JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education What's your favorite melody?

I don't care about words...don't want to hear about chords...what is that melody or those melodies that you love---the ones you find yourself whistling or humming?

What are your favorites? And why? Ever thought about why?

All the Best,
Mike

Fairy tales, can come true, it can happen to you...If you're young at heart....For it's hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind...If you're young at heart.....

why? because it's great!!!!

I love "Young at Heart" it's an adventure in the Lydian mode with all that tritone stuff, yet it's incredibly melodic. Like Bernstein's "Maria" one of my faves.

Thanks, Herbie.

Mike

Mike, It's difficult to pick a single melody, but Blue Moon has always been one of my favorites. It can be done slowly or in a jazz tempo, very versatile. Frank V.

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you
You're so like the lady with the mystic smile.....

I also love De-lovely
The night is young, the sky is blue...it always puts a smile on my face

Penny Lane is my all time favorite. I've Got rhythm. Lots of Brian Wilson's because the chord changes along with the melody so often go in a direction you never expected. That's why a joke punchline is funny. A good joke punchline takes you somewhere unexpected and that's why it's funny. Same with melody much of the time. That's what makes it extra special catchy. Man, there are so many from different eras. Good Topic.

Mike, when I get a chance I've got an aspect of music I've wanted to explore with others here for a long time. I think it will be interesting and fun. When I get the chance.

Great topic, Mike!

Here's a few of my favorite melodies:

Silent Night
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Pachelbel's Canon in D
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - J.S. Bach
4th Movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Amazing Grace

There are so many!
Happy New Year!

Emily

Thanks Emily for reminding me of Classical music I love. Dvorak's 1st movement of New World Symphony. Dvorak's (bagatellssp?). Lots of Dvorak.

Steve...Dvorak's music should certainly be on the list!

Have thought of a few more since posting earlier:

Yesterday by the Beatles
Fur Elise by Beethoven
Overture from Carmen by Bizet
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by Handel
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O, Come, all ye Faithful
O, Holy Night ( Cantique de Noel)

I could go on and on!

"A Horse With No Name." The verses...one note. But they certainly mastered that one. Then, in the chorus, they unleash upon the listener an unexpected surprise: they DOUBLE the number of notes to TWO!!!

Just remember: in the desert, there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

Nice one Truman - I never realized that. Probably explains why I've never tried to whistle it.

And a bonus - I finally learn what the ending of that desert line is

I've always been partial to the melodies of

Greensleeves
Moon River
Shenandoah


Scott

Great melodies all.
I love Edelweiss. It's so simple and lovely.

Hey Mike,

Somewhere over the rainbow.....don't know why ? , simple notation against the rich harmonics I think.

cheers, niteshift

Softkrome,

Blue Moon is truly a gorgeous melody.

Herbie,

Mona Lisa always reminded me of Bona Sera, great melody. When I was at De La Salle High School in Chicago, I was in the play "Anything Goes" that featured the song "De-Lovely." What a wonderful song.

Steve,

Penny Lane, so far, is the second melody someone's picked that doesn't stay with one diatonic scale. The word "clean" goes to a flatted third. The Beatles were so melodious. Can't wait to read your ideas.

Emily,

That's like a primer of the most influential melodies in Western music. You're a jewel.

Steve,

Dvorak's music is great, but even more interesting: how come it's pronounced Devorezhak?

Truman,

A Horse With No Neil is a great piece. Aren't there three notes in the chorus? At least it's not pretentious like the "One Note Samba" (which I sometimes perform as a bass solo) which goes into a flurry of other notes on the release. I'm going to write a one note one chord song called "There Ain't No Two Notes For To Give You Wrong Names!"

Scott,

Greensleeves, Moon River, Shenandoah. You must play gut string guitar. They all seem to be played on the gut string Wonderful melodies. True classics.

Argo,

Edelwiess is one that I find myself humming often.

Niteshift,

One of the all-time melodies. Originally it was going to be an uptempo number, but when someone tried slowing it down, it became an instant stunner.

To all so far,

So far, as my feeble brain recalls, there are only two melodies mentioned that aren't simple, diatonic tunes that, harmonies aside, do not use accidentals (notes not in the diatonic scale) of the other two...well, Delovely bumps the flatted six and three...so there's three. But even the exceptions are highly diatonic in nature. Interesting. More, more, I want more!

Mike, diatonic ? , lost my feeble brain too, is it the straight notes of the key in question ?

cheers, niteshift

Hey nite,

"Diatonic" comes from the Greek, it means "through the tones." The tones referred to are the natural tones produced by the overtone series, for example, the tones you get from a bugle or the "harmonics" you get on a guitar. In western music we mess with the tuning of these natural tones a little bit so one instrument, for example a piano, can play in any key. The tones are: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do...or for us Nashvillians, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. So yes, diatonic is the straight notes of the key in question.

Mike

P.S. gotcha on the Musician Forum

Ah, i'm remembering now, diatonic - straight scale, chromatic - every note up to the next 8th ? yes ?

Is minor also diatonic if every straight minor note is played in the minor scale ? eg A min is A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A ? Still diatonic ?

cheers, niteshift.

Hey nite,

Yep. The natural minor is one of the modes of the diatonic. C to C is major, known as the Ionian mode (more Greek).

The modes in C diatonic go:

C to C Ionian (major)
D to D Dorian
E to E Phrygian
F to F Lydian
G to G Mixolydian
A to A Aeolian (natural minor)
B to B Locrian

Ionian's and Aeolian are most common. Mixolydian is like bagpipes, bluegrass or southern rock. Lydian is common in rockabilly and jazz. Dorian has a Balkan feel to it. Phrygian is kind of softer minor, cartoonish. Locrian is just plain wierd, or as a section used over the five-seven chord.

I like Pie a la Mode.

Mike

hmmm, ya got me there.....but isn't for example the Dorian mode simply playing a D min scale over a C bass, or Phygian playing an E min scale over a C bass note ? I can menatally picture the first, ( quite soft and jazzy, maj7th'ish,but playing an E min notation over a C bass doesn't sound right. Are these terms used regularly, or more for theorists, I don't seem to recall them from my theory days as a kid ?

And yep, ya did get me in the musicians' forum, took awhile to click, but ya got me

cheers, niteshift

Hey niteshift,

No the Dorian isn't playing a D min scale over a C bass. It's using a scale that goes: D E F G A B C D, which is not a D minor scale, a D natural minor scale would be: D E F G A Bb C D. You see dorian uses the same notes that ionian uses. Ionian is C major, dorian uses the C major notes, but has the D as the "home" note, just like aeolian, or natural minor, uses the same notes as C major but just uses A as the "home" note.

Again, here, we're using the C diatonic scale as an example. The modes work for any diatonic scale. In G diatonic it would go:

G to G Ionian (major)
A to A Dorian
B to B Phrygian
C to C Lydian
D to D Mixolydian
E to E Aeolian (natural minor)
F# to F# Locrian

All the Best,
Mike

ahh, yep, gotcha, forgot about the Bb, must be tuned to jazz mode. Will have to revisit some theory, tis good for the concentration. Thanks Mike, sorry to hijack your thread.......back to melodies.

cheers, niteshift

There are so many wonderful melodies that get stuck in my head ... hope this counts... I absolutely love the Pacabel Canon - the weaving melody immediately soothes me and stays humming in my head. It has become my favorite meditation piece.
Happy New Year MIKE!!! Hope it's a great one for you!!!
Joanne

Hey Joanne,

I like Taco Bell too! Seriously, great music. Yeah Happy New Year to you too, may it be all you want and more.

Mike

Missed this one earlier... I love all the classic melodies mentioned so far (not so big on Penny Lane, but it IS a good one, and the Horse With No Name should be taken out and shot to put it out of its misery).

I warm up my voice on "Summertime" and "Once Upon a Dream" (the Sleeping Beauty song) because the melodies are lovely and good for exercising my range.

I also love Beautiful Dreamer and Danny Boy, and at least 80 gorgeous hymns.

I don't know why some melodies work for me and others don't. I love the ones that are catchy, beautiful, and memorable. I've heard a lot of songs where the melody is just difficult to even remember, and harder to wrap my brain around. "How does that go, again?"

I love "Mony Mony," too but not for the melody. There sure isn't much to that one, either. I confess I don't tend to think the same way about most pop/rock songs as I do about classical/classic pieces. I catch myself being a little surprised they're written "in a key," and have music notation somewhere behind them. Because that sheet music for piano you buy sure doesn't sound anything like the radio hit.

(I feel a bit silly that it wasn't till a few years ago that I learned you have to tune drums... I'm a late bloomer.)

Linda


Linda

Mike..

There are three songs that will always make me stop what I am doing and listen. In reverse order:

(3) Yesterday
(2) Bridge Over Troubled Water
(1) Theme From A Summer Place


For me, there is no more beautiful and romantic song ever written than "Theme From A Summer Place". Percy Faith, probably the best composer to ever come out of Canada, was a master of the orchestral and string arrangements.

Oh, two other songs just came to mind, list them as (5) and (4), respectively:

(5) Stranger On The Shore (Acker Bilt)
(4) Mysty

Nice topic!

Alan

Well,
A couple are the BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCERTO and MAHLER'S first Symphony. Both are masterpieces.

My favorite melodies would include:

Beethoven moonlight sonata first movement- simple yet unebelieveably effective.

Chopin raindrop prelude- same story. Actually anything by Chopin blows me away.

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto number 3 (you know, from Shine the movie).

Mozart symphony number 25.

Wagner flight of the valkyries (sp?)

Theme from space odyssey, da, da, da, DA, DA! bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom... Strauss I believe.

Anything off of Dave Burbeck's Time Out.

Anything off of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

Anything by the Beatles Sgt. Peppers or later, especially "say you need a revolution well you know", and "mean mr mustard sleeps in the park shaves in the dark trying to save paper, sleeps in a hole in the road, saving up to by him some clothes, keeps a ten bob note up his nose, such a mean old man..." I love that melody.

Oh and "for the benefit of mister kite there will be a show tonight on trampoline...yada horses hoops and yada sure the production will be second to none" (sorry forgot the words)

"Are you going to scarborough fair, parsley sage rosemary and time, remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine"...

Anybody like/rememeber this one?- "slip inside the eye of your mind, don't you know you might find, and better place to play.. step out beside the fireplace, take that look from off your face, cause you ain't ever gonna burn my heart ouuuuuuuuuut!"?

Or maybe this one? "into the flood again, same old trip it was back then, so I made a big mistake, try to see it once my way. Have I gone, have I run to far to get home yeah, Have I gone and left you here alone?" a classic hard rock melody imho. Any hard rockers out there?

I tried just brainstorming and these are the tunes that came to mind. Then I went back through the list and tried to figure out why these songs popped up.

Great is Thy Faithfulness
It is Well With My Soul
These two start out repeating the first note and then the melody sweeps in and builds. Great melodies for being still and quiet.

If Ever I Would Leave You
Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Lots of half steps in both of these. If Ever I Would..has a lot of drama. Both songs are very expressive of longing.

Brandy
Melodically, I am familiar with the whole song. I love how the melody mirrors itself in the verse and the chorus has a classic lift to it.

Drift Away
When I looked at the lyrics, the melody for the verses kicked on in my head, but it's the melody on that chorus....can't get it out of your mind

Laughter In The Rain
The chorus on this one drops by thirds and then lifts and goes up again.

Brandy, Drift Away, Laughter In The Rain, they make me feel good about life, something about the rhythm of these melodies makes me feel like I'm in a swing.

Plaisir d' Amour (joys of love)

mid 18th century french folk song by Tedesco ( I didn't realize Tommy Tedesco was that old!)

The melody gentle and lilting and accessible..
The words actually speak to the weight and problems of love, but the melody is pure romance..

I first heard the song...oh..probably 40 years ago on an early Joan Baez album....
It became one of the standard pieces in my wedding band pre/ceremony music..we arranged iit for piano and flute...

Ahhh...beautiful..I'm humming it as I write this

Promise not to laugh me being an atheist and all.
Crimond "The lord is my shepherd."

It was written in the early 1800s and the melody and chord sructure are fantastic even 200 years later. Don't go a bundle on the words but you cannot have everything.

I often get hooked on "the melody of the week". Whatever it is I heard or recalled at some point in life, it will loop for days, and it sometimes drives me insane! The thing is, it may be a melody that is goofy or something off the wall, like a commercial jingle, or a real old 1930 or 30's tune I heard my father play on mandolin. HE is the ones that gave me JUST melodies, through his playing style of only playing melodies. he would say that and the beat IS the song.

My favorites?
"Yesterday" Why? It may be the perfect melody. Concise yet covers many notes. Resolves quickly, (7 measures that concludes with a 3rd). That makes it a short musical distance to go to start of the melody of the second verse, because the verses start at only a whole tone down form that 3rd. Clever and easy to hum or whistle. (It's just a little sliding down to start over, in other words). The reason is sound smooth, is that the 3rd is not from a resolving chord, )DON"Y mention chords, I know! BUT,,,to explain why that 3rd is so effective needs to have mention that it is from the start of the song's chord.
Just a classic and never wearing out melody. Can be plated real slow, or quicker than the record, and it seems to defy the law of a song having a perfect pocket. This melody has several!


"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" Why? An octave for the first two notes! Others have that, BUT after that, this melody then goes down JUST a half step! Right off the bat, (or the third note), the melody suddenly becomes heartfelt. (The almost non effective octave to a door opening up music wise, (and how that relates to the film's door of the house opening up to reveal intense COLOR)!
But, without the visual, this still is a powerfully beautiful first three notes. Then it goes down four steps to give it direction again! All this in four stinking notes! Masterful, and to me, maybe the best melody I ever heard. From that fourth note, it just has that ebb and flow. THEN, the bridge!!!! My God, the bridge!!! Beethoven like in quality and for being simply-complex that is very singable. I think the writer had some funny mushrooms that day of writing this melody! How a writer writes a melody like this, (no other maybe), is beyond me.

"Happy Birthday" Why? It's a jingle that somehow made it past the ad people and to our cakes! To have EVERYONE sing this song year after year, generation after generation is either it's a great melody to begin with, or we are brainwashed in just singing it. Maybe both huh? But on it's own, it is complex and VERY short to resolve! And I mess it up on piano when just doing the melody, so it's not really a basic note progression melody. Or, if it is, it's just tricky enough to have me just play the chords when I'm at the piano for someone's birthday.

I of coure love many melodies. Probably hundreds at least if I wrote them out over the next week or so. DON'T ask me please!

Just take this three I love for their craftsmanship and emotional aspects.

John

Here's some beautiful melodies:

Nesse Dorum (sung by Luciano Pavorotti)
Soon oh Soon - (performed by YES)

These two are paired together, because they both have beautiful build-ups, and both male voices are almost angelic.

Down to the Moon (or ANYTHING) by Andreas Vollenweider. Vollenweider is amazing for melodies. I'm glad we share the same birthday - our journey is closer.

Theme from Local Hero - Mark Knopfler. This is one of Mark's best in my opinion. The most beautiful guitar tones ever, with a strong celtic-inspired melody. The entire album (I have it on vinyl) is very peaceful.

All of these are uplifting and take you to another place.

I don't know much about melodies, but I'm glad to see you ppl know what you're talking about when it comes to music theory.

I've got something new and completley different coming up. Maybe a few of you might like it. It really depends how far you want to go.

On second thought, there are plenty of melodies in my long lost California Jam tapes. Some familiar, some new like something new from Seals & Crofts that you would never think it's them. I call the song Fiddles of Thunder, and they like it so much they now use the title themselves.

There are a lot of hidden treasures in those California Jam tapes. It's like Rock, but it's not.

"The Scott Lifshine CalJam Wereo transcends all other festival recordings." - White Spirit

Mike, you toss around them Greekisms and complain about Dvorak? I do have an answer for you, from my Bohemian-on-my-father's-side heritage. It's got all those syllables in it because Czech is a very rubbery language...

And y'all have named a bunch of very good melodies. I hear a lot of good melodies--I guess that happens when you have music playing inside your head 24/7--but I doubt I could pick out any one as "favorite." The one I hear right now is the melody to Beth Williams' "The Well in the Glade." Hallowe'en waltz music.

Joe

Hey Mike Interesting thread

It's amazing, but it seems everyone has their own favorite melodies... mine are ones that mix majors and minors together (not sure what you'd call it but they play a Dmaj for instance then go on to play a Dm ...

Some examples

In my Life (The Beatles)
The things we do for love (10CC)

Some other melodies that I like for other reasons

Blackbird (The Beatles)
William Tell Overture (Gioachino Rossini)
If (Bread)
Hey Mr Tambourine man (The Byrds)
Suite Judy Blue eyes (Crosby, Stills, Nash and young) Gotta love those harmonies!
Color My world (Chicago) (ahh Terry Kath could sing well enough to make ya melt)
Miracles (Jefferson Starship "if only you'd believe") that one gets stuck in my head and it takes forever to get to that chorus, but it's like sex or chocolate when it does! (I like both by the way)
I fooled around and fell in love (Elvin Bishop)
It aint' cool (to be crazy about you) (George Strait) I'd love to hear that chorus melody played on a sax...
Vincent (Don McClean)
My opening Farewell (Jackson Browne)
Honesty (Billy Joel)
Circle Game (Joni Mitchell)
Pure Imagination (Willy Wonka theme done by Kenny Loggins)
Return to Pooh Corner ( Kenny Loggins again)
This is it (Kenny Loggins once more)
Whenever I call you friend (Kenny Loggins with Stevie Nicks!)
Ok I am showing a strong bias to Kenny Loggins lol..., but hey at least I didn't say "I'm aright" or "Highway to the Dangerzone" lol

Whow, what an open-ended question! There are so many great melodies; this becomes an unfair question. What ever melodies you list, you`re going to leave some very deserving melodies off. In answering Mike Dunbar`s initial question-"what`s your favorite melody?" some of my favorite melodies come from a number of different genres. For example(only to mention some of my favorites):
JAZZ
Rosewood- Woody Shaw
Inner Urge- Joe Henderson
Alabama- John Coltrane
Central Park West- John Coltrane
Niama- John Coltrane
Blue in Green- Miles Davis or Bill Evans
Cierra- Bobby Hutcherson
Speak Like A Child- Herbie Hancock
Toys- Herbie Hancock
REGGAE
No Woman No Cry- Bob Marley
Redemption Song- Bob Marley
MUSICALS
Westside Story- Leonard Bernstein(I mean all of the music from Westside Story)
Music from The Sound of Music
Music from Mary Poppins
WESTERN ART MUSIC
Pachelbel`s Canon In D- Johann Pachelbel
Jesu, Joy Of Man`s Desiring- J.S. Bach
Lark Ascending- Ralph Vaughan Williams
Bolero- Maurice Ravel
Pictures At An Exhibition- Modest Musorgsky
CHRISTMAS MUSIC OR CHRISTMAS RELATED MELODIES
Christmas Time Is Here- Music from Charlie Brown Christmas
O`Come, O`Come Emanuel
What Child Is This/Green Sleeves
TRADITION MELODIES/FOLK SONGS
Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair
There`s A Hole In The Bucket
R&B
People Make The World Go Round- Recorded by the Stylistics
Payback Is A Dog- Recorded by Blue Magic
After The Love Is Gone- Earth, Wind and Fire
This is only to name some of my favorite most beautiful melodies.

Sincerly
Keith Gamble

What great melodies here.

From Bob's "Plaisir D'Amour" to John's "Happy Birthday." Two of my faves, for sure.

Others that catch me from y'all's picks:
Blackbird
Circle Game
Alabama
The works of West Side Story (just heard the San Francisco Symphony doing selected works on their tour here a few weeks ago.)
O Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring
Bolero
After the Love is Gone

Imagine, just a few notes, but millions of wonderful melodies!

Math makes it possible, with the almost countless combination of notes that can come after any given note. The number of options would be like trying to count the stars!

Our creative minds then make the math work for the melodies to be as wondrous as those stars.

John

I have come to like more classical type music where the melody and themes build up slowly in a song.
Gives it's rewards slowly.
I don't think of myself as very technical. I like a good riff and hook like the next rock head, and when landed on banged over the head, boy can they ring up song and download statistics.
But some of the best melodies are not so tight in the corners or grabby.

I think melody wise I like something dark but a bit light and even a little exotic..

Imagine with a split personality?

Edit: And also the beginning to Pink Floyd's Time.
Two note melody with a keyboard clink. But I think it's that clock that makes it stick out to me.
Now the title is making me think of Alan Parson's Time.

Hiya Brother Mike...Dunno how I missed this Great Thread last year, but glad ya've resurrected it!

Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune" was my Mom's favorite tune & remains one of mine.

Instrumentals, I'm real fond of most Anything by Henry Mancini. "Moon River", "Days of Wine & Roses", and "Charade" with or without vocals..top the billing.

Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven" is up there for Early Metal-ish Rock. Dreamier-Pop-Stuff: "All I Have to Do is Dream"..(Felice & Boudleaux Bryant)..Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover".."Venus" by Frankie Avalon. Harder-Rock: "Satisfaction" (Glimmer Twins).."Saw Her Standing There"..(Beatles). Hendrix' "All Along The Watchtower"... Novelty Tunes: "Ahab, The A-Rab" by Ray Stevens. Country: "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly.."Crazy" by Willie..."Jambalaya" by Hank. Let's add-in "Turkey in The Straw" as fave Fiddle Tune, too.

That's all that come Easily-to-Mind, early in the day.
Thankee, Chum-igo!

Big Guy-Hug,
Stan

So who else would like to add their favorites?

I think Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA wrote the best melodies. Song after song!

WIND MILLS OF MY MIND
I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

I don't know if I have a favorite melody.
But when I was in a crib, I can remember Deep Purple's, *Blind* playing from a biker that played the self entitled Deep Purple cassette at a neighbors house. That song came from before they broke in to the mainstream.
But I find songs from my youth coming from my subconscience. Even though I became interested in music through alt and new wave - or perhaps as a result of what I previiously heard.

I find myself humming ABBA tunes when I drive.

The Largo movement of the New World Symphony was from a song titled "Going Home". It was written by one of Dvorak's pupils. Dvorak adapted it to the 2nd movement of the New World Symphony. I've always loved that melody.

So peaceful and reflective...

Here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...CE129DF2C27E83982A3DCE12&FORM=VRDGAR

John

Another beautiful melody used in "Somewhere in Time" titled "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" - Rachmaninoff

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...15064CF73184AAF310AC1506&FORM=VRDGAR

John

Both sides now
Moon river
Your mother should know
I wanna be around

Swe Danes - Scandinavian Shuffle

its infectuous