The Melody of 'Golden' Is Crazier Than You Think

[00:02] phenomenon that is K-pop Demon Hunters because it feels like the world has collectively lost its mind over this film and the soundtrack comprised of catchy melodic hooks. And it seems at least once a week my kids are watching

[00:14] the film, they're listening to the soundtrack. My wife listens to the around. We all listen to the soundtrack together when we go on road trips. And this soundtrack has just created history with four songs concurrently in the

[00:27] Billboard top 10. And the biggest of them all with a staggering 500 million streams on Spotify at the time of this recording is the song Golden. So, I've deconstructing it, looking for a reason why so many people are obsessed with it.

[00:42] And I think I found out what it is. To explain what makes Golden special, let's talk about melody for a moment. We can think of a melody as a series of notes strung together. And there are only three ways that one note can move to

[00:54] another note. It can stay on the same note, which we would call a repetition or a pedal note. It can move up or down to the next note in the scale, which we would call a step. Or it could move up or down, jumping over at least one note

[01:08] in the scale, which we refer to as a leap. So that's it. Every melody in every song that has ever been written is moving in one of these three ways from note to note. Now, if the melody is moving via a leap, there's an additional

[01:21] factor we care about, and that is the distance of that leap or the width of that interval. So, a third is a small leap. It's the smallest leap we can have, but an octave is a much bigger leap. That creates a wider interval. So,

[01:35] why do we care about any of this? Well, firstly, leaps are more attention grabbing than steps. Secondly, that attention-grabbing quality is amplified generally recommended when we're writing our melodies to have a good balance of

[01:49] no rules in songwriting. There are principles, there are guidelines, but for every rule and for every set of principles, you can find a list of songs that go the other way. But one of the big challenges that a lot of songwriters

[02:02] continually come up against is trying to make their melodies interesting, trying to make them memorable. And so often our melodies are boring, lackluster, not very interesting because they're not moving enough. there's not enough

[02:15] motion. In short, there's too many steps, not enough leaps. So, the question is, how many leaps do we need in our melodies to make them make them memorable? Well, it turns out that a little goes a long way. So, let's

[02:28] take a classic song like the Beatles Let It Be. And if we look at the melody mapped out in Hook Theory, you can see that the melody has this up and down motion. >> Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.

[02:43] Let it be. Whisper words of wisdom. Let it be. melody in this way is you can identify how many steps and how many leaps there

[02:58] are throughout the melodic phrase. And it also shows the width of the leap. And you can see that in this melody, we have a few smaller leaps and we have one wider leap. The other thing it shows us is the ratio of steps to leaps. And this

[03:11] is simply a matter of adding up how many steps there are compared to how many analysis with a lot of different songs. And what you often find is that the ratio of steps to leaps is somewhere between 3:1 or 4:1. That seems to be a

[03:25] really common ratio of steps to leaps because the steps are there kind of acting like the glue, holding the melody together. The leaps are popping up every now and then, creating the interest, grabbing the ears attention, and really

[03:40] really ever find with melodies is a ratio of one one, as many steps as there are leaps. But this is where the song Golden is different, and this is what makes that song special. Firstly, let's look at the pre chorus. You can see

[03:55] look at the pre chorus. You can see visually how much movement there is. [Music] I'm shining like a but I'm shining like a but we dreaming hard we came so far now I

[04:10] believe. So in this melody there is a higher number of leaps compared to steps. The ratio is not just one one. The number of leaps is greater than steps. And this is very rare in the world of songwriting.

[04:26] It essentially creates a melody that is constantly shifting up and down. It's incredibly dynamic. There is so much motion. And remember, leaps are the attention grabbing part of a melody. So, what's going on here is our attention is

[04:38] constantly being grabbed throughout this entire melody. This up and down motion, these wide intervals, they are peing our interest with melodic movement that is dynamic and exciting and really unlike any other melodies you hear.

[04:53] [Music] Together we're going to be going to be

[05:06] with our voices going to be going to be golden. Oh, I'm done hiding now. I'm golden. Oh, I'm done hiding now. I'm shining like I'm

[05:21] [Music] Again, the ratio of leaps to steps here is extreme. And the other thing that's so exciting about this melody is the range of the melody. A lot of melodies you hear are really within an octave

[05:34] range or maybe an octave and a bit. This melody goes well beyond that. And the effect is intoxicating. It creates this incredible lift, this powerful crescendo. Of course, the glaring issue for many of us is that we simply don't

[05:48] have the range to be able to sing that kind of melody. And so we're often writing melodies with less movement simply because it's achievable for us to sing. It's within our range. But there is a way of taking these principles and

[06:00] make your melodies more interesting and more memorable without needing to extend your vocal range. So let me demonstrate and we'll pretend we're writing a song and we'll pretend we're writing a song in the key of C.

[06:19] So the scale or the note choices we have Aaa. because I need to really go into head voice at that point. So E represents

[06:35] kind of the break for me from chest voice into head voice. And that's important to know because it means that when I'm writing a melody, if I want to stay in chest voice, I need to know that that's kind of an upper limit. So, in

[06:48] the key of C, starting on a C note, room above. I've got room below. But another way of thinking about it is,

[07:03] well, what happens if I start the melody lower? What if I start on a G note? lower? What if I start on a G note? Now I have the option.

[07:18] leaps because I've got room to go up. So I could create this leap here.

[07:37] it's allowing me to add that leap early into the melody. But we could go even into the melody. But we could go even lower. Go down to the E note. lower. Go down to the E note. Now,

[07:52] itself makes it more interesting to the ear than a melody that is comprised mostly of steps. So if I start on that E note and went, [Music] it's not particularly interesting.

[08:22] ear. There's more movement. And so that's an example of starting on a lower note and giving yourself room to jump up. But of course, we can go the other way. Start high, drop low, and double back with the melody. And that's one of

[08:36] the things you see in the song Golden. You see this melody constantly doubling back on itself. So a real feature of this melody is the directional change as it goes up and down. Still incorporating leaps. So let's try this

[08:53] leaps. So let's try this [Music] [Music] finishing on the Da.

[09:06] one chord, but if we add a little bit of groove to it and a couple of extra groove to it and a couple of extra chords.

[09:27] you hear in the song Golden and the rest of the K-pop Demon Hunter soundtrack, we can still identify what makes these melodies so catchy and interesting and them to our own songwriting. And so, when you're writing your next song,

[09:41] think about these two questions. What is the ratio of steps to leaps in my melody? Have I got too many steps and not enough leaps? Is there an opportunity to insert a little more up and down movement in the melody? The

[09:54] width of those leaps? Knowing that if we're using leaps of a third or a fourth, they're going to be less impactful than wider leaps of a fifth, a love to know if you find this method helpful. So, please let me know in the

[10:08] comments. And I'd also love to know what your thoughts are on the K-pop Demon Hunter soundtrack. Do you have your own thoughts and insights on why this music has become so popular around the world? And if so, I'd love to hear from you in

[10:20] And if so, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Happy songwriting. Bye.