Can a self taught, rock musician, really make effective use of species counterpoint?

[Km7]

I think autodidacticism is fine provided you are focused and thorough enough. Opinions on Fux are somewhat controversial. In my opinion, it is a good book, but noone mentioned that it is more about 16th century modal counterpoint. Sure, there are lots of similarities with the 18 century tonal counterpoint, but there are also differences. An excellent book on 18 century counterpoint is Counterpoint by Kent Kennan. If you combine this with analyzing Bach to see counterpoint in practice, it would be great.

If a music piece is contrapuntal or not is a matter of degree, it isn't just a black-and-white thing. I think many people tend to overlook the significance of studying counterpoint... It is not simply about learning a bunch of rules and a style, it is more about befriending the notes, so to speak, and bringing one's attention to the melodic and countrapuntal aspects of music, and creating a base that you can then build upon. Counterpoint is different in Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and modern times. It is all about the base. Having that, you can make your own compositional style with specific treatment of counterpoint, and so on...

By the way, check this out:
http://www.ars-nova.com/cp/