Melody

'I had to research firstly what melodic contour is and then what melodic phrases are. The first site I looked at for what melodic contour is from a primary source as the person talking about it is a composer and has a degree in music. He described a contour as; 'the sequence of motions between notes of a melody. In other words, contour is a measurement of how a melody moves between individual notes. All melodies have contour and it's one of the properties that's most useful for identifying and cataloguing melodies.'

I also decided to look at another site for another definition of what melodic content is so I could use it to support the original quote from the first site. The quote  I have found was from a secondary source of information but it says a similar thing to the first quote that I found. They described a melodic contour as; 'A melody that stays on the same pitch gets boring pretty quickly. As the melody progresses, the pitches may go up or down slowly or quickly. One can picture a line that goes up steeply when the melody suddenly jumps to a much higher note, or that goes down slowly when the melody gently falls. Such a line gives the contour or shape of the melodic line. You can often get a good idea of the shape of this line by looking at the melody as it is written on the staff, but you can also hear it as you listen to the music.'