Hi Floyd,

I've been lucky. Pat Pattison (teacher of John Mayer, Gillian Welch, just to name a couple of his many students) has visited Australia many times and I've been to 13 or 14 weekend workshops of his. He's brilliant. Maybe that's why he's a professor at Berklee College.

Pat's three books ...
  • Writing Better Lyrics (2nd Ed.)
  • Essential Guide To Lyric Form And Structure
  • Essential Guide To Rhyming
... are, in my opinion, unparalleled (I have around 30 songwriting books and I've read them all). Pat's books are uniquely the best on the market in relation to understanding how lyric rhythm and rhyme work in partnership to create motion and emotion. What I've found is that as I get more experience at how to use the lyric-writing tools Pat teaches, the happier I'm becoming with my songs. (I've given up counting how many times I've re-read his books.)

Mind you, you're already a master so I'm not quite sure why I'm telling you all this! Maybe someone will read it and find it useful

All the best,
Noel

P.S. I smiled when I read your post because just this morning I was thinking that maybe I should run a small, free course on lyric writing for people who are not sure what to do and who would like to learn some of the basics about it. Six years ago, I had absolutely no idea how to write lyrics. Music was never a problem but words were. Then Pat came along and showed me the science and art behind the process and now I can compose entire songs