And it's true that it's the lilt of a melody that makes folk remember a song.
That's what catches the ear and stays wi' those who have heard a song sung.
It would be wrong for me to say I'm no proud of the melodies that I have introduced with the songs I've sung.

I have never had a music lesson in my life.

I can sit doon, the noo, at a piano, and pick out a harmony, but that's the very limit of my powers wi' any instrument.
But ever since I can remember anything I have aye been humming at some lilt or another, and it's been, for the maist part, airs o' my ain that I've hummed.

So I think I've a richt to be proud of having invented melodies that have been sung all over the world, considering how I had no musical education at a'.
Certainly it's the melody that has muckle tae do wi' the success of any song.

Words that just aren't quite richt will be soon overlooked if the melody is one o' the sort the boys in the gallery pick up and whustle as they gae oot.
I'm never happy, when a gude verse comes tae me, till I've wedded a melody tae the words.