What does it mean? Tension release in melody writing. You know, what is that? and what that is is, you know, if you’ve ever watched a movie like Star Wars, you know, it’s not that, and I’m gonna go to Star Wars one, like the very original. It’s not that Luke Skywalker is living with his family and sort of, I dunno, the crops die or whatever. They’re growing. It’s this great challenge that, that that presents itself. It’s the, you know, the, Jedi versus Darth Vader and the, and the Imperial fleet.
And, and there’s this, there’s this dance that happens where this sort of calm goes into something that’s tense, and this, this, smoothness goes into something that’s rough. And the same thing happens. I’m not, I’m not completely explaining that the way I’d like, but you’re gonna hear it in a minute. Where really good composers sometimes use a sort of technique that creates a, a, a melody that just has more, as the French would say, z se quo.
It just has more mastery to it. It has more, it just grabs your ear and it doesn’t let go. So I’m gonna just sort of, you know, go forward in our little deck here. And, as I’ve told you before, just to, sort of share with you who I am and, and what I do.
That I’ve taught songwriting as a professor at New York University. I’ve had Grammy nods. I’ve worked with all of the record companies and publishers. I I’ve sold TV shows. You know, it’s, it’s sort of a career as a lifelong musician. You, you, see wherever you could be of service and of service to all of those people. And then work with some heroes of mine that, you know, I sort of, you know, this dream of music.
It’s a, it’s kind of a Cinderella type story. So, I am going to, just, put the chat over on the side here and, and continue. So, let me go to this. So this is our objective today. We’re gonna learn how to write better melodies by understanding the use of notes out outside of the chord structure. So what does that mean?
What that means is, and I’m just pulling up a little trusty guitar here to just, you know, share with you what you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. So these are the notes. And, in fact, I’m going to, we’re gonna go on a little journey here. I’m gonna take the computer and I’m gonna go over to a keyboard, keyboard and, hopefully everything is working out fine here.
So, I’m gonna play for you what I mean, and hopefully we are gonna, we know I’ve a wobbly stand here, so let me just, try to ground it a little bit and pardon me for the disruption here, but just want everything to look good and sound good. So what do we mean by using seconds?
Fourth six. So as I just mentioned, a major scale is eight nodes, but what happens when, and, and a, a major or minor chord is like a 1 3 5 in general on a minor chord is one minor, three five of the, of these notes. So what happens if I use a note that’s not in these 1, 3 5?
What if I use this note? It kind of creates like a sound that is beautiful when put together with the chords. But if I, if I just have the root note, let’s say it’s an F and I have that note, a g it sounds like this Sounds like someone’s just sort of slapping the piano, so Yes, it’s a ninth or a second, or a suspended second. Exactly. And you know, really, I, I think that it’s intuitive.
I don’t think people start out by saying, oh, I want to put a sixth in my melody. But I think that what happens is that over time, composers just sort of absorb music that’s in the air and music that people have heard, and it becomes a sort of second nature. So we’re gonna deconstruct for a moment the song yesterday by Paul McCartney. So it’s in the key of F, but he starts the word, the first word on a G instead of the F.
So it’s yesterday. Now if I, if I just hit the f note that the chord is, and I hit the Yeah, yeah. It, it’s, it’s tense. And then the, the second half of the word resolves on the word day yesterday, and then the, the all is an, is a four.
So it’s, it’s that funny little note there that’s right in the middle of a minor chord. It’s an a note against an E minor. So it’s this, oh, my trouble seems so far, and again, that far is that what people had said in the chat? It’s like either you can call it a second or a minor nine. It’s, and, and that e is right next to an FI mean, that’s really what I would call classy poo.
Like deconstructed, it sounds really, dissonant, but put together Now I need a place to hide away. And Matthew, that’s where the suspended fourth is, like the Hide It, it’s a B flat right next to an hi Yesterday.
So it’s, it’s this beautiful bouquet of melody. And, you know, and the famous story obviously is, is that, you know, Paul McCartney woke up in the middle of the night. He heard this melody in a dream. He just sat and started playing it, and I guess he was hungry and he was like, scrambled, Scrambled eggs, Handsome butter toast on A rainy Day or something like that.
I know, I wish you could see my hands, but it’s just, if you look at the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, it’s gonna be easier than me trying to play and, and jiggle a laptop. So, now let me give you an example of, well, okay, well that’s Paul McCartney, blah, blah, blah. Like, not everybody does that.
And that’s true. Not everybody writes something that is as eloquent as, you know, a a a second to a fourth against a minor court and then, you know, a minor nine, you know, and then it’s in the court, then a suss four, I mean, I, I even playing this for you, get a little goosebump thing.
It’s just such a, such a beautiful, someone’s putting the, yeah, some scrambled eggs and baby how I love your legs. so let’s say, I’m gonna deconstruct this. Let’s say I’m going to, write it as if Paul McCartney wasn’t Paul McCartney playing in Hamburg for five years and knowing, you know, dozens of Chuck Berry and Cliff Richard and Elvis songs.
Let’s say it’s somebody who just started out. I might, I might do, something much more simple like yesterday, all my trouble seems so Far away Now it looks as Though they’re here To stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday. I mean, that’s, that’s nice.
It’s good, but it’s not nearly as, as they say, it is not nearly as beautiful and and magical as this yesterday. Oh, my trouble seems so far away. So this is a, a, a a a device that, that certain people use to put, you know, melodies that are, outside the garden.
And it, it goes on today, you know, if I, do baby by Justin Bieber, you know, it’s starting on the third and then it’s, it’s staying on, on the fifth of the court, but then it goes to the major seven and then, and then the second, you know, and then it goes to the sixth, to the fifth.
So it doesn’t matter if you’re the Beatles or, or the Beebs, you know, there is this process in music to sort of step outside this 1, 3 5 that we have.