How To Write A Melody Over A Chord Progression. Most contemporary popular music is written in this way. The pentatonic scale that we’ll base our melody on is g (tonic), bb (minor third), c (fourth), d (fifth), and f (minor seventh).
Now play these chord progressions and sing the melody over them! Practice playing different rhythms using only the individual chord notes over the top of your chord progression. There are some melody writing techniques based on music theory that can help you.
Repeat the above process until you have 4 or 5 possible melodic ideas/motifs.
So, using 1/8 notes, come up with a motif (which is a short musical idea) over the dm chord. Practice playing different rhythms using only the individual chord notes over the top of your chord progression. While i move around in the scale, i'll often play around the notes of triad of the current chord. Most contemporary popular music is written in this way.