Zanman777
-
Posts
64 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Articles
News
Expert Reviews
Forums
Posts posted by Zanman777
-
-
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?
Good melody book? (not counterpoint)
in The Lesson Loft — Guitars
Posted
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?