Chapter 8:Melodies
The half note in measure two creates tension; the next two bars resolve the tension.You then have to relieve this tension by manipulating the second part of your
melody back to the tonic of the scale—or to one of the notes in the tonic triad
(the I chord). The notes in the tonic triad are the tonic, third, and fifth of the
scale, although the tonic and the third probably work better for relieving ten-
sion. (That’s because the fifth is an ambiguous note, used both in the I chord
and the V chord; again, read ahead to Chapter 10 to learn all about chord pro-
gressions.)
In any case, you can hear the tension when you play a melody. Just look back to
Dvorˇ ák’s New World Symphonyor “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.” For that
matter, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” also has this type of internal tension, coming
right after “Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,” and resolved with
“Mary had a little a lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.”
It’s a popular technique—because it works!Set Up a Call and Response
Another effective technique to employ in your melodies is that of call and response.
This is where you set up a phrase in the first part of your melody, and then
“answer” that phrase in the second part. This is slightly different from the tech-
nique of tension and release, although the call does set up a certain tension that
demands a tension-relieving answer. The answering phrase serves as a “part
two” to the original phrase; the first phrase takes you in one direction, and the
second phrase brings you back home.
To create a call-and-response type of melody, it helps to think of a question—
and its answer. For example, you might think of the question, “Where is my
car?” and the answer, “It’s in the street.” When you put this call and response to
music, you might get something like this:105
A simple call-and-response melody.
Establish Symmetry
A technique that is somewhat implied in both the tension-and-relief and call-
and-response techniques is that of symmetry. By this I mean that the second
part of your melody should be somewhat of a mirror image of the first part of
your melody.