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

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.

It's depending on the meaning of tune. If you understand tune as a harmony. Then it is a sequence or collection of tones that "suite" together, i.e. that sound harmonical. See also: wikipedia

A melody is just a linear sequence of tones that are considered to belong together.