Songwriting Strategies: A 360-Degree Approach

by Mark Simos

(Berklee Guide). Write songs starting from any direction: melody, lyric, harmony, rhythm, or idea. This book will help you expand your range and flexibility as a songwriter. Discussions, hands-on exercises, and notated examples will help you hone your craft. This creatively liberating approach supports the overall integrity of emotion and meaning in your songs. It will help you become more productive, versatile, and innovative in your songwriting. You will learn to: * Discover more ideas for songs song seeds and capture them in their most powerful and usable form * Overcome writer's block by having many more pathways through the writing process * Develop strong song structures by working independently with melody, lyrics, harmony, and rhythm * Write songs more easily, guided by your well-tuned "songwriter's compass"

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2014

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the most in-depth and informative book on songwriting I've ever read. A lot of the information here is invaluable. Unfortunately, there are a few downsides to the 'depth' of this book - although I still wouldn't want to rate it anything lower than 5 stars.

It is in need of clearer editing, and it is overly academic. It assumes that you (a) have a university-level knowledge of music theory, and (b) have already read books by other Berklee songwriting gurus like Pat Pattison and Jack Perricone. Without that criteria, I could imagine many songwriters picking up the book and finding it tedious and full of confusing terminology. This book should be renamed to something which indicates how advanced a lot of the concepts are. Casting a wide demographic net will just lead to many beginners feeling disappointed by the complexity, and to the book falling under the radars of songwriters with advanced skills.

With all that being said, if you do know your theory well and you're familiar with atleast Pat Pattison's book "Writing Better Lyrics", then this is quite possibly the best book on songwriting out there.

[Mollie]

For now I‘m DNFing this.
It’s super theoretical. I’ve read a Pat Pattison book before and written a lot of songs (not as a working songwriter so far) but this book really feels like you are in school and taking everything apart. I feel like it’s looking too hard on what we automatically do when we feel inspired or get an idea of some sort. The exercises are super hard and it’s also very difficult to read. Then again what can a book on songwriting really tell you? I think I may have wanted analysis of popular songs and taking those apart. What works and what doesn’t but in the part where I‘m stuck I feel like I‘m too far away from really writing a song.

[Swell Versed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an accessible and fairly easy-to-read guide not just for songwriters, but also for poets like myself who are interested in the musical aspects of words. My favorite sections are the ones that cover the impact of different vowels and consonants (in terms of sound color) and examples of counterpoint via different line lengths and rhyme schemes.