Solved What comes first the....I need some good recommendations on songwritting books

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EpiSGpl8r

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Hey guys. What comes first the guitar part or the lyrics? or does it matter? i wanna know cuz i want to start playing more of my own song wich is also why i want some good recomendations for a songwritting book. Thanks alot
 
One good book is called "How to Write a Hit Song" it's by Molly Ann Leikin. Another is called "I Am The Blues" by Willie Dixon. Dixon's book is about his life, but he gives some really good advice on song writing and sence he wrote hit songs for EVERYBODY, it's worth the read.
 
hey epi,

just wrote a response to your other post and saw this one. I kinda answered this in an earlier thread

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=58582

but it most everyone else recommended lyric based books. I personally write equally both ways. half the lyric first, half not. If you're lucky, it all comes at once and you can shelf it after a night. unfortunately, those instances are relatively rare. At least for me, they are.

keep writing,

miles
 
I usually don't post in this forum much, but I've seen alot of "songwriting book" Qs posted here lately.

IMHO: no book can ever teach you how to write a song. A book can only give you ideas for structure, lyrical scheme et all.

Your best resources, IMO, are rhyme and thesaurus resource books. Rhyme: in case you get stuck somewhere (I personally avoid rhyme alot) and thesaurus to find a different or better word choice - it's really cool as a different word choice can change the entire direction and/or feel of a song. Random word generators are also a cool technique.

As for what comes first, lyrics or music: some people have hard and fast rules for this either way - others just take it as it comes. Lately, I'm working out the music first. It's a rare and inspired occasion when it all happens together.

Good luck.
 
Sorry to be posting so late to this thread, but Rikky Rooksby has a couple of books on songwriting that I've found surprisingly helpful. Inside Classic Rock Tracks, which I recently reviewed is his newer title, and "How to Write Songs on Guitar: A Guitar-Playing and Songwriting Course" was the book that preceeded it.

As Jitteringjim says, no book can really teach you how to write a song--it's something you have to teach yourself, usually with a fair amount of trial and error. But these books might help you come up with some new ideas to experiment with, and at least explain why and how the music you hear on the radio everyday works.

Also, this recent thread had some good ideas for getting out of a songwriting rut, or starting to write from scratch (which may be the ultimate rut to get out of!).

Good luck,

Ed
 
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