Hey,

I'm just watching John Braheny's final interview with Michael at the Rally and I know that one of his favorite sites and one I can honestly say has been a HUGE change for me in writing is Hit Songs Deconstructed (http://hitsongsdeconstructed.com).

It's run by David Penn (Fellow TAXI member) and he is one of the best people I know of at breaking down hit songs and teaching you what is making the hits and how to apply these techniques to your own songs.

You can subscribe for a 1 month FREE trial and it honestly is unlike anything else around for totally breaking down hits. My word isn't worth nearly as much as John's, so here's what he sent out about Hit Songs Deconstructed (HSD) in his Newsletter:

BEST NEW WEBSITE FOR SONGWRITERS. http://hitsongsdeconstructed.com

I, and all the songwriting teachers I know, tell their students that one of the best exercises they can do to educate themselves about song craft is to deconstruct hit songs and look for the factors that made them work for their listeners. There have been, until now, only sporadic attempts at doing this but never a sustained effort to analyze current chart hits. It's just too much work. So it was a real breakthrough to find David Penn's Hit Songs Deconstructed (HSD). This is a dream of a site that not only features charts and graphs showing the song intensity peaks and valleys but breaks down the structures, strengths and weaknesses in melody and lyrics in pop and rock formats. Their Chart Wire also covers a quick analysis of structure etc. for county and info on current trends which it also does for the other categories. I could go on and on but I'll just tell you I love this site. Discover and subscribe (free) yourself.

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Dave is also one of my dear friends and I can tell you that he has a heart and deep passion for helping people get better at the craft of songwriting and writing better songs. I truly believe that he is one of the most gifted set of ears in the industry and I know you will find Hit Songs Deconstructed to be an invaluable learning tool to help you improve your craft!

Hope that helps you all...

Andrew

Yes, that one was recommended to me--thank you. I just started reading Jason Blume's "6 Steps" today and am really liking it so far. I know there is a lot of duplication between books, but when you're trying to learn something, the the repetition can be good--especially when phrased a different way.

Agreed on John's book. A lot of detailed and varied info in there!