I don’t worship Pattison. I’ve taken the free Berklee songwriting course twice.

I’m clearly not a talented songwriter as I have no hit records to my credit.

But I do enjoy songwriting now more than ever. It’s a very satisfying leisure activity and turns on part of my brain that I don’t get to use in my normal job as an ejection seat test engineer. I make a pretty good living doing that. From all accounts that I have heard from professional songwriters, with only the very top 100 of them in the world, I make a way better living than they do. So maybe it’s a blessing I don’t have to do songwriting for a living.

I use several methods in my songs that I learned in Pat’s course; namely The Boxes and odd line counts in prechorus sections, and the whole concept of prosody. These are not things you learn in engineering school on any level.

Is he the only one that teaches those things? I have no idea.

But they are useful to me in this hobby for enjoyment and satisfaction, and for that, I’m quite thankful for his courses. I think this is probably the case for most people that take his courses. He has opened doors for many to enjoy something they perhaps didn’t know they could enjoy.

I think this is why you see the praise of him. Now, if you have no need to be taught anything about songwriting because it’s all just natural talent; and you make write hit records while you are eating breakfast, or while you are just walking down the street, well you would have no appreciation for someone who teaches others what you yourself have known from birth.

To everyone else, if you’ve not tried the tips in this article, but you want to add tools to your songwriting toolbox, it can’t hurt to try them.

My Songs, photos, writing,etc.
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