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You, Too, Can Create Your Own Song Melody
3 Easy Ways to Create a Melody for Your Own Song
Do You Have Something to Say in a Song?

Do you dream of writing your own song? Your words? Your melody? Not anyone else’s?
I am a singer/songwriter and have been for many years. I don’t teach lyric writing, but have my own ideas about creating melody.
Usually the melody goes through me, somehow presents itself to me. But sometimes I work with other songs and play with changing them just enough to make it new.
After all, for centuries one type of music builds on another, and the genius comes from a new idea, a new way to treat the notes. Western music has specific notes and an endless way of organizing them into the melodies we know and love, hate, or with which we are just comfortable or uncomfortable.
There are songwriting classes out there and I find that I do most of what they suggest naturally, as I have an ear for harmony, chords, and a feel for what I like, which transverses several genres. My CD “Journeys” has music in a variety of styles. If I wrote in the same style all the time I would bore myself to tears. Or death. I just don’t like being bored.
You don’t have to be able to read music (notes). Many singer/songwriters do not. But you want to be able to listen.

EASY WAY #1
For the newbies, I would suggest you start with a folk song that you know — start with simplicity. For example, “Sweet Betsy from Pike”. Or “My Darling Clementine. They are in a waltz style, which means 3 beats to the measure. You know, 1–2–3, 1–2–3. Now, if you wrote your own words to that song, it would be a parody. I do many of those for fun and people enjoy them.
But, say, you wanted to create another song from it. You might try changing the beat to 4 beats to the measure. 1–2–3–4, 1–2–3–4, etc. This is one of my favorite tricks.
What about a song that already has 4 beats to the measure, such as “Simple Gifts” or “Shenandoah” (one of my all-time…