How to write your first melody on the piano

With all the keys of the piano in front of you, it is hard to know where to begin. So begin with fewer. Here are five: C, D, E, G and A, plus the C above. Together they form the C major pentatonic scale (“penta” means five).

Compared with the white-key C major scale, F and B are missing. Those two form the scale’s semitones, E–F and B–C (a semitone: two keys with no key between them). Without them, the remaining notes are spaced a little further apart, and most combinations sound settled over the chords used below. Some will still sound better than others: that is what your ear is for.

A melody rarely comes in one piece. It usually grows from a motif: a short idea of three or four notes with its own rhythm, short enough to remember. Ours is G, E, G, A, one note per beat, over a C chord in the left hand.

The simplest way to turn a motif into a melody is to play it again. Repetition lets the listener recognise the idea. Then change something, usually the ending: here the second time goes G, E, then down to D and C instead of back up to A. Same beginning, a different landing, and the phrase sounds finished.

Compare the three versions below. They use the same backing: C for four beats, G for two, C for two.

Now it is your turn. The melody maker below starts with the motif and four empty beats. Each beat holds one note from the five, or a silence. A path you can follow:

1. Play it as it is, to hear the motif over the chords.
2. Press “Repeat the first half” to copy the motif into beats 5 to 8.
3. Press “Change the ending”: the last two beats become D and C.
4. Now change one beat at a time, anywhere, and listen after each change.

You can also clear everything and start from your own motif. If you lose your way, “Back to the example” brings back the starting point.

A few things to listen for while you change your melody. They are habits that often help, not rules.

• Where it ends. Finishing on C, over the C chord, usually sounds like a full stop. Ending on D or A sounds more like a comma: fine in the middle, less so at the end.
• Where the chord changes. On beat 5 the left hand moves to G. Of your five notes, G and D belong to that chord. C rubs against its B: try it and decide whether you like the friction.
• Silence. A beat of rest lets the melody breathe and makes the next note stand out. One or two silences are often enough.
• One change at a time. Change a note, or the rhythm, or the direction, and listen. If you change everything at once, the motif disappears.

When you have eight beats you like, sing them, then play them on your own piano with the C and G chords in the left hand. Slow down as much as you need: the melody will not mind.