Can Anyone Recommend a Good (Current) Pop Songwriting Book?

[jerryvelona]

My all time favorite is The Little Black Book of songwriting by Michael Anderson. Concise and right on point. Highly recommended.

[Razor7Music]

All the above recommendations are great. I would add John Braheny's book as well. This is the first songwriting book I read and it really was great. As far as current - that's always changing. These books all have timeless advice. For what's current, subscribe to Robin Frederick's email newsletter. She analyzes current tunes and in doing so shows you how to analyze them. Really great.

Neil McTavish

Hi Neil,
Where do i subscribe for Robin's email newsletter?I cant seem to find a link on her website.

Ahjay

Hmm--neither could I, but I follow her on Twitter: @RobinFrederick

FYI--

[AhjayStelino]

A great book for melody that actually provides structured ideas on how to write pop melodies:

The Songwriter's Workshop: Melody (Berklee Press)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Songwriters-W ... ing+melody

[melodymessiah]

had to check out robin frerericks book "shortcuts to hit songwriting" to see what the hype was all about. i was very disappointed, and quite frustrated too. i find the book WAY to repetitive, it's like she forgot what she wrote the chapter before. there's a lot of great advice of course, like i expected, and you may argue that repetitions are a good thing. and yes, i agree to that, but i want to know WHERE i can find what i want to repeat, instead of having to search the whole index or book. it's just so terribly unorganized, and there's a lot of wasted paper/space in it too. i got a feeling that the whole book could easily be fitted into a 100-150 page pocket size book. it would be much smaller, much more efficient reading, and probably a lot cheaper too. has anyone read "Writing Music For Hit Songs" by jai josefs? i'll check it out.