 Hi guys, this is Jason here from Nathaniel and in this lesson, let's look at building melodies on the piano given an existing chord progression using patterns. And the patterns we make could just be melodic shapes, if you will, or rhythm patterns. You could take a melodic idea, combine it with a rhythmic idea and you've got yourself what's called as a motif or a short phrase. And what we did mention in an earlier lesson also was the motif or the short phrase should ideally sound good for all the four chords. But since the melody needs to follow the chord and since the audience needs to also remember what you're doing, it helps to make a few small modifications. So for this lesson, I've just taken a melody line which is G A B flat A G D. Again on the B flat major scale, B flat major two flats and the chord progression is G minor then E flat major play everything four times B flat F major. So what I'm doing here is the first tip I would say is whatever the landing note is or whatever the long notes are or whatever the important note is, that note will will ring in the listener's ear a lot more than all the others. So if you take the melody, see this is my last note so that audience is going to capture that because that's long and that's ended the cycle. So you want to you want to think of that note and you want to kind of check whether you want to change it or whether it doesn't work in the first place with the next upcoming chord. So if I if I go repeat the same thing maybe I want to change this to a chord tone D is fine because it's part of the G minor chord works great then I can do E flat because it's part of the E flat major chord let's do those two again G minor I think it works well it creates a sense of familiarity at the same time it breaks the monotony it's sort of at the midway point it's not too confusing you're not changing the phrase altogether it's the same phrase you're just modifying it a little bit so that the listener sort of doesn't recognize it as monotonous or it doesn't sound wrong with the next chord sometimes the landing note will sound great for the first chord in which you created the tune but then for the next chord it just doesn't work so you could just change maybe the landing or one or two elements of the melody just to make it work with the upcoming chord so if I do that again G minor with the landing D E flat and now let's see what we can do for the next chord what is that B flat major the one not too bad that note's a little annoying right we're playing that G quite often maybe we'll do I quite like that see that doesn't sound so good right but F works because F is part of the B flat major chord so let's see what we have so far B flat F and D and then I want to end on C but maybe I could even do F because F is part of the chord F major so I'm doing F and C to land last chord so it's pretty much remains constant doesn't it it's always the same so it creates a sense of familiarity works great that also works great and now with the ending two notes G D same thing oh maybe that or even this sounds good I guess creating a E flat major seventh jazzy or vibe F B flat really like that next and repeated a couple of times okay so that's one way you could make a pattern really last or survive its way through a long long section of music another thing I like to do from time and again to the existing pattern is just transpose it around the chord so if I do what's happening here is I'm starting with G which is the first note of the G minor chord so I go one two three two one lower fifth with respect to G as my root or tonal center so one two three one one two three two one five okay note is a pattern going higher coming back and very low which is the lower fifth why not repeat that phrase starting with the next chord so you go now E flat like a very drastic change but still beautiful and still memorable because it's still the same pattern so you go E flat a B flat so you have to decide which one you like better the earlier approach where you just change a little bit just the landing note or here it's like a transposed system where every chord you start the melody based on every chord so you go B flat and at the last chord you can just not do the phrase just give up again like a drum roll you know you can just play something cool at the end which is just a flourish of notes or something that's what pianists love to do in any case so another way you can modify this motif once you've sort of latched on to a phrase which you enjoy and you figure out a way to make it more interesting changing the landing note and also transposing around the chord one could also look at adding a few more notes to the motive and then taking away a few more notes from the motive so what was once how do i simplify it and maybe a shorter version bring out the whole thing we repeat it twice you also get shorter even shorter motives and you can play that a bit more often okay and then you can also add notes so these are the options we have with the motif first off what can we do create the motif over the chord tones after you've created the motive listen to it and see how it connects to your with your chords does it sound consonant or dissonant all the time if it works great but then it may be very monotonous so then you just change a few aspects of it like the landing tone to make it more interesting then you can transpose around the chord play the exact same motive but starting on different points of the chord if you will and last but not least sort of squeeze the motive out by taking away some notes from it and then bringing back some notes taking it away bring it back and if you think all that is boring you can always end a bar of mute end a phrase rather with like a cool melodic embellishment like just a random flutter or a flare of notes right guys so hope you found the lesson useful and I hope you watch the entire series if you watch this entire series of five lessons a big thanks to you all and I hope that you've that you can use this in your playing and your compositions and I hope it I hope your music gets a bit better having watched these videos that's the main goal and if you have any comments if you have any doubts anything further you'd like us to cover please shoot them out in the comment section and do help our channel grow by sharing the video and whatever else you can do like it or bring more people on board and we also have a patreon account which you can be part of where you get a lot of my notes handwritten notes and any notation whenever it applies and there are monthly options which should work out really well for you so do stay in touch and I will catch you in the next lesson cheers