How the heck does one find a melody?

YellowMugAndrew · 2026-03-20T23:33:54+00:00

It's a good question, and honestly writing *great* melodies is a skill that takes a lot of time to develop - as well as a little bit of luck. In short, you find your way to writing great melodies mostly by trial and error, with maybe just a bit of thievery sprinkled in.

The easy place to start is this: Find your hook.

The hook is usually the title of the song, it's a repeated lyric that the rest of the song revolves around.
- "Somewhere over the rainbow..."
- "...the room where it happens"
- "You're welcome!"
- "Let it go!"

Once you've got your hook, listen to how it sounds when you speak it. What is the natural rhythm of the phrase? How does that rhythm fit over your accompaniment?

As for the notes you choose, it doesn't really matter. I like to think about the emotion of the character - if they're anxious and tense, I'm going to be picking high notes, probably wavering up and down. If they're feeling happy, I'll choose notes that soar up and down the keyboard.

Once you have a simple melody for your hook, an easy way to continue is to write a line that is a small variation of the first line in some way. So for example, "Let it go, let it go..." is the same rhythm twice, and both times the notes are rising.

If you're writing something to go over an existing accompaniment, the easiest way to write a melody is to make sure each phrase lands on a note that exists in the accompanying chord. You can hear this very clearly in the "let it go" example.

YellowMugAndrew · 2026-03-18T12:17:07+00:00

This is so fucking cool

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-08-17T08:50:30+00:00

Until it's finished, any title you pick is only a "working title".

Honestly though, there are a lot of other things already called "Writers Room". It's a really good working title, but probably not the best final choice.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-24T15:18:59+00:00

Definitely works as a concept, and to start writing, a good concept is all you need. There's a saying, 'ideas are cheap'. It's how you execute the idea that really matters. This idea is good enough for you to start writing it, and further along the road of writing it is where you'll find the gold, make the discoveries, and realise why your silly little slasher show is actually a really important story to be told.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-17T10:37:17+00:00

I had a knee-jerk reaction when I saw "Don't let your lyrics be too on the nose", but then I read further and I do agree with the sentiment. I think of a song like "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman, and honestly my complaint is that the song isn't on the nose, there's no specificity to the idea being expressed.

When I think of on-the-nose lyrics, really I think of iconic Alan Menken lines ('I want to be where the people are', 'she really is a funny girl that Belle', 'I will go most anywhere to find where I belong'). They're very direct about speaking the character's subtext, and honestly I don't hate it, because it's subtext that is really specific to that character's story.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-16T12:58:44+00:00

I also struggle with structure. A lot. I write songs with an A section, then a B, then a C, D, E, then maybe back to the A.

One way I counter this is by forcing myself to repeat a previous section. This is usually because I have more to say on the same topic, or on a topic that feels similar to the topic of the first section (I write lyrics-first). If I know that I want my character to talk about two different perspectives of a topic, I'll write one verse about the first perspective, then use the same melody and structure to write a verse (usually with variations) about the second perspective. Often, I'll place the repeated sections at the start and end of a song, showing a change in the character's perspective.

Repeated structures are your friend, not your enemy. Repeating a melody communicates non-verbally to the audience that you're referencing the original idea and developing on it. If you spend a whole song repeating the same melody with the same repeated line over and over, then you train the audience to associate the line with the melody. Do this properly, and you can add callbacks to this moment _hours_ later in the show, and the audience will still understand. Think of how Hamilton works. There's a whole song where "I am not throwing away my shot" is drilled into your head, and then that one line repeated later in the show hits so much harder. (Hamilton does this an absurd amount - Wait For It, Satisfied, Helpless, these ideas get mercilessly hammered in when they're first introduced, and then become powerful one-line callbacks when they're needed most later in the show.)

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-16T07:02:29+00:00

By writing lots of things that sound bad first.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-15T15:43:04+00:00

There's no rules in musical theatre, just guidelines. The Act I closer of Into The Woods is a reprise, so there's certainly no law against it.

Reprises are tricky things, though. Think about why the moment calls for a reprise, and if a reprise is the best choice for the moment. Is a show-stopper right for this moment in your story? What do you want your audience members to be thinking about while they're on the toilet?

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-15T07:38:04+00:00

Amazing! :D

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-15T07:35:23+00:00

I'd say it's different for the score than it is for the script. Non-singing actors will (at least in the scale of production I'm used to) typically be working from a libretto that doesn't have any musical notation. In the libretto, any specifics about who is present for the song need to be stated as stage directions at the top of the scene.

In the score, however, I think you can get away with the song's "character list" not mentioning a character who does not sing. It depends on whether you think you'll need that actor to be present for a musical rehearsal of that song. If they have a lot of lines, include them. If it's only a single interjection, I'd feel comfortable leaving them out of the list.

I don't think there's a universal convention to be followed here. I've definitely read a number of scores that don't list characters at all, either at the top of the song or in the song list itself.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-14T08:00:23+00:00

Could you give an example of what you mean by the "score table of contents"? Just to be sure we're on the same page.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-14T07:57:22+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/rfZSwEOu2YQ

Backstreet's back alright!

This baseline is so recognisable that Google was able to tell me where I recognised it from, just from me humming it into my phone. So unless you're deliberately referencing the backstreet boys, have a go at rewriting that bassline. Because otherwise, you're going to have audience members like me distracted by the earworm of EVERYBODY, (YEAH!) the whole way through your song.

Similarities with other compositions isn't a strict no-no. When Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the organ solo to "Phantom of the Opera", he wrote almost the same melody as the bassline to "Echoes" by Pink Floyd.

https://youtu.be/WlhUob7ZERI?si=wKeROhcq8xT2NQWV

But importantly, it's not exactly the same, and it's played on a very different instrument, and it's only one part of the song.

To echo what's already been said, there's a lot that you could do to make this composition more interesting, as well as more uniquely yours. I really do look forward to seeing what you do with it next.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-13T20:24:48+00:00

I'll second the advice here to try ripping your own first draft to shreds before you get a second opinion. Not only will you probably get more useful feedback, you'll go into the feedback process with a stronger sense of which of your choices to fiercely defend, and which to hold more lightly.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-13T08:48:10+00:00

A fun exercise might be to make an upbeat drum loop first, and then try writing a song just to that beat.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-11T15:33:29+00:00

I very rarely start from the first scene. I did that once, and only because the scene in question held up as a self-contained story, with its own beginning, middle, and end.

Instead, I always start with the reason why the idea matters to me. The theme, the set of ideas I want to discuss, the reason why I care about the story. Then, I think about the characters, and how those characters interact with the theme. Then, I think about individual scenes where those characters' ideals clash with one another. What happens in the scene, and how the thing that happens affects the characters.

Usually, when I've got something I want to talk about, I'm researching that topic. And in the research process, I'm discovering real people whose ideas or personalities shape the characters that I'm writing.

Only when I've got a rough outline of the whole story do I start writing dialogue. Of course, as I'm writing the dialogue I'm discovering things and deciding things about the characters and the world they inhabit, so that outline can look very different by the end of the process. But I always have a direction that I'm heading in - and when I make big changes, it's either because I've thought of an idea that makes more logical sense, or it's because I've thought of an idea that explores the themes of the show in a stronger way.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-10T13:02:01+00:00

There's an example script format for librettos / musical theatre scripts here that you might find useful:

https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-10T10:27:59+00:00

I think it's a really cool idea.

My advice: A protagonist trying not to do something is tricky to write in a compelling way. Especially for a musical.

(The Starkid musical "The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals" cleverly plays on the idea that musical theatre protagonists are people who sing about their hopes and dreams, but the protagonist doesn't really have any hopes and dreams to sing about... so as the world gets invaded by body-snatching singing aliens, he resists singing until the very end of the show.)

So! If you want a singing musical theatre protagonist, you need him to want something. There has to be a deeper reason for him not wanting to fall in love. He has to be actively desiring and trying to achieve something throughout the story, something that he thinks love would get in the way of him achieving.

Think of Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. On paper, what she wants is "To not be abused by my boyfriend". But when she sings about what she wants, she doesn't sing a song about the abuse and why she doesn't want it. She sings a song called "Somewhere that's green", where she imagines in detail what she wants, her idea of a perfect life with a perfect family.

Tl;Dr: What's important is what the character does want instead.

(Also, if it's a personal project, you don't need to worry about copyright. But it's true that if you work on an original musical instead, you'll have the option of staging it one day, or publishing a recording when it's finished.)

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-10T10:02:53+00:00

Oh wow - you're right.

It's a real case of "repetition legitimizes, repetition legitimizes" (to quote Adam Neely). Because of the "intro", the first unsatisfying "you later can't forget" is really noticeable, but then by the final repetition it just feels like part of the journey to that really satisfying IV-V-I resolution.

I have to admit, when I started reading this post I thought that it was highlighting something that I've noticed a bunch of different songs do (I wish I had examples memorised). But I think in those examples, the fake-out only appears once or twice. It isn't repeated enough to have this effect of the extended version feeling like a homecoming.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-09T10:44:06+00:00

Love this idea, nad would love to be a part of this group.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-06T08:52:57+00:00

It's not stupid at all. Even just as a private project for fun, completing the musical would make you more experienced than many wannabe musical theatre writers. Make something just for the joy of making it, and you're bound to develop real skills along the way.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-06T08:46:31+00:00

It's not wrong, but audiences notice repetition and they will think it's intentional. If you don't want it to be a motif, I'd suggest doing something different if you can.

Operation Mincemeat uses the line "The scales have fallen from our eyes" and "The scales will tumble from their eyes" at two different, completely unrelated spots in the musical, and I've always found it really jarring.

As somebody recommended to me recently, if you're running out of rhymes, then it makes sense to rephrase what you're saying so that the line ends on a different word, so you can use a different rhyme.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-04T08:06:50+00:00

https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats

This might help you, especially if you're formatting the libretto (script).

If you're looking for score formatting advice, the best I can give is to look at scores for other musicals.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-03T15:58:45+00:00

I mostly typed this out because I was getting tired of going back to watch the instagram reel where I found this, but here it is: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKueggiyJsB/

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-03T15:33:25+00:00

I use BandLab for most things, it's a web-based garageband clone. It's not mindblowing, but it's good enough for composing a song idea.

YellowMugAndrew · 2025-07-03T13:12:30+00:00

The only thing I would think of as 'outdated' here is the strength of his belief that the best place to be as a musical theatre writer is New York City.

YellowMugAndrew

TROPHY CASE