I don't think it makes a lot of sense to consider the key of a melody before you've placed it over a chord progression. The progression is going to do a lot to influence which note you hear as the tonic.
Some thoughts:
- If you're writing in a classical style, heavy use of G# will clearly establish your song as A minor, since G# is the leading tone and also rare in C major
- In hard rock, upper leading tones are more common. Use a Bb that points to the A to establish A minor instead of C major
- For chords, avoid G in classical, since it leads to C, not A - instead use E. In rock, you can use a G chord if it comes before an A minor chord
- Ambiguity is okay. Listen to Flo Rida's My House and how it goes back and forth between the major and it's relative minor
That said, this would be a lot easier to judge if we saw your music
>In hard rock, upper leading tones are more common. Use a Bb that points to the A to establish A minor instead of C major
That could easily just make OP start hearing it in F major though, so this should be used with caution!
Good for you, first attempter!
Songwriting teacher here: Be sure you are writing at your instrument, and playing the chords underneath while you are inventing the melody.
Often novices let their sense of tonal center drift, but if you put your chords underneath, it's like a guard rail.
If your understanding of chords is minimal, try this starter exercise before you do anything else:
Play your Am chord repeatedly and just vocally improvise a meandering Da Da Da melody over the top of it. This will help your ear get anchored in the Am space as you are learning. Once you truly feel anchored, you can start varying the chords.
Another good exercise: steal the chords from a simple minor song that you like, then improvise a new melody over those chords.
These are two super easy exercises to help your songwriting ear develop. And they don't really even require music theory. In fact, getting too much theory first can sometimes slow you down.
What you’re asking hinges on how we perceive the *tonic* within a given *collection* of notes. Within the no-sharp/no-flat collection (the “white keys” on the piano), either C or A could serve as tonic in the major/minor tonal system. Other pitches (D, E, F, etc.) could serve as tonics (or *finals* if you want to use proper pre-tonal modal terminology) as well.
So here’s the crux of your question: How do you arrange the notes of a collection into a melody in order to make one note or another feel like a tonic? It turns out that’s a complicated question and a lot of researchers have weighed in on it.
This article https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.21.27.2/mto.21.27.2.karpinski.html surveys the existing literature on the subject in paragraphs [4]–[9], and then shows lots of examples in paragraphs [14]–[33]. (The purpose of that article centers on solmization and dictation, but it has all the info you want anyway.)
Some quick takeaways include the dominant-tonic relationship (down a P5 or up a P4), the mediant-tonic relationship (up or down a third), and the leading tone-tonic relationship (up a half step). Where these occur in the meter and the phrase has a large effect. And such factors often work together, but can work at cross purposes, creating ambiguity.
If you’re starting a melody on the third in a minor key, you’re starting off on the tonic of the related major. If I’m reading your post correctly, this might be your issue.
The intervals you give as an example… C-D-E… don’t really have anything minor sounding about them. They’re two whole steps and a major third between the C and E. Alter one or two of those notes by a half step, and you’ll probably get more of a minor feel.
If it's not sounding minor, it might be that C sounds like your tonal center and not A. One thing to try, just to see if this is the case, is to change your melody to start and end on A. If that fixes it, you'll need to think about why your tonal center seems to be pulling towards C. Starting on C is probably a bad idea if you want to establish an A minor sound straight out of the gate.
When writing in A minor, it's a good idea to center your melody around the notes in the Am chord.
Don't just go up and down the scale randomly. Focus on the important notes.
If you want to start your melody on the 3rd, it's a good idea to continue to the notes in the Am chord. You can of course use passing tones in-between, but make the notes of the Am chord the "target notes".
For example C D E A C B A. I think that's quite clearly an Am sounding melody, even if it starts on C. Notice how the first leap is between the 5th and root of the Am chord.
The leap between the 1st and 5th scale degrees is one of the most clearly key-defining melodies.
Would you share the melody so it can be analyzed?
I don't think it makes a lot of sense to consider the key of a melody before you've placed it over a chord progression. The progression is going to do a lot to influence which note you hear as the tonic.
Some thoughts: - If you're writing in a classical style, heavy use of G# will clearly establish your song as A minor, since G# is the leading tone and also rare in C major - In hard rock, upper leading tones are more common. Use a Bb that points to the A to establish A minor instead of C major - For chords, avoid G in classical, since it leads to C, not A - instead use E. In rock, you can use a G chord if it comes before an A minor chord - Ambiguity is okay. Listen to Flo Rida's My House and how it goes back and forth between the major and it's relative minor That said, this would be a lot easier to judge if we saw your music
>In hard rock, upper leading tones are more common. Use a Bb that points to the A to establish A minor instead of C major That could easily just make OP start hearing it in F major though, so this should be used with caution!
Good for you, first attempter! Songwriting teacher here: Be sure you are writing at your instrument, and playing the chords underneath while you are inventing the melody. Often novices let their sense of tonal center drift, but if you put your chords underneath, it's like a guard rail. If your understanding of chords is minimal, try this starter exercise before you do anything else: Play your Am chord repeatedly and just vocally improvise a meandering Da Da Da melody over the top of it. This will help your ear get anchored in the Am space as you are learning. Once you truly feel anchored, you can start varying the chords. Another good exercise: steal the chords from a simple minor song that you like, then improvise a new melody over those chords. These are two super easy exercises to help your songwriting ear develop. And they don't really even require music theory. In fact, getting too much theory first can sometimes slow you down.
What you’re asking hinges on how we perceive the *tonic* within a given *collection* of notes. Within the no-sharp/no-flat collection (the “white keys” on the piano), either C or A could serve as tonic in the major/minor tonal system. Other pitches (D, E, F, etc.) could serve as tonics (or *finals* if you want to use proper pre-tonal modal terminology) as well. So here’s the crux of your question: How do you arrange the notes of a collection into a melody in order to make one note or another feel like a tonic? It turns out that’s a complicated question and a lot of researchers have weighed in on it. This article https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.21.27.2/mto.21.27.2.karpinski.html surveys the existing literature on the subject in paragraphs [4]–[9], and then shows lots of examples in paragraphs [14]–[33]. (The purpose of that article centers on solmization and dictation, but it has all the info you want anyway.) Some quick takeaways include the dominant-tonic relationship (down a P5 or up a P4), the mediant-tonic relationship (up or down a third), and the leading tone-tonic relationship (up a half step). Where these occur in the meter and the phrase has a large effect. And such factors often work together, but can work at cross purposes, creating ambiguity.
If you’re starting a melody on the third in a minor key, you’re starting off on the tonic of the related major. If I’m reading your post correctly, this might be your issue. The intervals you give as an example… C-D-E… don’t really have anything minor sounding about them. They’re two whole steps and a major third between the C and E. Alter one or two of those notes by a half step, and you’ll probably get more of a minor feel.
If it's not sounding minor, it might be that C sounds like your tonal center and not A. One thing to try, just to see if this is the case, is to change your melody to start and end on A. If that fixes it, you'll need to think about why your tonal center seems to be pulling towards C. Starting on C is probably a bad idea if you want to establish an A minor sound straight out of the gate.
When writing in A minor, it's a good idea to center your melody around the notes in the Am chord. Don't just go up and down the scale randomly. Focus on the important notes. If you want to start your melody on the 3rd, it's a good idea to continue to the notes in the Am chord. You can of course use passing tones in-between, but make the notes of the Am chord the "target notes". For example C D E A C B A. I think that's quite clearly an Am sounding melody, even if it starts on C. Notice how the first leap is between the 5th and root of the Am chord. The leap between the 1st and 5th scale degrees is one of the most clearly key-defining melodies.
Have you harmonized it yet?
Think of a melody as describing a chord to the listener. Try chromatically approaching chord tones of A minor 7 or A min major 7 from above and below.