(paid link) Exercises in Melody Writing – A Systematic Course of Melodic Composition (1900) – by Percy Goetschius was a complete guide to the art of melody writing for beginners to engender in them good habits and technique.

It is a relatively short book with about 125 pages and is replete with examples and I honestly believe that it would take months to follow this book by undertaking all the suggested exercises. Naturally I ignored the exercises in the main and made use of the lessons and the examples and will practice the techniques in real world situations.

It was a very thorough book, and I thought that it was well written and a boon to anyone wishing to learn more about melodic composition.

Some of the topics discussed were

• Scale lines
• Chord lines
• Diversity of rhythm
• Periods
• Cadences
• Syntax of melody
• Altered scale steps
• Modulation and chromatic modulation
• Double periods
• Suspensions
• Anticipations
• Passing notes
• Neighboring notes
• Appoggiatura and double appoggiatura
• Melodic evolution and expression

As you can see, this small text covered a lot of ground.

I thought that this was an invaluable read for anyone wanting to learn more about melodic composition and especially wanting a good theoretical grounding in the subject.