(My first songs, written around 1984 or 1985, were written on a four-track cassette recorder. And they were very much an afterthought, designed to fit into place above all of the rhythm tracks, rather than molding the music to fit the melody).
Fortunately, Rooksby has numerous methods that will change that formula.
If there's a flaw to the book, I was a little disappointed that, despite the plethora of hit song titles featured on the cover, Rooksby chose to analyze the styles of individual artists (such as the harmonies of the Beatles, the blue note phrasing of Robert Plant and Van Morrison, and the complexities of Joni Mitchell's melodies), rather than focus on the construction of individual songs. Rooksby's done that in the past with his 2001 book, Inside Classic Rock Tracks. Perhaps, unlike that book, because of the analyses featured in Melody include musical notation, guitar tablature and an audio clip on the book's accompanying CD, there would be royalty issues involved if Rooksby took apart individual tunes-and especially if he included audio clips of them.
But that's a relatively minor criticism. Rooksby's Melody: How To Write Great Tunes is designed to benefit both beginning composers, and those looking to take their craft to the next level. And he's certainly accomplished just that.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
excellent Ed, great advice and review, thanks!
2 - Jon Sobel
It's great that books like this are coming out - pop music has been shortchanging melody for too long.
3 - godoggo
"an encyclopedic knowledge of British and American pop music from the 1950s to the 21st century." Yikes, that's a bad sign; he starts about the time thinkgs started going downhill to my way of thinking. I think the main problem is that the organizing principal for pop has become repetition, rather than cadence. Also, it's no longer expected that pop musicians know how to play changes.
4 - godoggo
...plus juvenilia monopolized pop culture post-WWI, because of demographic and economic developments, resulting in the case of music in an emphasis on things like beats and hooks, which go along with the repetition thing.
5 - SFC Ski
Yeah that damn Benny Goodman and the syncopation, why it was that post WWI juvenilia that caused the Crash of '29.
6 - Willie Wrock
Rikky is to be commended for attempting to describe melody making for the pop musician.
This is not an easy task for all kinds of reasons. Not the least being that any author is more likely to know what a reader wants after the book has been published - rather than before the book has been written.
Rikky's contribution is even more commendable when one considers the paucity of titles available on melody and melodymaking (compared to the bounty of titles available on learning and playing chords for guitar for example).
So now that I have read it, I find myself being more interested about what's NOT in this book.
Now that he's done volume one, where he has basically laid out preliminiary alphabets, I look forward to his volume two.
I'd like to see far more discussion about melodic rhythm in volume two. At least 25% of the book should be on the exploration of melodic rhythms from two note to ten note phrases for example.
I'd like to melodic contour taking another 25% of the book. Again contours ranging from two note to ten notes should be explored.
I'd like to see form and forms discussed in another 25%.
And in the remaining quarter I'd like to read about specific songs in their native state or in their recomposed states by the time he has applied some melodic rephrasing techniques to them.
I found the gallery of melodies least satisfactory. No doubt copyright issues and associated budget impacts constrained Rikky's discussion.
Whereas I could accept, the the name of didactic focus, a certain degree of cheesiness in the presentation of the audio tracks that populate the aforegoing nine sections, it was a bit rich to ask this reader to tolerate the same degrees of separation from the writers, let alone their songs, cited in the gallery of melodies section. Sometimes the come on does not come off.
This section feels more like a fob-off than a pay-off.
This criticism does not detract from the value of the book overall however nor does it prevent me from recommending it to melody students.
Teachers also can take this book as a reference and help their melody students extend the examples into relevant insights and inspirations.
Melody How To Write Great Tunes Volume One is a commendable book. I look forward avidly to his Volume Two.
7 - BooBoo
"I think the main problem is that the organizing principal for pop has become repetition, rather than cadence". - Rooksy addresses this in Inside Classic Rock Tracks when he discusses Brian Wilson's use of development in Good Vibrations. ICRT is a must read.
8 - Willie Wrock
Over here, all they talk is
melody, melody and melody.