Writing Better Lyrics

Writing Better Lyrics

by Pat Pattison
Writing Better Lyrics

Writing Better Lyrics

by Pat Pattison

eBook

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Overview

The Must-Have Guide for Songwriters

Writing Better Lyrics has been a staple for songwriters for nearly two decades. Now this revised and updated 2nd Edition provides effective tools for everything from generating ideas, to understanding the form and function of a song, to fine-tuning lyrics.

Perfect for new and experienced songwriters alike, this time-tested classic covers the basics in addition to more advanced techniques.Songwriters will discover:

   • How to use sense-bound imagery to enhance a song's emotional impact on listeners
   • Techniques for avoiding clichés and creating imaginative metaphors and similes
   • Ways to use repetition as an asset
   • How to successfully manipulate meter
   • Instruction for matching lyrics with music
   • Ways to build on ideas and generate effective titles
   • Advice for working with a co-writer
   • And much more


Featuring updated and expanded chapters, 50 fun songwriting exercises, and examples from more than 20 chart-toppings songs, Writing Better Lyrics gives you all of the professional and creative insight you need to write powerful lyrics and put your songs in the spotlight where they belong.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781599631660
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 12/11/2009
Sold by: Penguin Group
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 192,991
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

Pat Pattison is a professor at Berklee College of Music, where he teaches lyric writing and poetry. His books include Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming. In addition, Pat has developed three online lyric writing courses for BerkleeÕs online school, and has written articles for a variety of industry publications. His internationally successful students include multiple Grammy winners John Mayer and Gillian Welch. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Foreword Gillian Welch vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Object Writing: The Art of the Diver 3

Chapter 2 Rusty's Collar: A Lesson in Showing and Telling 19

Chapter 3 Making Metaphors 23

Chapter 4 Learning to Say No: Building Worksheets 33

Chapter 5 Clichés: The Sleeping Puppy (A Case Study) 47

Chapter 6 Productive Repetition 55

Chapter 7 Verse Development and Power Positions 82

Chapter 8 Travelogues: Verse Continuity 93

Chapter 9 Stripping Your Repetition for Repainting 101

Chapter 10 Perspectives 111

Chapter 11 Point of View: Second Person and the Hangman 128

Chapter 12 Point of View: Second Person as Narrative 132

Chapter 13 Dialogue and Point of View 139

Chapter 14 Meter: Something in Common 147

Chapter 15 Spotlighting With Common Meter 153

Chapter 16 Meter: Two by Two 161

Chapter 17 Managing Couplets 168

Chapter 18 Prosody: Structure as Film Score 177

Chapter 19 Understanding Motion 189

Chapter 20 Form Follows Function: Building the Perfect Beast 229

Chapter 21 The Great Balancing Act: Courting Danger on the High Wire 239

Chapter 22 Song Forms: (Im) Potent Packages 250

Chapter 23 Song Forms: (Im) Potent Packages II 257

Chapter 24 Process 262

Appendix: Co-Writing: The "No"-Free Zone 289

Permissions 292

Index 295

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