I bought this book somewhat on a whim. The bookstore didn't have the title I was looking for (a Pat Pattison title) but this one looked mildly interesting, so I took a chance.
As it turns out, this author was a student of the author I was seeking, so that was a nice surprise that it was related to the book I was seeking in the first place. As I read further I found this book to be much more helpful and interesting than I'd suspected initially.
She has a very interesting take on the songwriting process. I don't know if her method is original, but it was new to me. It's somewhat backwards or technical in how it breaks down the process. Beginning from prose drafts, the methods of extracting rhymes & patterns from that initial prose was something I'd never thought of. Her notes on internal & external detail were also new to me.
These songwriting books often seem to encourage cheesy top 10 style songs, but the techniques can be applied (and ignored if necessary) in all genres. It is like playing a weird scale--you might not use it but it exercises the muscles & increases fliexibility, at least. And even weird songs often follow conventional patterns, so that does not discourage me at all.
I paid $15 for this book, and it seemed a bit slight for that, but it definitely gave me a different perspective, a much more technical and yet somehow freeing way to look at lyric writing than any other book on the subject I've yet read.Get more detail about Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling.
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