What is melody in music?

Melody is the tune of any song or piece… the part that we usually hum of our favorite songs. It is a series of notes that is played in succession.

If you listen to your favorite song, the part that the singer sings is usually the melody. It’s the melody of a song that you usually remember and like to hum. It’s also often referred to as the tune of a song.

Every song has a melody and the accompaniment or the accompanying harmonic notes (often called the arrangement).

So if you see the sheet music of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” below, the notes in the treble clef is basically the melody of the song.

Also Read: How to read notes on the staff – treble and bass clefs

To create a piece, a composer would normally start using some melody notes and then build upon it or take some chord progression and then build upon it.

To create a musical piece/melody, the composer would use elements like: the musical notes, their duration, dynamics, and selection of various musical instruments.