Pop Music Theory


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +
44: Hook Melodies

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody -
44: Hook Melodies
Songwriting Steps +
44: Hook Melodies
Science +
Games & Tools +
Song Examples: Crazy +
44: Hook Melodies
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +
44: Hook Melodies

Detailed Contents

Lesson 44: Hook Melodies

This lesson explores adding a melody to chords to create a chord-based hook. After you've chosen a hook chord phrase, this is a common next step in writing a song.

This lesson builds on many earlier lessons. Before taking this lesson, you should understand:
How do you add a melody to your hook chord phrase? There are no rules, but you can learn ideas from hit songs. For this lesson, we'll look at two:
  • Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
  • Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
(Links to recordings at the end of the lesson.)

Like A Rolling Stone


The hook melody in Like A Rolling Stone, at the chorus (1:05 in the recording), goes like this:

G7 How - does it feel Ch C - F

How might Bob have come up with this melody? The answer is not that complicated. This melody doesn't sound too different from someone just shouting "how does it feel?". Here are some things that make it more musical than just shouting:

Rhythm: The strongest syllable, the word "feel", falls on the strongest beat, beat 1 of the chorus. This is very common, although certainly not a rule. Here are some more details about how this strongest syllable is placed:
  • The word "feel" is not exactly on beat 1. This is because it's anticipated, which you hopefully understand from Lesson 42: Syncopation. In fact, it's anticipated twice; first it's anticipated (moved earlier) by a ½ beat, from beat 1 to beat 3½, then by another ¼ beat to beat 3¼.
  • In order to place this strong last word, "feel", near beat 1 of the chorus, the hook melody actually starts (with the word "How") before beat 1 (near beat 3 of the previous measure, in fact). Starting a melodic phrase "early" like this is called a pickup. Notice that I've marked the start of the actual chorus with a Ch.

Chord tones: The strongest pitch (the F) is a chord tone (Lesson 35: Melody: Chord Tones). Since this is Bob Dylan, some of the notes are more "shouted" than sung, and don't really fit the chords (I've just written in approximate notes above). This "shouting" is not typical of most songs, but it's something you can do if you want to sound like Bob Dylan (most singers don't), but even Bob usually sings chord tones on the strong words.

Melodic range: The notes in this hook melody are the highest notes in the song. It's common for hook melodies to be the highest notes in the song, to focus energy and attention on the hook.

Crazy


Here's the hook melody to Gnarls Barkley's Crazy (at 0:39 in the recording):

G Does that make me Cra- Ch Cm zy

Notice these similarities to the Rolling Stone hook above:
  • We can imagine someone shouting "does that make me crazy?" over the chords, but shouting "musically", with rhythm and pitches that fit the chords.
  • Rhythm: This hook also uses a pickup to place the strong word "crazy" near beat 1, and also uses anticipation.
  • The strong notes are chord tones.
  • The strong word "crazy" is at the top of the song's melodic range.

Blues minor pentatonic scale: Notice the B♭ note on the word "make". The note B♭ is not a chord tone in the G major chord that's playing at that point, so how does that note "work" with the chord? Well, the song is in the key of C minor, and the whole hook melody is in the C minor pentatonic scale. This is an example of using a minor pentatonic scale against a major chord for a blues feel, from Lesson 43: Pentatonic Scales.

Do It Yourself


Adding a melody to your hook chord phrase can be as easy as "musically shouting" your hook words over your hook chords. Or, you can study hook melodies more deeply, by adding activities to your writing exercises (from Lesson 2: Practicing Songwriting):
  • Analyze the hook melodies in songs you like; the examples in this lesson were just to help you get started. Look for the features that make different hook melodies "good".
  • Compare your own hook melodies to the ones you've analyzed. Are there good ideas in others' melodies which you can use?
  • Practice using, in your own hook melodies, the ideas you find in others' hook melodies.

Next:
Links to recordings:
  • Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan: I used the version from The Essential Bob Dylan ($1.29 at Amazon last I checked).
  • Crazy by Gnarls Barkley: From the album St. Elsewhere (also $1.29 at Amazon).


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +
44: Hook Melodies

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody -
44: Hook Melodies
Songwriting Steps +
44: Hook Melodies
Science +
Games & Tools +
Song Examples: Crazy +
44: Hook Melodies
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +
44: Hook Melodies

Detailed Contents

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