Generate melody ideas from any chord progression


Use this free melody generator to create melodic ideas from your chord progression. Paste in your own chords or build a progression manually, then choose a style, rhythm, range, and phrase shape to generate a melody that follows the harmony.

The generator works by prioritising chord tones on strong beats while allowing passing notes and rhythmic variation on weaker beats. This helps create melodies that feel musical, balanced, and more natural than completely random note generation.

You can experiment with different styles such as Pop, Lofi, House, Trap, and Jazz, preview the melody using the built-in playback engine, and export the result as MIDI for use inside your DAW.

Useful for:

  • Writing vocal toplines
  • Generating synth lead ideas
  • Beat making and songwriting
  • Breaking creative block
  • Learning melody and harmony relationships

This tool is part of a larger music-generation project still in development. In the meantime, check out the Chord Progression Generator — the one standalone piece that's fully finished and ready to use.

Every generated melody is based on your chosen chord progression, helping you explore how rhythm, repetition, motif development, and resolution work together in real music.

Create complete, chord-aware melodies with vocal, guitar, sax, horn, synth and keys phrasing.

4 / 8 / 16 barsLoop / Verse / Chorus / Bridge10 styles6 player typesMelodic + Density + Repetition shapingRhythm-first generationMelodic colourHuman feelLock + regenerateMelody roles explainedMIDI export
Quick start: paste a chord progression, choose a Melody Style, Section and Melody Role, then press Generate Melody. The defaults are designed to create a musical phrase rather than a string of notes. After generating, each bar shows its phrase role and a Why? explanation.
1. Musical directionSet the harmony, length and job the melody needs to do in the song.
If the progression is shorter, its chords repeat while the melody keeps developing.
Suggested key: This progression fits A Natural Minor / C Major / G Mixolydian.
Enter chords separated by dashes, commas or arrows. Example: Am - F - C - G. Slash chords like Am/E are supported. Enter 2–16 chords; the Melody Bars setting decides how long the generated phrase is.
Try a progression to get started quickly.
2. Shape the melodyChoose what the melody is for, how it develops and how colourful the note choices can become.
3
More rhythmicMore melodic
Change this to generate a new idea with compact rhythmic cells or wider melodic phrases.
3
More spaceMore notes
Hear fewer or more notes from the same phrase immediately.
3
More variationMore repetition
Choose how much the next idea repeats, then press Generate.
How the shaping sliders work

Rhythmic / Melodic: Low values favour one- or two-note rhythmic cells. High values favour wider, developing melodic phrases.

Density: Move this after generating to thin or restore the same phrase instantly. Density 1 is quarter-note spaced (with occasional deliberate dotted House cells), 2 stays at eighth-note spacing, 3 allows only occasional 16th-note movement, and 4–5 open the busier patterns. Generate uses the current setting when composing the next phrase.

Repetitive: 1 develops freely; 3 keeps a recognisable motif; 4 strongly repeats a short cell; 5 commits to one phrase-wide repetition engine such as a dotted-eighth pulse, Euclidean pulse or locked cell. Move this slider without losing the current melody, then press Generate.

Hook favours recognisable repetition and a memorable payoff.
Auto chose Vocal. Singable phrases with breaths and held notes.
Controls passing notes, extensions and approach tones without changing the chords. In Dark / Trap, Simple, Colour and Rich stay inside the selected key / mode; Chromatic unlocks deliberate outside-key approach notes. In House / EDM, Chromatic still stays inside the selected key / mode.
3. Timing & performanceLet the style choose a suitable groove, or override it. Performance settings affect playback and MIDI rather than the underlying melody idea.
Style Default uses the selected style’s rhythmic vocabulary. Use Keep Rhythm to preserve the current attacks and note lengths.
Adds small timing, note-length and velocity differences after composition.
Changes candidate scoring. Wildcard permits occasional contrast; it does not disable harmonic checks.
Generating and scoring melody candidates…
A – A – A – G – F – F – E – E – E – D – D – D
Am → F → C → G
Am
F
C
G
A
A
A
G
F
F
E
E
E
D
D
D
Understand the melody: each card shows the chord underneath, the bar's phrase role and the melody notes. Orange notes are melodic colour/tension. Use Why? to see how each bar relates to the phrase and harmony.
No bars locked
Bar 1Motif
Am
Chord tone
Chord tones: A – C – E
A A A
Motif over AmThis bar establishes the main melodic identity. The melody is anchored closely to Am here, giving the phrase harmonic clarity.
Bar 2Answer
F
9th colour · Chord tone
Chord tones: F – A – C
G F F
Answer over FThis answers the opening idea while keeping enough rhythmic DNA to feel related. The bar uses 1 colour/passing note around F, while stronger notes are kept harmonically stable.
Bar 3Restatement
C
Chord tone
Chord tones: C – E – G
E E E
Restatement over CThe motif is restated after development to reconnect the phrase. The melody is anchored closely to C here, giving the phrase harmonic clarity.
Bar 4Phrase Turn
G
Chord tone
Chord tones: G – B – D
D D D
Phrase Turn over GThis bar behaves like a comma: it closes a phrase without fully finishing the melody. The melody is anchored closely to G here, giving the phrase harmonic clarity.
A Natural MinorKey and scale
Pop / Verse / Hook / Auto → VocalStyle, section and role
4 bars / Style Default → Straight / melodic 3 / repetitive 3 / density 3 / natural human feelLength, rhythm and feel
Why this melody worksMelody analysis
PhraseThe phrase starts with a motif and answer, then uses a compact motif, answer and ending. The verse setting favours continuation rather than an over-final cadence.
HarmonyStrong positions are protected by chord tones while 1 colour/passing note add movement on safer parts of the phrase. The Simple setting controls how far the line moves beyond chord tones.
RhythmThe rhythm comes from the Pop style vocabulary and is shaped for Vocal. Repetitive 3 controls how strongly the generated idea is allowed to repeat.The complete multi-bar phrase was then scored for connected cells, breaths and bar-to-bar flow. Hook scoring increases recognisable repetition.
How the generator chose it
The engine first auditions and scores complete rhythmic phrases, including the strength of the recurring one- and two-bar musical idea. It writes several pitch versions over the strongest grooves, rejects candidates with hard musical problems, and automatically auditions another batch when the best result still lacks enough identity or style character. A conservative editor then tries tiny human-like improvements such as removing one unnecessary note, lengthening a strong note into a gap or repairing one awkward leap; an edit is kept only when the complete phrase scores higher and still passes every hard check. Player / Instrument also makes a light articulation pass, favouring suitable sustain, space or short attacks without overriding the style. Human timing and velocity changes are added only after the musical candidate has been chosen.

Updated 01st October 2026; 21:45 GMT

Need help writing chord progressions? Then try out our Chord Progression Generator.

Alternatively, Generate Basslines or Drum-beats with our other MIDI generators.


How Does This Melody Generator Work?

This melody generator creates note patterns based on your chord progression rather than choosing notes completely at random. Strong beats typically land on chord tones such as the root, third, fifth, or extensions like the 7th and 9th.

Between these stronger notes, the generator can introduce passing notes from the selected scale to create movement and melodic flow. This helps produce melodies that feel musical and harmonically connected to the chords underneath.


Tips for Writing Better Melodies

A strong melody usually combines repetition with variation. Repeating a short motif gives the listener something memorable, while small changes keep the phrase interesting.

  • Start simple with 3 to 5 notes
  • Use repetition to create hooks
  • Resolve important phrases to chord tones
  • Leave space instead of filling every beat


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