One of the things I’ve noticed about modern rock songs today, besides the woeful lack of solos, is that the melodies all too often consist of one line followed by three identical lines. This is not only unimaginative but the repetitiveness gets boring real fast.
I try to never repeat the same melody line more than twice. Twice is enough to establish it so the third time you’re just starting to beat it into the ground. It had better be one really great melody to be able to repeat it over and over without getting monotonous. Sing the line twice then change it on the third line, take it somewhere unexpected. You can return to the original line on the fourth time but you’ve broken the pattern which makes it interesting. The minute someone thinks; “I know where this is going” on the first listen you’ve lost their interest which means you’ve lost them as a fan.
You can take this a step further by changing the chord pattern slightly or as was standard for hit songs in the Sixties, change the key. The basic Blues format is to sing the first two lines, change to a higher key for the next line then return to the original key for the last line. This formula worked for virtually thousands of songs and as predictable as it once had become, it would be a welcomed and refreshing surprise these days.
I try to never repeat the same melody line more than twice. Twice is enough to establish it so the third time you’re just starting to beat it into the ground. It had better be one really great melody to be able to repeat it over and over without getting monotonous. Sing the line twice then change it on the third line, take it somewhere unexpected. You can return to the original line on the fourth time but you’ve broken the pattern which makes it interesting. The minute someone thinks; “I know where this is going” on the first listen you’ve lost their interest which means you’ve lost them as a fan.
You can take this a step further by changing the chord pattern slightly or as was standard for hit songs in the Sixties, change the key. The basic Blues format is to sing the first two lines, change to a higher key for the next line then return to the original key for the last line. This formula worked for virtually thousands of songs and as predictable as it once had become, it would be a welcomed and refreshing surprise these days.
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