Top 5 Books On Writing Melodies

Melody is the central component of a song as it plays a huge role in keeping your listeners hooked to your songs. The skill of writing unforgettable melodies is essential for all songwriters. The right tools and strategies can help you create memorable melodies that stand out from the rest. 

I have shortlisted Top 5 Books to help you learn and master the art of writing better melodies. 

Here’s a list of Top 5 Books On Writing Melodies:

  1. Melody in Songwriting – by Jack Perricone
  2. The Ultimate Melody Guide – by Screech House 
  3. FL Studio: Composing Chords and Melodies – by Carmine M
  4. Self Similar Melodies – by Tom Johnson
  5. Mastering Melody Writing – by Clay Mills & Bill O'Hanlon

Melody in Songwriting

Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs – by Jack Perricone, is an excellent melody writing guide used in Songwriting classes at Berklee. This book teaches Melody writing and proves that melody writing is a skill that can be improved. Jack Perricone is the co-founder of Berklee College’s Songwriting Department, a songwriter, arranger, composer and author.

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

In this book, the author shares the secrets of popular songs and provides proven tools and techniques to help you write great melodies. He shares insights and covers topics like what makes harmony progress, how melodic rhythm influences rhyme, the relation between melody and harmony, and more. 

This book features exercises and tools to help you self-learn and improve melody writing. It provides information that will help you understand how melody interacts with lyrics. This book also features examples and discusses techniques of all time hit songs by songwriters like John Lennon, Diane Warren, McCartney and Robert Palmer, and more.

Reading this book, you will understand the structures found in songs, melodies, harmonic and rhythmic considerations, and will learn melody writing.

Who Is This Book For?

A must-have for Songwriters who have a good understanding of music theory, and want to improve their melody writing skills.

THE ULTIMATE MELODY GUIDE

The Ultimate Melody Guide: How to Make Awesome Melodies without Knowing Music Theory – by Screech House is a great melody guide for beginner songwriters. Cep from Screech house is a Dutch EDM producer, CEO and bestselling author.

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

In this book, the author features powerful strategies, essentials of music theory, tricks, skills and guidelines to help you make beautiful melodies. He teaches the process of melody-making from a decade of experience in making professional electronic dance music.

Reading this book will help you with manageable tasks of music writing concepts. Just with a few basics, you will be able to write premium quality melodies. This book also features various ideas on how you can advance your melodies. 

This book comes with a free sample pack downloadable link to help you start making melodies right away. Make sure you practice and learn by applying the methods over and over. 

Who Is This Book For?

For any beginner who wants to learn how to make melodies without any prior knowledge of music theory.

FL Studio: Composing Chords and Melodies

FL Studio: Composing Chords and Melodies: Easily Create Amazing Chords, Melodies and Become a Better Producer by Carmine M, is a beginner-friendly book to master the craft of composing incredible chords, melodies and other harmonics using the FL Studio. 

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

In this book, the author features techniques to help you build any scale and play in the correct key. Reading this book will help you understand the basics of music theory. It will help guide you to easily compose chord progression and melodies in FL Studio. 

Reading this book will help you as an introduction to creating melodies with FL Studio. The illustrations in this book will give you practical knowledge of the information provided in the book.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for beginners or amateurs who want to learn to make melodies using FL Studio and have little or no knowledge of chord progression and music theory.

Self Similar Melodies

Self Similar Melodies – by Tom Johnson is a theoretical book about the techniques of algorithmic composition. Tom Johnson is an American minimalist composer, he has created over 70 musical works and has published two books.

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

In this book, the author provides self-similar melodies constructed entirely by repeated applications of a single procedure. He shares a lot of valuable logical and mathematical techniques, processes and information that he uses in his compositions and will be very useful to any composer. 

This book features many written short melodies to exemplify the techniques mentioned in this book.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for song nerds who want to create melodies using various mathematical and logical techniques.

Mastering Melody Writing

Mastering Melody Writing: A Songwriter’s Guide to Hookier Songs With Pattern, Repetition, and Arc – by Clay Mills & Bill O'Hanlon is a guide to help you write unforgettable melodies for songs. Multi-platinum songwriter Clay Mills and music teacher John O'Hanlon share their knowledge and experience to help aspiring musicians improve their songwriting by mastering melody writing.

Why Do I Recommend This Book?

In this book, the authors share tips and techniques to help you write unforgettable melodies for any genre using repetitions, patterns and arc. They provide a comprehensive and easy-to-understand explanation of the key components of melody, as well as various ideas for improving these components. They also use real-world examples and stories to help the readers improve their songwriting.

This book will help you with so many 'beginner' mistakes. Reading this will help you master the art of writing melodies.

Who Is This Book For?

For anyone who wants to improve their songwriting by learning the art of writing better melodies. 

 

Read the books, implement your learning, and above all enjoy the process.

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Udeeksh Sood on

Udeeksh is an Audio Engineer. He loves to produce music, research music gear, play guitar, go on treks and road trips.