Adding color to a melody

Something I think about when writing a melody is how “colorful” or “spicy” it sounds. By this I mean how often the melody hangs on tensions.

Writing melodies can sometimes get stale. Sometimes you’re stuck in a rut writing melodies in the exact same way, using the exact same chord tones and groups of notes and melodic shapes.

One way to get out of that rut is to force yourself to writing using only tensions.

And you can even start doing this methodically, almost like you’re using a formula.

Anytime you land on the root of a chord, change it to the 7th or the 9th.

Anytime you land on the third of a chord change it to the 11th (if it’s a minor chord) or a #11 (if it’s a major chord).

Anytime you land on the 5th of a chord change it to the 13th.

These switches can add a lot of color to your music if you’re stuck in a rut writing chord tone based melodies. Even if you switch one chord tone or two chord tones you’ll have a much more colorful melody just after making those small switches.

If you’re writing jazz music it’ll likely sound more modern. If you’re writing pop music it’ll likely sound more like jazz. If you’re writing classical music it’ll likely sound more romantic or post-romantic.

Once this starts to become much more a part of your compositions you can even go further and change notes to be b9’s, #9’s, and b13’s to add even more spice and color to your melodies.

Try it out some time.

ISJ