Learn Composing › Write Your First 8-Bar Melody › Lesson 2
⏱ ~8 min · Write Your First 8-Bar Melody (2/6)
A motif is a very short musical idea that the entire song grows from. It's usually one or two bars long, and it carries both a distinctive rhythm and a distinctive melodic shape. Think of any famous tune — you can name it from just the first two bars, right? That first impression is the power of the motif.
Let's plant our song's seed in the first two of the eight bars we set up last lesson. Bar 1 is C–C–D–E — four quarter notes climbing a staircase one step at a time. Bar 2 is G~ E~ — two half notes that leap up, then settle back down and sing out long. This contrast — "four short steps, then two long notes" — is the face of our motif.
First, keep it short and simple. If it can be sung back after one hearing, it will be easy to repeat and vary later. Second, give the rhythm one distinctive feature. In our motif, that's "four short notes followed by two long ones." Third, for a children's song in C major, starting on C (do), E, or G will sound stable and grounded. Below is another C-major motif built mostly from eighth notes — bouncy and playful. Compare the two and hear how much the character changes when the rhythm changes.
The score below has the 1–2 bar motif of "Morning Walk" filled in, with bars 3–8 still empty. Click "▶ Open in Editor," play it back, then try deleting the notes and entering them again yourself. In the editor, the A–J keys enter the notes C through B. Once entering notes feels comfortable, try inventing a 2-bar motif of your own. Next lesson, we'll grow this motif into four bars through repetition and variation.