Rhythm Rule for Better Melodies

Learn how to avoid this common rhythmic fault many songwriters & producers make in their melodies!

0:00​ Introduction
1:13 Musical Faults
1:45 The Fault
2:55 The Fix
4:41 The Rule
5:21 The Example
5:41 The Djend

THE FAULT

Firstly, just to clarify. A fault is not a mistake! Music is an art, so if you’re making music from your heart, then there cannot be any mistakes. But, when songwriters and producers don’t understand theory, which is the grammar of music, they’re not able to fully express themselves. Just like if someone was trying to write a poem in a language they didn’t speak. The resulting work of art will undoubtedly have weaknesses. And a fault is defined as a weakness. So, what’s the fault in this melody?

Well, it sounds completely lifeless, right? It’s totally lacking in vital energy. What’s causing that? Rhythm! Or rather, a lack thereof. Unfortunately for rhythm, it’s usually the overlooked element in a melody. Indeed, songwriters and producers often seem to forget that melody actually contains two elements: pitch and rhythm. To hear this in action, just listen to the New Music Friday playlist on Spotify every week. It’s clear that the rhythms of most melodies are an afterthought, at best.

I’ve worked with countless songwriters and producers who’ve ended up at the horribly frustrating point of wanting to delete a melody, cos they just can’t get it sounding right. Up until that point though, they’d spent all their time trying to fix the pitches, but they’d not once considered that maybe it’s the rhythm that needs fixing. So, after bringing their attention to the forgotten element of rhythm, a few small tweaks later, and they’ve fallen in love with the exact same melody they were about to delete. So next time you’re frustrated and tempted to delete a melody, try experimenting with its rhythm instead, and see if you can save it!

THE FIX

Now you’re probably wondering what exactly makes a good rhythm. Well first, it’s important to remember that a rhythm is a pattern in time. And just like with all other patterns, our human brains get bored if there’s too much repetition, and they get overwhelmed if there’s too much variety. Therefore, good rhythms (like all good patterns), enjoy a pleasing yet interesting balance of repetition and variety.

Most melodies these days do not have any problem with repetition, it’s the lack of variety that causes their weakness. Variety in a melody is created by using many different note values, and most importantly, syncopation. Syncopation is when you accent an off-beat, and it puts a real spring in your melody’s step, bringing it to life.

For example, in the first three beats of our rhythm, we moved two on-beat notes to off-beats. The difference that this small tweak makes to our melody is truly unbelievable! You can hear it’s already being revived, and we’re only in the first bar.

And by the way, our example is in the key of A minor, which is all the white notes from A to A, and the tempo is 95 BPM.

Now, you’re probably wondering how to tell if your melody’s rhythm is boring. Easy, you give it the one-note test. You see, removing the pitch element of your melody will expose its rhythm. In other words, if your melody is captivating when played on one pitch, then it has a good rhythm. If it sounds boring on one pitch, then you need to work on its rhythm.

THE RULE

So to conclude. Our Melody Rhythm Rule is that your melody should still sound good when played on only one pitch. And the best way to do that is to ensure that your melody’s rhythm balances repetition and variety, and includes some syncopation.

Lastly, if you need more help writing melodies, then simply use our Melody Checklist, which tells you exactly what to do and what not to do in your melodies. The Melody Checklist can be found in our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link above).

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ABOUT
Hack Music Theory is the fast, easy and fun way to make music. Taught by award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony, and his protégé wife Kate. Ray has been teaching music theory for 25 years, and along the way he's made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), and many more!

COPYRIGHT & CREDITS
© 2021 Revolution Harmony
Revolution Harmony is Ray Harmony & Kate Harmony
Script & all music in video by Revolution Harmony
Book promo filmed & edited by Maurits Nienhuis
All stock footage courtesy of Pexels

[DogeisCut]

"Can you hear the fault in this music?"
Proceeds to play a melody that sounds like music I make
Me: uh oh

[JimLarranagak]

There are a lot of one note melodies these days. Which shows how important rhythm and syncopation really are to our brains

[juicebox]

just a person who's started trying to make music, and I'm glad I watched this.

[henryham]

You can’t be born with the last name ‘harmony’ and not make music as a career.

[axolotlgav]

The one-note test draws an interesting parallel to the grayscale test that one can do while making art.
Similar to how a melody needs to be interesting without the pitch and just the rhythm, a piece of art needs to be readable without the colors and just the values.

[albertgonzalez]

I’ve been producing for almost ten years and never heard of that single not melody trick! Genius!!

[smitty]

Wow y'all really taught me something in 5 minutes, better than these other music theory tutorials, earned my subscription‼️

[PixelatedQ]

why did I watch a video that's so inspiring right before bed

[Multi-Waves_Sketchbook]

A few hours ago I could not for the life of me make a melody, now I'm making melodies left and right! (They aren't too great yet, but I'm making melodies nowwww) thank you, now to figure out how to make long phrase melodies

[kentcourtney]

I like the "One Note" trick. I have a melody that I am struggling with and that should help me break the "creativity wall". (It is like a firewall - except that the creativity wall happens to my brain). Maybe I could use some Tea!

[ruchashirwalkar]

As a percussionist I’m so happy that you’ve put light on the rhythm cause it’s SOOO IMPORTANT

[ClosetoHumanMusic]

I've always known the rhythmic element of a melody is just as important as the notes being played, however, I've never tried the one-note method for checking whether or not that rhythm is good. That is super clever. I've been doing this 20 years and I still learn new stuff every day. Great vid!

[Goalieguy-rqcu]

This is literally the best written music theory video I’ve ever seen. I’ve taken advanced music theory classes, but you just taught me something I, be never even heard about in under 6 minutes without using any complicated jargon. That’s a follow from me.

[michaelrave]

The analogy of how music is from the heart and not knowing music theory is like writing poetry without grammar is genius! Keep up the good work.

[trzybd]

I have been watching and learning about music production for 2 years now and I have never come across something that taught me so much in 5 minutes.. THANK YOU!!!

[thephunk]

I've written it before and I'll write it again; you guys have an unbelievable ability to strip the complication from concepts many musicians spend decades trying to master. I just watched your 6-min video, cutting right to the heart of the matter and now, I feel like I can teach a class! Thank you for being you and not continuing to regurgitate the same ol' information found in every corner of the internet. Unreal. You guys are awesome.

[GodtierWaifu]

i cant even play an instrument why is this in my recommended 💀💀💀 banger video tho

[guillaume]

I just love how this channel can break down any subject into a 6 minutes video to teach you an extremely basic, simple concept and yet as soon as you pick up your instrument and your DAW you can practice what they preached for hours and hours and hours, and remember what you've learned and use all those little hacks every time you compose a piece of music.

This channel is hands down in the top 5 youtube channels about music composing.

[calacalamari]

I really wanna learn to make music, so im so happy to find this in my reccomended! Thisll help tons!

[annaisparis]

Love the one note trick! I always notice that a lot of synth lines I write end up being super long held sustained notes falling on the strong beats. Thanks for another rad video 😎