Mastering Melody Writing: A Songwriter’s Guide to Hookier Songs With Pattern, Repetition, and Arc

Mastering Melody Writing: A Songwriter’s Guide To Hookier Songs With Pattern, Repetition, and Arc

Copyright © 2021 by Clay Mills and Bill O’Hanlon

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-098-36433-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-098-36434-2 (eBook)

Dedication

From Clay:

To my beautiful wife Karen, thank you for your continued love, support, and your world-class editing skills on Mastering Melody Writing.

To my creative son Garrett, who continues to inspire me with his artistic eye and courage.

To my mom Elizabeth, you were always there encouraging my big dreams in a small town.

To Bill, my co-author and friend, your creativity and positive energy kept this book flowing.

To all my many collaborators over the years, it’s been a blast to hang out and create some music history of our own. Let’s keep it going!

To Marty Dodson, who thought co-founding a world-wide songwriting community with me was a great idea. SongTown rocks.

From Bill:

To Helen, for being the song I know all the words to.

To my co-writers, who continue to teach me so much about writing songs and better melodies.

To Clay, for moving my melody writing and editing up several notches.

To my other pro mentors in songwriting: Beth Nielsen Chapman, Gary Burr, Georgia Middleman, Marty Dodson, and Tom Douglas.

Contents

Foreword: A Great Song Takes You Anywhere!

Introduction: Discovering The PRA Method

Part 1: Creating Compelling and Memorable Songs

Chapter 1: Patterns

Chapter 2: Repetition

Chapter 3: ARC

Part 2: Fine Tune-ing Your Melodic Sense

Chapter 4: Developing Melodic Flexibility and Skills

Chapter 5: Clay’s Essential Tools

Chapter 6: Hooks, Ear Candy, and Emotion: Bringing It All Together

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Glossary: Clay’s Songwriting Terms

Foreword

A Great Song Takes You Anywhere!

When I was seven years old, I stood watching my uncle’s band rehearse in a small farmhouse in the Mississippi Delta. This is my first memory of live music. I would hang for hours watching them rehearse, soaking in the magic of guitar strings, drums, and harmony vocals. I was transported to a new, exciting world. From that first note, I wanted to create my own music. I had no idea how to do it, nor did I have any idea that one day I would write songs for hit recording artists. 

That’s the real power of a song. It took a wide-eyed kid out of small-town Mississippi into writing rooms and recording studios all around the world. Song power lit the ideas in my head and heart until they found their way to multi-platinum records, radio airways, and stadium stages. 

You see, songs don’t care whether you are rich or broke. They don’t care if you were born into the music business, either. Great songs travel. And, great melodies get sung or hummed, despite language barriers, circling the globe in a world all their own. 

At 19, I officially started my musical journey with a grand total of $300 in my pocket, a friend who offered me a sofa for a month in New York City, and a desire to follow my crazy dreams. Today, I am fortunate enough to be a multi-platinum songwriter and producer having penned #1 hits for Darius Rucker (Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It), Diamond Rio (Beautiful Mess), and Kimberley Locke (Fall). Along the way, I’ve collected Grammy nominations for Beautiful Mess and Trisha Yearwood’s Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love.

Hundreds of my songs have been recorded by major artists spanning the genres of pop, dance, rock, country, bluegrass, and gospel. A few artists who have recorded my songs include: Lady A, Baby Face, Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Easton Corbin, Clay Walker, Andy Griggs, and many others. Some of my favorite hits include Darius Rucker’s History In The Making and I Got Nothing.

I tell you all of this for two reasons. First, I believe great songs open doors. And secondly, I believe it’s important when you are learning anything about making music or songwriting that you look to people who have a track record of accomplishments and success. I believe we, as teachers of songwriting, should earn the right to show you a way forward, if you’re interested.

Moreover it’s important to not only find mentors who walk the walk, but who are equally adept at explaining the steps they take in their daily journey. In addition to working as a professional songwriter for many decades, I have a passion for teaching passed down to me from my parents, who spent their lives as educators and authors. I’ve taught and mentored thousands of aspiring songwriters over the past eight years through SongTown, an online community I co-founded in 2012. 

So, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I do. The elements laid out in this book are not only proven to work in the real world, but also have helped many of my students achieve big results in their songwriting journeys. 

Write on!

Clay Mills

About My Co-Author

Bill O’Hanlon is an aspiring professional songwriter. Bill has written or co-written 38 previous books, so we’ve decided to join forces to write this book. Bill’s book publishing credits include: Do One Thing Different, which landed him in the chair across from Oprah, The Songwriter’s Guide To Mastering Co-Writing, co-written with me and my SongTown co-founder, hit Nashville songwriter Marty Dodson, and Song Building, co-written with Marty Dodson.

Bill brings writing and publishing expertise, as he plays the role of student/learner for you, the reader, making sure everything is clear for the beginner, intermediate, or advanced songwriter.

Introduction

Discovering The PRA Method

In my Melody MasterClasses, I teach melody to songwriters by coaching them how to make their melodies more memorable.

While explaining the what and how of writing hooky and timeless melodies, I created the PRA Method to conjure the intangible of melody-making into graspable parts.

Three key elements for writing memorable songs and melodies are encapsulated in the PRA Method:

Pattern

Repetition

Arc

Because each part builds upon the other, much like a beautiful melody, I think it’s best to learn the PRA Method in this order.

In Chapter 1, we look at Melodic Patterns.

I like to think of it this way: a song’s melody consists of a series of melody notes arranged in rhythmic patterns.

In the Patterns section, you will learn to:

- Recognize patterns

- Write more memorable patterns

- Understand melody, rhythm, chords, and rhymes

In Chapter 2, we look at Repetition.

Repetition is the art of repeating melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns in a memorable way. A successful song uses repeated patterns to engage the listener and leave a lasting impression.

In this section, you’ll learn to:

- Create symmetry between melody, chords, and rhythm

- Compose variant repeating patterns of melody, chords, and rhythm

- Recognize Hotspots

And, finally, in Chapter 3, we look at Arc.

The arc of a song is the rise and fall of the melodic story. I believe successful song melodies tell stories both separately and in conjunction with the lyrics of the song.

Melody tells a story through emotion and sound, rather than words.

In this section you will learn to:

- Arrange repeated patterns into a memorable song arc

- Build an emotional story from beginning to end

- Recognize the role of each song section.

Just as we are riveted by a well-told story, we should get hooked by well-told, well-written melodies. In Mastering Melody Writing I will demonstrate how to tell a good song story using the three elements of the PRA Method.

Inspired vs. Reactive Listening

Inspired Listening is a personal songwriting habit I developed in the early days of my own creative journey and a method I recommend to every aspiring songwriter.

Inspired Listening to songs means noticing what we like about a particular song and then analyzing which elements inspire or hook us. We can file these elements away and recall them later. The goal is to channel them into our own music. Inspired listening gives us the opportunity to grow.

Reactive Listening to songs is opinion-based and serves little purpose other than reinforcing what we already think we know about music. It often involves making negative and dismissive assessments. Too many times I have heard bitter or frustrated aspiring songwriters say, I could write a better song than those songs I hear on the radio. Or, "Every song on the radio sounds the