Best SONGWRITING Course/Book

[VicMartinez]

Hello everybody!

What is the most "game changing" songwriting course or book that you have attended/read?

100% of my experience has come from studying/playing songs but Id love to find a reference guide that could help me answer
certain questions that come mind while Im writing a tune. A lot of these tunes have to do with the rhythmic/metric quality of lyrics, how to support
lyrical ideas with the production and music and vice versa, brainstorming tactics to find words and phrases that wont typically come to mind, etc...

All suggestions welcome

-Vic

[VicMartinez]

**alot of these questions**

[lesmac]

I must admit I am a bit over the books and more into You tube vids these days and like you, listening to music.
I have quite a few books but I think Robin Frederick's are very good. I have the film and TV book.

You tube;
I found the "Artist Series" on the Hollistic Songwriting channel pretty good.

I enjoyed the Rick Beato vid on "What makes this song great- Max Martin" and the Bruno Mars 24K magic. Anything about Max Martin is of high interest to me. The melodic math vid is good IMHO.

I like the method of singing gobbledy gook and working out the lyrics later as do a lot of major artists and producers.

I think if you follow the Max Martin method and have a lyrically emotional song delivered well thats a good start.

I know its not exactly what you asked for but I hope you don't mind me sharing some ideas.

Online dictionaries and thesauruses are handy too.

[Len911]

Vic, I think what you are describing falls primarily under the categories of prosidy and cadence.

[Kolstad]

Robin Frederick's two books are my desert island songwriting books for sure. Everything else is nice-to know, but those are NEED-to know, imo.
I have quite a few, but after I got those I look at the others and think, hmm what to do with those, now..

[funsongs]

Vic, I think what you are describing falls primarily under the categories of prosody and cadence.

At the Road Rally 2015, my first, I attended a class taught by Pat Pattison (I think I spelled that correctly) - apparently he's known as
"the Master" of prosody & cadence, when it comes to the art of combining music & lyrics.
At the 2016 RR, I made sure to attend his class again - and was treated to a demonstration of his 'technique & skill', as he 'fixed' the song of a willing volunteer.
It was an amazing transformation.
Bummer - he wasn't at the 2017 Rally - I hope Michael manages to get him to be at this years' convention.

I recommend you check out anything he's got.
And +1 for Robin Frederick's material.

[VicMartinez]

Les, Len, Kolstad, and Peter thank you guys for taking the time and providing all these resources. It seems like the Robin book is a standard. Def gonna get that one ASAP. Also just saved the links to those videos on YouTube as well as some Pat P. material I found online.

Thank you guys again!

Hope to see you all at my first RR this year.

-Vic

[ScreamieBirds]

I took Pat Pattison’s Songwriting course from Berklee through Coursera when I decided to jump in and try out songwriting after writing novels for a few years. That led to earning a certificate in Modern Musicianship, which led me down this musical path, leaving novels behind - lol! Would love to see Pat Pattison at Road Rally - just joined Taxi so this will be my first.

If you don’t want the certificate, you can audit the class for free.

I also got Robin’s book recently and I’ve been enjoying that, too! Which reminds me - I need to get back to it.

[VicMartinez]

I took Pat Pattison’s Songwriting course from Berklee through Coursera when I decided to jump in and try out songwriting after writing novels for a few years. That led to earning a certificate in Modern Musicianship, which led me down this musical path, leaving novels behind - lol! Would love to see Pat Pattison at Road Rally - just joined Taxi so this will be my first.

If you don’t want the certificate, you can audit the class for free.

I also got Robin’s book recently and I’ve been enjoying that, too! Which reminds me - I need to get back to it.

Thanks for the lead! Just signed up for Pats class online.

Thanks again!

-Vic

[ScreamieBirds]

I took Pat Pattison’s Songwriting course from Berklee through Coursera when I decided to jump in and try out songwriting after writing novels for a few years. That led to earning a certificate in Modern Musicianship, which led me down this musical path, leaving novels behind - lol! Would love to see Pat Pattison at Road Rally - just joined Taxi so this will be my first.

If you don’t want the certificate, you can audit the class for free.

I also got Robin’s book recently and I’ve been enjoying that, too! Which reminds me - I need to get back to it.

Thanks for the lead! Just signed up for Pats class online.

Thanks again!

-Vic

Cool!