difference between tune and melody

tune - (If someone were to say to me "He played a delightful little melody on the piano", I'd expect him to have used a single finger, while "a delightful little tune" is more likely to have involved both hands.)
melody - (If someone were to say to me "He played a delightful little melody on the piano", I'd expect him to have used a single finger, while "a delightful little tune" is more likely to have involved both hands.)

What's the difference between a tune and a melody?

• Tune can mean a song as a whole as well as its main musical theme, while melody is usually restricted to the latter, at least nowadays. If someone were to say to me "He played a delightful little melody on the piano", I'd expect him to have used a single finger, while "a delightful little tune" is more likely to have involved both hands. ("A delightful little song" would remove all ambiguity.)  Melody is more likely than tune to be used in opposition to harmony. If you're singing in the choir and ask "who has the melody at the fifth measure", the answer will be (probably) "the sopranos"; but if you ask "who has the tune", you'll either get puzzled looks, or someone will play an A on the piano. It's a bit subjective, but I think tune is less formal than melody: if you're whistling it, it's a tune, but if Maria Callas sang it, it's a melody.

• Mainly spelling. That is, tune and melody are very, very similar; I would treat them as synonyms. The MacOS X dictionary (not a dreadfully authoritative source of information) defines 'tune' as MELODY and 'melody' as TUNE, supporting my contention. There are other words used in the definitions, but they come up very similar:

• A "tune" to be a short section of music, usually containing harmony and possibly multiple melodies. Tune can also mean solely the melody, but almost never solely the harmony.
  "Being in tune" means that multiple people, when trying to trying to sing/play the same note, have the exact same pitch.
  A "melody" is single series of notes that can be hummed, sung, or played by a single person. A melody is not any random series of notes, but it is the most important part of the music that is supported by the harmony. In one way, it is the part of the music that you remember and associate with the music. When a band director says "They [naming a section of instruments] have the melody," that means that the section has the most important part.

• Tune is definitely less formal than melody. I would say that melody is a technical term that sometimes gets used in a conversational context ("a pretty girl is like a melody"), but tune when referring to melody or song is a purely conversational term ("play that tune again!"). There is a technical definition for tune as well, which has to do with instruments adjusted to the exact same pitch, but that's an entirely different matter

    

tune versus melody

(Hello there,

could you please tell me whether there is a difference between the word "tune" and the word "melody"?

I've heard the expression 'catchy tune' (commercials can have catchy tunes as far as I know), I've never heard "catchy melody" though.

Would you say "I like the tune of this song" or "I like the melody of this song"?

Thank you for your point of view)

• The melody of a song is a specific part of the song. Often in a song with many instruments the melody is the leading string of notes that one would pick out and hum or whistle. The same song may also have a bass line that the bass instruments would play. Together these parts together could be described as the tune although sometimes it is used as a synonym for melody. Tune is a less technical term than melody.

• "Catchy melody" is perfectly fine.
  
  You wouldn't say "I like the tune of this song"; you'd say "I like this tune." 
  
  "I like the melody of this song" is fine.