Music Theory for Beginners: What is a Melody?
We’ve all heard melodies, but what exactly are they? We explain what piano piano players need to know about one of music’s most essential elements.Last updated 21 Aug. 2024Think of a catchy song. It could be your favorite pop hit, or something you heard on the radio earlier today. Now hum it to yourself. The part that you’re humming is known as the melody, usually a piece of music’s most recognizable element. Great melodies have the ability to get stuck in our heads for days and, most of the time, they help convey a certain feeling or emotion. Melodies can be happy, sad, and everything in between.Throughout your journey as a piano player, you’ll hear plenty about melody and other concepts related to music theory. With this theory comes a new kind of language that provides the linguistic tools we use to discuss and analyze music.Within music theory, melody is one of the most important concepts to understand. You have probably heard or seen this word in other contexts, and might already have an idea about what it means. But in this article we’re going to dive deeper to ask what, exactly, is melody, and why is it important to understand? Read on to find out.
Pitch & Rhythm: The key ingredients of melody:
In order to grasp what makes a melody, we need to explore two concepts: pitch and rhythm.Pitch relates to the highness or lowness of a tone. Press a key on your piano or keyboard, then play the key to the right. You have played a simple melody, and should hear that the two notes have a different sound. That’s the difference in pitch. On piano, the pitch gets higher as you move to the right. When the pitch of a song ascends, it can increase the music's tension or energy. When it goes down, or left on the piano, the mood is often darkened.All melodies are made up of pitches. Notes in a melody don’t always have to be of different pitches, and we can repeat pitches within a melody. Just know that a melody is a sequence of pitches that sound one after another.In musical notation, the pitches are represented by the notes placed on a staff. A staff is the set of five horizontal lines that you’ll see on any piece of sheet music. The higher that a note is on the staff, the higher that its pitch will be, and vice versa.If you’re new to music theory, be sure to check out our beginner’s guide to reading sheet music.Rhythm dictates when, and for how long, you play each note. Like pitch, rhythm can also be notated in sheet music. Within a melody, each note has a rhythmic value that represents a specific duration: whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and so on.These values tell us how many beats a note is held for: whole notes are held for four beats, half notes are held for two, and quarter notes are held for just one beat.Before we go further, let’s clarify the meaning of three important terms:- Beat: A pulsation that divides time into equal lengths, like the ticking of a clock’s second hand at 60 beats-per-minute
- Measure: Rhythm in music is divided up into segments that are called measures, which are represented by the vertical lines that divide up the staff in sheet music.
- Tempo: This is the overall speed of the rhythm in any piece of music, measured in beats-per-minute (or BPM).
Example: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Let’s look at a well-known melody, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. If you know this song, try humming it to yourself. Now, let’s use this example to demonstrate how a melody is constructed.Take a look at the top staff, and you’ll see the melody. In the first measure, we have four notes, but only two different pitches: the first two notes are C, the second two are G. Each note in the first measure has the same rhythmic value, as these are all quarter notes. When we get into the second measure, however, the third note is a half note, which lasts for two beats — twice as long as the quarter notes. This means the note is held down for twice the length of a quarter note.In piano music, melodies are commonly played using the right hand, while the left hand provides the harmony. We won’t get into harmony in this article, but if you’d like to learn more, check out our guide to understanding piano chords. For now, it's time to see exactly how melodies are played.
Playing melodies: Tempo
Though our basic definition of melody — a sequence of pitches arranged in a rhythm — is enough to grasp the basics, there’s more to melody than just pitch and rhythm. When we take a melody from the page to the piano, we bring it to life through our playing. We can play it fast or slow, quietly or loudly, sharp and punchy, or graceful and flowing. Any melody, even Twinkle, Twinkle, can be played any number of ways.The speed at which we play a melody is determined by the tempo, which, as we mentioned before, is often measured in beats-per-minute. But there’s another way to suggest tempo, known as tempo marking. This ranges from larghissimo (24 BPM and under) to prestissimo (200 BPM and over). These terms tell us something about the style or mood that the composer intended the performer to convey. Vivace, for example, means to play a piece in a fast and lively fashion.Playing Melodies: Dynamics
The concept of dynamics is also crucial in determining how to play a melody. It refers to the changes in volume in a piece of music, or how softly or loudly the notes are played. Dynamics are described using Italian words: the eight dynamic markings range from pianissimo to forte-fortissimo, and are denoted using abbreviations on the page. Here’s a list of all eight.- Piano-pianissimo: As soft as possible
- Pianissimo: Very soft
- Piano: Soft
- Mezzo piano: Semi-soft
- Mezzo forte: Semi-loud
- Forte: Loud
- Fortissimo: Very loud
- Forte-fortissimo: As loud as possible
A note on decay
Playing melodies is a unique challenge. Because piano notes begin to decay almost as soon as they are played, it can be tough to remember where the melody goes next. One solution to this is to sustain the melody by singing along in your head, imagining the oncoming notes before they sound. This will help to ensure you articulate melodies clearly and precisely.
Playing melodies is a unique challenge. Because piano notes begin to decay almost as soon as they are played, it can be tough to remember where the melody goes next. One solution to this is to sustain the melody by singing along in your head, imagining the oncoming notes before they sound. This will help to ensure you articulate melodies clearly and precisely.
