Product Description

Discusses how tunes can be composed; how to combine rhythm, intervals, scales, and harmony; and melody-writing techniques.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54629 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

Really Good
I don't agree with the former rewiever. I think everything depends on how we approach the lessons. To me this book is really helpful because it allows me to understand how to link melody and harmony, how we can avoid monotony,develop rhythm skills, how to dare with dissonance and syncope if we want to be creative or how to work with intervals and notes that are not part of a scale. The accompanying CD is really good. I don't care about the sound because it is used for instruction, not to be played as definitive arranged music.Rooksby's books are really excellent for aspiring songswriters like me.

Very disappointing
I have just finished reading "How to Write Songs on the guitar" by the same author, so was looking forward to this book.

However, it is a BIG disappointment.

The CD examples are a big letdown. The melody is played with one of those terrible flutey synth sounds, which always irritates me. You'd think he'd record with a piano or guitar, being as that's his speciality. Due to the samey nature of the sound,and the tempo, one example blends into another, which doesn't help the learning process, at all.

Perhaps the main failing of this book is that reducing melody writing to a series of lessons sucks the fun out of the whole songwriting process. I'm a firm believer that you either have an ear, or you don't, and only by continually songwriting do you improve that gift.

Whilst I still recommend his "How to Write Songs" book, I'd give this a miss. Instead, get out some of your favourite CDs and play your favourite songs. By identifying what you like about those songs, and applying those things to your songs, you'll do far better than trying to learn hundredes of rules from a book.

I liked it!
I actually quite liked this. It was interesting for me to learn why some notes work with some chords and why some don't etc. I agree with the fact that the flutey cd is pretty annoying and either a piano or guitar would have worked much better but if you ignore that aspect you can learn quite a bit. Yes it is slightly a bit of a boring way to learn but there is some good stuff in the book if you are like me and a big fan of melody. I am quite a fan of his books, so maybe i'm a bit biased