The Songwriter's Workshop: Melody

Rating:
Summary: bland
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: a book of tricks
Review: 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.