How to Write a Beautiful Melody • Music Theory from Swedish House Mafia "Ray Of Solar"

 

How to Write a
Beautiful Melody.

 

 

There are 7 elements that create a beautiful melody.

In this PDF tutorial you'll learn what they are, and how to use them!

 

 

 

Free PDF Tutorial
includes multitrack MIDI file

 

If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:
https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2554562/beautiful-melody

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intro.

 

When I recently heard “Ray Of Solar” by Swedish House Mafia on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist, the song’s beauty jumped out at me from amongst the almost 150 tracks that all seem to be sounding more and more alike each week.

 

And for the record, while I’ve heard the name Swedish House Mafia, I don’t think I’d ever listened to them before. In fact, I don’t even know if they’re from Sweden. I mean, you’d think the electronic duo Boards of Canada are from Canada, right? Wrong. They’re from Scotland! What?! Yep, it’s true. But I digress…

 

So, despite not being a Swedish House Mafia fan, the beauty of this song is undeniable. And as a result, we’ve ended up in the rare situation of making two tutorials on the same song.

 

In last week’s tutorial How to Write Beautiful Arpeggios (Free PDF) we taught our 6-step method for making a beautiful chord progression like you hear in “Ray Of Solar”. In this tutorial, inspired by the same section, you’ll learn our 7-step method for writing a beautiful melody.

 

And no, you don’t need to have done the previous tutorial, this one is completely independent. If you have, though, then you can write a melody for the beautiful arpeggios you made from that tutorial.

 

Alright, read on to learn the music theory hacks that create this undeniable beauty, and how you can use them to write your own beautiful melody. But first… Tea!

 

 

 

 

Step 1. Chords

 

Before we get to the melody, we need to talk chords. All beautiful melodies either have chords accompanying them, or if it’s a solo melody, the melody itself will imply chords. For more on implied chords, read MELODIC BASS DROP (PDF).

 

So le