Steps, Skips, and Leaps in Melody Writing

The way a melody moves over time is perhaps its most important feature. This includes both the large-scale contour of the melody, and the individual intervals between notes.

These intervals can be grouped into a few categories called steps, skips, and leaps. As a songwriter, thinking in terms of these categories can help you control how your melody develops within and between sections in a song.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at these categories of intervals, what kinds of effects they create, and how they’re often used. We’ll then discuss an exercise that will help you consciously play with intervals when writing your own melodies.

Intervals: a quick introduction

A melodic interval is the distance between two notes that follow each other in a melody.

The size of an interval is counted in note letters. For example, the interval between C and D is called a 2nd. And the interval between C and Db is also a 2nd.

The quality of an interval is more fine-grained, and based on the number of half-steps between two notes. For example, the interval between C and D is 2 half-steps. It’s called a major 2nd. The interval between C and Db is 1 half-step. It’s called a minor 2nd.

For reference, here are the most common interval qualities. “Hs” means half-steps. Don’t worry about memorizing this list:

Hs  Interval quality  Size
--  ----------------  ------
 0  perfect unison    unison
 1  minor 2nd         2nd
 2  major 2nd         2nd
 3  minor 3rd         3rd
 4  major 3rd         3rd
 5  perfect 4th       4th
 6  tritone           tritone
 7  perfect 5th       5th
 8  minor 6th         6th
 9  major 6th         6th
10  minor 7th         7th
11  major 7th         7th
12  octave            octave

In this post, we’re going to ignore the quality of intervals. They’re obviously important to the sound of a melody. But the size on its own also tells us something about the effect of an interval.

In a scale, you can find the size by counting from one note in the interval to the other. Here are two octaves of the C major scale as an example:

Ignoring quality, the interval between D and F is a 3rd. And the interval between E and B is a 5th¹.

Steps, skips, and leaps

Now that we understand interval sizes, it’s time to consider three categories of intervals called steps, skips, and leaps. These each create different kinds of effects in a melody.

Steps move in interval sizes of a 2nd. They are easy to sing and they’re the most common intervals in melodies. They can create a walking effect if continued in one direction.

If a melody contains a lot of steps, it will have a more conversational flow. Steps are often more prominent in verses, which tend to have more lyrics and focus more on story-telling.

Here’s a simple example that uses all steps:

Skips move in interval sizes of a 3rd. This means they skip a note in the scale (hence the name). They are more energetic than steps and are often used to outline the background chord.

If used sparingly, they can be part of a conversational flow as well. But they can also sound like singing, particularly when continued in one direction.

Here’s an example made up entirely of skips:

Leaps move in interval sizes greater than a 3rd. They are more difficult to sing, but are more expressive than steps or skips. A leap will often emphasize its target.

Leaps are commonly found in choruses. They are more memorable and can range from declarative to soaring in effect.

Here’s an example that uses all leaps:

Guidelines for using steps, skips, and leaps in a melody

I’ve mentioned that steps are more common in verses and leaps more common in choruses, with skips falling somewhere in between. But don’t take this distinction too seriously: you’ll find all three in every part of a song.

There are a couple of traditional “rules” for using these categories when writing melodies:

1. A leap should be followed by a step in the opposite direction.
2. Two skips in one direction should be followed by motion in the opposite direction.

When followed, these guidelines can help balance a melody. But if you’ve read this blog before, you can probably guess what I’m about to say.

When it comes to popular music, there are no rules, only frameworks.

Balance is not necessarily what your song calls for. This means you can use these guidelines in two ways. You can follow them to bring more balance. Or you can break them to bring less!

Either way, it’s worth playing around with both approaches to learn more about how melodies work.

A musical example: “Andromeda”

“Andromeda” by Weyes Blood is a great example of the contrast between a verse mostly made up of steps and a chorus with a good mix of all three categories.

I’ve colored the notes to indicate what category of interval leads to each note. Blue means it was arrived at by step. Green means it was arrived at by skip and red by leap.

Here’s the first half of the verse:

Although this is an interesting melody, it also has a conversational flow. You can see that it mostly consists of steps (blue). There are a few skips (green) that add character and a single leap (red) that creates some tension at the end.

Contrast the feel of these intervals with the more diverse intervals in the chorus. Notice how the leaps (red) bring greater emotional expression:

Unlike my artificial leap example in an earlier section, this melody makes good use of both skips and steps to add variety and a natural ebb and flow.

Pay attention to how each interval category feels in the melody. The skips are colorful but the leaps add more drama and emotion. The steps are more relaxed, but she also speeds them up to build momentum.

You might have noticed that she mostly ignores the “rules” of melody writing mentioned earlier. Notice that by ignoring these rules, she reinforces the sense that we are floating on each of the leap targets, an effect that fits the theme of the song well. The only time she turns around with a step after a leap is on “let me be”, which also acts as a moment of temporary repose.

These are finely crafted melodies, but it’s unlikely she thought much about interval categories when writing them. Still, it’s clear that the intervals have a significant impact on the feeling, development, and relative power of these parts.

Playing around with intervals more intentionally is one way to internalize some of these dynamics.

A steps, skips, and leaps exercise

Let’s take what we’ve learned and use it write our own melodies.

In this exercise, we’re going to consciously play around with different interval categories to discover what kinds of effects we can produce.

• First, choose a scale or mode. Play or sing this scale up and down until you’ve internalized it. For this exercise, I recommend limiting your melody to the notes in the scale.
• Once you have your scale, pick any two notes. If they’re adjacent in the scale, that’s a step. If they have one scale note between them, that’s a skip. Otherwise, it’s a leap.
• Play these two notes back and forth. Focus on the feeling this creates. If you’re singing, come up with two words that match this feeling and sing them on the notes.
• Using this interval as the start of your melody, try to continue it in a way that captures that initial feeling. If you come up with something you like that alters the feeling, just go with it. Once you have an initial melody, it’s probably a good idea to record it so you don’t forget it.
• The goal now is to play or sing the melody twice, but to change some of the intervals the second time around. This is a very common approach in melodies, adding interest and momentum.
• When changing intervals, play around with different combinations. Replacing a step with a skip will add a little energy. Replacing it with a leap might add a lot. On the other hand, replacing skips or leaps with steps will decrease the energy. Ascending intervals are often associated with increasing energy and descending intervals with decreasing energy.
• Whatever else you do, try to end the melody on a different note the second time through. This is another common move in melodies that creates larger-scale motion from one ending note to the next.

Try this exercise with a variety of initial intervals. Pay attention to the different effects they create.

If you’re ever stuck when coming up with a melody, playing around with different intervals can be a great way to get started. And this exercise can help you develop this as a habit.