Repeated Notes

In all our previous exercises, we have basically used a different note for each note of the melody. However, we can repeat certain notes of the melody, for the purpose for emphasis, because of melodic rhythm purposes. Judicial use of repeated notes can be very beneficial to a melody. For people with limited voices and ranges, repeated notes can make their singing jobs easier.

Now notice that I said judicial use of repeated notes. All too often, when it comes to music, a lot of folks will latch on to a note. They will sing a lyric to that note and when they change chords the latch on to another note and repeat that note for the duration of that chord. This is not melodic writing, this is clutching at straws. Even famous people do this. Now the reason this happens is, a lot of people out there are very well versed in writing a lyric, but are really in the dark when it comes to writing music. So, as they strum their guitar or play their piano keys, a particular note in the chord leaps out at them, and that’s what they use. And they don’t know where to go from there. So they stay on that one note for safety.

Now in some instances, where the song is a style, which I’ll call a declamatory style of writing, the person is writing a very emotional lyric and is hammering that one point out there at the top of their lungs. The repeated note works here for long periods of time cause it’s really no longer about melody, it’s somebody pouring out their guts on that one note. “Why” by Annie Lennox comes to mind So, I’m not saying it’s bad to have a couple of songs in your repertoire in which repeated notes rule, but if all your songs are like that, you can have more variety than that.

By now, having shown you all the possibilities you can have after you find one note, and what other notes you can move to, with melodic words, a judicial use of repeated notes is 4 notes or less. Now if you use more than 4, it’s not the end of the world, I’m just suggesting, after 4 notes, move on to another note in the chord, use a scale segment, leap to a color note and back to the chord note. You have the tools now to embellish your melody, rather than just stay on one note cause you don’t know what else to do.

Now another reason people can use repeated notes in a song for very long times and it’s effective is because they have some very sophisticated chord changes happening underneath. This happens where you have 4 part harmony with voices and the lead voice stays on one note, while the other voices move to other harmonic tones. One of the most famous examples of this is “Girl Talk” by Neal Hefti (not by Elvis Costello). Click here to listen. So, what offsets the repeated note is the movement in the other voices. A more recent example of this if “4th of July” by James Taylor. The B section he holds on to a note forever, but background vocalists move in the harmony. The A section is a great example of judicial use of repeated notes by using an interval and repeating the first or second note of the interval.