The Palette program is a tool for the creation of ‘theoretically correct’ melodies. The program is based on composition theory and the theory of harmony. The strong theoretical base makes the melody composing process easier. I downloaded the program and give it try. You know what I think? I think it is great! Even if you only installed the trial version, you can still learn a lot about melody composition.

Free 17 Melody Composition Lessons

The program contains seventeen lessons. Each lesson has one or two demo-scripts. The lessons sequentially describe all process of melody creation. I walked through all the lessons and they are marvelous. It teaches you about motives creation. Combine motives to become a phrase. Combine phrases to become a sentence. Combine sentences to make up a period. Further lessons are provided about Scheme, melody and harmonic cadence. It is almost EVERYTHING you need to know about melody composition. This lessons is accessible even though you didn’t purchase the software. The trial version is all functional except saving and exporting your composition. Download Trial now!

Want to how it works? After you had walked through all the 17 lessons, now you can start to compose!

Start a new file

Click File –> New to create a new song. Here you can choose your song’s key (Major or Minor), set the time-signature and choose the template of song structure.

Chord Progression

I set the chord progression of the songs I intend to compose. What I lay down is the normal pop song Canon progression I V vi iii7 IV I ii V. It is so simple to choose the chord using the chord editor. The chord editor provides many ways to voice the chord. It let you choose the tight voicing, wide voicing and even mixed voicing. Just a few clicks and your chord progression is set. You can change the chord later when you create the melody.

Motive editor

Every melody start with a motive. Using the motive editor, simply click on the notes to construct the melody. You will hear the chord playing in a pad sound at the back when you lay down the melody. It is very helpful so you know which notes sound nice. Even though you don’t know music theory, this will work for you. The editor screen also shows the correct strong harmony note within the chord in bluish purple color. The non-chord notes is shown in pink.

Create variation

After you create your first motive, you can now drag the motive to the button above to create various variation. This is very helpful. You can learn all the button function through the help file.

Save and export your composition

The full version of the program can export the created melody to a *.mid (midi) file consisting of three tracks: melody, chords and bass part. Any midi sequencer or style arranger can import these files to create a complete tune.

Please listen to album ‘Summer day’, author MT. The melodies and the harmony of all compositions of the album were composed on The Palette. This is one of the tracks:

Clearness – Summer Day.Clearness - Summer day mp3 (3 mb),

initial files: Part 1 mid Part 2 mid Part 1 ptt Part 2 ptt

The program keeps the music within the limits of harmony and composition theory. It guarantees a properly constructed melody and backing. Give it a try even though you don’t intend to buy. I am sure you will learn something new from the 17 lessons

Download Trial

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