- What's up everybody.
My name is Jacob Collier.
I'm a musician, and I'm very excited to announce
that my class on Skillshare has now launched.
It's a class about melody,
harmony, rhythm, and the whole language of music.
It's really exciting.
And there is a sneak peek that you are about to watch.
I'm very excited.
Stay tuned and see you soon.
(bright music)
- In this lesson,
I would like to zone in on, and concentrate on,
one particular component of music
which arguably is the most important of all.
And that is melody.
What makes a good melody?
What are the building blocks of melody?
How are they created?
What makes them memorable?
The first thing to discuss here
is the idea of a melodic interval.
And so when I say an interval, I mean a distance
between two notes that happen one after the other.
So here's C for example,
and here is the note G.
So these two notes are two of my favorites.
And the distance
between them is what's called a fifth.
One, two, three, four, five. So fifth.
Now, let's discuss different intervals,
and then perhaps think about some examples of songs,
which are really good
and great songs that use these intervals
as they're starting distance of a melodic interval,
which makes 'em really strong.
So, here we have a second,
(plays piano)
- as in one, two
We got a third, one, two, three, (plays piano)
- and then we got a fourth,
(plays piano)
- fifth,
(plays piano)
- sixth,
(plays piano)
- seventh,
(plays piano)
- and we have an octave,
which is the same note, but you could say an eighth,
but no one really says an eighth. (plays piano)
- There you go.
C one octave higher. There you go.
So there are lots of different melodies
within all of these intervals.
And I'd like to give you some examples
of some of my favorite tunes that use these intervals.
Here's a good example for the interval of a second here.
(plays piano)
- Now there's a song called, "Frère Jacques",
and it goes like this.
(plays "Frère Jacques" on piano)
- And then...
(continues playing "Frère Jacques" on piano)
- And then...
(continues playing "Frère Jacques" on piano)
- And then...
(continues playing tune on piano)
- So that until...
(repeats part of tune)
- It's like walking up the stairs. (repeats tune)
- That's the second.
So a really nice way of beginning a melody,
because it's not too shocking.
It's not like going.
A third,
(plays piano)
- like this.
A good example of a third.
There's a song called "Kumbaya".
I don't know even know that song.
♪ Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya ♪
It's gorgeous.
That's a third.
And then that's a third as well.
Third's galore.
(plays "Kumbaya" on piano)
- And the nice thing about thirds is, they outline triads.
And we'll get to triads later,
but a triad is essentially a chord, three part chord,
which was very consonant.
It's very natural to us.
(plays piano)
- There's a good example for a fourth
that I'm sure you know,
and that is "Amazing Grace".
(plays "Amazing Grace" on piano)
- It's a good tune.
(continues playing tune)
- Right.
♪ Now grow ♪
You're rising a fourth.
Lovely. A fifth,
(plays piano)
- "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is good.
(plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the piano)
- Yeah. So it's such a nice contour, isn't it?
So it leaps up and then falls down.
And the art of creating a melody,
is really a satisfying line or an arc,
that tells a story within its own right.
And this is even before we think about lyrics
and all of that stuff, and harmony, and rhythm.
It's just a line of a melody out of time.
How satisfying is that?
There's a nice example for a sixth, major sixth here.
(plays piano)
- A song called, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean".
It's a great one.
♪ My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean ♪
- Like that,
(vocalizes tune)
- Memorably enough that is a sixth.
It's quite afar, quite a large distance to climb,
but it gives you space to fall.
(plays tune on piano)
- You know, so that's just cool.
Arguably, one of the greatest melodies of all time,
is a song called, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
I bet you know that song. And that one is a full octave.
♪ Somewhere Over the Rainbow. ♪
That's so lovely.
It really draws a rainbow.
If you think about it, it goes whoosh like that.
And then it goes
♪ Somewhere...da da da da ♪
You know, really arc-ful, that melody.
So within every melody that you know,
and every melody that you are still yet to write
as a musician,
you will basically find mostly these intervals.
And there are permutations and variations
of each of these.
So, for example, there's a second, but you can also
have a minor second,
which is a little smaller.
It's a major third and a minor third, a perfect fourth.
There's an augmented fourth, which is slightly bigger.
Perfect fifth.
There's a major sixth, like "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean".
There's also a minor sixth,
(plays "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on piano)
- and then there's a seventh,
minor seventh and a major seventh.
And of course the octave.
And then that continues.
You can have a compound second, or third,
or fourth, or fifth,
a double compound.
There's really anything that's possible.
All of the greatest melodies are built up
from these basic building blocks.
So understanding intervals is a superb place to start.
I find myself coming back to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
very often, because that as a melody is, it's so beautiful
and so sound and contains a lot of these intervals.
So we start with an octave,
(plays "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on piano)
- and then we've got lots of stepwise movement.
There's a third and second.
And then we jump a sixth. (plays tune)
And move down and we do another sixth.
(plays tune) And we got lots of stepwise motion again.
(continues playing tune)
- So it's really interesting contrast
between large distances,
(vocalizes tune)
- and...
(vocalizes tune)
- and smaller distances like,
♪ Do do do do do ♪
And so I love that melody
because it has both sides of the extremes of intervals.
And in the bridge section you got,
(vocalizes tune)
- and that's so lovely because it's both repetitive
and kind of sequential.
(plays piano)
- That interval staying in your head like that,
really keeps that melody in your heart.
(plays tune)
- And then it evolves by repeating, it goes
♪ Da da da da da da ♪
And that sort of takes you to a new harmonic place
but without the melody losing its identity.
And so, a melody with a strong identity
is something that's very important to aim for.
Repetition. As I also just mentioned,
is also very important.
And so many of the greatest songs of all time,
have motifs, or elements or intervals,
which are repeated time and time again,
so that they stay in your heart,
and stay in your mind.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow",
if you take that as an example,
the structure of that song,
is you've got A A B A basically.
You got...
(plays "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on piana)
- and you've got again,
(continues to play tune on piano)
- and you got our bridge.
(plays bridge)
- And then...
(continues playing tune)
- and then again.
(plays tune)
- And that's such a journey, 'cause it takes you,
on high arcs and low arcs and,
and small intervals and large intervals.
There's some contrast, there's some harmonic change.
We'll get into harmony later on.
But overall, actually,
I think that melody is such a good example,
of something that has brilliant contour, repetition, form,
contrasting intervals. Yet all using notes that go together.
And there's nothing too surprising,
but it's not without surprise either.
And I find that melody to be just a perfect form.
So one thing I've found myself sitting and doing many a time
in my musical life is, sitting maybe at the piano
with a guitar and with these intervals,
and with this information, these tunes,
these melodies in my mind, and trying to create my own.
And a good melody is very understated, in a way.
It can be cryptically hard to create a very good one.
And so let's give it a shot right now.
I've not planned any melodies here,
but let's try, come to up with a melody
that feels nice to us.
And I'm going to do it,
I think I'm going to do it in the key of F.
(plays piano)
- This is F major meet F major.
(plays piano)
- It's one of the best keys there is.
And so, let's see, if we're going to start a melody,
rather than thinking about it too cerebrally,
and too much in our minds,
It nice just to sort of sing something,
and let something come out.
In fact, I'll quickly share with you a lesson
I was taught about melody
from a very dear friend and teacher of mine.
His name is Mike Walkers,
who's a guitar player from England.
And I once asked Mike,
"How do you write a good melody, Mike?"
Cause I wanted to know.
And he said,
"Well the first thing to do is just to play me a melody."
So I played a melody.
I'll play you one right now.
(plays a melody on piano)
- There you go.
It's not too bad. So I played him a melody.
He said, "Okay, so that makes sense."
And then he said, without judging the melody, he said,
"Okay now sing me a melody."
And so I said, "Okay."
And I'll sing you a melody right now.
And my melody goes,
♪ Ba da da do da do... ♪
That's my melody for today, improvised.
And he said, "Okay, that's all good."
And he said,
"Okay, now, listen carefully in your imagination,
and listen to somebody, it could be a friend of yours,
or someone in your family or a girl or whatever,
let that person sing you a melody in your mind.
And then I want you to sing that melody back to me."
I thought, "Oh, okay."
So I listened carefully and thought, "Hmm."
And then a melody came to me,
and this is just a melody that's come to me right now,
but if I go,
♪ La lo la la lo... ♪
Like that. That feels to me, quite nice.
So I sang this melody to Mike and he said,
"See how that melody is, it feels right.
It just feels right."
There's form to it, there's shape to it,
there's structure to it, more so,
than when I was noodling on the piano.
That really feels complete.
And he said, "Okay, that's the end of the lesson.
That's it. That's all you need to know."
And I was quite confounded and blown away by this lesson.
But it's very important with melody to let it come to you.
So rather than sitting and thinking,
"Gosh, I need to make sure I incorporate thirds,
and fourths, and fifths, and seconds,
and sixths, and sevenths of..."
Those melodies don't feel good.
They might sound good.
They might be good on paper, but they don't feel good.
So it's important just to follow your nose.
(plays tune on piano)
- And that melody, for example,
had a bit like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow",
a mixture of smaller intervals, and larger intervals,
larger gaps.
And it also contained repetition.
So, say for example, we locked that melody in.
(plays melody on piano)
- Yeah. And then an answering phrase might be.
(plays tune)
- Yeah. And to complete the form,
(plays tune)
- And then say we repeat the whole melody.
(repeats melody on piano)
- And then,
(plays one note)
- back home.
That to me feels like something I can work with.
It has a form, has a sense of home.
It belongs in the key.
It's not too organized, it's not too chaotic.
And so that to me feels okay.
And ultimately I would encourage you,
to write a melody that feels to you,
like it has a line that you are drawing, that feels correct,
that feels whole, feels like it's setting out on a journey,
and it feels like it's departing from somewhere.
And then it's also arriving somewhere.
Congratulations for making it to the end of the snippet.
I'm so glad you're still here.
I'm teaching this class in order to get better at all
of these things myself, as all teachers do when they teach.
But I'm also hoping to share,
a little bit of my experience in the world of music,
and to try and distill some of these concepts
into ways that are easy to understand for you,
and that can hopefully give you the tools,
and the permission to just play, explore, and have fun.
Come and hang out on Skillshare.
Join us in our discussions about melody, harmony,
rhythm, lyrics, and the whole of music.
It's going to be epic and an adventure.
See you real soon.
- Thanks for watching.
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(closing theme music plays)