A Formula for Writing the 8-bar

Composition
If you are really stuck on the composition question (grade five music theory), you might like
to know that there is a kind of formula you can use in order to generate a composition. The
formula provides you with a functioning melody you will still need to add in phrasing,
dynamics, tempo and other instrument-specific directions, and you might want to make minor
tweaks to the rhythm.

This is not a cheat you need to understand about keys, chords, scales and cadences to get
this to work. But then, you need to know all that stuff anyway! Heres how it works:

Part One Preparation

1) Decide on the key. (Accidentals = minor, but sometimes its minor although no accidentals
appear. Check the first note and what chord the first notes seem to be part of.)

2) Check how many bars youve been given. In most cases, you get exactly 2 bars (including
the anacrusis where appropriate). But sometimes you might get one or two beats more, or
less. Check, its important.

3) Understand that our composition will consist of four phrases, which are exactly the same
length i.e. 2 bars each.

Part Two Rules

1) Never write a melodic interval which is augmented or diminished. (There are special
rules which apply to these dissonant intervals, so its best to just avoid them.) Choose another
note always write a semitone step where you can. For example, dont write E-Bb
(diminished), instead write E-F (semitone).

2) Always end phrase 2 on a long note, which is part of the dominant chord.

3) Always end phrase 4 on a long note which is the tonic of the piece.

4) Try to make the leading note lead upwards to the tonic. In some cases the dominant is ok
too.

5) Always sharpen the leading note in a minor key, when the following note is the tonic.

6) In minor keys, use the melodic minor scale. Therefore, the notes will be sharpened on the
way up, and flattened on the way down.

7) Always write part of a scale which arrives at the tonic, for the last 4-6 notes of the piece.

Part 3 Composition

Well use an example from the 2006 exam to work through. Heres the opening:
1) You have phrase 1 already. We start at phrase 2. Start phrase 2 one scale note higher than
phrase 1, and continue for 1 bar, always one scale note higher. The rhythm will be the same.

2) Bar 4 is the end of phrase two, and should be an imperfect cadence. Continue writing the
melody from bar 2 one scale note higher, until half way through bar 4, then write a long note
which is part of the dominant chord. This piece is in F, so the dominant chord is C.

We chose C, as the dotted crotchet. G would have been a bad choice, as the note before is G,
and E makes a weaker sounding cadence.

3) Start bar 5 on the same note as the first note of the piece, then invert the melody. So if the
melody goes down in bar 1, put it up in bar 5, and vice versa. Remember to avoid augmented
or diminished intervals choose the next nearest note instead, or make a leading note go to
the tonic. If the melody moves by step, simply move by step in the opposite direction to bar
1. If the melody moves in 3rds/4ths/5ths or 6ths however, you will find that the notes make a
chord. In this case, make the chord move in the opposite direction. For example, C-D-E
would become C-B-A (melody), but C-E-G would become C-G-E or C-A-F (downwards
chords).

Here, the first beat is a melodic inversion, and the second beat is an inverted chord. We could
have written F-C-A instead of F-D-Bb, as an alternative.

4) Continue the inverted melody/chords in bars 6 and 7.

Here, in bar 7, we changed the first note. The original melody has a leap of a 5th, but that
would give us a melodic interval of Bb-(low) E, which is a diminished 5th. We substituted
the note A, which is a semitone distance from Bb so always a good choice.

5) Bar 8 should be a perfect cadence. Make bar 8 a scale, starting on the next note up or down
from the end of bar 7. (E.g. bar 7 ends on D, bar 8 starts on C). Make the scale last for 1/2 the
bar make the notes as small as necessary so that you have enough! The second half of bar 8
should be the tonic note nothing else. In triple time (3/2, 3/4 and 3/8) the last bar can
contain nothing but the tonic, and the scale can be in bar 7.