The first tip about space is something that I tend to forgot when composing with MIDI sequencing. I tend to fill the space with ("silly") notes because it looks like empty when you see the piano roll. It's actually a valuable advice.

I wonder why most of the music teachers don't teach those things.

Michael: “Item number one; space”

Flight of the bumblebee: hold my semiquaver

With something as complex as music, there is no single "right way" to teach theory or composition.  Having said that, I wish I had seen this approach to writing melody years and years ago.  I can't believe that I just learned so much about music that I didn't understand before.  The mere idea of starting out with the concept of "space" is brilliant.   I do have a suggestion for you if you choose to extend your series on melodies, and that would be to show some examples of the great composers (classical, jazz, pop, whatever) using various of these four elements to maximum effect.  I'm a classical guy, so I immediately started thinking of Schubert when you were talking about space, Beethoven when you were talking about repetition, and on and on.  Some of the slower melodies of Bach (air on the g string comes to mind) suddenly make more sense to me just because you began your topic with the concept of space.  Terrific!

I hope it helps.
1. emotion
without it, everything is meaningless.

2. when you're saying, you may be able to realize you're singing.
try to figure it out. that's the most important secret of melody.

3. high-low
upward-downward, staying, jump

4. time(rhythm)
talking speed and rest.
rest is as important as notes.

5. pattern
a / a / b / b
I love / I love you / but you don't / you don't love me

6. energy
high energy: high pitch, short < long, loud
low energy: low pitch, short > long, soft
how do you say when you're happy, sad, angry?

7. balancing between stable and unstable

8. use contrast
pleasure - sad - happy
angry - calm - rage
stable - unstable - stable
loud - soft - loud
low - middle - high
short - long - short
and so on.

spells rhythm correctly
misspells repetition

haha, love you michael, enjoyed this one too :)

if (Scales != Scales){

cout << “You’re doing something right.” << endl;
}

Is your day job teaching? You teach music theory better than most colleges. I really get an understanding from your videos instead of just memorizing things you should consider starting a school or something.

if my dude made trap beats, he'd be filthy rich

I really hope the "Spaaaaace" in the description was a Portal 2 reference.

The first point you make about space I think is so very important. 99% of the time when I get stuck with making music it's more about changing my way of thinking rather than something technical I'm doing wrong, and this is no different. You described perfectly what I was doing wrong in terms of trying to fill in as much space as possible. Even listening to one of the songs I reference a lot I immediately recognized how space was being used.

Love it when I unexpectedly spot someone writing "!=" instead of "≠". It's just the vastly superior operator. It  stokes up my sense of programmer tribalism.

You are literally opening up a UNIVERSE for me, Michael. So much room for experimentation, getting the FEEL for small things, not just plodding on with sheet music. That, combined with your Circle of Fifths and Chord in a Key videos... it liberates the spirit. Deeply appreciated, really.

You should repeat “ti” in repetition

im 3 years late but thank you for doing this you really are helping a ton of people

I've been watching your videos and as someone who knows nothing about music, outside of playing a lil guitar and some keyboard - your instruction is amazing. It's clear and concise. Not too long or boring. It allows me to learn quickly. I just want to thank you for producing such great content for free. I don't think enough youtube creators get genuine thanks for their effort.

must be a hell of a musician to be able to explain all this so damn clearly

More super advice! If it wasn't 3AM I'd keep going. Anyway, I love 7:13 in the video - that's why I always found the bass line in the chorus of "Changes" by David Bowie annoying. All it does is just go down the scale and I'm like shoot, I could do that. (Not really) I've probably heard that song over 100 times, but the rhythm (if you can even call it that) in the chorus still always loses me somewhere in the middle. Actually I've never been too good with guitar or bass though, so I have no room to speak. Anyway, off to bed I go!

i think the slowcore genre is a good example of how space and simple melodies are used to create musical drama without filling up the ledger

Michael you are the best teacher ever!!

Claude Debussy said:
"Music is the silence between the notes"