Music Theory from ZeroMusic Theory
Chapter 19About 2 minAll chapters

How melody moves — steps and leaps

Repeat, step, leap. The ratio between those three decides how singable a melody feels.

A melody is made of movement in pitch. That movement splits into three: repeating the same note, stepping to a neighbour, and leaping. The ratio between them decides how singable it is.

Break a melody down and all that remains is the distance to the next note. Near or far — that is the whole vocabulary.

Stepping to the neighbour

Moving to the next note of the scale. Easy to sing and easy to follow. Played in order it sounds like climbing stairs. Nursery rhymes and hymns are mostly this.

Neighbouring notes, walking upwards. The defining feature is how easily a voice copies it.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

Leaping

Skipping notes to get to the next one. Memorable, and it creates lift. Do it repeatedly and the line becomes hard to sing and hard to follow. After a leap, a step in the other direction settles things again.

Up a leap, back, and up again. Try singing along and you will feel the difficulty.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.
In plain wordsStep and leap

Moving to the neighbouring note is a step; skipping notes is a leap. Steps are singable, leaps stand out.

The mix depends on the instrument

Vocal melodies lean towards steps; guitar solos lean towards leaps. ChordMelo returns different results per mode because it changes exactly this ratio, along with the range. Standing still is also a choice. Repeating the same note pushes the words and the rhythm to the front — a shape used constantly in rap and in rock choruses.

  • Vocal melody (mostly steps)

    C | G | Am | F

  • Guitar lead (more leaps)

    C | G | Am | F

One progression, generated as a vocal melody and as a guitar lead. Compare the shapes in the piano roll.Buttons and keys in the diagrams play sound. Check your volume first.

The guitar version spans much more vertical space and jumps around. The vocal one is gentler. Not better or worse — a voice and a fretboard simply reach different distances.

Generate a vocal melody and actually sing it. If you can sing it, it works.

Generate a vocal melody
The one thing to remember

Lots of stepwise motion is easy to sing; a leap is memorable. After a leap, step back and it settles.

Quick review

Everything here is answerable from this chapter. Pick an option and the answer appears straight away.

  1. Question 1

    Which is easier to sing?

  2. Question 2

    After a big leap, how do you settle the line?