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Make a song

Write an eight-bar melody on a grid, put chords under it and play it back. The six units cover melody shape, repetition and change, the four chords I, IV, V and vi, rhythm, question and answer phrases, and finishing a song you can share with a link. The grid only offers the notes of the C major scale, so no note sounds out of key.

Progress

About this course

The tune in the grid was first printed in France in 1761 as "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman". English speakers know it from children's songs set to the same melody. Around 1781, in Vienna, Mozart wrote twelve piano variations on it, catalogued as K. 265. For a while scholars dated the piece to his 1778 stay in Paris, but a study of the manuscript by Wolfgang Plath pointed to 1781 or 1782. Each variation keeps the tune's outline while changing rhythm, accompaniment or mode. In the first eight bars only four bars contain material that has not been heard before, which is the lesson of the repetition unit.

The six units begin with the shape of a melody. Most melodies you can hum move to the next note of the scale far more often than they jump, and an arch melody in C major shows a dashed contour while a panel counts steps, leaps and repeats. Adding chords uses I, IV, V and vi, because with C, F, G and Am every note of the C major scale belongs to at least one of them. Changing the rhythm notes that at 96 beats per minute, eight bars of four beats last exactly 20 seconds. In 1815 Maelzel patented the metronome, and in 1817 Beethoven added metronome marks to his first eight symphonies. Question and answer phrases show two four-bar phrases that start with the same notes yet sound like a question and its reply. The last unit finishes a song that fits in a link, about four characters per note plus eight letters for the chords. The grid offers only the notes of the C major scale, so no note sounds out of key.

Before you start

Familiarity with a four-beat bar helps when placing notes on the grid, and recognising C, F, G and Am helps when adding chords. The grid offers only C major notes. You begin with the shape of a melody, then revise repetition, rhythm and phrase endings rather than writing everything at once.

When you finish

You can write an eight-bar melody, vary a repeated idea, and place C, F, G or Am beneath it. You can change note timing, shape two four-bar phrases as a question and answer, and listen back to revise the result. You can finish the song in the grid and share it through a link.

  1. 1The shape of a melodyMost melodies you can hum move to the next note of the scale far more often than they jump.
  2. 2Repetition and variationIn the first eight bars of a French folk tune from 1761, only four bars contain material that has not been heard before.
  3. 3Adding chords: I, IV, V and viWith four chords, C, F, G and Am, every note of the C major scale belongs to at least one of them.
  4. 4Changing the rhythmAt 96 beats per minute, eight bars of four beats last exactly 20 seconds.
  5. 5Question and answer phrasesTwo four-bar phrases can start with the same notes and still sound like a question and its reply, because of the last two notes.
  6. 6Finish your own songA whole song in this grid fits in a link: about four characters per note, plus eight letters for the chords.

Related courses

  • Piano first steps
    Find your way around the keyboard, learn the names of the white keys, place your right hand, and play your first melody on the keyboard below. A mouse, a touchscreen, or your computer keys all work.
  • Guitar chords
    Learn the parts of the guitar and the names of its six strings, then nine open chords: C, G, D, Em, Am, E, A, Dm and F. After that come changing chords in time, strumming patterns, three-chord songs and the capo. Every chord box below plays its sound when you tap it.
  • Drum beats
    Learn the parts of a drum kit and how drummers count, then build the basic rock beat, 8-beat and 16-beat grooves, fills, the shuffle and a short tour of other styles. Every unit has a 16-step drum pad: switch steps on and off and press Play to hear the result.
  • Ukulele
    Four nylon strings tuned G C E A, a body you can hold in one arm and chords that need one or two fingers: the ukulele is one of the quickest instruments to start songs on. This course covers its history and parts, tuning, the first chords, strumming patterns, changing chords in songs, and more chords and keys. Every unit has a ukulele neck you can press and strum, and most units also play chord progressions on it or add a tap-along rhythm test.
Sources for this course (13)
  • Fundamentals of Music Theory, UMass Amherst, Unit 14 Melody: repeated notes, conjunct (stepwise) and disjunct (skip, leap) motion, melodic contour (fundamentalsofmusictheory.umasscreate.net/unit-14)
  • Humanities LibreTexts, Music Appreciation II 1.1 Melody: contour, conjunct and disjunct, range, motive (human.libretexts.org)
  • Open Music Theory (Lavengood, Peterson et al., CC BY-SA)
  • chapters Roman Numerals (uppercase major, lowercase minor, I ii iii IV V vi vii° in major)
  • Introduction to Harmony, Cadences and Phrase Endings (authentic cadence V-I, half cadence ends on V)
  • The Phrase, Archetypes and Unique Forms (period = antecedent ending with a weaker cadence, often a half cadence, and consequent ending with a stronger one; antecedent often four bars)
  • Glossary (sequence model and copy) (viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory)
  • Robert Hutchinson, Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom 7.4 Cadences and 11.4 Phrase (most phrases are four bars) (musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c)
  • musictheory.education 2.14 Degrees I, IV and V: tonic, subdominant, dominant
  • Duke University Sonic Dictionary, Melodic Sequence (a motive repeated at a higher or lower pitch)
  • Wikipedia and IMSLP, Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" K. 265/300e (French melody first printed 1761; Mozart, 1781 or 1782, Wolfgang Plath's dating; first published 1785)
  • PLOS ONE 2020, Martin-Castro and Ucar, "Conductors' tempo choices shed light over Beethoven's metronome" (Maelzel patented the metronome in 1815; Beethoven added marks to his first eight symphonies) and Boston Baroque, Martin Pearlman (the marks were added in 1817)
  • All melodies in the lessons are written for this course except the French folk melody of 1761, which is in the public domain. Timing values computed: one beat = 60 / bpm seconds.

Checked: 2026-10-17