What Is Melody?

A melody is a collection of musical tones that are grouped together as a single

entity. Most compositions consist of multiple melodies working in conjunction with
one another. In a rock band, the vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and bassist are
all playing melodies on their respective instruments. Even the drummer is playing
one.

The melody in a piece of music consists of two primary components:

Pitch. This refers to the actual audio vibration produced by an instrument.

These pitches are arranged as a series of notes with names like C4 or D#5.
Duration. The definition of melody also includes the duration of time that each
pitch will sound. These durations are divided into lengths such as whole notes,
half notes, quarter-note triplets, and more.

What Is Harmony?

Harmony is the composite product when individual musical voices group together to
form a cohesive whole. Think of an orchestra: the flute player may be playing one
note, the violinist plays a different note, and the trombonist plays yet a
different note. But when their individual parts are heard together, harmony is
created.

Harmony is typically analyzed as a series of chords. In this hypothetical

orchestra, let�s say that the flutist was playing a high G, the violinist bowed a
B, and the trombonist sustained an E. Together, those three notes comprise an E
minor triad. Therefore, even though each instrumentalist was only playing a single
note, together they played an E minor chord.