Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum, and new to songwriting - I was wondering if anyone out in the writing world would know of any great books that would help me in learning how to become a better songwriter? I'm sure I could scour the web all day - but figured all you pros out there might be able to help out a beginner. I'll do some research and see what I can find as well and maybe help someone else out along the way! Thank you for all your recommendations!!!
Welcome to Writing Forums, MelodyMaker! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
Hi there! Welcome to the forums! I'm not a professional in songwriting, but my best advice would be to just read lyrics to other songs and understand their structure. In my personal opinion my favorite songwriter is Claudio Sanchez; the lead man to the band Coheed and Cambria. They're considered to be progressive metal/rock, but I've never really heard any other band like them and so a lot of fans will argue that they have their own style as I do. Claudio Sanchez's songwriting I find is almost like a riddle that is extremely well written. They're a theme band so all of their songs are based on a comic book series written by Claudio Sanchez. I find it near similar to the figurative writing in the bible. Wow that was a mouthful. Anyway, welcome to the forums.
Hey Banzai and Cerrus, Thanks for your recommendation! I'll look into it - but I've already gone and bought a book over the weekend called "How to Write a Hit Song" by Molly-Ann Leikin. It really seems to grasp exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to continue to read this one and if it has some great advice that I can share then I'll do it up! Still would love to see other posts and keep the discussion going. Has anyone also read this book I'm reading? Thanks! - Melody
welcome, melody! as it happens, i'm a lyricist, among other things... email me and i'll send you some info on how-tos for lyric-writing... and help, if you want any... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
