Songwriting Books/Resources

[Bread99]

Can any of you refer me to any decent songwriting books or resources that will help expand my knowledge of the craft?

 

Are there any you have used in particular that have proven to be helpful?

[eddieboston2]

Jimmy Webb's Tunesmith is probably worth reading, though maybe a little too dogmatic. (Verses MUST rhyme. You MUST do this. You MUST do that.) That's sort of a problem with any book that tries to tell how to do something creative. The whole point of creativity is to try and avoid doing all the same things as someone else does or tells you to.

 

That said, however, I did find it worthwhile to read up on music theory in general. The concept of playing in a key and which chords fit, chord substitutions, etc. There's a lot of good stuff on the internet about music theory, as well.

[Bread99]

Cool, thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

 

Anyone else have any good ones?

[rsadasiv]

Any one of the Rikki Rooksby books (they are all pretty much the same) is probably worth a look.

[thepalpitations]

Yeah, I've got Rooksby's "How To Write Songs On Guitar." I wouldn't say it's been a huge turning point in my career or anything, but it's definitely worth reading and keeping as a resource. The nice thing is, you don't need to read cover-to-cover . . . you can just flip to a random page and learn about chord progressions, or lyric ideas, or arranging suggestions, etc.

[Bread99]

Thanks guys!