Tracks for Strategies Motif Makers

Motif-makers can recognise and create the main building blocks of music: short, rhythmic groups of notes – brief bursts of melody – that Western classical musicians call ‘motifs’, jazzers refer to as ‘riffs’ or ‘licks’, pop singers describe as ‘hooks’ and advertising executives term ‘stings’.

The idea of distinctive, replicable groups of notes ties in with Richard Dawkins’ notion of ‘memes’ – discrete, transferable units of cultural information. It is groups of notes that give pieces of music their unique identities: think of a song, and it will be a motif that comes to mind – the first six notes of Happy Birthday to You, for example.

Motifs can be an essential element in brand identities too: recall McDonald’s five-note sting ‘Ba Da Ba Ba Ba’, which is associated with the tag ‘I’m loving it’, for instance.

As young children’s musical abilities evolve in the early years, it is groups of notes that are the first elements to be stored in long-term musical memory (before complete pieces of music come to be memorised), and as three- or four-year-olds they typically learn to re-create, vary and invent their own motifs. Through musical experimentation and play, children also learn how to connect groups of notes (borrowed or invented) to form what music psychologists have called ‘pot pourri’ songs.

The link between language and music is particularly noticeable at this stage in children’s development, and they may copyeach other’s motifs that have associated words, and play ‘call-and-response’ games with their friends and carers.