First-Species Counterpoint: Write an Independent Upper Line

Keep C3–D3–F3–E3–G3–F3–D3–C3 unchanged. Above those eight notes, write eight notes that form a melody you can sing on its own. Each pair must work together, and each move must carry both lines toward the ending. That is your first-species counterpoint task.

Counterpoint combines melodies that retain their own shapes when heard together. Species counterpoint is a graded way to practice that relationship: first species keeps a one-to-one rhythm so you can concentrate on consonance and the movement of the lines. Later exercises introduce more rhythmic activity. Here the lower melody is fixed, and your job is to compose the upper one. See Puget Sound’s species overview and Open Music Theory’s first-species chapter.

You need harmonic interval reading and two-staff reading. You do not need chord symbols or a tune to copy. The companion Two Lines, One Note at a Time keeps the cantus, a worked upper line and the checking policy on one page. The lesson below explains the policy and works through a solution.

1. Read the cantus and leave it unchanged

A cantus firmus is the fixed melody supplied for the exercise. Here it is the lower voice, written in bass clef. C4 means middle C, so the first C3 lies an octave below middle C. Play or sing the eight pitches slowly, one per bar. Number the bars before adding anything.

The unchanged cantus, bars 1–4 above and 5–8 below: C3–D3–F3–E3, then G3–F3–D3–C3. Each note fills four quarter-note beats. Read the first row to its end before beginning the second; the rows are successive portions of one melody, not simultaneous parts. The highest lower note is G3 at the start of the second row, bar 5. Mark that bar before inventing an upper climax elsewhere. C4 is middle C throughout this lesson.

Notice the route: the cantus rises from C3 through D3 to F3, steps back to E3, then reaches its only high point, G3, in bar 5. It returns through F3 and D3 to C3. Those landmarks will help you plan an upper melody with a different shape. Open Music Theory’s cantus lesson treats a single high point and a clear route toward the ending as useful melodic features.

In this task, erase only upper notes. Changing the lower F3 to E3 to accommodate a favorite upper note changes the problem. Copy the cantus once, check it against the printed sequence, and leave it alone. When a choice fails, keep the lower voice and look for another upper pitch.

A chord accompaniment supports a principal tune with chords or a pattern; here you assess the upper part as a melody of its own. A canon gives a follower material to imitate after a delay; here you invent simultaneous upper notes independently. Texture introduces the broader distinction between one line, melody with support, and multiple melodic lines. Equal rhythms do not prevent the two pitch paths from having separate shapes.

2. Choose one upper whole note per lower whole note

First species uses one note against one note. Each whole note here lasts a complete 4/4 bar: count four quarter-note beats before both voices change. Keep the note lengths equal while concentrating on pitch and motion.

Read vertically to inspect the pair in one bar; read horizontally to follow either melody across bars. You need both views. A row of allowed pairs can still contain awkward melodic jumps, repeated upper notes or forbidden approaches to perfect intervals. Puget Sound’s first-species lesson likewise starts with note-against-note writing and explains that its introductory rules simplify a fuller course.

Use this explicit C-major policy for the article and both companion sheets. It is a training method with a small set of choices, not a set of laws for all composition.

• Leave the supplied cantus unchanged; write one whole note per bar using C-major pitches.
• Keep the upper voice strictly above the cantus and no more than an octave away.
• Begin and end at a perfect octave; inside use major or minor thirds, perfect fifths, or major or minor sixths.
• Do not repeat an upper pitch in consecutive bars. Move by major/minor seconds, major/minor thirds or perfect fourths only.
• After a fourth leap, reverse direction by step on the next move.
• Approach every later perfect fifth or octave by contrary motion.
• Give the upper line one high point, occurring once and in a different bar from the cantus high point.
• Use no more than three successive thirds or three successive sixths. Close with a major sixth expanding to an octave by contrary steps.

Pause here if you want to compose before seeing a solution. Copy the cantus onto two staves, reserve upper C4 at the beginning and B3–C4 at the end, and try filling the middle. The next sections show a worked solution.

Keep three kinds of evidence together. Vertical checks establish that each simultaneous pair belongs to the permitted interval list and spacing. Horizontal checks follow the upper voice across the phrase. Between-bar checks inspect the directions of the two voices and the approach to the ending. Use the full printed policy for exact sizes, fourth recovery, separate high points and interval runs.

Write the first upper note C4 above C3, and reserve C4 above the final C3. Between them, leave room for revision. Keep the printed policy beside your paper so you judge alternatives consistently.

3. Check consonance in every vertical pair

In the interval labels, P means perfect, M means major and m means minor; the number gives the interval size.

Bars 1–4: upper C4–A3–D4–C4 against lower C3–D3–F3–E3. Read the interval labels vertically, then follow each melody horizontally. The upper A3 is below middle C but remains above the simultaneous D3.

Count letter names from the lower note to the upper note, including both ends; then determine quality from the pitch distance. C3–E3 is a third and spans four semitones, making it major. D3–F3 is also a third but spans three semitones, making it minor. Both qualities are available inside this exercise.

Six isolated references: D3–F3 gives m3 (3 semitones), C3–E3 gives M3 (4), C3–G3 gives P5 (7), E3–C4 gives m6 (8), C3–A3 gives M6 (9), and C3–C4 gives P8 (12). Changed basses make both minor qualities available using only C-major pitches. Below: a separate lower C3–D3–E3–F3 with upper E3–F3–G3–A3 gives four successive thirds, failing the run limit even as major/minor qualities change. These are reference fragments, not complete solutions to our fixed cantus.

Thirds and sixths are called imperfect consonances; that name does not mean defective. Perfect fifths and octaves belong to the perfect-consonance group. For our interior bars, the permitted distances are minor third, major third, perfect fifth, minor sixth and major sixth. The 6th, the 7th & the Octave offers a useful wide-interval reading and listening refresher; this task includes sixths and excludes sevenths.

A perfect fourth above the bass is excluded from this two-voice first-species exercise. C3 with F3 above it therefore fails the vertical check. A melodic fourth within the upper line is a different relationship: A3 followed by D4 can pass if the following note steps down. Open Music Theory’s interval chapter explicitly distinguishes melodic from harmonic intervals and classifies the fourth differently in these contexts.

Left: C3 and F3 sound together, forming the excluded harmonic P4 above the bass. Right: A3–D4–C4 sounds in succession; its upward P4 reverses downward by M2. The interval’s role depends on whether you compare simultaneous pitches or successive notes within one melody.

Make a short candidate list before choosing. Above D3 in bar 2 you can consider F3, A3 or B3: a minor third, perfect fifth or major sixth. Above F3 in bar 3, consider A3, C4 or D4. Above E3 in bar 4, consider G3, B3 or C4. Each listed pitch passes the vertical test; none is guaranteed to connect successfully.

Candidate pools for three neighboring bars. Over D3, F3/A3/B3 give m3/P5/M6; over F3, A3/C4/D4 give M3/P5/M6; over E3, G3/B3/C4 give m3/P5/m6. Each listed pitch stays above its bass within an octave. The pools screen vertical consonance only. Choosing one option from each still requires checking the upper melodic intervals, incoming perfect approaches, fourth recovery and the phrase’s high point. Begin by testing the model’s A3–D4–C4, then explain why a tempting alternative fails.

Test a deliberate wrong note. Put G3 above the cantus F3 in bar 6: F–G is a second, spanning two semitones. It fails even though G belongs to C major. Return to A3 there and you have F3–A3, a major third. Being in the key and being a permitted vertical consonance are separate checks.

4. Shape an upper melody with its own high point

Now follow the upper voice alone. One checked solution is C4–A3–D4–C4–B3–A3–B3–C4. Sing it without the bass and trace its rise and fall with a finger. The opening falls a third, leaps up a fourth to D4, then comes down in steps before turning upward toward the final C4.

The model upper melody alone: C4–A3–D4–C4, then B3–A3–B3–C4. Its low point, A3, occurs twice, but its high point, D4, occurs only once. Our unique-high-point condition does not forbid a pitch from returning later in the phrase; it forbids a repeated maximum and excludes consecutive upper-note repetitions separately. Sing the entire first row and continue directly into the second. Listen especially to the descent from D4 to A3 before the two-step rise to C4.

Its only highest pitch, D4, arrives in bar 3. The cantus reaches G3 in bar 5. The two lines therefore have different climaxes even though they change notes together. Separate high points are one practical way to give the upper voice its own direction, as Open Music Theory’s first-species chapter recommends. Independence involves the whole phrase, not just an absence of parallel fifths.

The same events as the full model, reduced to pitch paths. Vertical positions follow letter-name pitch height, not a semitone scale; horizontal positions identify bars, not performance timing. Cyan is the upper path and slate the cantus, with each point labeled so the relationship does not depend on color alone. Notice that the upper maximum comes two bars before the lower maximum. Use the engraved score for exact pitches and durations; this diagram makes the difference between the two contours easier to follow.

Look closely at bars 2–4. The upper A3–D4 is a perfect fourth upward, five semitones. D4–C4 then reverses downward by a major second. This satisfies our fourth-leap rule. The lower voice meanwhile moves D3–F3–E3, giving the passage a different combination of sizes and directions.

Bars 2–4: upper A3–D4 rises by P4, then D4–C4 reverses by M2. The labels beneath the pair show P5–M6–m6; similar motion into a sixth is permitted.

Try replacing D4 in bar 3 with C4. F3–C4 is a permitted perfect fifth, but the move from bar 2 would send both voices upward into that fifth. It fails the approach rule you will check next. Choosing a smaller upper leap does not automatically improve the counterpoint; a revision has several consequences.

Keep this lesson’s melodic vocabulary separate from broader style advice. Puget Sound’s melody rules discuss tendency tones, augmented intervals and direction changes in a particular tonal practice. Our worksheet narrows the available leaps further. When another teacher supplies a different species policy, use that exercise’s stated conditions rather than silently mixing rule sets.

Work backward for one boundary as a planning test. With C4 fixed in bar 4, ask which bar-3 candidates can reach it by an allowed melodic move. A3 reaches C4 by a third; C4 would repeat immediately; D4 reaches C4 by step. Then inspect each candidate against bar 2. This small search helps you distinguish a vertical option from a usable continuation without guessing an entire melody at once.

Before accepting your contour, check consecutive upper pitches for repetition, name every melodic interval, and circle the unique highest note. Also ask whether you can remember and sing the line without the bass. A technically permitted route is a starting point for musical revision; it does not tell you which version you must prefer.

5. Inspect motion into perfect intervals

For each bar boundary, draw an arrow for each voice. Contrary motion means opposite directions. Similar motion means both move in the same direction. Parallel motion is similar motion that keeps the same interval number: thirds remain thirds, for example, even if a major third becomes minor. C3–E3 moving to D3–F3 is parallel motion in thirds; both voices rise by step. Oblique motion means one voice stays while the other moves; consecutive upper repetitions are excluded by our present policy.

Directions describe the change between two pairs, not the size of a single vertical interval. Contrary means one voice rises while the other falls; similar means both move the same way; oblique means one pitch stays. In parallel motion, the interval number stays the same even if major/minor quality changes. Our printed policy excludes consecutive upper repetitions, so oblique motion is vocabulary for comparison rather than an available shortcut here. Inspect the actual notes as well as the arrows when checking an approach.

These are the motion categories in Puget Sound’s types-of-motion lesson. Here, every arrival at a later perfect fifth or octave must be contrary. Inspect the destination interval first, then the two arrows leading into it. You do not apply this particular approach restriction to thirds and sixths.

Bars 1–2: upper C4 falls to A3 while lower C3 rises to D3. P8 contracts to P5 in contrary motion.

Bars 1–2 of the model go from C3–C4 to D3–A3. The lower voice rises a step; the upper falls a third. The destination is a perfect fifth, approached in contrary motion, so it passes. The opening octave has no preceding interval to inspect. The final octave will need its own incoming check.

Compare a tempting alternative: G3 above C3 followed by A3 above D3. Both pairs are perfect fifths, and both voices rise a step. Those are parallel fifths. In addition, this alternative misses our required opening octave. It is a local demonstration of a motion problem, not a complete candidate for the eight-bar task.

Top: C3–G3 followed by D3–A3 produces P5–P5, with both voices rising a step. Bottom: change only the first upper note to C4 and the same destination fifth is reached by contrary motion. The repair also supplies our required opening P8. These two bars show why inspecting isolated consonances misses a voice-leading problem. After making this local repair in a longer draft, still check the rest of the upper melody and its high point; a two-bar comparison cannot certify the entire composition.

Four-Part Harmony illustrates parallel fifths and octaves in SATB writing. Use it to recognize the shared voice-leading issue, then return to the two-line task: you are choosing a melody against a cantus, without adding alto, tenor or chord symbols. Count a run by interval number, ignoring major or minor quality. In our model, bars 3–4 give two sixths; bar 5 begins a new run of thirds, so the count resets. Four thirds in a row would fail even if their qualities alternate. For an isolated demonstration, C3–E3, D3–F3, E3–G3 and F3–A3 give M3–m3–m3–M3: four successive thirds. This demonstration uses a different lower fragment, not our fixed cantus. The reference card in section 3 includes that four-bar count.

Revise a perfect-interval problem by checking neighboring possibilities. If the destination remains a fifth, try an upper note before it that permits contrary arrival. If you change the destination to a third or sixth, check its melodic connections. Never repair a parallel by changing the cantus or introducing a dissonance elsewhere.

Check the changed vertical pair and its incoming and outgoing moves. Fourth recovery can require looking two bars before or after the changed note. Inspect every three-note upper fragment containing it, then check the high point, interval runs and final cadence.

Recheck the changed vertical pair and both neighboring moves. Then inspect every three-note upper fragment containing the changed note: a fourth leap must still reverse by step on the following move. Finally, recheck the high point, runs of thirds or sixths, and the final cadence.

If you edit upper bar 4, inspect bars 2–3–4, 3–4–5 and 4–5–6. In the first fragment, bar 4 may be the recovery from a preceding fourth. In the middle fragment, the changed note may be the leap’s arrival. In the last, it may start a new leap whose recovery comes in bar 6. This dependency check follows the notes you wrote; it does not require inventing a fourth in every fragment.

Three overlapping checks after editing upper bar 4: bars 2–4, 3–5 and 4–6. Coral marks the changed note. In each window, if the first move is P4, the second must reverse by step. Near the phrase edges, inspect only windows that exist.

6. Plan the contrary-step close

The last two lower notes are fixed: D3–C3. For the required octave ending, place C4 above the last C3. To approach it by an upward step while the bass steps down, choose B3 in the preceding bar. The resulting D3–B3 is a major sixth, expanding to C3–C4, a perfect octave.

Bars 7–8: upper B3 rises to C4 while lower D3 falls to C3. M6 expands to P8 by contrary steps.

Count the close two ways. Counting D–E–F–G–A–B gives six letter names. Measuring the pitch distance from D3 to B3 gives nine semitones, so the interval is a major sixth. C3–C4 gives eight letter names and twelve semitones. Horizontally, B3 rises one semitone to C4 while D3 falls two semitones to C3. “Contrary steps” therefore does not mean equal semitone distances; both moves are seconds, traveling in opposite directions.

Reserve these final two bars early, then compose toward B3. Over the preceding F3, the model places A3: a major third. A3–B3–C4 gives the upper line two upward steps while the cantus F3–D3–C3 descends. This gives your unfinished middle a definite destination rather than leaving the ending to chance.

Top: D3–D4 moves to C3–C4 in parallel octaves. Both individual sonorities are consonant, yet their connection fails our approach and cadence conditions; the penultimate octave also violates our interior-interval list. Bottom: B3 replaces D4, giving the required M6–P8 contrary-step close. A locally passing ending must still connect to bar 6. In the model, upper A3 moves to B3 by step, and lower F3 moves to D3, so the preceding connection passes as well.

D4 above D3 followed by C4 above C3 would also give two consonant pairs. Yet both parts descend into a second octave: parallel octaves, with no contrary-step close. An attractive final C is insufficient. Name the penultimate interval and follow both paths into the final sonority before accepting your ending.

The Complete and Check the Counterpoint exercise moves from local note choices to candidate endings and a completion task. Treat its supplied notes as constraints and assess your completed melody against every printed rule. A composition can have several acceptable answers; a worked model shows one passing route.

7. Sing separately, revise, then hear the pair

Now write a second version without looking back at the model. Start with the opening octave and reserved B3–C4 ending, list consonant candidates, then connect the middle. If you get stuck, return to the preceding upper note. A locally acceptable choice may leave no useful continuation; revising earlier is part of composing.

The complete eight-bar model, with bars 1–4 above and 5–8 below. Its upper high point is D4 in bar 3; the cantus peaks at G3 in bar 5.

Try C4 instead of A3 in upper bar 6. F3–C4 is P5. Into it, lower G3 falls to F3 while upper B3 rises to C4, so the approach is contrary. Out of it, upper C4 falls by step to B3 over lower D3, giving M6. D4 in bar 3 remains the unique upper high point, and the cadence is unchanged. Both versions pass; sing bars 5–8 each way and compare the descending-then-rising shape with the rise-and-return.

Two passing continuations over the same fixed bars 5–8. Top: the handout/article model uses A3 in bar 6. Bottom: the exercise’s printed answer uses C4 there.

Compare your second version with the complete model. Its vertical intervals are P8–P5–M6–m6–M3–M3–M6–P8. It stays within an octave, contains no consecutive upper repetition, and gives the upper and lower voices separate high points. The later perfect intervals occur in bars 2 and 8; both have contrary approaches. Use that same full audit for your alternative.

For listening, choose a slow, steady pulse; quarter note = 80 matches the handout’s neutral piano examples. Play the cantus alone, then the upper voice alone, then the pair. If your instrument plays one line at a time, record one part and sing the other, or ask another musician to take the cantus. Keyboard playback is simply one way to hear two voices.

Three listening passes: cantus, upper melody, then pair. Follow one voice throughout the combined performance, then switch attention.

Follow one melody throughout the combined performance, then swap attention. Check the written rules separately: playback cannot certify the pitch spelling, the unique high point or every interval approach. On Two Lines, One Note at a Time, use the three passes for vertical intervals, melodic shape and the close; on Complete and Check the Counterpoint, save the model reveal until after writing.

Keep a revision note such as “bar 3: changed the upper note; rechecked bars 1–5 and the full policy.” Bring the score and that explanation to a lesson. A Tissimo teacher can listen to the separate melodies and help you compare two passing versions. Your next goal is to explain a choice in both directions: how it fits its bass note and where it takes the melody.

Free worksheets for this lesson

• Two Lines, One Note at a Time — the fixed eight-bar cantus, worked upper melody and three-pass policy check.
• Complete and Check the Counterpoint — local choices, ending comparisons and a composition completion with a model and rubric.
• The 6th, the 7th & the Octave — read and hear wide intervals before checking vertical distances.
• Texture — compare one line, melody with support and multiple melodic lines.
• Four-Part Harmony — a separate SATB task with examples of parallel fifths and octaves.

Sources

• Species Counterpoint — University of Puget Sound
• Composing a first-species counterpoint — Open Music Theory
• Composing a cantus firmus — Open Music Theory
• Intervals and dyads — Open Music Theory
• First Species Counterpoint — University of Puget Sound
• Types of Motion — University of Puget Sound
• Rules of Melody — University of Puget Sound