Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice

Working through this book, especially with a buddy, is a great way to jumpstart stalled creativity and learn some techniques. This book, with Andrea Stolpe's and Jason Blume's, don't just talk at songwriters, but give writers challenging exercises. Fresh ideas. At a workshop PP gave, he said he asks his songwriting classes to take what they felt was their best lyric and remove 25% of the words; almost everyone, he said, was horrified at first but then found their lyrics the better for having done that. His ideas have informed my writing...although I follow no one's advice 100%. I Won't Apologize

As a book author who tries to elevate every project in order to set my work apart, I've found this to be an excellent resource in honing my poetic and creative abilities. You don't have to be a songwriter to find worth in this book, just a desire to learn and grow.

I picked up this book as a supplement while attending Pat Pattison's excellent (and free!) songwriting course on Coursera (I strongly recommend the course as well). In brief, the exercises Pat outlines in the book, and Pat's approach to teaching songwriting in general, represent the very best pedagogical approach to the craft that I have ever come across. Not only does he possess a deep understanding of the rhythm of language, line length, and (often-unconventional) rhyme and their often-subtle relationship to perceived meaning, but he goes further to make his understanding accessible in a practical way to the student of the craft. The weeks spent attending his course and reading his books have done far more for my writing than every other book I've read on the subject over thirty years' time, combined.

I think the content of this book is great. Numerous exercises challenge the budding lyricist to stretch the imagination in innumerable ways. I bought it for my teenage son who sings and has written poetry, has some background in piano, but isn't sure how to get started writing songs. My comments, therefore, have entirely to do with how this book could be made more user-friendly. First, I'd pay a lot more for it if it was workbook-style. The print needs to be a lot bigger to make it easier on the eye, and having some space to do the exercises directly in the book would be a huge plus. Second, to accommodate the above ideas, it needs to be a LOT larger format, as well as spiral-bound so that it can lay flat. As it is, it's a small, thick book with very tiny typeface that doesn't want to stay open. All of those factors make it VERY hard to use in practical terms. You'd have to be really committed to be willing to struggle to see the print, hold open the book, and do the exercises on some other paper where they can't be kept with the section of the book you're working on. These simple changes, which wouldn't alter the content at all, would make this book many times more user-friendly.

Made a great gift

I am enjoying the writing exercises and even though I am not writing the prompt every day, I continue to write. I think it has been more about the timed writing which is helpful for now. Adding more descriptive parts is coming along. My friend with a master's in poetry told me that I am a lyricist. I thought I would give this a try and see if she could be right. So far it is debatable! The book is good regardless of what happens with me! I like to write. It doesn't have to be songs or poetry.

Didn’t know this book was exercise based. Great tool for beginning writers

This book was so helpful! Wrote three songs after the first chapter! LOVE IT! When I first bought the book I did so because my voice teacher recommended it for me and I wasn't sure how much I would like the book. Some of these songwriting books move very slowly and I lose drive to read them but with this book I instantly pulled in and already in the first chapter you start writing.

High value book for a low price

I bought this book in 2013. It's not a book to just read and learn the secret, it is a book that will guide your practice. I'm 33 years old. I've played guitar for 18 years at this point. I've learned to play and sing hundreds of songs. Please believe me when I tell you that I've tried since I was a teenager to write songs. It has never clicked. I've written a good handful of cringey verses with clichéd choruses. I even took a commercial songwriting course at on my pop music production Foundation Degree where I had to force out a bunch of lyrics at the last minute to meet a deadline. They're bad. Horrendous to my ears. I wanted to catch the bug but it just didn't take. I tried journalling - a super cathertic and highly rewarding process, but it didn't cause me to generate any songs. I tried brainstorming song titles. No joy. Try to cram in placeholder lyrics that don't mean anything but sit there until the real song happens. Nope. Sit with a guitar and a piece of paper and record myself mumbling - see if a topic comes. Result: horrible meandering non-songs with nothing of value coming out. I figured it was just a gene. Something that some people have and others don't. Or maybe I have to sit and write 100 bad songs, and stuggle through. I tried doing it sober. I tried doing it high. I tried doing it drunk. Nothing good was written. I tried Berklee's Coursera songwriting course. I still couldn't write a verse that I didn't hate. I bought this book. I was disappointed that this book was not giving me the "magic sentence" that I thought I needed to hear before I suddenly get the mysterious ability to write the musical social commentary of Alex Turner, or wrestle with the poetic imagery of Morrisey.. It was a book with exercises that I was supposed to do every day. I didn't have time for that, the book went on my shelf, where I'd occassionally look at it with regret, but tinted with a slight glow of potential. Like, there's SOMETHING in this book that I'm not seeing. Recently I decided to become an early morning writer. I dug out an old journal I hadn't filled and I started waking myself up at 6am to write for an hour and give myself space. I grabbed this book and decided, now I have time, that I'd actually make a serious attempt at developing a daily practice. Two weeks ago. Yesterday, I managed to FINALLY put melody and words, and a concept, to 2 song ideas I wrote in around 2013/14. These were guitar parts that I'd come up with and had always thought were just too good to waste on the kind of rubbish that I'd mumble along with them before I began to !!PRACTICE!! writing, using this book as a guide. Two weeks. I recorded the ideas and was actually excited to hear them back. Not cringing at the clichés and awkward stress on the wrong syllables. I rewrite, I play with imagery. This stuff just surfaces now, like it's a normal thing. Best of all, it sounds like the thoughts from MY head. I'm not just ripping off this or that lyricist, they're my song ideas. The way I see it is like riding a bike to train for a marathon. Will it make you run the marathon? No, you have to do that yourself, but it will improve your ability to do cope with the heavy training parts. The actual writing of the songs. It's so valuable to me. I'd love another edition of this book to come out with more exercises. Aside from that, my life is measurably better. The exercises provide a catharsis and the *CLICK* of all those cogs slotting into place has ended a life-long frustration. I will state, it is not the book itself that provides it. It's the daily practice of writing. I don't want to overstate the value of this book, but the development of the tools which are within you and accessible with this book as your guide is a priceless asset. I've re-bought this book as a gift for my sister and I hope she gains the same insight.

No sabía que era editorial Penguinrandomhouse, eso me da certeza del autor y del contenido del libro. El autor propone cuatro retos de 14 días, 16 minutos y medio de ejercicios (10', 5' y 90'') más la lectura de cada día. En total invertirás entre 30 a 40 minutos por día si sigues el orden. Contiene ejemplos. Considero que está bien estructurado. Y el plus, huele a libro nuevo.

Good one

Great in combination with "Writing Better Lyrics" by Pat Pattinson.