Melody is a hook, you know, there are so many different types of hook. It’s, it’s something that just seems to stick,  but a simple and repetitive melody is usually, a hook. so firstly, it’ll be catchy, you know, what does catchy mean? You know, you think about that, you always say, oh, it’s really catchy. well, and why is it? Well, it means that it sticks. Why does it stick? Well, it’s usually because it’s simple  and repetitive  that the, those are the two kind of core ingredients.
It’s not so complex that the human mind that can can’t just repeat it back  and to help with that process, it’s repeated back  a good few times within a short space of time. that makes it catchy. quite, it’s quite simple. We, we, we, we use that term a lot. Oh, I couldn’t stop saying, it’s so catchy. but we need to dismantle that as writers and understand why that is, again, so that we can forget it.
And so that it becomes natural. And we, we enjoy the familiarity of that feeling of writing catchy stuff, rather than it being  too clunky process. It’s good to get right under the bonnet on this so that it becomes a working part of our, or a working part of our arsenal of, tools.
Yeah. So really, you know, when some, when we say something, oh, gosh, that’s so catchy, actually, get under the hood of that and say, well, why, why am I saying that?
What is happening? And actually, listen, I’m not gonna go through examples tonight because I, what I’d rather, we do is that you, listen to some  music that you’re listening to at the moment and wonder why, and now exam after this examine why something’s catchy. Why did it stick in light of what we are going to be going through this evening?  It should unfold to you go, oh, yeah, it’s because it’s just looks only four notes.
It’s repeating and it’s, and it’s in a different rhythm. The rest of the song. We’re gonna go through the different reasons, but  excuse me. so, secondly, it often the hook isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t think that it just needs to be, you know, you sit, you kind of go, oh, baby, oh baby, and that, and just because it’s simple and repeats that, that’s the hook,  that’s sometimes a little bit too, a kind of easier get it.
We kind of think, oh, it’s, you know, Â it’s that, you know, that, that song, that other song, there just goes be it, be it, be it, be it or something. We’ll use some example to justify not working on a hook. And this is, something that you’ve got to get past. It doesn’t want to be complex, but we want to develop it. We want to find a hook. If it’s not immediately floating our boat, if it’s really floating our boat, then we’ve, we’ve locked out, you know, and great. And that can come, that can come with practice.
You start to, to ramp up into lovely hooks, fairly naturally. the absence of it, making you very aware of it, you know, that’s where you really notice it. You think something’s not right, and it’s ’cause the hook isn’t strong. so  develop your hooks. I wanna go through these. I could talk on each of these for quite a, an amount of time, but I’m going to get through them. I want you guys to take them on board and then ask me questions so that we can revisit some of this stuff. 0.3 is that they’ll use interesting intervals.
Sometimes this is a combination of some, or all of these, will create hooks. Some hooks will be, you know, the same note, but a very interesting lyric or a punchy rhythmic pattern. But, you know, this is one of the tools as it’ll be using an interesting interval. often, this is the case since that you’ll have had a kind of reasonably linear verse, and then a ramping pre chorus, and then suddenly you’ll get these, spikes, on an interesting intervals.
 We’re gonna talk a bit more, more of that in a minute. fourth, using a variety of rhythms in different sections. So this is, where a hook doesn’t just standalone. It will stand alone in the listener’s mind when they’re away whistling it or, or humming it in their head. But really, what set it up, what gave it its background that made it feel so good? that’s the contrast in sections. So we really want to, you’ll have heard me talk about this a lot.
we really want to look at the, we’re talking melody here. So we’re looking at the rhythm of the melody. So if you’re going da, da, da, that’s the verse, da, da, da, then your pre chorus might go, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And  then the chorus might go,  that’s three contrasting rhythms in different sections.
So be aware of that. Sometimes we just sing what the first thing that comes to our, heads or our hearts. That’s okay. But we want to develop it in a way to do that is one of the tools. Number four, here, using a variety of rhythms in different sections, you really want to get contrast in. It’s a, it’s a, it was a mind blowing, bit of progress for me. That’s when I started, really writing, you know, from an emotional place, but starting then to kind of intentionally chop words out and things.
So I was getting syncopation and offbeats and all this stuff we’ll talk about more, later on. but a variety of rhythm. Rhythm is hugely important and can deliver you some banging hooks where you thought you had a, another kind of fairly similar line to the pre-code or something. And then you, you look at the rhythm, put it on the offbeats or on the on beats, or flip it about a bit. And suddenly you can have a really interesting hook.  So  number five, use notes both inside and outside of the chords.
By the way, a lot of these points will, be relevant to your entire melody writing, Â but we are looking for the short, concise element of hook writing tonight. but this is where you will find, this is another point, another tool where, if you think you’ve got your hook, we’ll examine just moving a note to outside of the chord. So if you are playing, let’s say you are playing, a g here.
 So there’s the, there’s the chord a G, and then if, if we’re starting the chorus on the c, we going,  And that’s not in the chord, and it’s just an interesting note,  nah, isn’t that, sorry, I signed the wrong note, note there, but you know what I mean. So you’re looking for nines and sevens interesting notes outside of the chords. And what you gain from that is tension and release.
so this is something you want to experiment with. This is, so you, let’s say you’ve written, a  chorus, and you’ve got a little, you know, the first line or the last line where a title is, or something like this. And you, and you like it, it’s short, it’s punchy, but you’re just thinking it’s lacking something.  Have a little look at, whether the notes are just landing, slap bang on the third of the chord, or on the root of the chord or the fifth of the chord. And then try a nine or a suss four, just move, you know, move it around, move those notes.
So that short bit of hook around, I do this all the time, and I find, and I do it with melody as well. and I’ll just find that I’ve not had to change where my heart sat with it, Â if that makes sense. I’m writing the same song, the lyrics not changed, but suddenly I’m singing a note with the same flow, the same energy, but it’s on a, it’s in a note that’s not sitting in the chord, and there’s just a richness and attention and a suspension that I arrive at from it.
that just gives me, a much, much more fulfilling feeling from the song that works in hooks hugely. So, really, really have a go at that. Â So, the sixth tool to use is, sim, it’s simple, familiar and memorable, but not linear and uninspiring. So this will relate, this relates to all the tools we’ve just talked about there. so don’t, and similar to it’s, it relates to when I was saying don’t just go with the first thing you’ve got.
Yes, simple and familiar. and you can sing it again quickly, are important aspects, but don’t just accept if it’s linear and uninspiring. If it’s like, baby, that’s right, well, maybe, maybe we go, baby, that’s right. Or baby, that’s right. It’ll just be more ing, just muck about with it and try. So sometimes just the simple, familiar and memorable isn’t, isn’t as good as it can be. You know?
we don’t want just linear and uninspiring. It can be simple, familiar and memorable with juice, you know, with some real fuel in it because of, some rhythmic, contrast notes outside the cord. a really interesting interval being used. And, and you’ve done the same, you know, baby, that’s right. But you’ve suddenly got this really hooky thing that when you repeat it,  people are going, da, da, da, da, and they’re singing that one line, rather than it being a passing moment, rather than it just being a kind of  middle bit of the song or the end of the chorus, you want it to absolutely slap home and, and hit home as something that people walk away with, singing it.
