Brainlag Plus Music

Writing a melody for an instrument

Music theory, Modulation and melody writing, 20 minutes

Question 3: continuing an opening into eight bars that modulate, shaped for a named instrument, with performance directions.

The shape of eight bars

The paper gives you an opening, usually two bars, for a named instrument. Continue it to about eight bars:

Bars 1 to 4, the question: finish with a pause on a note of V (an imperfect cadence) in bar 4.
Bars 5 to 8, the answer: start like the opening, then bring in the new key's accidental and end with a cadence in the new key, the leading note rising to its tonic.
Reuse the opening rhythm: it is the glue that makes eight bars sound like one tune.
One climax, about two-thirds of the way through; mostly steps, and a leap followed by a step back the other way.

A violin melody in D major that modulates to A major: a close on A in bar 4, the climax in bar 5, G sharp from bar 6, and a cadence in A major

The rest of this lesson and its 4 practice questions are in Plus Music.

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