TUNES
Since the tune is the glue between the words and our mind, it is important to make sure our musical tunes follow some basic guidelines in order to be good-quality and memorable. So, let’s look at some tools that will help us in the realm of making tunes! (Again, I am not a music-professional-anything, but I have learned a few things over years of listening, playing, and writing music.)
If you have never learned how to read music, I highly recommend that you do so before you try to write music (after all, who ever heard of an illiterate author?). Take some time to dedicate yourself to the study of how music works and what all the lines and dots mean; it takes a bit of learning, but it’s probably not as difficult as you would expect. I am writing this blog based on a basic understanding of music and musical terms, so it would be helpful for you to already know the terms I will use.
1. Rhythm
Broken down into a simplified form, rhythm has to do with the duration of notes in a tune. This is a big part of what separates music from noise: music (tunes) follow a pattern of some sort.
As it relates to writing tunes for psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, what we want to focus on, primarily, is the duration of notes following a pattern. We want to be creative and unique in our specific tune pattern while maintaining consistency. What do I mean? I will use examples to explain. Think of the tune for “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. Notice that if we divide the tune into its four equal pieces, pieces 1, 2, and 4 are very similar (in fact, parts 2 and 4 are identical, as far as the melody goes). There is a consistency in that, and it makes the tune easy to learn and easy to remember. Also notice that the rhythm (duration) for each of these parts is the same:
That’s one part, and if you count out the other three parts, you will see that they all follow the same timing pattern. That is a good practice for us to follow, in general. Sometimes, it is very effective to do something extremely unique with our rhythm, but beware! Often not sticking to a consistent, repeated rhythm will leave your tune difficult to learn and difficult to remember. For example, I wrote a song a while ago that used a different rhythm for each line (mixed with a variety of note sequences, which did not help), and I have found it to be not suitable for congregational singing because of its unnecessary difficulty.
On the flip side, it is possible to not be unique enough in the rhythm and produce a very dull tune. Take the tune for Thomas Ken’s Doxology, an old tune called “Old Hundredth”; every note in the melody is a quarter note in duration, which makes for a plain rhythm. If it weren’t for its elegant sequence of notes, the rhythm would easily bore singers (and does some, unfortunately, due to over-use).
So, what should we do when writing a tune rhythm? First of all, know your basic note durations. Use variety to make it interesting, and use consistency to keep it singable and memorable. Take note of the relationship between the rhythm and the notes so that the rhythm upholds the mood expressed; you don’t want a lovely, flowing note sequence to be drummed out to a strict rhythm, nor do you want a bouncy rhythm for a sad, minor-keyed song.
2. Time
At the beginning of the song, you see the numbers 4/4, or 3/4, or 6/8, or some two numbers. The top number tells you how many beats in a measure and the bottom number tells you what kind of note “gets the beat” (a 4 stands for quarter note, an 8 stands for eighth note, etc.). In the realm of God-honouring music, most of our tunes use the three numbers I’ve already mentioned. Some use 9/8, a few use 12/8, fewer use 3/8, and some use 2/4, but beyond that, I don’t think you’ll find any other time signatures in a normal hymnbook.
That is not a challenge to us to fill in with hymns boasting bizarre time signatures; in fact, I caution you against doing so. Many young musicians (especially millennials; sorry, guys), wanting to express individuality and personality, have come out with the weirdest-sounding time signatures. But—let me say it in all honesty—the Church is not about individuality, because it’s not about me, whichever me we’re talking about. As music-suppliers for God’s people, it is our place to make tunes singable for a majority of people, not the select few who have studied our strange arrangements. Stick to writing songs with a timing that is natural.
That being said, choosing the right timing can help you express your message in the best way possible. Any timing can be used effectively in a variety of styles and moods: majestic, victorious, and military work well in 4/4; slower songs, whether sweet and flowing or sad and thoughtful, effectively utilize 3/4 timing; 6/8 makes excellent bouncy tunes, especially with an Irish twist. If a tune is not coming out nicely, try changing the timing to see if that is what is lacking. This is a fun tool to play with!
A few hymns in the typical hymnbook have successfully changed timings somewhere in the song (Example: Constantly Abiding uses 3/4 for the verses and changes to 4/4 for the refrain). That is an option for us, but be aware of having too drastic a change between the parts of your tune.
3. Key
The key tells you what note to start your scale on; the key of C starts the scale on C, while the key of A starts on A and hits all the sharps it needs to for its normal scale. I advise you to learn the keys well and be able to recognize a key based on the key signature (how many sharps or flats are listed at the beginning of the song). When writing a God-honouring song tune, the general rule is to stick to the key; don’t throw in tons of accidentals, and stay with the same key all the way through. [If you are writing an arrangement for performance, however, changing keys within the song has always been a popular way to make the song interesting.]
The most used types of keys are major and minor; usually a major key is used for a “happy” song while a minor is very effective in communicating sadness of some sort. There are other types of keys that may be useful to know, at least for inspiration, but they are not normal in western culture and are therefore more difficult for us to grasp.
Often in hymns, the tune writers use accidentals in the harmony parts in order to achieve a specific chord. Sometimes the melody will use an accidental on its journey to a chord, but it usually will not stay on the accidental for long, because it’s not a part of the key. Use the key signature as a guide for your melody.
4. Melody
The melody is the main part of the song. It is the sequence of notes that most people sing when they sing a song. Because of that, the melody should, in general, cater to the majority. It is the identity of the song; for you can strip away all other musical elements and leave the melody, and you will still have that song. You might say that the melody is the most important part of the song. So, when you write a tune, you should put effort into producing a good melody.
How do we make a good melody? By using sequences of notes. When a young child bangs on a piano just to make noise, none of us would call that a melody, simply because there is no sequence in the notes. Melody should not be random. So, what kind of sequences can we use?
a. Consecutive Ascending.
BCDE, the beginning of “O Danny Boy”, would be an example of this. Stay in the key or use appropriate accidentals!
b. Consecutive Descending.
DCBA, the beginning of “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me”, is a good example (notice the rhythm change, in relation to “Danny Boy”). These could be altered from being strictly consecutive to being mostly consecutive; skip a note or add an unexpected note.
c. Chord Ascending.
A chord is any set of three or more notes that you play at the same time; a simple chord of C is played at the beginning of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”, where the first three notes are CEG.
d. Chord Descending.
“By Thy call of mercy…”, BFDB, from “Who is on the Lord’s Side”, is a great example of this sequence. Of course, in either direction you send your chord, it doesn’t have to be a simple chord. It can be a major or minor, it can have a second or seventh, it can be augmented…. (For more information on that, study musical intervals.)
These are four basic ideas to get you started. Mix and match them! You can do half an ascending chord, then move to a consecutive descent, then go back and finish that ascending chord from earlier and descend from there. Play with it, and have fun! It may take some time and work to find just the right notes for some part of your melody, but it’s really satisfying when it comes to you!
Whatever you do, there are two things to keep in mind as you forge a melody for the tune: Consistency and Diversity. You want the melody to follow enough of a pattern that it makes sense and sounds good. You want God’s people to be able to understand and sing your tune, because it is consistent and reliable. However, at the same time, you don’t want people to be wondering when your monotonous song will ever end (like when you sing six or more verses to “The First Noel”); so, add some diversity to it. Make it distinct enough to be recognized from other songs and unique enough to be interesting.
5. Singability
Let’s face it: some songs are impossible for normal people to sing, especially as a congregation. Don’t let your tunes fall into that category. We are writing these songs for Church people to be able to sing together in praise to God or in encouragement to one another, so make sure that the average person in your congregation can sing them. This includes speed, rhythm, and pitch. Check to see that there are no parts in which notes are too close together to sing the words there; make sure the rhythm doesn’t skip in a way that a group cannot sing together easily; and be aware of how high or how low your melody causes people to sing, as well as the average ability of the singers in your congregation. A good general range for a melody is from B below middle C to E above high C. Even so, you might not want to span all of that in one song. The goal is to make it able to be sung.
6. Harmony
All the parts of the song that are not the melody fall into the harmony department (for example, bass, alto, and baritone, among the other parts, fall here). The point of these parts is to complement the melody line, so naturally, you want these notes to be pleasant when put together with the melody. What works best for me is to first work out the melody until I am happy with each note, then move on to adding the harmony. I generally begin with the bass, because that part naturally will be the base (haha) of each chord. I then build an alto part because of its similarity to the bass line, then I try to finish off the chords with leftover notes in the tenor range.
Points for building harmony parts:
a. An unfortunately common practice is to make the whole alto line by taking the melody and moving it down two notes, making it the fifth interval from the melody; while that is an almost foolproof way to make the notes match, it often causes some poor chord choices somewhere in the middle of the song. Sometimes inserting (a few, not too many) dissonant notes or moving the interval to a third is very effective in avoiding that all-too-easy trap.
b. As I mentioned above, often the tenor line gets the leftover scraps of notes, which often makes it a very difficult part to sing. Before hitting the “finish” button on your music, take some time to sing or play through each part to watch for too many weird jumps, then fix what needs to be changed.
c. The bass is regularly plagued by the opposite problem: singing the same note for most of the song. In reality, the bass can be one of the most interesting parts in a song (such as the bass on “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”). Being a cellist, I am partial to the bass line; not only that, but I am more familiar with a typical good bass line and typical bad bass line than most guys are, not to mention the gals. So I encourage you to try to learn about each part’s typical function in a song; a very good way to do this is to sing or play (or ask someone else to) just the bass lines of several songs in a row. You will begin to see commonalities as well as what creative sequences were made for each song. Do this exercise for any part that you want to learn about, and doing it frequently with different songs will give you a better grasp on how a part sounds.
d. Altos’ typical range: A or B below middle C to high C.
e. Tenors’ typical range: C below middle of bass staff to D or E above the staff.
f. Basses’ typical range: F below bass staff to A on top of staff.
g. Going beyond these suggested ranges is not unheard of, especially in a special piece or for a descant, but be considerate of the singers’ abilities. Generally, you don’t want to go to both extremes of highest and lowest in a single song.
h. Often, if a part is written very much above or below the typical range, the notes will be smaller to indicate that the notes are suggestions, but not the usual part. These alternative parts are represented by the designations of “baritone” and various “seconds”. Most hymns do not write in notes for these less-common parts, but if you are writing a special arrangement, you might consider writing one or more of these parts.
7. Cohesion of parts
When you have finished writing each part, listen to it all together. Watch out for unintentional clashing of notes, conflicting chords, awkward note sequences, confusion in the melody, and weird rhythm. You want each part to work together with lovely balance in order to draw attention to and augment the melody.
8. Instrumentation
There are some things to be aware of if you are arranging an instrumental piece. First of all, remember back to the previous post about WORDS; if there are no words coming to mind when the piece is performed, it is not profitable. Choose a song that has familiar words that “goes without singing”, or have the listeners read the words along with your playing (in a hymnbook, bulletin, or on the screen, perhaps).
Secondly, know the range of the instrument you have chosen to write for. Preferably, you yourself play the instrument you are writing for and thus know its range and what sounds nice for that instrument; but if you want to write for an instrument that you are not as familiar with, do some research into the instrument before writing. The London Philharmonia Orchestra Instrument videos are very helpful to me in getting a brief “documentary” on any instrument.
Thirdly, remember to keep the melody supreme. If the instrument is supplementing a singing piece, make sure the singing dominates wherever they intersect. If the instrument is deferring the melody to the piano (or other accompaniment), soften the volume to bring out the melody. Remember that God-honouring music is just that: its purpose is God’s glory, not the glory of the player, no matter how good he can play or how beautiful the song sounds.
9. Listening to Learn
Perhaps one of the most important things I’ve learned about writing good music is heeding what you listen to. “You are what you eat” is true for music, as well; if you are always “eating” poor-quality music, you will produce poor-quality music. If you listen to big choral music, you will probably make a great opera singer. If you listen to rap, you just might be tone-deaf.
I’m not going to tell you what to listen to and what not to listen to specifically, since music-style wars is not the point of this post nor of this blog. But I will leave it to your conviction (not opinion or fleshly desire, but the conviction produced by the Spirit of God) to discover the music that you need to listen to in order to produce good, God-honouring music. Remember the important points: Good music honours God. Good music is able to be sung. Good music contains good doctrine (teaching) that sees the world through God’s eyes. And don’t settle for “okay” music: then that is what you will produce! By listening to good music, you will have a whole new bank of resources to draw from in making good music.
And in your listening, listen intentionally, not just passively; pay attention to all the things we’ve talked about here, from words and rhymes to tunes and rhythms and melodies. Figure out what songs you don’t like and what songs you love, and then figure out why. What is the difference between those two groups, and what leaves other songs in between?
I hope this has been very helpful to you. If you ever have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability! I will be back with one more post on the “How” of writing music, and then we will move on to the final questions. Until next time….
Soli Deo Gloria!
-Abby
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