Customer Reviews

The Songwriter's Workshop: Melody (Berklee Press)

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I returned this book almost immediately after purchase. 90% of the info that is in this book is in "the songwriter's workshop: harmony" book where it is given a better presentation along with useful info on harmony. If you want some basic rules on how to write a good melody, look up the melody section in "Music, the Brain and Ecstasy" (no its not about drugs or sex), which gives you about 10 useful, non-restrictive tips for writing a good melody. Things like "non-diatonic notes should resolve by going to neighboring tones rather than by a leap".

I've completed the first two chapters (of five) in this book and found that it is very useful. The examples of each technique are boring, bland, and not very creative, but I guess the author purposely made them that way so that the reader could understand the concept in the first place. There are so many techniques in the book to use only for only melody writing that no reader should be short of ideas after reading the book. It's an extremely detailed look at melody and all the aspects of creating a good melody.

Overall, it's a very useful book of tricks and techniques, but I think it would be better if the author gave better and more interesting examples of concepts. I don't think that the book alone will allow one to write good melodies anyway--I think anyone reading it should seek out melodies from his/her favorite songs (with notes on the treble clef and chord symbols) and analyze how they're put together and what techniques mentioned in the book are actually in that particular melody. A book is not meant to do this part (that's up to the reader), so I don't judge the book badly for this--a book can only do so much anyway.

I found the examples of melody writing in this book to be boring. I didn't expect the writer to write "hit" melodies, but I think he could have done a better job than the bland melodies written for the book. I did find some information helpful like the scales listed in the back of the book and adding emphasis to certain keywords in lyrics.

I really liked this book, I thought the examples were good, and it was well put together. I especially liked the part about using or "resetting" other existing songs to help write your own material.

However, when I ordered this on the Kindle, I was hoping that the CD tracks would somehow be included-they weren't, so I am returning and getting the paperback version.

So order the paperback version, otherwise you will miss out on the CD tracks and examples, unless someone knows something I don't on how to get the tracks with the Kindle version.

This book, along with its companion by the same author, Songwriter's Workshop: Harmony, comprise a solid, straightforward course in writing songs along the lines
of "classic rock and pop" from the 60's through the 80's, although the principles and techniques can be applied to virtually any genre of songwriting.

While this is not a book about writing lyrics per se (see Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure by Pat Pattison), Kachulis' exercises are designed to provide
tools for you to set your own words, use the provided fragments and phrases, and even "rewrite the hits" - take an existing song lyric you're familiar with and compose an entirely
new melody and/or chords for it.

The lessons are divided into several units that build upon one another and address a particular technical aspect of song melody: The first unit describes rhythmic placement of lyrics and the use of rhythmic devices to emphasize words and shape their expression. The following units introduce pitch and its relationship to the underlying harmony. Melodies are first derived from a single chord than over richer chord progressions and bass lines. Modal devices and the use of arpeggios to build
and expand ideas is explored. Along with this focus on the "micro" elements, later units demonstrate the larger sections and ultimately complete song forms.

The accompanying CD is well-produced and illustrates all of the exercises.

As with the companion book on Harmony, the vocabulary here is rock and guitar-oriented and you won't find many jazz/show tune techniques here nor Steely Dan-type changes (I'd recommend Jack Perricone's "Melody in Songwriting" which is a bit more along those lines and makes a great followup to this series.)
But otherwise, there's little prior knowledge assumed (other than an interest in and listening experience to a wide range of songs) and much to be learned.

excellent purchase, combine it with harmony workshop and you'll have a great combination of exercises to develop your songwriting skills...cheers from Costa Rica...surf town :)