Help With Melodies?

Im looking for a self help book, that can provide me with more information on constructing melodies, can anyone recommend me one?

I would greatly appreciate it.

I can write music, I know about time signatures, key signatures, scales, its not a matter of not being able to write down what I play.

Its just I find that Im having trouble coming up with anything good, I dont think its just a rough spot Im in.

I feel like Im missing something, like I dont know enough about melodies, the rules or techniques that people follow or use.

Im sure theres atleast some basic guidelines to start, or things to know about composing melodies.

In my opinion, one of the most important parts of composition is being able to convert the music you hear in your head to the piano. It's a very helpful skill, but doesn't come immediately (rather difficult once melodies become advanced.^^) 

What I usually like to do however when writing melodies is to look at a piano from a top-down perspective. From here, it's sort of like making lines between each notes and forming patterns. I use this most prominently when doing notation. Out of these two techniques I use, I'd recommend getting better at the first one.

If all else fails, go for a walk at someplace nice.  :D

Edited September 6, 201411 yr by nanotyrano

I've been considering posting some basic melody writing exercises, 4 or 8 bar sort of things, various instrumentation. Didn't know if anyone would look at them though. This place is pretty dead lately.

@shadowwolf: i'm interested in this topic so i'll listen to exercises but in a forum topic context. i don't check out the "soundcloud" part of this site, i don't listen to yc for music..

i read the melody treatise by anton reicha, and it's useful, but i want more of the rhythm aspect of music. i started studying it on my own. @daniel: i recommend taking your favourite melodies and replace their instruments with drum sounds. see if they have complex patterns, and try to understand them. where do they repeat? is there a rhythmic variation and where exactly is it? i could go deeper but i don't know what kind of melodies are you aiming for.

would be cool to post a broken melody you started and we try to fix it.

the irony is that whoever is good at practice, especially at a difficult task like art, is lousy at theory (having talent, it doesnt require much theory). and of course who knows theory ..had a good reason for wanting to search it (is/was lousy at practice)

Arnold Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Music Composition

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Composition-Arnold-Schoenberg/dp/0571196586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411103599&sr=8-1&keywords=fundamentals+of+music+composition

There are also online courses to be found. One that springs to mind is this from MIT OpenCourseWare: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-301-harmony-and-counterpoint-i-spring-2005/index.htm

Anton Reicha has a good "Traité de Mélodie". Also, Hindemith reserves a significant part of his "The Craft of musical composition" to the study of melody.

Both PDFs can be easily found on the internet.

Im looking for a self help book, that can provide me with more information on constructing melodies, can anyone recommend me one?

I would greatly appreciate it.

 

I can write music, I know about time signatures, key signatures, scales, its not a matter of not being able to write down what I play.

Its just I find that Im having trouble coming up with anything good, I dont think its just a rough spot Im in.

I feel like Im missing something, like I dont know enough about melodies, the rules or techniques that people follow or use.

Im sure theres atleast some basic guidelines to start, or things to know about composing melodies.

Starting by using the chord tones from each chord your using to develop a simple melody. Always try and start very simple and then move to complex. Find melodies that really speak to you and try to transcribe/analyze what the melodies are doing. I hope this helps.

Todd