Hi guys!!! I'm Dani from Spain. What can i say? I think this is awesome. There are no words to explain what i'm learning with this book. I've been lost a lot of time searching for a book like this one and now i find it. Thanks to Berklee press. And please GIVE ME AN SCHOLARSHIP BERKLEEEEEE!!!! hahahaa. I really need it, i'm good composser. TRUST ME. LOL. I recommend this book to everybody who want's to learn how to write a song without a guitar, piano... All you need is your lyric, pen, and score. Thanks to amazong too, this website is amazing. Sorry about my english guys, i'm still learning. Best regards to all. CYA!!!!!

I am reading this book for the 5th time. You need to understand some basic music theory and sight reading before hitting this book. But if you are looking for a book to give you a revolution in creation, and blow you open to seemingly endless new possibilities with your songwriting, DO NOT miss this book. Get this book and "the craft of lyric writing by Sheila Davis." and then study some stuff on grooves like maybe "The songwriters workshop harmony" by jimmy kachulis. (then you have hit the three main parts of a song; rhythm, melody and lyrics.)

Realize that melody in songwriting is written by the chair of the songwriting department at berklee school of music in boston. If you didn't know, that is the most recognized contemporary music school in the world. (research it, if this is new knowledge to you) They don't put out fluff and obvious information. It is useful, critical and complete, and prepares you to navigate inspiration when it hits.

This book has changed how I write music in many many ways.

This terrific book examines what might be called a "theory of melody" as applied to songwriting, although many of the principles Perricone demonstrates come straight out of classical composition and could be applied to melody in many contexts
other than popular song.

The author wisely divides the work into two large areas he calls
"Melody: Its Components" and "Melody-Harmony Relationships". Separating the horizontal and vertical aspects of melody is an effective learning tool, though such a line would likely never be drawn in the intuitive act of composing.

The Components part of the book deals with the behavior of tones and the contruction of melody: the influence of rhythm on phrases, devices to develop and contrast motives
and the expansion of this basic material into larger sections is covered.

The second part of the book introduces the harmonic element, placing the melodic invention of the first part into its traditional context. Unless you're planning to write Gregorian chant or solo voice Appalachian ballads, your melodies interact
with, and are to a certain extent a function of, the underlying harmony. Tension tones, and the influence of target and bass tones are explored. Gradually the integration of harmony and melody unfolds and a set of tools are demonstrated for creating
both chord progressions and corresponding melody. Indeed, much of this material is as applicable to jazz improvisation and composition as it is to songwriting.

The author assumes you're familiar with musical notation and the harmony illustrations are keyboard-oriented, so if you're a guitarist you'll have to adapt the chord symbols to your own voicings.

The harmonic vocabulary covers a broad range of musical styles and should be familiar to rock/pop musicians as well as those interested in jazz/show tunes. There are a number of references to well-known songs, but in contrast to Jimmy Kochulis' books, Perricone relies somewhat less on examples and possibly
more on the individual's own initiative. He assumes you've got the listening background and experience and have confidence beyond the phase of literal imitation (a phase that's nothing to be ashamed of and has been the starting point for most composers throughout history).

There's a tremendous amount of useful material here for those willing to work at it. This is not a "write a hit song in 21 days"-type of book. It's a serious composition text that will reward serious study.

I bought this book from amazon. where this book is used in the songwriting couses. I produce electronic music, trip hop, chillout and the like, so I thought that this book might help me understand the inner workings of melody in a song. This book is very comprehensive and contains a lot of concepts and composition techniques which I suppose would help in improvising as well. It gives you material to work on by the given exercises which definitely stimulate your thinking mind. This is a large book but not very thick(its a good thing) and the printing format is very attractive. After covering some of the essential lessons I could definitely feel that I was listening to songs and composing in a very technical way. This book changes the way you think and hear music at its very least.
With a bit of inspiration you could write a very sophisticated piece of music.I feel that all this theory will make a better musician if this book is taken seriously enough and worked through. A must for any songwriter or theory student.

I purchased this book about a year ago. The exercises in the book helped me look at melody in a whole new way. It made me realize that I really didn't know how to creat a decent melody. It not only helped with composing songs, but in improvising as well.