Songwriting Success: How to Write Songs for Fun and (Maybe) Profit [Paperback]

Michael Lydon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0415969298 | ISBN-13: 978-0415969291 | Edition: Pap/Com

What makes a lyric memorable or a melody catchy? Should I start with the music first or the lyrics? Does the chorus come before the verse? Writing songs requires so many music and language skills that the beginner is often overwhelmed. Songwriting Success breaks down the craft of melody and lyric writing into easily digested lessons that anyone can follow, regardless of their musical knowledge. Michael Lydon shows the beginning songwriter how to integrate the craft's many skills into a seamless artistic and commercial whole. Songwriting Success includes a special CD taking the budding songwriter who can't read music (or prefers to learn by listening) step-by-step through the songwriting process, from initial idea through crafting melodic hooks and catchy choruses to creating a final 'demo' version for marketing the song. From putting pen to paper to getting your song heard, Songwriting Success offers a quick, fun, and useful introduction to the world of songwriting.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Lydon is a well-known rock journalist and professional singer/songwriter. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, he has written numerous books including Flashbacks: Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution. He is also an active songwriter who performs at clubs around the country and has released two CDs of his own songs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; Pap/Com edition (May 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415969298
• ISBN-13: 978-0415969291
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,333,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an Amazing Book!, December 17, 2007

By 

Christopher Burbridge (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Songwriting Success: How to Write Songs for Fun and (Maybe) Profit (Paperback)

I am surprised this book has not gotten any reviews yet, but, I guess there are a lot of songwriting books out there. This is an amazing book. The author goes through various aspects of the craft of songwriting, not assuming you're going to know any of them. I have mostly been skipping the music sections, because I already know a lot about that.

But the lyric writing sections are great. He talks about creating a persona, an "I" that you use in performance, and how the "I" you create in your song must be at the same time genuine, but also a specific character that might not even look like you; how the feelings in the song need to reach out to the listener, so they can identify with what you are saying; how every song needs to revolve around a core idea, whether that is contained in the title, or not.

I don't believe I know how to do this book justice in this review, but it is a wonderful book. His advice about songwriting is so well distilled, so clear, and makes so much sense! I love this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, terrible Kindle edition, September 7, 2010

By 

Benoit Marchal (Namur, Belgique) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Songwriting Success (Kindle Edition)

This is a most excellent book on songwriting but the Kindle edition is a ripoff.
The book is comprehensive, well written, it manages to explain complex notions in simple words. Also it filled with common sense (just read the introduction on the risks of songwriting...).
I am a self-learner (keyboard) and I have acquired some experience in music theory (I can read music, I know the scales and chords, etc.) but this book offers a fresh perspective on this material and one that is very pleasant. I enjoyed reading this book and I learned a lot.
Unfortunately the Kindle edition is a ripoff: the book includes a CD. No rather the book relies on the included CD. Unlike many similar books, the CD is not just a MIDI rendering of a few tunes but it is an integral part of the teaching experience with voice-over and additional explanation and demonstration by the author. BTW this is *great* pedagogy as you can read a chapter one day and listen to complementary explanation the next day, which re-enforces what you have learned. The author has done an excellent job at combining the two medias (print and audio), they never repeat each other but truly complement each other.
And now the ripoff: the Kindle edition does not include the CD, nor does it include a link to download the tracks. Nada. If you buy the Kindle edition, you're getting less than half of the teaching efficiency.
Having realized that the book had potential, I had to buy the print edition as well, since it is the only one that include the mandatory CD. Of course the print edition is less convenient to read so I only open it once: to remove the CD. And since the Kindle edition is only very slightly discounted from the paper edition, I ended up paying twice to access the material.
I'm afraid that I find that this attitude from the publisher is very dishonest.

So if you like reading on paper, you would do well to buy this book. But if, like me, you prefer the convenience of the Kindle, this publisher does not deserve your trust.