Looking For Some Help, Songwriting Books

[DuartmaN]

Hi, I would like to start write some lyrics in English language, I don't know why, but I have more facility to create melodies with English lyrics.

At this point, I have been improving my English language and read some documentation on the Internet like this forum. I would like to ask you an opinion about what books I can buy with good tips about songwriting?

All the best,

Duarte Cancela

[DonnaMarilyn]

I see this post is a couple of months old. Well, here goes anyway.

Lots of excellent books out there, but some that I've found particularly helpful have been:

Songwriting for Dummies edited by Peterik, Austin & Bickford

Popular Lyric Writing by Andrea Stolpe

Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison

Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure by Pat Pattison

Songwriting: Essential Guide to Rhyming by Pat Pattison

Writing Better Words for Your Songs by Rikky Rooksby (who's also written an excllent book on writing songs with guitar)

I hope these are useful.

Donna

Hi, I would like to start write some lyrics in English language, I don't know why, but I have more facility to create melodies with English lyrics.

At this point, I have been improving my English language and read some documentation on the Internet like this forum. I would like to ask you an opinion about what books I can buy with good tips about songwriting?

All the best,

Duarte Cancela

Edited December 4, 2010 by DonnaMarilyn

[Kaitlyn1984]

Hi,

I've seen several books available at www.songwritingresourses.org and also at www.songwritingopportunities.com.

Both sites have books on the business of songwriting, how to write better songs, and pretty much a full library of songwriting related books and resources.

Good luck!

Kaitlyn

[maxtor2290]

Well, I know this is a little old, but, since there has been a recent reply I'll chime in.

The best thing that any songwriter can do is study the lyrics of songs in the genre they are writing in. Not just one, but several songs. Song Craft is a constant journey.

I would think studying lyrics in your genre written in English would be especially important for someone whose native language isn't English.

Songwriting has simmered and cooked over the years with every genre changing in form and language patterns to one degree or another.

Start with songs you like, then move to songs that are considered great hits, then move to songs you don't like but which appeal to the masses who listen to that genre. You will learn as much or more from the ones you don't like as you can from the ones you do.

The books are nice and have a lot of techniques and exercises that will help you think about how your putting a song together and how to say it, but, most are generic and don't really hit enough on the realities of songwriting. I would read some, but digest their information for a while and filter out the non-sense.

If you are only writing for yourself, then you really don't need to do much of anything but write, but, if your wanting to write commercially or so the masses will want to hear your songs, you have to see what the masses like and try to move to where they are going.

Great songs are all in the re-writes, unless your a prodigy. Keep working on a song idea you've committed to until it is finished. Make sure that all lyrics are written in a way that matches your genre. The type of conversational lyric commonly associated with Country Music isn't the same type of conversational lyric associated with POP music, for instance. POP lyrics tend to be more vague with a tendency to lead the listener in a more whimsical fashion than Country lyrics, which tend to move more towards a direct association with something, though that something may not be something tangible.

Sometimes the lines are a little blurred and in the end a great song is a great song which is a great song!

And lastly, at least for now, be true to yourself. If you are wanting to write commercially, then do it! But also write the songs that YOU want to write in whatever manner you want to write them. Not every song is a hit, but, every song ever written means something to someone.

Just my 2 Cents....

Good luck!

Brad

~maxtor2290~

[Janeva]

Updated - I now write lyrics for Duarte Cancela

[DuartmaN]

Thanks to everyone for the tips and Janice for help me with lyrics