“Never be ashamed to write a melody that people remember” —Burt Bacharach
New songwriters often feel they have to come up with clever, intricate melodies in order to show how talented and ‘original’ they are. But publishing companies and record labels are commercial organizations that need to make money. They’re really only interested in one thing: songs that can potentially sell millions of records and downloads around the world.
Creating songs with strong commercial appeal is all about achieving a unique blend of originality, familiarity and predictability that will make a song as easy to remember as possible.
Because people listen to the words and the music at the same time, it is especially important to retain simplicity in the melody. As Emeli Sandé puts it: “Sometimes simple melodies have the greatest impact.”
But that’s where new writers often go wrong. They worry that their songs will be regarded as boring, simplistic and unworthy if they don’t compose elaborate melodies. As a result, they can end up with songs that are far too complicated.
If people can’t hum or whistle your song after a few listens, it is unlikely to be a commercial success.
Many experienced writers find that simple tunes can be just as hard to write as a complex piece. “Writing a simple melody can take weeks to get it right where I want it,” admits former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin.
If you take time to analyze some of today’s biggest hit songs, you’ll find that it is their simplicity that makes them so memorable.
They are almost always built on just two or three short melodic themes that link together to form bigger lines. Simple phrases containing between two and seven notes are much easier to remember after one listen. And when these short phrases are combined and repeated several times throughout the song, they can deliver a powerful and memorable melody.
Listen to the choruses of some of the biggest-selling songs of the past 50 years— songs that have stood the test of time. You will hear that most of them have a short, catchy melodic hook that is also usually the title line. The hook features a melody and lyrics that are exactly the same every time the chorus is repeated—thus making sure the song gets well and truly stuck in the listener’s head!
It is this repetition of musical phrases that helps to make each song sound simple, even if it isn’t. And, as the great Irving Berlin once remarked, it helps the melody to “linger” in the listener’s head long after the song has ended.
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