Customer Reviews

The Songwriters Idea Book: 40 Strategies to Excite Your Imagination, Help You Design Distinctive Songs, and Keep Your Creative Flow

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does exactly what the title says! I have to say it's one of my favorite books about the art and craft of lyric writing. Everyone wants to be original, and this book can be a very helpful tool towards that end. It's great book to help break you out of your normal way of approaching lyric writing, not to mention aid when you are blocked. I constantly look to it as a source of inspiration, and I like the way it helps to "de-mystify" the process. This book offers you different and fresh ways of approaching and treating your subject matter, techniques for coming up with ideas when you're really blocked, insight into how your personality type drives your manner of writing, plus exercises and examples to help get you going and inspire you. It also gives you "small craft warnings" about potential pitfalls and helpful tips on how to avoid them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who writes lyrics!

Ever had writer's block? This book is the cure! Along with Davis' THE CRAFT OF LYRIC WRITING and SUCCESSFUL LYRIC WRITING, THE SONGWRITERS IDEA BOOK forms a brilliant trilogy that is essential for the person who wants to write lyrics. I'm rather surprised by reading some of the negative comments below. My guess is that those people merely leafed through the book without actually reading it. This book is NOT an easy read. It is not something that can be scanned. It must be read and studied very carefully. It is very important to understand part 2 of the book (pages 15 through 34) before moving ahead. This is the section wherein Davis analyzes the different types of the creative mind. In only a few short pages Davis introduces a lot of important concepts that need to be understood. The reader must take her tests and figure out which type he is. Then and only then is the book of value. I had to read part two several times before I really understood it. But once I had a firm grasp of those ideas, I found the book to be extremely valuable. Davis basically says that when one is blocked, that he needs to come at it from the other side of the brain. She then proceeds to give exercises that make it easy to access the unused part of the brain. While ostensibly for the lyricist, I think the principles can be adapted for any kind of writing. I think this is a great book and I am grateful to Sheila Davis for writing it.

I refer to this book weekly and have owned it for 4 years. I spoke the author in 1997 and thanked her for her contribution to this subject. Her 3 books are 3 volumes of my songwriting bible. It is her books that finally gave me the ability to be happy with my own songwriting for the first time in my timespan of over ten years of not liking my lyrics. In this book, the author helps you identify your style of work and how it affects your first drafts. This info also has helped me in other parts of my thinking process. No other author, so far, has been as complete and detailed in their presentation of the songwriting process as Sheila Davis. Brilliant.

Sheila Davis is a magnificent author with a talent for inspiring people to pursue their dreams as lyricists. I found this book helpful and encouraging, and still refer back to it every chance i get, especially the techniques on escaping writer's block. Davis expresses her knowledge of writing lyrics and shares them with the reader in the least intimidating way. This is truly a must read for all songwriters.

I hear this book is some kind of industry standard book for other musicians, and I enjoyed it.

Like the other reviews said though, the 40 strategies are really 40 different types of songs you could write.

i.e. "the childrens song" "breaking up" "the christmas song"

The first couple of chapters describe what she calls "whole brain writing", and is actually very clever.

This book helped me immensly, I just knocked a star off b/c of the bad title and I think it's too short.

For the money though, you absolutely cannot go wrong!

Pro: Excellent catalog of types of lyrics. Also good coverage of different elements that make hit songs.
Con: The title is misleading. The "40 strategies" is really no more than a catalog of 40 general types of lyrics, i.e. people get hit songs from: a holiday, a place, a town, a love lost, love gained, etc. Some useful ideas, but I was hoping for something more like writing or brainstorming exercise to open the imagination. This book was not at all useful for me.

Like Sheila Davis' other books, the Idea Book offers a detailed and valuable toolset for any songwriter, particularly in the areas of creative process and idea generation. Most importantly, it is one of only two books that attempt to relate personality profiles to styles of songwriting. This book makes mention of the Myers-Briggs personality types but does not really use them specifically. Davis instead uses an alternate but functional system of describing these preferences. The one songwriting book which does specifically relate the well-known Myers-Briggs profiles to songwriting is Songcrafters' Coloring Book: The Essential Guide to Effective and Successful Songwriting. That book, along with "The Songwriters Idea Book" make a powerful combination for helping any songwriter move forward along his or her chosen path. The concept of a viewing songwriting through the lens of different personality types is powerful and revealing. The books that offer that perspective are essential additions to the songwriter's bookshelf.

This book really gets you thinking. It's great for writer's block. The exercises really wake up your imagination and make you think outside of the box.

Jennifer K. Lafferty
Author of Offbeat Love Stories and More

I have been enjoying the approach of this book. I haven't finished it yet but Davis is a good instructor (she's written some classics on the subject) and this book has some interesting concepts not usually found in a lyric writing book. The premise is unusual (jung psychology) and the framework of analysis is a fun twist. I found myself getting excited about new stuff instantly. It's more of a workbook so you want to use it with paper and pencil in hand. I write music and lyrics professionally and I'm always interested in how-to books about it and this one has kept me intrigued and yes, given me some new song formulas and ideas.

hi, you are looking at this book as you neeed to write songs, either for your self or band etc, what has to happen first is an inner change, not only in mental organization but development of skills.
the good news is it is possible, the bad news it takes time and effort, so no book in the world will give you that.
I have not finished this book but i must say i think it is great from my point of view, is it a style thing, most likely. i have shela davis books, and they are wonderful, intelligent but a little rigid and school teacher like.
which is still good, and i recommend her books. but i like this book more as it is more me, maybe its a male thing, maybe, but its also an esoteric thing. let me explain. good songs to me are imagination tempered with reason, imagination is purely a spiritual thing, so in order you write good songs you must develope your mind, your chakras, your very being. other wise you are just coming from either a mundane point of view, or ego, boring,,,,, the first exersice he gives you is similar to one found in rudolf stieners most illustrious book 'how to know higher worlds' so it is a teaching given by a clarevoyant super-genius. and the smartest man i have ever come accross, stiener that is.
I think this Author so far is a human, a romantic and some one who allowes his mind to play, to explore
so yes i think it is a good book.