>> [MUSIC] We're going to talk about
stable and unstable tones in a major key.
As a songwriter, we're thinking about,
what notes am I going to choose?
I know now which shapes I might use,
but actually which notes am
I going to choose for my melody?
It's really important to know what
each note brings to you as a writer.
Going back to the C major scale.
[MUSIC] C is home,
it's the most stable note in the key.
[MUSIC] Feel how two wants to go back home.
But if you go up to three,
[MUSIC] it's away but it's still stable,
it doesn't have any motion to it.
Now let's listen to four.
[MUSIC] So badly wants to go down to three.
If you go up to five,
[MUSIC] it doesn't want to go anywhere.
It's the second most stable note in the C major scale.
One, five and then three for stability.
The six [MUSIC] doesn't have as much of a need to move,
but it's still wants to go down to the five.
One of the most powerful notes we can use as a writer is
the leading tone [MUSIC].
Because that's the note that if I don't resolve it,
you're going to be going, you
really want [LAUGHTER] me to go to that tonic.
As a writer in Western music,
knowing that [MUSIC] you
really want me to go [MUSIC] there,
is a power that I can use as a songwriter.
It's very powerful information for me to know,
you expect [MUSIC] that to go here.
It's really unstable.
The chord tones of a C major chord for example,
[MUSIC] are all stable
and that's why that chord feels so good.
When you write to an existing chord progression,
sometimes what can happen is we end up with
a melody that doesn't really create anything new,
or it doesn't create any dissonance or anything,
you just feel boring and that's because our ear,
is only going to sing what we hear.
[MUSIC] We might either sing that note as our melody,
or we hear [MUSIC],
or we hear this as [MUSIC].
There's nothing wrong with that if we're
writing a really stable song.
But what's really nice is when you go,
I don't have to just sing what I'm hearing.
I could sing something that would bring out
a whole lot more emotion than
those stable notes that I'm singing.
If I want to think about
last Sunday in like a, "remember last Sunday?"
I go [MUSIC].
It does not add a lot of emotion to that,
but if I sing it on
the unstable second degree of the scale, [MUSIC].
You like, "Oh yeah, what about Sunday?"
You've got that [MUSIC].
Our tone of voice trumps the meaning,
it trumps what we're saying.
Also the way that we talk,
we want that to help
us tell our story in a story that we're telling,
just like we do as a storyteller, as a songwriter.
If you've ever heard Adele sing,
Someone Like You, in her chorus,
then she runs into her ex
accidentally and then the chorus is never mind,
I'll find someone like you.
When she sings the word you,
she sings it on
[MUSIC] that sixth degree of the major scale.
Take a listen to that and just notice because when
she sings it on the sixth degree of the scale,
that's like when you're asking your friends,
do you like my new haircut?
They go, yes, you know that they don't,
and because Adele is singing you on a very unstable note,
we really feel like, oh man,
she's not over him at all, at all.
That's one of the reasons
that song is just so heartbreaking is
that melody that she's chosen to write is
really connected to how she's feeling,
it's a perfect match.
If you want to make your melodies
more interesting in general,
think about including notes [MUSIC] that are
not in the first tonic major chord.
When you spend time in a major key and you
really start to memorize how
each one of these notes feel,
particularly the unstable notes [MUSIC].
The two, the four,
the six, and the seven,
so that when you hear
a chord progression that you're writing to,
let's say you're co-writing and
your guitar player is playing some beautiful chords,
but there's no tensions in the chords,
maybe he's just playing triads,
your ear won't have to just write
a melody that you're hearing in those chords.
You know the unstable pitches,
and you can start to sing those and bring
more of those into your melody,
and pair those with the words that
you really want to color and bring that emotion to.
You're going to write better melodies.