Unlock Your Creative Potential with Pat Pattison's Writing Better Lyrics

Sabo: This was bought as a gift for my sister. She speaks very highly of the book and says it's helped her a great deal.

United States on Nov 03, 2023

John Mcphatter: Love it

United States on Jul 12, 2023

Andrew Jackson: Lyrics are tough, this book made the thought of writing song lyrics a little less tough. Great references and tips through out.

United Kingdom on Jun 26, 2023

dale hillyer: If you want to be a serious song writer, you must read this. It really gets you thinking about songs and how artist use tools to their advantage.

Australia on Feb 27, 2023

Michael Walter: I’m taking a songwriting class and this is the textbook. I read it the last two days on the beach and it was awesome. A thorough (maybe at times too thorough) look at writing lyrics.

I loved the philosophy of “know the rules so you can break the rules” and also Pattison’s advice to write everyday, no matter what and with no regard to quality. As he says so eloquently: “Don’t be afraid to write crap. Sometimes it’s the best fertilizer.”

Even if you don’t dream of writing a great song (like I do) if you love music, I’d recommend this book. Sometimes it’s good to learn how the sausage is made

United States on May 22, 2022

D'nelle Dowis: I’m only 3 chapters in and already feel that this is improving my poetry/song writing efforts. It’s potentially a little more “nerdy” or granular than some writers might enjoy but as someone who spent 4 years of college focusing on creative writing, it appeals to me on intellectual and nostalgic levels. It feels familiar in the way that reminds me of college writing workshops, but (unlike college classes) it has given me practical tools to improve my ability to generate really “tasty” words and vivid imagery in an easy and natural way. I’ve been doing the “object writing” exercises daily for 4 weeks now and can already see an improvement in my more formal/intentional writing efforts.

This is the closest thing to a “writer’s workout trainer” I’ve ever read. Somehow it improved upon the lessons of King’s ‘On Writing’ and Lamott’s ‘Bird By Bird’ and has “clicked” for me the way that college classes never did.

I’m looking forward to letting the rest of the book guide me through more useful exercises to build up my creative muscles so that I can find my flow more quickly and create even better pieces. Now… if only it could...

United States on Apr 20, 2021

AaronB: Pat Pattison teaches the tools of lyric writing as a springboard to get your ideas down and fleshed out into something emotionally impactful, these techniques can be transcended into the genre of music you're working in. You start out writing from your senses, utilising appropriate form, gramma, structure and rhythm suitable for your songs narrative, then stacking the emotional obstacles of your subject, down to the finishing touches of your lyrics. The emphasis is on practice within the 50 exercises - you learn the value of this through your efforts, not what you read :)

I would strongly recommend this book if you are struggling to write from your own experiences, fleshing out ideas (getting the story going) or even if you're like me an accomplished musician but ok/crappy lyricist. I used this book to assist with writing lyrics for other audiences - for personal subjects I am not familiar with. I found myself being able to flesh out multiple versions of scenes I was not there to witness personally but have the lyrics impact me emotionally when I read them back days later. I compared what I created from this book to what I wrote before, and the difference is night and day!...

United Kingdom on Mar 06, 2019

robert: This is an excellent book which not everyone will like.

If you want a book that you can skim through with lots of lists that you can quickly digest, put into use and immediately improve your songwriting, then buy something else like Robin Frederick's book "Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting: 126 Proven Techniques for Writing Songs That Sell", which is a great book in its own right:

(http://www.amazon.com/Shortcuts-Hit-Songwriting-Techniques-Writing/dp/0982004001 ) .

This book requires work, dedicated concentration and more than anything else, practice. You can easily live with this book for 6 months or more. Pattison's approach is very analytical and it deals only with lyrics and how to communicate them in a way that best transmits the emotional effect which the songwriter has in mind. The book goes far beyond Pattison's Coursera Songwriting course and his Youtube video lectures.

I have found that for me, his techniques work best in rewriting my songs. There is so much here, that it is difficult to implement it all in the real-time process of songwriting. But once I have written a song, I can go back and apply his techniques to improve my songs. Especially...

United States on Dec 29, 2015

From a Musician's Pen: I would definitely recommend this book to serious lyricists and songwriters who feel ready to tackle the challenge of revisiting their lyrics and rewriting them to be of a more professional quality. I'm grateful that the book was honestly titled "Writing Better Lyrics" and not "Writing Better Songs", as the sole focus here is on lyrics. Not all songwriting books admit this and I myself have bought a few such books only to be very disappointed. With this book, you know what to expect.

The author is an instructor at the Berklee College of Music. You can tell by the way the book reads and how it's laid out that the author is an instructor. Each chapter is like a lesson being presented by the teacher. In that sense, this analytical approach can be very dry and would most likely be more engaging in a live presentation than it is when reading it.

The chapters are concise and well thought out and gives me a LOT to think about, but I find the writing itself tires me out. It's hard to explain what I mean by this - the book is not overly wordy, the words are not too "big/scholarly", and the author does not talk down to the reader. However, I've read through only a third of...

Canada on Aug 06, 2014

s_lyhne: I have read and reread this book numerous times. In fact I feel that Pattisons way of teaching is so interesting that also tracked down more or less everything else that he has released on the internet, namely videos.

I would like to give this five stars, because it deserves it in many ways. It is very well written and I admire how Pattison communicates some rather difficult concepts in a pedagogical and efficient manner. Because Pattison really goes deeper than most songwriting books; sure, he covers a lot of the conventional wisdom of song forms, show-don't-tell etc., but he also brings a lot of new things to the table.

His take on rhyming and song structure for instance - a very interesting approach indeed, especially the way in which he incooperates these things in a general framework of STABILITY and INSTABILITY. These two terms are subjective/phenomenological emotions that we experience in response to certain stimuli, and, bluntly put, Pattison's approach is about creating a appropriate relationship between the feelings of stability and instability that is created in various elements of form and content.

When I watch Pattisons videos it seems to me, that...

United Kingdom on Mar 27, 2013