How to Write Melodies

By Rikky Rooksby

Melody is the true heart of music—the identity of a composition, the vessel that carries the lyrics, the tune that you keep whistling on your way home from a concert. Composing melodies is often thought of as a mysterious process—a lightning bolt of inspiration delivered by the songwriter's muse—but in fact melody is an art that can be learned, honed, and perfected. This book teaches that art in an engaging and thoroughly accessible fashion. Starting from basics, it covers the essentials—rhythm, intervals, scales, and harmony—and builds on these simple principles to offer a wealth of advanced techniques and tricks. Every musical example in the book is accompanied by a downloadable audio track, allowing songwriters to increase their understanding of melody through both sight and sound.

How to Write Melodies is the only guide you’ll ever need for demystifying and perfecting the art of melody writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Jul 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781493073405

Rikky Rooksby

Rikky Rooksby is a guitar teacher, songwriter/composer, and writer on popular music. He is the author of How to Write Songs on Guitar (2000, revised edition 2009), Inside Classic Rock Tracks (2001), Riffs (2002, revised edition 2010), The Songwriting Sourcebook (2003, revised edition 2011), Chord Master (2004, revised edition 2016), Melody (2004), Songwriting Secrets: Bruce Springsteen (2005), How to Write Songs on Keyboards (2005), Lyrics (2006), Arranging Songs (2007), How to Write Songs in Altered Guitar Tunings (2010), and Songs and Solos (2014). He has also written fourteen Fastforward guitar tutors and arranged over three dozen chord songbooks, including The Complete Beatles. He has written entries on rock musicians for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and published interviews, reviews, and transcriptions in many UK music magazines. He is a member of the Society of Authors, Sibelius One, and the Vaughan Williams Society

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