Not to be too pedantic, but to reinforces Alan's point. It's not the notes, it's the intervals between the tones that make a melody, and there are essentially only 12 melodic intervals. (There are more if the interval is more than an octave, but that's somewhat uncommon.) So yes, there are only 12 intervals and a lot of music.
Then of course, rhythm, volume, articulation (and probably other things) also contribute to make a melody. |