The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Chapter 8:Melodies

Chromatic intervals—notes that aren’t in the underlying scale—are very diffi-

cult for most singers to sing. For example, if you’re in the key of C and your

melody jumps from an E to a G
, a lot of singers won’t be able to hit that sec-

ond note. They’ll want to sing either an F or G, both of which are in the scale;

the G
takes a lot of concentration to hit, out of the blue.

There’s another chromatic interval you should avoid at all costs, called a tritone;

it’s (depending on how you look at it) a raised (augmented) fourth or a flatted

(diminished) fifth. The tritone just plain sounds wrong; some early music theo-

rists considered this the “Devil’s interval,” and the musical equivalent of evil.

(Go ahead, play a tritone—F to B, for example—and see how difficult it is to

sing.)

103

As with all things

musical, the real test

is in the singing.

Whatever intervals

you use, try to sing them,

and then check what you

sing against the piano. If

you have trouble singing a

particular interval, so will

others—and the best melo-

dies are the easiest to sing.

Tip

Don’t put tritones in your melodies!

Keep the Rhythm Simple

At least when you’re starting out, it helps to keep the rhythm of your melody

relative simple. That means sticking to quarter notes and half notes, and using

sixteenth notes sparingly.

It also means avoiding, for the time being, what we call syncopation.Syncopation

makes for a jumpy melody, and is hard for some singers to sing.

Syncopationmeans there’s an emphasis in a place you’re not expecting

it—or when there isn’t an emphasis where you wereexpecting it. You

can create a syncopated rhythm by accenting something other than the

downbeat—or by putting a rest on the downbeat. This type of change-up creates

rhythmic patterns that might sound “off” to some listeners but often have kind of a

funky or jazzy feel.

Definition

Syncopated rhythms may be created by using a short rest on the downbeat or
other strong beats. If you find yourself writing a melody that sounds just a little
too “jerky,” consider simplifying the rhythm and using more straight eighth and
quarter notes—on the beat.