[00:03] in our mentorship program. Hi Alex. Who came to me with the frustration feeling that his melody in his song and generally in his songwriting is a bit boring and a bit stale and a bit boxy and he wasn't quite
[00:18] sure why that was the case. And when we listened to the song that he had brought listened to the song that he had brought in, what we identified together as being the cause of his frustration, the cause of this feeling that his melody was just
[00:31] a little bit boring was because all of his melody notes were tracing the root notes of the chords that he was playing. So, it's very, very common for a songwriter to start with some chords and then let the melody arise out of those
[00:47] chords and it can be a problem if all of our melody notes are just tracing the root notes of the chords. But, let me tell you a really important thing about what makes melodies great. It's not actually a problem at all if we have a
[01:02] root note melody, a melody that is just coming out of the chords and the notes of the chords themselves. It's only a problem if that's all we do in the song. So, it's really important because no initial melody idea that we have is
[01:18] inherently interesting or boring. It's all about how we create variation and all about how we create variation and contrast. So, we stuck with that melody. We kept that melody for the first two lines, but we worked together to create
[01:34] some variation in the third line of that section to identify that what the characteristic was of those first two lines was this root note melody and to say, "That's fine. It creates a nice vibe. It's a really happy feel." But, if
[01:48] it's just that way through the whole song, it is going to end up feeling stale. So, we worked together to create some new interesting ways to approach the melody in the third line that just did something different, that moved the
[02:01] melody off that root note of the chord, and suddenly the whole thing sounded really, really great. So, it's so important, I think, when we're thinking about melodies and thinking about songwriting, to understand, particularly
[02:15] when it comes to melody, that no initial idea is good or bad, is interesting or boring. You know, there are some melodies that immediately catch the ear, and it's worthwhile chasing those melodies, but it's more helpful for
[02:30] songwriters, I think, when we're in our initial stages and maybe struggling with melody a little bit and judging ourselves too harshly, to take the judgment out of any initial idea and really say, "It's not about that idea.
[02:43] It's about what I do with that idea and what I do next."