Zanman777

The two books I found that caught my eye were: http://www.amazon.com/Melody-Songwriting-Techniques-Writing-Berklee/dp/063400638X http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Music-Composition/dp/1592574033 In the latter, part 3 (Melodic Composition) has 7 chapters that seem to cover melody creation pretty well. But the Berklee book still seems better, because it's dedicated to melody from beginning to end. What do you think?

Yeah, you're right. But I'm looking for insight on carefully constructed melody against harmony. A real book/fake book is about learning to play songs, right? I'm trying to learn to compose my own...

I've been digging into music theory in the last few weeks; I finished reading Walter Piston's Harmony a couple of days ago and it gave me a great insight on a lots of things. I already know the scales and modes on the guitar for quite a while, but that book gave me a huge boost on the understanding of music, modulations and secondary dominants, all that. To complete my "preparation" to start composing some "serious" rock-pop songs, I'd like to understand the other side of music better: the melody. From what I've understood, the melody dwells around the notes of the harmony, but that's about all I know. I've got common sense and taste, of course, but I'd like to get some formal understanding on the subject: how to build melodies, are there rules, etc. It would be great if I could find a book that enlightened me about melody as much as Piston's Harmony did about harmony. Counterpoint seems a bit overkill. I don't want to know how to build choirs, for God's sake . Rockpop is a bit less demanding, I suppose. Where should I be looking?