Tip of the Day: 5 Finger Melodies - 3 helpful Tricks!
You think that really good melodies need to be extra fancy and spread across the keyboard or spanned over your whole vocal range?
Maybe time to think again, because most of the catchiest melodies we know, were written within notes you can play at the same time with only 5 fingers. That does not mean, you should play them altogether though.
Let´s even leave out black keys and let us imagine, we are in C Major, which gives us a tonal material of 5 notes - C D E F G.
You think that is not enough to write a hit? Zedd “The Middle” consists mostly out of 5 finger melodies - although he jumps to different octaves, but still stays in the same concept.
Also for an example in a minor scale: the harmonica melody in the drop of “X” by Nicky Jam and J Balvin, consists only out of 4 notes.
Tip 1: proximity
Do not write notes too far away from each other. Do not choose an interval bigger than a 5th, if you want to write a catchy melody (for anything else, go crazy on your keyboard).
Try to go back and forth with some repetition, to drive the screw into the listeners ears.
Tip 2: hit your chord notes
Most of your triads will give you that 5 finger melody material you need. Just take your chords and chop it into a cool hook.
Tip 3: ascension
Depending on your scale, you can write a melodic figure, which can be started later on another note, but with the same proportions, note lengths and intervals.
That way you create repetition without actually repeating.