# What are good resources and methods for learning songwriting and orchestration?



## Coriolis (Apr 22, 2019)

I can take an existing melody and make something that sounds good, make some nice sounding chords and improv, or take some loops and add to it and make something that sounds cool. But I’ve never had a knack for writing a compelling melody from scratch: it sounds more like “see Spot run. Run Spot, run”, than like a flowing conversation.

I know plenty of theory, and most theory courses are more for review than learning new stuff. What are good resources for learning songwriting/arranging/orchestration?

I’ve looked into Groove3.com, and it has a lot of videos on the software I own, and a few things on theory and songwriting, and macvideopro.com has some videos on orchestration.


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## David Cuny (Apr 22, 2019)

Coriolis said:


> But I’ve never had a knack for writing a compelling melody from scratch: it sounds more like “see Spot run. Run Spot, run”, than like a flowing conversation.


Orchestration doesn't really focus on melody writing, so I think that's the wrong direction.

There's nothing that improves writing better than sitting down and writing.

At this point, your ears seem trained well enough to hear the difference between good and bad. Copying - with the intent to understand - is probably the best approach.

Or perhaps the problem is one of performance, and not the melody itself? A bad MIDI mockup can suck the life out of even a great melody.


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