Reference

Reading list

A small shelf that actually supports the work: melody, harmony, form, technique, and how listeners hear. Read for application, not trivia.

Theory & composition

Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles — Dominic Pedler

Harmonic moves, modal color, and compositional choices—explained in a way you can apply to your own songs.

Melody in Songwriting — Jack Perricone

Practical melody construction: contour, rhythm, phrasing, and how melody locks to harmony.

Use these when your songs feel “fine” but not inevitable.

This Is Your Brain on Music — Daniel Levitin

Why certain musical patterns hit the way they do—memory, expectation, repetition, and payoff.

How Music Works — David Byrne

Context matters: rooms, technology, culture, economics—why music becomes what it becomes.

Read this to sharpen your taste and your editing instincts.

The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles — Howard Goodall

A fast, readable arc of how musical ideas evolved—and why certain ideas survive.

The Unanswered Question — Leonard Bernstein

Big-picture thinking about musical meaning and “grammar,” from Bernstein’s Harvard lectures.

Useful when you want perspective, not prescriptions.

A Modern Method for Guitar (Vol. 1–3 Complete) — William Leavitt

The literacy builder: reading, fretboard logic, and coordination. Slow, steady, permanent.

The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method (Vol. 1) — Christopher Parkening

Classical fundamentals that translate: hand position, tone, and precision.

These are “do the reps” books. They work if you show up.

The Art of Possibility — Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander

Not a theory book. A mindset book: how to stay open, direct your attention, and do better work over time.

Read this when you’re stuck in perfectionism or “I’m not a natural.”