How to create a beautiful melody

By Vidas Pinkevicius

What a beautiful melody does Cesar Franck's Prelude from Prelude, Fugue and Variation have!

Ever wondered what does it take to create one of your own? Here are some steps to create a melody in the form of a period:

​1. Choose a character and a key with a meter that work for that character.
2. Start on any of the scale degrees of the tonic chord.
3. Use rhythms that work with this meter.
4. Create a melody that's 4 measures long (sentence 1).
5. End on the degree other than the tonic (question).
6. The last note should be longer than the rest.
7. Try to aim for only one main culmination (the highest point) within this sentence.
8. The culmination can be in the beginning, middle or end.
9. Repeat or create a similar melody that's another 4 measures long (sentence 2).
10. This time end on the note of the tonic chord (answer).

You can try your hand on the paper or at the instrument. If you're curious enough, you can construct the entire piece out of beautiful melodies.