Based on the author's highly successful songwriting workshops and seminars.

In her first two books, Sheila Davis classified the major song forms and enduring principles that have been honored for decades by America's foremost songwriters. Those books have become required reading in music courses from NYU to UCLA. In The Songwriters Idea Book, Davis goes one step further, giving you 40 strategies for designing distinctive songs. You'll break new ground in your own songwriting by learning about the inherent relationship between language style, personality type and the brain. • You'll go, step by step, through the creative process as you activate, incubate, separate and discriminate. • You'll learn to use the whole-brain techniques of imaging, brainstorming and clustering. • You'll expand your skilled use of figurative language with paragrams, metonyms, synecdoche and antonomasia. • You'll be challenged to design metaphors, form symbols, make puns and coin words. • And, you'll learn how to prevent writer's block, increase your productivity and maintain your creative flow. Over 100 successful student lyrics from pop, country, cabaret, and theater serve as role-models to illustrate the "whole-brain" songwriting process.

(Berklee Guide). Take your songwriting to the next level! This book breaks down the processes used by hit songwriters and dives deeply into the craft of songwriting. Discover the tools and techniques for melody, harmony, lyrics, and form behind so many great songs. You will access the magic and come out more connected to your heart and craft. Online audio tracks illustrate these techniques in context, showing how they affect your song's overall impact.

Infuse your lyrics with sensory detail! Writing great song lyrics requires practice and discipline. Songwriting Without Boundaries will help you commit to routine practice through fun writing exercises. This unique collection of more than150 sense-bound prompts helps you develop the skills you need to: • tap into your senses and inject your writing with vivid details • effectively use metaphor and comparative language • add rhythm to your writing and manage phrasing Songwriters, as well as writers of other genres, will benefit from this collection of sensory writing challenges. Divided into four sections, Songwriting Without Boundaries features four different fourteen-day challenges with timed writing exercises, along with examples from other songwriters, poets, and prose writers.

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.

This workbook will give you a solid foundation of theory and new insights into the subtleties of craftsmanship, whether you're a new or professional songwriter and whether your targeted market is country, gospel, top-40 or theatre.

(Berklee Guide). Veteran songwriter Pat Pattison has taught many of Berklee College of Music's best and brightest students how to write truly great lyrics. His helpful guide contains essential information on lyric structures, timing and placement, and exercises to help everyone from beginners to seasoned songwriters say things more effectively and gain a better understanding of their craft. Features examples of famous songs for study, including: Be Still My Beating Heart * Can't Fight This Feeling * It Was a Very Good Year * Tickle Me * and more.