How to write melodies

I recently Google-searched the phrase “how to write melodies.” The results have a different perspective than searches related to ‘how to improvise.’ In fact, the strategy should be very similar.

Why is this? It’s because improvisation is ‘spur of the moment’ or ‘real-time’ composition. This ‘hurry-up’ aspect leads us to need tools to enable this type of composition. Thus we have compendiums of chord/scale charts and licks of our favorite players. But these amount to devices and do not go to the real question – how to write good melodies?

On the other hand, the classically trained musician learns about motif development but these too are devices which allow the student to gain insight and understanding but still do not answer the fundamental question – what makes a melody good vs. just ‘okay?’

I certainly don’t have the answer to this question. I’ll continue to research this and write more posts. Here are a few of the links I found in my initial search:

http://songwritertips.com/songwriting/melody-mining-how-to-write-melodies-out-of-thin-air/

http://www.wikihow.com/Compose-a-Melody

http://blog.dubspot.com/music-foundations-tutorial-pt-4-theory-basics-how-to-compose-a-strong-melody-w-max-wild/

http://faculty.smu.edu/robfrank/temporalelements.htm

http://www.musicradar.com/us/tuition/tech/how-to-write-and-program-a-melody-580767#null

http://www.artofcomposing.com/melody-writing-part-2-the-tools-of-melody

http://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice2.htm

http://www.how-to-write-music.com/WritingAMelody.htm