Songwriting Books

  • Thread starter Thread starter okobd
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okobd

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I just got a tip from Crawdad to read some good songwriting books to keep the fires burning.

I'm gonna go ahead and take his advice(duh)

So, Anybody know of any?

Anyone?

Buuuuuuuuuueler?:D
 
If you wanna go the commercial route, "6 Steps to Songwriting Success" is invaluable........

Im on "The Craft of Lyric Writing", again, right now and its a good one also..........

"88 Songwriting Wrongs and How To Right THem" by Pat and Pete Luboff is good too......

Id start with Jason Blumes book......its awesome........

and a good web resource is
http://www.musesmuse.com/
 
Gidge said:
If you wanna go the commercial route, "6 Steps to Songwriting Success" is invaluable........

Im on "The Craft of Lyric Writing", again, right now and its a good one also..........

"88 Songwriting Wrongs and How To Right THem" by Pat and Pete Luboff is good too......

Id start with Jason Blumes book......its awesome........

and a good web resource is
http://www.musesmuse.com/
Click to expand...

Gidge,
Thanks for the input. Crawdad mentioned the Lyric writing one.
Do you know the name of the Jason Blumes one?
Thanks,
joe
 
oops, my bad....its the first one I mentioned "6 Steps to Songwriting Success"......
 
Ricky Rooksby's "How to Write Songs on Guitar" is my favourite. Very accessible, illustrates everything with examples and is actually enjoyable to read. Tunesmith by Jimmy Webb is the only other one I've read; it got lots of good critiques but I found it rather pretentious and overwrritten (and half way thorugh I realised I don't like his songs anyway:D )

Happy reading.
 
Thanks Gary.

I'm glad this thread is getting some attention. I'm gonna print it out eventually, or at least cut n paste the names so I can figure out which ones to buy next. I think it'll be interesting to see other peoples take on songs, that's one of the reason I'm even on this board in the first place.
-oko
 
hey gidge...im reading the same book.....bought it last week!

I am surprized that alot of my writing follows many of the books guidelines even though i have never read up on the craft of lyric writing. I guess it came from emulating what i considered good songs to be. Its a fantastic book though and i've have pin pointed problems with songs i scaped cause the lyrics didn't work.

good luck on your writing
 
"The craft & business of songwriting" by John Breheny is the one I'm reading now. Really quite good.
 
jimmy and esp

Thanks for the posts guys,
I hope everyone's getting alot of of this thread, I know I am.
-joe
 
One more:

Tunesmith by Jimmy Webb. If you read it cover to cover, its like a master class in songwriting. For 15 bucks, its like going to college if you look up the words you don't know and really study and absorb what is there. Its fantastic, IMO. Still blows my mind.
 
Sounds like the first buy!

Thanks again, Crawdad. I'd love to jump straigt to the Master's Course. What with the whole lack of attention span thing I got workin' for me.
-joe
 
This thread made me think about reading Willie Nelsons Auto Biography. (Sorry cannot remember the title) Not a book on songwriting per se but the philosophies of a songwriter you admire are plenty good to absorb.

-b
 
crawdad said:
One more:

Tunesmith by Jimmy Webb. If you read it cover to cover, its like a master class in songwriting. For 15 bucks, its like going to college if you look up the words you don't know and really study and absorb what is there. Its fantastic, IMO. Still blows my mind.
Click to expand...

I'll second Tunesmith. The Piano parts are a little theory intensive for those of us less traditionally trained but still a great, thorough study of the art.
 
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