Learn Composing › Write Your First 8-Bar Melody › Lesson 4
⏱ ~8 min · Write Your First 8-Bar Melody (4/6)
A good melody works a lot like speech. Someone poses a question, and someone else gives an answer. An 8-bar melody usually splits into a front half and a back half of four bars each: the front is the antecedent phrase (the question), the back is the consequent phrase (the answer).
The question ends on a note that feels unresolved (like D or G), while the answer heads home to C, the tonic — the center of the key. In the little example below, listen for how the 2-bar question pauses on D, and the answer settles on C.
Look back at bars 1–4 of "Morning Walk." That antecedent phrase — A (bars 1–2) plus A′ (bars 3–4) — pauses on D, asking "so… what happens next?" Our job now is to begin the consequent phrase (bars 5–8) that answers it.
If the answer simply copies the question, it gets boring. So in bar 5 we climb past G — the highest note so far — up to A4, creating the song's climax (E–G–A–G). Then bar 6 winds calmly back down: E–D–C. This rise-and-fall arch shape gives the answer a real sense of direction.
Open the score with bars 1–6 in the editor and play it back. Listen for the "question" at the end of bar 4 (on D) and how the "answer" in bars 5–6 responds to it. Then experiment: change the A4 in bar 5 to a different note and hear how the climax changes. In the editor, the A–J keys enter the notes C through B. Next lesson, we'll put the final period on the song in the empty bars 7–8.