The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting

by Joel S. Hirschhorn

The most thorough guide to songwriting for the amateur musician. Written by an Oscar-winning and Grammy and Tony award nominated author, this is the most comprehensive book for today's amateur musician who is interested in creating and writing his or her own songs. It reveals everything the reader needs to know, including coming up with ideas, rhyming schemes, hooks, melodies, and lyrics; selling songs; working in the industry; and even coming up with titles.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Carlos Ramos · Rating 2 out of 5]

It covers a lot of topics, glancing over everything, without specifics of anything.

In short, it has a lot of things about the whole process of songwriting, but I wouldn't call it songwriting, at least from a lyricist perspective.

So, if you want to write lyrics, this book is not the one.

If you want an overview of all the process, involving the music, relations, history of genres, and other topics, go on, this book is for you.

[Powerofthehero · Rating 3 out of 5]

+Covers pretty much every area of the art of songwriting and the industry around it.
-Too many short paragraphs to remember them all.
-Only few sentence long snippets about topics.
++Keep the book on you and when you need a good view about something, take a look off from this book again.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very helpful read for a budding songwriter like myself who does music as a hobby, as well as those who want to make a living as a songwriter. I like how Complete Idiot's books are laid out as the information is organized in a logical manner that teaches well. This book is no different.

[Hooman · Rating 3 out of 5]

بيشتر به بحثي عمومي پرداخته و در آن از تئوري موسيقي خبري نيست.