How to Write a
Catchy Melody.

Free PDF Tutorial
includes multitrack MIDI file

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https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2877864/catchy-melody

Intro.

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British band Glass Animals are absolutely massive! At the time of writing this, they’re ranked #257 in the world on Spotify. Most artists as famous as them have achieved their success as a result of an obsessive striving for celebrity. However, Glass Animals seem to be obsessed with making catchy music instead. And not only that, their music is surprisingly creative for a band as successful as them.

If you’ve been doing our Hack Music Theory tutorials for a few years, you’ll know that we don’t usually cover “celebrity artists”. The reason for that is because (nowadays) there’s an inverse correlation between the success of an artist and the creativity of their music. For an artist to achieve a fanbase of tens of millions, their music needs to appeal to the masses. And most people (nowadays) want “sugary” ear-candy music that’s pleasantly predictable, i.e. boring, bland background music.

So why are we doing a tutorial on such a huge band? Well, Glass Animals’ new single “Creatures in Heaven” is a masterclass in catchy melody writing. The lead melody in their chorus has a whole bunch of creative hacks, as well as a very clever twist in its tale.

So, inspired by “Creatures in Heaven”, here’s our 6-step method for writing a great melody that’s catchy enough for the masses. But first… Tea!

Step 1. The Chords

Open your DAW, leave the time signature on 4|4, but change your tempo to 80 BPM. Next, create a four-bar loop on your melody track, with a 1/16 grid. Okay so you may be wondering why the first step in a melody tutorial is… the chords?!

Well, all great melodies are written over chords, or implied chords (chords are “implied” when they’re not played separately but their notes are incorporated into the melody instead). The reason it’s best to write a melody over chords is because it gives the melody a harmonic progression. Without this progression, the melody will sound mind-numbingly boring, as it won’t go anywhere harmonically. The difference is night and day. It’s like walking through a beautiful forest along the ocean compared to walking on a treadmill in a stinky gym. There’s no comparison!

So let’s get our chord progression written, that way we’ve set ourselves up to write a great melody. Glass Animals are in the key of D major for their chorus (so we’ll use it too), and they use four chords in their progression (so we’ll do that too).

D Major (notes)

D Major (chords)*

As you probably know (or as you’ll hear if you play it), the diminished chord is crazy dissonant. It’s safe to say that using C♯dim ain’t gonna appeal to the m