat a short idea (a motif), then change one note or rhythm so it stays interesting.
- Range: keep the melody inside a range you can sing comfortably.
- Scale - Notes

The exercise I'm working on:
Write three 2-bar melody ideas in one key from the table. Write the scale-degree numbers under each (for example 1 2 3 2 1) and mark which ones end on 1. ---

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Melody from the scale" from the course "Songwriting Craft: melody, lyrics and structure".

Here's what the lesson says:
A melody is the tune you hum. It is made of notes going up, down or staying, like walking up stairs, down stairs, or standing still.

The activity:
Write three 2-bar melody ideas in one key from the table. Write the scale-degree numbers under each (for example 1 2 3 2 1) and mark which ones end on 1. ---

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

My notes

I learned this

02