Melody, question and answer
Write a short melody that asks a question and answers it, using steps and the root, and let it vary with trig conditions.
Steps and leaps
Melodies move mostly by steps, to the next note of the scale, with a few leaps for drama. After a leap, stepping back the other way sounds natural.
Chord tones
Notes that belong to the chord underneath (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th) sound stable, especially on strong beats. Other scale notes work as passing notes in between.
Question and answer
A phrase that ends away from the root sounds like a question. Repeat its start and end on the root, and it becomes the answer. A short motif repeated, sometimes at a new pitch (a sequence), is what makes a melody stick.
One track, two voices
Each track plays one sound at a time. Your melody lives on T6 in the gaps between chords: a SHAPE lock to Unison turns a chord step into a single note.
Lesson 12
- Melody, question and answer.
- In this lesson you will write a short melody that asks a question and answers it, using steps and the root, and let it vary with trig conditions.
A melody is a line of steps and leaps.
Steps, to the next scale note, feel smooth and singable. Leaps feel dramatic, and sound best when the line then steps back the other way.
Melodies talk in phrases.
A question ends away from home, often on the 2nd or 5th. The answer starts the same way and lands on the root. In B01 the chords play bars 1 and 3, and the melody asks in bar 2 and answers in bar 4.
Hear it
Three notes asked.
Then answered. Then the version that never lands, and a sequence, where the motif repeats from a higher note.
Ending on the root feels like a full stop. Ending anywhere else feels like a comma.
- Go to B01, press RECORD and select T6.
- Press PAGE for page 2 and place a note on 9: the melody's first note.
The chord in bar 2 now stops halfway: a track plays one sound at a time.
Make it a single note
- Hold 9 and turn SHAPE to Unison ×2.
- Still holding it, hold FUNC and turn PITCH 12 semitones up, so the melody sits an octave above the chords.
One clear, higher note. If it sounds sour, hold the trig and turn COLOR down: in Unison, COLOR is detune.
Copy it
- Hold 9 and press RECORD.
- Then hold 11 and press STOP, and hold 13 and press STOP.
Three identical notes. The SHAPE and PITCH locks came along with them.
Shape the question
- On 11, hold the trig, press LEVEL/DATA until NOTE shows, and turn it 3 semitones up.
- On 13, 2 up.
- The motif is now A, C, B.
It ends on B, the 2nd, and hangs in the air: a question.
Answer it
- Hold 9, 11 and 13 and press RECORD.
- Press PAGE for page 4, hold 9 and press STOP.
- Then copy 9 to 15 the same way.
Bar 4 plays A, C, B and then A again: the answer lands home.
Make the answer wait
- On page 4, hold 15 and turn CHANCE until the screen shows 2:2.
- It now lands home only every second time round.
Bars 1–4 ask twice, bars 5–8 finally answer: an 8-bar phrase from a 4-bar pattern.
Let the question vary
- On page 2, copy 13 to 15.
- On 15, hold the trig, press LEVEL/DATA until NOTE shows, and turn it 3 semitones higher, to D.
- Then hold it and turn CHANCE to 50%.
Sometimes the question climbs one step further. It never plays quite the same way twice.
- Press RECORD to leave grid recording and listen to eight bars.
- Mute T6 (FUNC + T6) to hear the space it fills, unmute it, and save (hold FUNC, long-press SETTINGS).
Chords call in bars 1 and 3, the melody replies in 2 and 4. Your track now sings.
Bar 2 plays A, C, B and bar 4 plays A, C, B, A. Why does bar 4 sound finished?
Answer
Ending on the root sounds like a full stop. Ending on B, the 2nd, sounds like a comma. That's question and answer.
Ask away from home, answer on the root.
This lesson's challenge
Hum a four-note answer of your own over the loop, then find it on the pentatonic keys (2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16). Put it on page 4 in place of A, C, B, A, and keep the last note on the root.