From the course: 20 Unofficial Rules of Songwriting

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Rule #12: Make your melody unique

Rule #12: Make your melody unique

From the course: 20 Unofficial Rules of Songwriting

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Rule #12: Make your melody unique

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- Rule #12: Make your melody unique. A unique melody is what sets your song apart. But you shouldn't do this at the expense of accessibility. Beware of being overly clever. Unique is good, but overly complicated rarely works. In the song example from To Have and To Hold, one of the things that we did was through a combination of rhythmic variation and held notes. The melody is unique but it's not so complicated that it isn't memorable. For our Grammy Award-winning song example, give a listen to the song From a Distance, that Bette Midler popularized, in terms of a melody that is uniquely memorable without being overly complicated.

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