Melodies that are played with each chord. An arpeggio melodyĪ great example of a arpeggiated melody is Porter Robinson’s ‘Vandalism’. In my opinion, there are three main melody structures in EDM: Arpeggios (or Arpeggiated Melodies)Ī melody where the notes of a chord are played one after the other. You can arpeggiate a chord and turn it into a melody, you can add notes on top of a pre-existing chord progression, you can use long notes, short notes.

There are a ton of different melodic structures in music. Want to master melody and chord progression writing? Check out Songwriting For Producers. Ideas that play frequently throughout the song and may vary slightly from section to section. The Difference Between Motif and MelodyĪ motif does contain melodic characteristics, but calling it a melody is a little far-fetched.Ī motif or phrase is a short musical idea – it might be a few notes placed in a certain order or rhythm, but it isn’t the main feature.Īnother characteristic of motifs is that they’re generally repeated. There are of course others, but I’ll exclude them for sake of popularity and use (especially in EDM).

Major and minor: makes up the majority of Western music.

Modal: variable patterns of Major/minor scale.

Think call and response, up and down, etc.

You could have an A and B section to your melody, maybe even a C. It’s handy to know the different intervals and the musical quality they contain. A melody uses more than one note, so there’ll always be at least one melodic interval.ĭoes the melody jump up to certain notes? Or does it move up to them incrementally?

Ultimate avicii sample pack