Originally Posted by scottandrew
If I want to be a baseball player, I wouldn't time studying soccer players, even though some are very successful athletes.


I know what you mean but even if you wanted to be a 2nd baseman, would you read a bio by a first baseman or a catcher?

I don't know if you want to write country or rock (pop) but would you rather read a book by Jimmy Webb, Tom T. Hall, Jason Blume, or Kelly Lovelace?

Me, I'd read Tom T. Hall (and I have) because he is from my era but if I wanted to know more about current success I'd read either Blume or Lovelace.

I know who Webb is and I was around when most of his songs became hits, which was primarily 40 years ago and almost everything since then has been primarily based on what he did 40 years ago. I read Webb's book and didn't finish. It isn't necessarily the fault of the book--I hardly ever read hard copies of anything anymore. But Webb's book had a lot of music theory type stuff that I really can't relate to because I'm not now nor will I ever be a musician. I can pluck a guitar, I can poke a piano key, I can honk a harmonica but I am not a musician by a long shot. So his book wasn't that helpful to me. And he wrote one of the most important songs in my life.

As for Lovelace or Blume, Lovelace has the benefit of studying music at Belmont where he met Paisley which is a big "in" for him.

Blume probably has the most in common with me--we are about the same age, he can write a melody but is more naturally drawn to lyrics, he went to LA not knowing anyone, and it took him a long time to have a deal.

I own a few and have read or at least scanned several books on songwriting. The one that helped me the most was one guy a guy named Michael Kosser and that was back in the 70s.

Last edited by eb; 03/25/08 02:20 AM.