Melody over chords

A tune is a walk. Step on the stones, and you can go anywhere between them.

— the Slopwright

A melody sounds like it belongs when its strong beats land on chord tones, the notes of the chord underneath. Between them it can move by step through the scale; those passing notes give it shape without fighting the chords.

Most tunes move by step and leap only now and then, usually landing back by step the other way. Phrases breathe: they ask (end on something unsettled, like the fifth) and then answer (end on the tonic). Four bars of each is a classic shape, called a period.

Drip writes its own tunes this way: a chord tone on every beat, pentatonic steps between, the first bar answered a step higher, home on the last. The piano roll lights up the chord tones in each bar so you can do it by eye.

Try this

1. Put a note on the first beat of every bar, each one a lit chord tone. Play it.
2. Fill in between with notes one row apart. Make bar 4 end on anything but the tonic, and bar 8 on the tonic.
3. Send it to Tinny and play it next to Question, Answer.