Melody writing

[shanchu]

Would you guys think that analyzing hooks and melodies of beats and songs would help ones songwriting skills? If so, how much?

 

[bandcoach]

yes it can; to what extent comes down to how well you analyse and how you then apply that analysis - i.e. it's like a piece of string one size does not fit all situations

 

[shanchu]

do you have advise on how to apply a musical analysis?

 

[bandcoach]

I'd be using it more broadly than say this not must follow this note when they are heard above this chord - to specific and not enough freedom of thought

a much better solution would be to look at the broad trends of melodic movement with in a style/genre; i.e. from analysis of over 1000 pieces of pop and folk songs the following information is true

Concept	Frequency
Unison (stays on the same note)	50%
Up by step or down by step	23%
Up by skip or down by skip	23%
movement by 4th or more	6%

for vocal melodies jumping by an octave is ok but no more than major 6th otherwise

skip means moving to the next chord tone (including the 7th)
step means moving to the next note in the scale

of course there are exceptions to every rule including the idea of moving by chromatic intervals (moving to a note 1 semitone away and not in the key for example)