Melodic Devices

There are several types of melodic devices that you can use in composing melodies for all situations.

First up I created a melody based on the following chord progression:

C // | F // | Dm // | G // | Am // | Dm // | C/E // |
F // | C/G // | G // | C // | G // | C // ||

This progression is used for each subsequent variation.

Example 1

This melody used only the chord tones available for each chord:

Solo

Accompanied

The melody uses four devices, which are basically the same idea, an arpeggio of some sort:

1. Arpeggio of the chord
2. Partial arpeggio of the chord down and back
3. Partial arpeggio of the chord up and back
4. Arpeggio of the chord with anticipation

Anticipation means that notes from the next chord are heard before it is played, they can be a single offbeat note before the bar or even several notes before as in the examples here.

Example 2

Example 2 shows how this melody can be decorated using Non-accented Passing Tones (off-the beat)

Solo

Accompanied

The melody uses one new device:

1. Passing notes as groups of 3 or more notes

Each off-beat note (2nd quaver/8th in a pair of quavers/8ths) is a passing note - a non chord tone joining two chord tones. The notes that are shown in duck-egg blue participate in both the downward and upward movement of scale runs, acting as turning points in the melody.

Example 3

Example 3 shows how this melody can be decorated using accented passing tones (on-the beat), upper and lower neighbour tones both accented and unaccented,

Solo

Accompanied

The markup shows seven devices:

1. Passing notes as groups of 3 or more notes
2. Accented passing notes
3. Appoggiatura (both notes)
4. Lower Neighbour tone accented
5. Lower Neighbour tone unaccented
6. Upper Neighbour tones accented
7. Upper Neighbour tones unaccented

This time we can see passing notes that are on and off the beat. The notes that are shown in duck-egg blue participate in both the downward and upward movement of scale runs, acting as turning points in the melody.

There is a special type of accented passing note known as the appoggiatura, which is a non-chord tone on the beat resolving downward by step to a chord tone.

Neighbour tones, also known as mordents, are used to decorate a melody by adding the note immediately above or below the main note, and then returning to the original note. It is common for the first half or the second half of these mordents to use shorter note values.

Example 4

Example 4 shows how this melody can be further decorated using Echappee and Cambioto

Solo

Accompanied

The markup shows five devices:

1. Cambioto
2. Echapee

Echappee (Escape tone) is a non-chord tone entered by step and left by leap in the opposite direction.

Cambioto is a non-harmonic tone entered by leap and left by step in the opposite direction of the leap (the reverse of Echappee).

As well as these two new devices several of the previously identified devices are also used. It is left as an exercise for you to identify them.