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Linear melodies that remain on one note for a long time can sound "trippy" with the right backing; 'Tomorrow Never
Knows' and 'I Am The Walrus' are good examples. 'Helter Skelter' and 'Sgt Pepper' both stay for quite a while on a
single note within each chord change. Songs such as 'Give Peace A Chance', 'The Sensual World', 'Subterranean
Homesick Blues' and 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It' use linear melody to put greater emphasis on their
lyrics. 'Pump It Up' features a verse sung almost entirely on one note for a punchy effect. The T.Rex hits 'Ride A
White Swan', 'Get It On' and 'Telegram Sam' use a narrow range of notes like the Chuck Berry songs on which they
were modelled.
Vertical Melody
Vertical
Vertical melodies are those in which large interval leaps occur quite frequently and the notes span more than an
octave. These are often written by female singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Tori Amos, who
usually have more range to exploit than their male counterparts (though there are notable exceptions, such as Sting,
Smokey Robinson, Leo Sayer and Colin Blunstone). 'Penny Lane', 'In My Life', 'There She Goes', 'Jesamine' and
'Alfie' are songs with strong vertical melodies.
Melodies built on the notes of a chord (arpeggios) will tend to be vertical. Burt Bacharach's melodies often develop
chordal melodic ideas. Think of the opening of 'Close To You', with its leap of E G D against a C chord. The first
two notes sit inside, but the last one sits outside and creates an expressive tension.
Chordal
One effective way to start a melody is with an interval leap – anything bigger than a fourth. The most dramatic is the
octave, as in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune 'Bali Hai' from the musical South Pacific and Led Zeppelin's
'Immigrant Song', where Robert Plant turns the octave figure into a Viking war cry by going up an octave, down a
semitone (half-step) and back to the octave.