Melody Writing on iPad: From Raw Idea to Singable Lead

Last night’s gig reminded me why I keep coming back to melody as the heartbeat of a song. The secular bar scene, for all its rough edges, has a generosity that never fails to surprise me. People root for each other. There’s a sense that your effort matters and that the room wants you to sound like yourself. I didn’t always feel that growing up in church circles, where underpaying musicians can quietly breed competition and creative anxiety. The welcome I get in bars—sometimes very sketchy ones—stokes the same fire I try to pour into a melodic line: alive, responsive, and fully human.

This week’s vlog turns last week’s Linkin Park–style session into a focused walkthrough on writing a melody entirely on the iPad. Before we dive in, I’ll say this plainly: there are tools that can generate melodies for you. If that’s your workflow, I’m not here to judge, and you probably don’t need the rest of this article. But if you’ve ever wanted to write your own lines, or you’re searching for a repeatable process that fits how you actually create, then you’re in the right place.

My starting point is the same approach I showed way back in my second vlog. I use a looper and a drum machine to seed ideas. I’ll set a tempo on the drum machine to define a feel, then capture a hook or a simple chord progression on the looper so I have something to build around. That foundation keeps me honest and gives me a canvas where I can try rhythmic shapes and melodic gestures without losing the groove. In the last two vlogs, I also showed why the iPad can hang with a MacBook if you’ve got sensible outboard gear. Logic Pro and GarageBand remain the same core tools; the real difference is in the plug-ins. Desktop plug-ins are often more robust but won’t run on iPad, while iPad plug-ins are designed for touch and speed. With a thoughtful chain and a mastering step, the iPad can go far beyond “sketchpad” territory.

Although this isn’t a music theory class, a little theory goes a long way toward consistency. I lean on a small, practical palette: major and natural minor scales, the major and minor pentatonic scales, and the blues scale. Having these at your fingertips means you can choose notes with intent rather than guessing. Over time you’ll hear how a minor pentatonic phrase sits differently from a natural minor phrase, and how dropping in that bluesy flat five can create tension that begs to resolve. If you like visual aids, I’ve posted scale comparison charts that lay out the options in each key. Use them as a quick reference when you’re stuck.

Rhythm decides whether your melody cuts through or disappears. If your line simply follows the chord changes beat for beat, it will blur into the accompaniment no matter how loud you turn it. Instead, think of the melody as a dancer moving with the band rather than shadowing every step. On the iPad, I like to sketch phrases first with simple subdivisions—quarters and eighths—then I’ll add sixteenth-note pickups, syncopation, and strategic rests. Those little pockets of silence are what allow the notes around them to speak. I keep a “subdivision grid” on hand that shows different ways to fill four beats; it’s a reminder that rhythm is a palette, not a prison.

Dynamics turn correct notes into compelling music. Last night’s gig was a clinic in this. You could feel when players leaned in, when they let a moment breathe, when they dug for grit or softened into the pocket. On iPad, dynamics live in velocity, articulation, attack, and timbre. Push a phrase toward a peak, let it exhale, then surge again. Even a simple three-note idea can feel alive if it swells and releases with intention. I visualize this with an “emotional contour” map: the chord progression moves left to right while a line rises and falls to show intensity. It’s not scientific, but it keeps me honest about shaping the arc of a section.

To ground all of this, I returned to last week’s session and wrote a melody over D5 to B-flat5 to F5 to C5. I start by locking in the groove and looping the progression so I can stay in the moment. My first pass sticks to D natural minor and D minor pentatonic, with occasional blues color for grit. I aim for motion that contrasts the harmony. If the chords move down, I try a line that pushes up or holds steady. That contrary or oblique motion helps the melody stand apart rather than being swallowed by the chords. I sketch a few short motifs—simple, singable shapes—then string them into a four-bar phrase where the emotional high point lands over F5 and eases into C5. Only when the shape works do I go back and sculpt the dynamics with velocity and articulation so the phrase breathes.

For those curious about the technical setup, my signal flow is simple: instrument or microphone into a compact audio interface, into the iPad running Logic Pro, out to headphones or monitors. Sometimes I put a looper and mixer in front of the interface so I can capture ideas hands-free and audition parts before I commit them. The point isn’t to complicate the rig; it’s to make improvising and refining a melody feel like a single continuous gesture rather than a stop-start battle with the gear.

If you want a quick practice routine that builds these muscles, set up any four-chord loop you like, choose one note palette such as the minor pentatonic, and record two bars using only quarters and eighths. Then record two bars that weave in sixteenths and intentional rests. Listen back and shape the velocity so the third bar has a natural lift and the fourth eases into resolution. When that feels good, add one carefully placed blue note to create tension that you then resolve. It’s a short drill that teaches choice, contrast, and control.

For this episode I used the iPad with Logic Pro, a compact interface, a looper and drum machine for idea generation, a couple of outboard effects, and a simple mastering chain. You can absolutely do this in GarageBand if that’s your comfort zone. The gear isn’t the point; the process is. If your workflow gets you into the zone where ideas feel inevitable, you’re already winning.

My iPad Signal Flow

Guitar/mic → audio interface → iPad (Logic Pro) → headphones/monitorsOptional: looper and mixer before the interface to capture ideas hands-free.

If you want to watch how this unfolds in real time, the corresponding vlog follows the same arc as this post. I open with the gig story and a few thoughts on community, draw a line between auto-melody tools and writing your own, recap the looper and drum machine workflow, touch on the minimal theory that actually helps, demonstrate rhythmic subdivision and dynamic contour, and then build a melody over D5 to B-flat5 to F5 to C5 before wrapping with what’s next. I’ll add chapter timestamps on the video page shortly so you can jump to the sections you need.

Try This (10-Minute Exercise)

1. Pick any four-chord loop you like.

2. Choose one note set (minor pentatonic).

3. Write two bars of melody using only quarters and eighths.

4. Write two bars using sixteenths and rests.

5. Record both, then shape velocity: build to bar 3, taper in bar 4.

6. Pick the stronger version and add one blue note (♭5) for tension/release.

As always, I’d love to hear how you approach melody on the iPad. Do you start with rhythm or with a single note that just feels right? Do you ride the pentatonic all the way or reach for natural minor and blues for color? If you’d like the charts I referenced—the scale comparison, the note-choice and voice-leading views in D minor, the subdivision grid, the melody-versus-chord motion example, and the iPad signal-flow diagram—say the word and I’ll post a downloadable package. My hope is that these visuals make the process tangible enough that when inspiration strikes, your hands and your tools are ready to keep up.

Got a favorite way to shape melody on iPad? Drop it in the comments. If you want the downloadable charts from this post/video, let me know and I’ll share them in the next update.

— William (Backpack Composer)