PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Superb Book on Songwriting

OK, my copy of this book arrived last night. There are some really good tips in the book which I intend to try. It is not a book about a formula. It is a collection of observations and rules of thumb that when used can result in a well crafted song. I've read through perhaps 25% of it, and I have tried, in the past, a few of the techniques just out of personal curiosity.

For example, the book recommends deep study of hit songs from a lyrics, melody, harmonic structure, song structure, production techniques, etc. as one of the 125 or so 'tips'. It then says, 'mimic those as best you can', use the original song as a 'ghost' and write a new melody but keep the rhythmic structure exactly the same, etc.

I did this several years ago with one of Beck's songs that I really liked, 'The Golden Age'. I tried mimicing every single thing I could pick apart in that song - down to a single instance percussive sound that is in the background of the 1st verse, that I couldn't do with a synth or other instrument, but I could mimic it with my voice. I tried copying the affectations of Beck's voice, everything. My version's acoustic guitar tracks 'swing' a little more than his, and I had to cut down the intro by one pass through the main chord structure (it was for a song contest at KVR), but it helped me to have some courage to do harmony BGVs, and a whole bunch more - like making the drums and vocals very dry while the rest of the tracks are washed in reverb, double-tracking strummed acoustic guitars for a wide sound without chorus, etc. If you listen to Beck's version long enough, from a technical standpoint, you can pick these things out.

When folks listened to my version, they first accused me of submitting Beck's backing tracks (my voice still doesn't sound like his too much - even with the mimicry).
My version is here: http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/songs/new...ute%20cover.mp3

Beck's version is all over YouTube and whatnot.

I learned a whole bunch about arrangement, effects, production, etc. just in that exercise. I probably had 10 hours into the whole exercise.

Probably what the book will be most useful for to me is a roadmap of what to pay attention to in hit popular songs. I've done this in isolation before, but now this guidebook will help me to perhaps make some decisions before saying a song is 'finished', about what elements that are commonly found in hit songs that I might be missing.

Again, I don't have a goal to write a hit record, but I like hit records as much as the next person, and I like listening to my own stuff now and then. Might as well make it even a more enjoyable experience!

The last really interesting thing about the book is on the last printed page. It showed the date of printing. For my copy, it was December 7, 2009. In other words, it was a print-to-order book.

OK, one more thing - the book calls out RealBand alongside Garageband and a couple other programs for good entry-level softwares for songwriting. Congrats PG!