There's one melodic contour Taylor Swift uses over and over in her songs.
Of course, she uses a bunch of others, too.
What is melodic contour?
Well, it's just the shape of your melody.
But since Taylor Swift is so prolific in her writing, it's a great place to start and analyze
some of these contours.
Dive in and I'm going to show you what she does and you can use some of these strategies
in your writing, too.
Hi, I'm Heather Greenslade with Singer Songwriting School.
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If you ever get stuck writing the melodic lines for your songs, keep watching.
By the end of this video, you will know all about the melodic contour Taylor Swift uses
most often and three others.
I've used these melodic contours and many others all throughout my writing and now you
can, too.
Just throw that tool into you songwriting kit and keep on writing.
Taylor Swift is very well known for her one-note melodies.
It's actually part of the key to her success.
Not only does the simplicity of her melody allow people to really engage in the lyrics,
but it makes it so easy to just jump in and sing along.
It would be really easy to assume that a one-note melody would be boring and people wouldn't
want to listen, but you cannot deny the popularity of these songs.
Check out the chorus of "Look What You Made Me Do."
Ooh, look what you made me do.
Look what you made me do.
Look what you just made me do.
Look what you just made me- Yep, just pretty much just one note.
Why does it work?
Well, one of the reasons is that the melody of the preceding section is so different.
Check out the pre-chorus leading up to that part I just played.
I got smarter, I got harder, in the nick of time.
Honey, I rose up from the dead.
I do it all the time.
This part's only two notes, but they're spaced really far apart.
(vocalizing) Then it goes to (vocalizing), sort of a speaking voice.
The instrumentation behind it is so different.
It just works.
She's varied the sections enough that, yeah, I don't mind singing the same note over and
over the whole chorus.
I'm loving it.
Taylor's song "Are We Out of the Woods?" has a one-note melody all through the chorus,
too.
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the- One of the things that makes this one work
is that background vocal riff.
Listen again.
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the- Can you hear the texture that creates?
Also, just like in "Look What You Made Me Do," she's got another section with a very
different melodic shape.
In the bridge, she's jumping from one note up to another note and it's actually a jump
of a fifth, just like it was in the other song.
Check this out.
Remember when you hit the brakes too soon?
Twenty stitches in a hospital room.
When you started crying, baby, I did too.
But when the sun came up, I was looking at you.
We've got two shapes so far, the one-note melody, and then we've got this jumping back
and forth between notes that are pretty far-spaced.
But what's happening in the verses of these songs?
Let's look at the verse of the first song we looked at, "Look What You Made Me Do."
Her melody is step-wise.
She's not jumping anywhere, she's just going one note to the note right next to it, and
she's going note, same note, up, up, and then back down to the note where she started.
I don't like your perfect crime, how you laugh when you lie.
You said the gun was mine.
Then she repeats that pretty much exactly a few times.
Now let's check out "Are We Out of the Woods."
Again, she's got a step-wise melody.
(vocalizing) It's note, down, same, down, up, same, down, up, same, up, down, down.
That's what I'm thinking of when I listen to these contours.
Are we staying the same?
Are we going down?
Going up?
Just check this out.
Looking at it now, it all seems so simple.
Then she repeats basically the same shape, just a little bit lower in the scale.
Take a listen.
We were lying on your couch.
I remember.
Taking the same melodic contour and shifting it to a different range in your scale is a
really common and pretty great technique.
Do you already notice the melodic contours in songs or is this a new technique for you?
Let me know in the comments below.
To learn more about melodic contour in various popular songs, check out this video here.
Now you know what melodic contour is and a little bit about how Taylor Swift, in particular,
uses it in her songs.
Now it's time for you to jump in.
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Happy writing!