• Products
  • Studio
  • Engine
  • Research
  • Work with us
Request access

Sound and listening

  • Sound
  • Timbre and harmonics
  • Seeing sound
  • Level and loudness
  • Digital audio
  • Listening and comparing

Music theory and musical ideas

  • Pitch and intervals
  • Rhythm, meter and groove
  • Scales, modes and tonal centers
  • Chords
  • Chords and voicing
  • Progressions and harmonic movement
  • Melody and motifs
  • Bass lines and counterlines
  • Form and arrangement
  • Ear training
  • Tuning systems
  • Music as data
  1. Learn
  3. Listen and understand
  5. Melody and motifs

Music theory and musical ideas

Melody and motifs

Contour, repetition and variation, and why some tunes stick

Coming soon

This guide isn't published yet. It will be a hands-on guide with sounds to play and something to make. Browse the rest of Listen and understand in the meantime.

PreviousProgressions and harmonic movementNext Bass lines and counterlines

Products

  • All products
  • Plugins
  • Sounds
  • Bundles
  • Studio

Engine

  • Engine overview
  • Build with the Engine
  • Documentation
  • Sampler
  • Hardware
  • Symbolic
  • UI Kit
  • Plugin examples
  • Comparisons

Made for

  • Producers
  • Sound designers
  • Artists
  • Web developers
  • Product teams
  • Hackathon teams
  • Researchers
  • More

Company

  • About
  • Work with us
  • Call for artists
  • Learn
  • Research
  • Jobs
  • Contact
  • Blog

Legal

  • Terms
  • Privacy
Instagram (opens in a new tab)GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Building the future of sound, with you.

© 2026 Maru · private early access