Melodic Movement and the Skeleton Melody

Every strong and independent melody has another, simpler melody hiding behind it.

We can think of this as a skeleton melody. On its own, it’s bare and incomplete. But it helps give structure and contour to the fleshed-out melody it supports.

The ability to identify and play with the skeleton can help you control the way your melodies move over time. In this post, we’ll look at how skeleton melodies work. Then we’ll develop an exercise for writing new melodies starting from a skeleton.

Identifying the skeleton melody

Jack Perricone calls the notes of this underlying melody “structural tones”↗(opens in a new tab). Here are some of the places he says we can find them:

• on notes on strong beats,
• on notes that begin or end phrases,
• on longer notes, and
• on high notes and low notes.

As we’ve discussed before, these are also some of the ways you can emphasize a note in a melody. It makes sense that points of emphasis might form an implicit melody hiding behind the full melody.

Keep in mind that even experts could disagree about which notes count as structural tones in a particular melody. Our goal here is not to be perfect but to develop a new way of thinking about how melodies are structured.

We’re going to look at a few examples to give you a better idea of how skeleton melodies work. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll be looking for one prominent structural tone per bar.

Example 1: “L.E.S. Artistes” chorus

The first example will be from the chorus of “L.E.S. Artistes” by Santigold. Here are the first 4 bars of the chorus:

And here’s one way we could interpret the skeleton melody:

See if you can hear this skeleton melody underlying the full version.

In the skeleton, the b3 (flat 3) note emphasizes we’re in the key of F# minor. The 2 is an unstable tone that pulls us back toward the b3. And the 1 is the stable root note of the key, a common target in choruses.

This relatively straightforward skeleton supports an interesting and catchy chorus melody that avoids ever falling directly on the strong beat of a bar. Note that the skeleton abstracts away many interesting details, like the leaps in the first bar.

It’s very unlikely that she wrote or thought about a skeleton melody when working on this song. But it helps us see some of the structural motion internal to the chorus.

Example 2: “Race for the Prize” verse

Our second example is from the verse of “Race for the Prize” by The Flaming Lips.

And here’s one version of the skeleton melody:

The contour of the verse melody constantly moves up and down. But the points of emphasis occur near the beginning of each bar. Note that I’ve identified the structural tones as the target notes when he steps or leaps within a word (see “battle” and “dangerous”).

The skeleton starts at the 3rd degree, then walks back up. It then lands on 1, but the instrumentation creates a sense of suspension rather than resolution. The melody then moves to the unstable 2 and finally resolves again more clearly to 1.

As with the last example, the skeleton melody is pretty boring on its own. But it can help us see more clearly how the melody develops over time.

Example 3: “Laura” chorus

Our last example comes from the chorus of “Laura” by Bat for Lashes.

And here is one way to think of the skeleton melody:

The chorus of “Laura” gradually builds up in intensity as it moves up the scale. This is perhaps even more apparent in the skeleton melody. Notice that the melody starts on the root (1) but then avoids it until ultimately (and satisfyingly) resolving at the end.

It’s worth noting that all three of these melodies end on the root note. Returning home is a common destination, particular in choruses.

Development and momentum in your melodies

Sometimes a melody can seem to be stuck in one place, never going anywhere new.

Looking for a skeleton melody is one way to diagnose this kind of problem. If the skeleton tends to stick on a single note (or constantly moves back to it), then it’s likely the whole melody will feel static.

A static melody can be effective in some cases, particularly if it’s rhythmically interesting or paired with a dynamic chord progression. But in other cases, it will cause listeners to tune out.

If the skeleton melody keeps moving, on the other hand, then the whole melody will feel dynamic. This applies not only within a single section (like the examples above), but across an entire song.

It is common for the melodies of different sections to focus on different melodic ranges. This means the skeleton melody will also focus on a different range as it enters a new section.

If you find that your melodies don’t seem to go anywhere, then it can be useful to try adding more motion to the skeleton, both within and across sections. If you then revise the rest of the melody to follow it, you might find you’ve added new life to your song.

Just beware that too much of a good thing can lead to randomness. Subtlety is often the key here.

The skeleton melody exercise

Now that we know how to identify a skeleton melody, let’s develop a melody-writing exercise where we start from a skeleton.

You can do this exercise with or without a chord progression, though I recommend trying it with one first. That harmonic context will probably make the exercise easier.

Step 1: Choose a length and chord progression

Choose a length of melody that you want to write. I recommend 4 or 8 bars to begin with. If you’re going to use a chord progression, then record a progression of that same length and play it on loop.

Step 2: Write the skeleton melody

Your initial goal is to write a melody that contains a single note per bar. It doesn’t matter whether you sing, play, or program it. The important thing is that it moves over time.

This can mean moving in steps either up or down the scale. But it can also include skips and turns in multiple directions. Subtle but dynamic is the goal.

The easiest thing to do is have each note in the skeleton melody fall on the first beat of the bar.

Don’t rush this step. Make sure you’re satisfied with your skeleton before moving on.

Step 3: Write the full melody

Once you have your skeleton melody written and recorded, play it on loop (along with the chord progression if you have one). You’re now going to write the full melody based on the skeleton.

The simplest approach is to use the skeleton as is. This means singing or playing the original skeleton notes but adding more notes around them.

But it can be boring if every structural tone falls on the first beat of a bar. Try shifting the timing of some of the structural tones as you write your full melody.

For example, try singing or playing a note from the skeleton just before or after the first beat. Or you can even move it into the middle of the bar. Experiment!

Step 4: Evaluate the dynamics of your melody

Once you have a full melody written, listen to it carefully. Does it seem to move somewhere interesting? If not, you can either start a new melody based on the same skeleton or start over from scratch.

Another question to consider: does the melody sound stilted or unnatural? One reason for this can be that you stuck too closely to the rigid timing of the skeleton melody. Try experimenting with the timing of the structural tones in the full melody. Or try using more than one structural tone in some bars.

Don’t be afraid of breaking the “rules”

Sticking to the letter of this exercise is not an end in itself. If your full melody starts to go in interesting directions that leave the skeleton behind, be willing to follow where it leads!

In the end, what matters if how your melody sounds, not how you developed it.

Like any good exercise, this one can help you explore new ways of writing, develop new skills, and view songs in a new way. But I wouldn’t recommend using the skeleton melody approach as your normal approach to writing melodies.

It’s much more important to build and draw on an inner store of melodies. Exercises like this can then help you push yourself and address problems when revising your songs.