Here Are Five Melody Problems That You Can Make Go Away

Here are five things you need to know to make music problems into power things that help you make good melody.

1

The first music time thing you need to know

The first music time thing you need to know is the four time things in the four time thing.

The four time thing is a thing that people at college call the time signature.  But we of the street can call this a time thing.


2

The second time thing you need to know

The four time things are things that people at college call crotchets or quarter notes.

What matters here are not what they are called but what they do.

These are four things that go down and up in even time.  These things go down, up, down, up.  You can feel that right?

We can call them down things and up things. 



3

The third time thing you need to know

Now each these down and up things last for the same amount of time.

But how do we know what the correct amount of time is for each down and up thing?


The first time thing you can do now

If you can move your feet down, up, down, up, in the same even time then you have a good time for your down and up things.

If you move your feet in even times, whether short or long, quickly or slowly, each time will also be a good down and up thing time.

In fact, as long as you can feel and keep even time in your body, any time is a good down and up thing time.


The second time thing you can do now

If you can not feel even time then you will need help.  A thing that helps you keep even time in music is a thing called a metronome.

It's a thing that makes a sound in time.  Every time.

Here are two kinds of metronomes.


You can set your one to go slow and then move your feet down and up in time with the beat.

Now you know why you can say each down and up thing is one beat long.

4

The fourth time thing you need to know

Now we can talk about a down thing that goes in time with a down beat.  And an up thing that goes in time with an up beat.

Now we can talk about a down beat and an up beat.

5

The fifth time thing you need to know

When the beat sounds are close together the beat is going at a guick tempo.  When the beat sounds are further apart the beat is going at a slower tempo.

At a quick tempo the beat is for a short time.  At a slow tempo the beat is for a long time.

Yet whether the beat is long or short we still call it by the same name.


Now it's time to turn these simple down beats and up beats into a simple language that we can talk and make melody with.