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| Foreword | |
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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| So You Want to Write a Song | |
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| Everything You Need to Write a Song | |
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| Understanding Why People Write Songs | |
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| Finding the Songwriter in You | |
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| Being aware of your personal connection to songs | |
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| Taking a look at your instincts | |
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| Starting at the Beginning--Before You Write a Song | |
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| Is formal music training a must? | |
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| Being prepared when inspiration strikes | |
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| Finding inspiration within yourself | |
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| Creating the mood | |
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| Ready, Set--Begin | |
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| Coming Up with That Solid-Gold Idea | |
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| Paying Attention: Stop, Look, and Listen | |
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| Coming up with concepts for songs | |
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| Listening for lyrics | |
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| Making up music | |
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| Recording and Organizing Your Ideas | |
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| Using a cassette recorder | |
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| Jotting down ideas in a notebook | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Getting Your Song Into Shape: Song Forms | |
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| Talking the Talk | |
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| Dealing with Verses | |
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| The AAA or the verse form | |
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| The two-verse form or AA form | |
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| The AABA Form | |
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| Learning about the AABA form | |
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| The extended AABA form | |
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| The Verse-Chorus Form or ABAB Form | |
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| The verse-chorus form using a pre-chorus or the ABC form | |
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| The verse-chorus form using a bridge or ABABC form | |
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| The verse-chorus form using both a pre-chorus and a bridge or ABCABCD form | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Unleashing the Lyricist in You | |
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| Snagging Your Listeners with a Hook | |
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| Stocking Your Tackle Box with Hooks | |
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| The melodic hook | |
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| The lyrical hook | |
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| The musical hook | |
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| The rhythmic hook | |
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| The sound-effect hook | |
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| The use of different types of hooks in one song | |
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| Having the Right Mindset When Working with Hooks | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Getting Acquainted with the Different Kinds of Lyrics | |
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| Looking at Lyric Types | |
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| Concept-driven lyrics | |
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| Lyrics that tell a story | |
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| Love lyrics | |
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| Lyrics that draw on current events and social protest | |
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| Novelty and humorous lyrics | |
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| Parody lyrics | |
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| Inspirational lyrics | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Creating Lyrics | |
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| Creating a Lyric | |
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| Starting with a title | |
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| Starting with an idea or concept | |
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| Telling a story | |
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| Using a melody that suggests a lyric | |
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| Finding the Format for Your Lyrics | |
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| Verse lyrics | |
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| Pre-chorus lyrics | |
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| Chorus lyrics | |
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| Bridge lyrics | |
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| Moving Beyond Format to Sound | |
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| Paying attention to the rhythm of the words | |
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| Paying attention to the sounds of words within a lyric | |
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| Noticing a lyric's point of view | |
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| Getting some perspective | |
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| Tuning in to the lyric's tone and style | |
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| Using Poetic Devices in Lyrics | |
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| Using repetition | |
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| Examining poetic devices | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Using Rhymes in Your Songs | |
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| Identifying the Types of Rhymes | |
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| Looking at Rhyming Patterns | |
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| Understanding external rhymes | |
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| Using internal rhyme | |
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| Using Other Rhyming Techniques in Your Song | |
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| Using perfect rhymes | |
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| Using near rhymes | |
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| Working backwards with rhyme | |
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| Changing pronunciations to help rhyme | |
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| Rhyming across verses | |
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| To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme? | |
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| Looking at songs with little rhyme | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Creating the Music | |
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| Using Rhythm in Songwriting | |
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| Looking at the Rhythm of Words | |
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| Accented and unaccented syllables | |
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| Syllable length | |
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| Looking at the Meter of Music | |
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| Placing beats in a bar | |
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| Applying notes to common time | |
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| Putting Rhythm and Meter to Use in Your Songs | |
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| Songwriting with Syncopation | |
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| Getting Your Groove On | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Making Use of Melody in Songwriting | |
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| Exploring the Basics of Melodies in Music | |
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| Knowing the power and emotion of a melody | |
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| Understanding the basics of a melody | |
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| Finding your melody | |
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| Making a Song More Memorable | |
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| Finding a melody that fits the mood | |
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| Finding a melody to fit the genre | |
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| Finding the right melody for each section of the song | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Using Chords in Songwriting | |
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| Using Chords to Write Songs | |
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| Getting started with chords | |
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| Moving forward with chords | |
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| Choosing Your Style of Chordal Instruments | |
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| Picking at the guitar | |
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| Pecking at the keyboard | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Writing Songs in Different Styles | |
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| From Country to Rock and Everything in Between: The Genres | |
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| Creating Your Own Style: Singer/Songwriter | |
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| Playing It Cool: Rock 'n' roll | |
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| Old-fashioned rock 'n' roll | |
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| Adult Contemporary | |
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| Hard rock | |
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| Checking into the Limelight: Pop | |
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| Contemporary pop | |
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| Dance pop | |
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| Singing It Plain and Simple: Country | |
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| Traditional country | |
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| Pop country or new country | |
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| Getting Your Groove On: R&B, Urban, Hip-Hop, and Rap | |
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| Rhythm and blues--R&B | |
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| Urban | |
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| Hip-Hop and rap | |
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| Going to a Higher Level: Christian | |
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| Getting Spiritual: Gospel | |
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| Songwriting for the Soul: Blues and Folk | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Writing for Stage, Screen, and Television | |
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| Songwriting for Film | |
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| Understanding the role of the music supervisor | |
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| Getting to the music supervisors | |
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| Understanding the creative side of songwriting for films | |
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| Songwriting for Television | |
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| Knowing the kinds of songs used for television | |
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| Recognizing the exposure value of television | |
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| Getting to television music supervisors | |
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| Songwriting for Commercials | |
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| Writing jingles from scratch | |
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| Getting your songs in commercials | |
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| Songwriting for Musicals | |
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| Submitting your songs for musicals | |
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| Understanding the creative side of songwriting for musicals | |
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| Practice Makes Perfect | |
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| Getting Down to Business | |
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| Introducing the Business Players | |
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| Putting Together Your Business Team | |
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| First Things First: Getting an Attorney on Your Side | |
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| Discovering what a good music attorney can do for you | |
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| Hiring a music attorney | |
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| Looking at Your Publishing Options | |
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| Co-publishing deals | |
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| Being your own publisher | |
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| Working with administration deals | |
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| Dealing with foreign sub-publishing | |
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| Using an Independent Song Plugger | |
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| Putting a song plugger to work | |
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| Deciding on using a song plugger | |
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| Using a Manager or an Agent | |
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| Do I need a manager? | |
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| Do I need an agent? | |
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| You're in the Money: Hiring an Accountant or a Business Manager | |
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| Knowing what a good music accountant or business manager can do for you | |
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| Employing a music accountant or business manager | |
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| Looking at the Legal End: Dealing with Paper Work | |
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| Legal Deals: Creating Win-Win Contracts | |
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| Understanding different kinds of contracts | |
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| Knowing when to put the pen to the paper | |
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| Protecting Your Songs with Copyrights | |
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| Rounding up the right forms | |
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| Filling out Application Form PA | |
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| Using the copyright notice | |
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| Filling in the Blanks and Being Organized | |
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| Using a prospects-and-contacts form | |
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| Creating a song-history tracking sheet | |
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| Keeping track of your copyright registrations | |
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| Bringing Talent Together: Songwriting Collaboration | |
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| Finding Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
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| Seeking the Chemistry of Collaborative Songwriting | |
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| Finding strength in numbers: How many geniuses does it take to write a hit? | |
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| Collaborating with a band or an artist | |
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| Collaborating with a script | |
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| Collaborating with yourself | |
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| Dividing Up the Credits | |
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| The Nashville method | |
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| The honor system | |
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| The Spinal Tap system | |
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| Looking at Famous Collaborations | |
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| John Lennon and Paul McCartney | |
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| Burt Bacharach and Hal David | |
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| Bernie Taupin and Elton John | |
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| Creating Goals and Meeting Deadlines | |
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| Creating Goals | |
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| Getting set to write for the first time | |
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| Venturing out with your songs | |
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| Setting goals as a pro | |
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| Meeting Deadlines | |
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| Getting Your Songs Heard: Making the Demo | |
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| Paying Attention to Details | |
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| Picking your format | |
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| Choosing the number and length of songs | |
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| Keeping it simple | |
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| Picking the Players | |
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| Deciding whether to use musicians or machines | |
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| Deciding who is going to sing | |
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| Making an Arrangement | |
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| Creating a chart | |
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| Using an arranger | |
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| Recording the Demo | |
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| Deciding where to record | |
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| Paying for the demo | |
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| Packaging the Demo | |
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| Including contact information | |
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| Requesting permission to send a demo | |
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| Making a lyric sheet | |
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| Putting the Demo in the Mail | |
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| Getting your demo to the right people | |
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| Following up | |
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| Pennies from Heaven: How Your Song Makes Money | |
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| Forecasting Financials | |
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| Sources of income | |
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| Splittin' up the pie | |
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| Joining a Performing Rights Organization | |
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| ASCAP | |
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| BMI | |
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| SESAC | |
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| Knowing What Happens When Your Songs Hit the Shelves | |
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| Using Your Songs to Sell Products | |
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| Making Money in the Movies | |
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| Figuring out how much money to expect | |
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| Networking for Songwriters | |
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| Hanging Out at Writers' Nights | |
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| Joining Songwriting Organizations | |
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| National Songwriters Association International | |
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| Songwriters Guild of America | |
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| Songwriters Guild Foundation | |
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| Playing Internet Roulette | |
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| Creating your own Web site | |
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| Taking advantage of other people's sites | |
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| Locating resource, advice, and information sites | |
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| Attending Seminars, Workshops, Conferences, and Symposiums | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Songwriters You Should Know | |
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| Irving Berlin (1888-1989) | |
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| Cole Porter (1891-1964) | |
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| Bob Dylan (1941-) | |
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| Paul Simon (1941-) | |
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| Brian Wilson (1942-) | |
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| Joni Mitchell (1943-) | |
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| Jimmy Webb (1946-) | |
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| Billy Joel (1949-) | |
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| Sting (1951-) | |
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| Diane Warren (1956-) | |
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| Ten Songwriting Teams You Should Know | |
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| George and Ira Gershwin | |
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| Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II | |
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| Burt Bacharach and Hal David | |
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| John Lennon and Paul McCartney | |
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| Elton John and Bernie Taupin | |
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| Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |
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| Gerry Goffin and Carole King | |
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| Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland | |
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| Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice | |
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| Mick Jagger and Keith Richards | |
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| Ten Songs You Should Know | |
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| "Amazing Grace" | |
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| "Over the Rainbow" | |
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| "White Christmas" | |
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| "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" | |
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| "Yesterday" | |
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| "God Only Knows" | |
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| "Imagine" | |
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| "The Wind Beneath My Wings" | |
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| "This Is It" | |
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| "Heart of the Matter" | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Contracts: Where to Find Them and What to Look For | |
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| Online Resources | |
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| Books | |
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| Eleven Common Song-related Contracts | |
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| Resources and Contacts | |
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| Organizations | |
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| Songwriting Resources and Internet Links | |
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| Songwriting Magazines | |
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| Books Used As Songwriting Tools | |
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| Reference Resources for the Business and Craft of Songwriting | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |