STEPWISE MELODY RULE.

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony

(AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory,
the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or
if you just want a refresher, then read our free book. It’ll give you a
super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. Enjoy! Now,
in this PDF you’ll learn a common fault that many songwriters and

🍵
producers make when they’re writing melodies. And, you’ll learn our
theory rule for quickly and easily fixing this fault. But first…

©2021 Revolution Harmony

HackMusicTheory.com
 INTRO

Can you hear/see the fault in this melody?

MIDI Screenshot: Melody containing a common fault

If you couldn’t hear/see the fault, don’t worry, that’s what you’re about to learn.
And more importantly, you’ll learn our rule for fixing this fault in the melodies
you’ve already written, and avoiding it in melodies you’ll write in the future.

FAULT

Right, first things first. We intentionally use the word “fault” in this context,
because music is an art, so technically there can’t be any mistakes. But, and it’s a big
but, there can definitely be faults, as faults are weaknesses. And unfortunately, when
songwriters and producers compose by ear, their music ends up with many faults!

©2021 Revolution Harmony

HackMusicTheory.com
For the record, though, it’s not their fault. It’s the fault of our current music
education system that focuses on classical and jazz, which are irrelevant for most
songwriters and producers. This means they struggle finding resources to learn
relevant music theory, which often results in them composing music by ear instead.
This is a huge problem in the music world, and it was the inspiration for us
launching Hack Music Theory back in 2016, so songwriters and producers could
finally have a place to learn theory that’s actually relevant to the music they make!

Now, let’s get back to that melody. So, what is the theory fault here? Well, it
contains more than three stepwise notes from the scale. In the beginning of the
melody, it goes: E, D, C, B. And in the middle of the melody, it goes: E, D, C, B, A.
We refer to this as the “practising scales” fault, because whenever a melody goes
stepwise through the scale (up or down), it literally sounds like the producer
accidentally hit the Record button while they were practising their scales.

MIDI Screenshot: The “practising scales” fault (highlighted)

This fault is extremely common, as songwriters and producers who compose by

ear don’t have the confidence that theory gives you to experiment, so they tend to
play it safe and stick with a lot of stepwise movements. You see, our ears will
always be led by musical gravity to the predictable note, like resolving the 7 up to
the 8. Boring! If we wanna make cool music that stands out, we need to use theory!

©2021 Revolution Harmony

HackMusicTheory.com
And by the way, if you were wondering, our example is in the key of A minor,
which is all the white notes from A to A, and the tempo is 100 BPM.

FIX

You know what’s interesting? Now that you’re aware of this fault, you’ll start
noticing it everywhere. It really is sad how common it is! But, there’s a super easy
hack to fix this fault. All you have to do is change a note (or two) in each scale
segment, to break up that stepwise movement. In our example, we only had to
change one note in each segment to fix this fault. After this tweak, our melody now
has no more than three stepwise notes, which is the maximum you want. It’s truly
amazing how changing just one note can have such a massive impact on a melody!
So to conclude, our Stepwise Melody Rule is to have no more than three stepwise
notes in your melodies (unless for some good reason, you really really want that).

MIDI Screenshot: Melody fixed by breaking up (highlighted) the stepwise movements

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.

©2021 Revolution Harmony

HackMusicTheory.com
 🙏
Thanks for being here in the Hack Music Theory community, we really appreciate
you! Enjoy the final example, and please remember to download your Free PDF.

WHAT’S NEXT?
⏭ Now that you’ve got one section underway, how do you write the other
sections? Then, how do you transition between them, especially when they’re in
different keys? And then, how do you structure and arrange your song? These are
issues that many songwriters and producers struggle with, and that’s exactly why
we made our online course Apprenticeship #1.
⏭ The course contains 17 hours of video that teach every step of the writing
process, from blank screen to finished song. Whatever genre you’re into, you’ll
literally learn everything you need to know to write great songs and finish them. So,
if you wanna overcome your musical obstacles once and for all, then sign up now!

“Apprenticeship #1 had me turning loops into songs, even before finishing it!”
–David Sage (Orlando FL, USA)

“Totally life-changing in understanding how pros create great music.”

–David G (Brighton, UK)

“I've watched Apprenticeship #1 four times now. I was planning on starting #2 a

while back, but keep finding more knowledge in #1 with every viewing!”
–Glynne Owen (Tokyo, Japan)

WANT MORE? PDFs • COURSES

©2021 Revolution Harmony

HackMusicTheory.com