Musical Elements: Melody

A melody can be defined as a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying.
Considered the part of a song or composition that is most easily remembered.

Melodies may move by step (consecutive pitches in a scale) or by leap (intervals larger than a step), which helps give a melody its shape or contour.
Melodies often involve both conjunct (stepwise) and disjunct (leaps between) motion.
Melodies can ascend, descend, or have a static motion where the notes stay relatively the same.

A phrase is a melodic unit, often a component of a motif or theme.
Phrases typically have a definite length and are often delimited by pauses.
A motif is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in a composition.
A theme is a longer melodic idea that recurs in a piece of music.

Several techniques exist to create varying melodies, for example, sequence, inversion, retrograde, and augmentation.
Sequence is the repetition of a melody at different pitches.
Inversion involves flipping a melody upside down so that what was originally a rising interval is now a falling interval and vice versa.
In retrograde, the melody is presented backward.
Augmentation involves lengthening the time values of notes in a melody.

Different genres and styles have different typical melodic characteristics.
For instance, Baroque music often features complex and intricate melodies, while folk music often avails itself of simple, easily singable melodies.
Blues melodies often make use of the blues scale and blue notes.

A major factor in the memorable quality of many melodies is their singability.
While not all melodies are simple or diatonic, the most memorable are often those that can be easily sung or hummed.
This singability aspect is often crucial in popular music and writing music for the voice.