Crafting hooks and melodies

A mainstream track won’t get very far if it doesn’t have that special

something – that unique element that a listener can grab onto and identify time and time again. Something that’s familiar, yet new. A

hook, essentially. Your tune’s hook could be a vocal phrase, a repeated melody, or even a funky beat, but for the purposes of this section, we’re going to be concentrating on melodic material.

So what makes a melody? We’ll start off with the basics. Simple melodies (and even plenty of complex ones) tend to start and end with the ‘tonic note’ – that’s the note that starts the scale you’re in, such

G# G# as C in C major, or in minor.

But you can’t just use one single note throughout… as our initial project testifies! A melody is also about moving away from that note. Without wanting to sound too airy fairy, it ‘tells a story’ by starting at the tonic note, moving away from it, then finding its way back at the end. Of course, it’s the journey that counts, rather than the destination.

Melodies also tend to make use of phrases. Over four bars, you might encounter four separate phrases, with gaps (or at least less action) in between them. These phrases are often linked in some way musically, acting as ‘call and response’ pairs, or ‘question and answers’ pairs, if you prefer to think of it that way.

Another handy rule of thumb is to end your middle phrase (halfway through the melody line) with the ‘fifth’ note. This is the fifth degree of the scale, ie, seven semitones up from your scale’s tonic note – that’s the G note in the C major scale or the A# D#

note in the minor scale. We won’t get bogged down in the details, but this reinforces the listener’s urge to get back ‘home’ to the tonic note by the end of the melody, and helps it all make a lot more musical sense in general.

But these basic melodic rules leave a little something to be desired. They apply to easy ideas such as nursery rhymes, but the real art in modern music is to mix things up a bit – to subvert the listener’s expectations. Once you’ve learnt the building blocks of melody, it’s time to break the rules and hit the listener where they least anticipate it: use unusual rhythms, unexpected turns from note to note, and never-beforeheard sounds to get deep into your audience’s skulls.

Even then, though, go too far with your musical experimentations and you’ll risk alienating everyone. It’s a fine balance to strike, but it’s what being a musician is all about.