Countermelody for Beginners

What you can explore

• Distinguish a simultaneous second melody from a later answer phrase.
• Choose pitches, rests and timing for a second line beneath a fixed main melody.
• Compare overlap and gaps using the actual note starts and lengths.

What makes a countermelody a second line?

A main melody gives you one tune to follow. A countermelody adds another line with its own pitches and rhythm during the same passage. It can overlap the main notes, use their gaps, repeat a note or leave space. It does not have to copy the main tune.

This experiment supplies a high Main melody and lets you build a lower part. Both occupy the same two-bar timeline at 100 BPM. Main stays fixed so you can understand what each change to your own line does. The contrast in register is a teaching choice, not a rule that every countermelody must be lower.

Start with one note, then give your line a shape

Tap one of the four editable note cards to open its small chooser. Choose C4, D4, E4, G4, A4 or Rest. A pitch choice changes only that position and closes the chooser. Choosing Rest removes that note's sound without rewriting any of the other positions.

Try one pitch first, deliberately Play the combined phrase, then decide whether to add more. A repeated pitch is still a valid part. You can make a rising line, a falling one or an uneven shape without completing a scale exercise. At least one second-part note is needed for the final two-part result; the remaining positions may stay rests.

Choose With Main or In the gap

Each note card has two timing choices. With Main starts your note half a beat after its corresponding Main note starts, while that Main note is still held. In the gap starts one and a half beats after Main starts, after its note gate and short release have ended. Changing timing keeps the selected pitch.

The labels describe these exact supplied notes rather than promising that any overlap is a clash or any gap is better. The picture uses one pitch and time axis for both parts: circles identify Main starts and diamonds identify your starts. Ribbons show note gates, with short releases after them. Color supports the distinction but is not its only cue.

Use rests without losing your timing choice

A rest is an intentional empty note position. Its saved timing remains available for a later pitch, but it produces no second-part event until you add that pitch. The chooser tells you when a timing choice belongs to a rest, so a dormant setting does not look like a sound that is already playing.

With all four positions at Rest, the combined player still has the supplied Main melody. The page states that only Main has notes, and the optional second-part comparison explains why it is unavailable. Final review offers a clear Add E4 to Note 1 action rather than silently filling the whole phrase. That recovery preserves Note 1's saved timing.

Compare the lines, then keep your two-part phrase

The main player loops both parts using your current choices. From the second mission, an optional comparison lets you hear Main alone or your part alone once, at the same respective levels used in the combination. A comparison stops the previous loop and does not automatically restart it afterward. Opening a note chooser stops playback too, so the next sound always follows a deliberate action.

Undo restores the preceding complete set of choices. Sound-off review uses the visible note shapes and timing without requiring you to identify them by ear. Your final text recipe records the actual pitches, rests and placements alongside the supplied Main. It is not an audio or MIDI export, and finishing does not transfer a session to the TunePal app.