Learn Composing › Write Your First 8-Bar Melody › Lesson 6

Lesson 6 — Finishing Touches — Dynamics, Tempo, and Downloading Your Song

⏱ ~7 min · Write Your First 8-Bar Melody (6/6)

Notes Alone Are Only Half a Score

The melody is finished, but there's still something to tell your performer: how loud, and how fast. Write those down, and only then is it truly a "score."

Dynamics are the symbols that indicate loudness. From soft to loud: p (piano — softly), mf (mezzo-forte — moderately loud), f (forte — loud). For a bright, cheerful tune, a single mf on the first note is enough to set the whole song's expression.

🎼 Example — the same melody wears a different expression at mf versus p

✏️ Open in the editor

Tempo and the Final Polish

Tempo is set with a metronome marking like ♩=100 at the top of the score, meaning 100 quarter notes per minute — a nice easy walking pace, perfect for our song. Try changing the tempo number in the editor's song settings and playing it back until it feels right.

Here's your pre-export checklist:

Did you add a title and your name as the composer?
Does every measure add up correctly for the time signature (4/4)?
Is there a dynamic marking (mf) on the first note?
Did you play it through and listen for anything that sounds off?

Send Your Song Out into the World — Exporting

From the editor's export menu, you can save your finished score in four formats:

PNG — a single image. Great for sharing on social media or as a preview.
PDF — a printable score. Put it on the music stand and play it.
MIDI — performance data. Keep arranging in another music program (a DAW).
JSON — a BeatNote project file. Load it back in later to keep editing.

And if the song you've written is a special one, you can turn it into a beautifully designed printable keepsake with a Keepsake edition.

💡 In the editor, select a note and press one of the dynamic buttons (p, mf, f, and so on) to apply that dynamic starting from that note.

✍️ Try it yourself

Here's the finished "Morning Walk," with mf on the first note. Open it in the editor, play the whole thing one last time, and if you love it, download it as a PNG or PDF. Congratulations — from counting beats to writing a cadence, you've completed your very own 8-bar melody. Now try the same process on song number two!

▶ Start in the editor

← Lesson 5: The Cadence — Ending Your Melody in Bars 7–8 🎉 Done! Keep composing in the editor →