Motifs and Development

The idea

Great melodies are not long streams of notes. They are small ideas, repeated with variation. The unit is the motif: two to five notes with a distinct rhythm. The first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is built almost entirely from one four-note motif. “Seven Nation Army” is one motif for a whole song.

The development toolkit works on any motif:

Tool	What you do
Repetition	Play it again, unchanged. More often than you think is allowed.
Sequence	Repeat it starting on a different scale degree: up a step, down a 3rd.
Inversion	Flip the contour: steps up become steps down.
Augmentation, diminution	Double or halve the note lengths.
Extension, truncation	Add a tail or chop one off.
Rhythmic displacement	Same notes, starting on a different beat.

A typical phrase plan for a verse or chorus is four short phrases: motif A, motif A varied, motif B as contrast, motif A returning. Phrases also work as question and answer: phrase 1 ends away from the tonic and sounds open, phrase 2 ends on the tonic and sounds closed.

Rhythm is more memorable than pitch. Clap the rhythm of a famous melody and people will recognize it. Play its notes in the wrong rhythm and they will not. When you vary a motif, changing the pitches while keeping the rhythm keeps it recognizable.

On your instrument

• Limit yourself. Pick three notes in one position and one rhythm. Play the motif, then spend two minutes on each tool from the table.
• Sing it. A motif you can sing has a clear shape. A motif you can only play is usually a finger pattern.
• Guitar tip for sequences. Moving a motif “up a step” in the scale is not the same as moving your hand up two frets. Stay in the scale: some notes move two frets, some one. Use the scale positions from Module 2.

A backing loop for the exercises:

Worked example

A three-note motif in C major: degrees 5 – 6 – 3 (G, A, E), with the rhythm short, short, long.

Tool	Result in degrees	Notes
Original	5 – 6 – 3	G A E
Repetition	5 – 6 – 3	G A E
Sequence, down a step	4 – 5 – 2	F G D
Inversion	5 – 4 – 7	G F B: down a step, then up a 4th
Augmentation	5 – 6 – 3	The same notes, each twice as long
Extension	5 – 6 – 3 – 2 – 1	G A E D C: a tail that walks home
Displacement	5 – 6 – 3	Starting on the “and” of 1 instead of on beat 1

A four-phrase melody from these: original, sequence, inversion, extension. The first three phrases end on unstable notes (3, 2, 7) and ask a question. The last one walks down to 1 and answers it.

Exercises

1. Take a three-note motif of your own with a clear rhythm. Write out all six transformations. Play them over the loop above and keep the three best bars.
2. Analyze one melody you love. Find its motif, then mark every recurrence and the tool that was used. Try “Seven Nation Army”.
3. Write an 8-bar melody using the plan A, A varied, B, A. Use only one motif for the A phrases.
4. Clap the rhythm of your motif to a friend, or record it and listen the next day. If it has no identity as a rhythm, sharpen the rhythm before touching the notes.

Common mistakes

• A new idea every bar. Listeners remember what repeats. Three ideas in eight bars is already a lot.
• Repeating exactly, forever. After the second repetition, change something small.
• Motifs with no rhythm. Four equal notes are a scale fragment. Give at least one note a different length.