Unless you know how the music business works or how to play the game, it's a risky way to make a living. These books are good for anyone who wants to work in the music business.

But today, we're only going to talk about how to become an expert at one thing: songwriting.

It is very important to write songs because they are the foundation of the music business. Vinyl or digital files are used to store songs, then they are sold to people all over the world. The radio industry wants to play the best songs to the most people. People all over the world make money by singing good songs.

But how do you write a song that makes someone else fall in love, cry, or dance? Some of the best songwriters in the world have learned how to write great songs from these five books, which have also been read by Grammy winners.

The Must-Read Books

Writing Better Lyrics – Pat Pattison

On our last list of books to read, one book got the most attention from us. Pat Pattison's Writing Better Lyrics is one of the best books on this list because it's both practical and high-quality.

People who go to Berklee School of Music and learn songwriting from Pattison go on to win many Grammy Awards. Students: Gillian Welch and John Mayer wrote back to a chapter in Writing Better Lyrics about how to write better lyrics. No wonder this book has been a favorite of singers for twenty years.

Lyric writing is a skill. People who are more skilled with their hands will be able to show off their ideas better in a song. This doesn't mean you have to break down and crush the magic out of your songs. Instead, it's about making sure that when the magic comes, you aren't limited by your technical skills. You can write exactly what you want to say, and how you want to say it, on your paper.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression – Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

Most people find that the most difficult part of writing is conveying emotions. Music is an emotional experience, and people want to feel something when they hear a song. All successful songs are built on this. This isn't as easy as it sounds! One of the best tools you can use to help you do your job is called The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield

In order to become a writer, you need to learn some things that real writers don't tell you. One of these things is this: It is not the writing part that is hard. Sitting down to write is hard.

With the best talent, tools, and teachers in the world, you still won't be a good songwriter if you don't do the work and write the songs you want to. The biggest problem that most songwriters have isn't outside of them; it's inside of them. The War of Art is a short, practical book about how to be a good artist. It's a how-to guide for overcoming your own internal blocks and struggles and just doing the work you need to do to succeed.

If you look back at Steven Pressfield's first 17 years, you can see that he didn't do very well. Now, he is a best-selling author. Pressfield was unable to finish a novel and couldn't get a publisher to support his work, so he only earned his first paycheck as a writer after nearly 20 years in the business. When he was going through a creative slump, he realized that the biggest thing that was stopping him from being successful was just sitting down and doing the work. That information was put into a book called The War of Art, which was very small.

In this book, it's written from the point of view of a novelist, but his thoughts can be used by anyone who wants to write a new song or an entire album.

First, the book lists all the things you're likely to run into when you're trying to be creative. This includes "writer's block." Then, he comes up with a step-by-step plan to get over those blocks and become better at your art.

Anyone who wants to make art that people will enjoy should read this book, especially songwriters. You should read this book because it has had a bigger impact on your creative career than any other book has had on mine.

Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting – Jimmy Webb

Most of the time, the best artists have the best ideas.

"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is the third most played song in the last 50 years. Jimmy Webb is one of the best songwriters of all time. He has won multiple Grammys in three different categories, is in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is the third most played song of all time. This is why his book, Tunesmith, is so interesting. It gives a detailed look at how he came up with ideas from start to finish.

This book has two main themes: In The War of Art, Pressfield talks about overcoming blocks, moving past the struggle to make things, and just doing the work. The first part talks about doing the work, which is what Pressfield talks about.

The second theme is all about how to be creative and write a song that people will like. It's a long book, but that's because Webb goes into great detail about how he has written hit after hit song. He does not hold back when it comes to coming up with ideas, matching chord substitutions to his favorite rhyming books, or even promoting himself.

Songwriters On Songwriting: Revised And Expanded – Paul Zollo

Paul Zollo's book is a lot like Tunesmith in that it has a lot of different kinds of things. More than 70 of the best songwriters of all time told Zollo how they write their songs. During each interview, a single question is asked: how do the best songwriters in the world write timeless songs in a business that emphasizes new material above all else?

The book is full of advice from people who have written songs. There is no time wasted on the music business, self-promotion, or anything else that doesn't help you write a great song, like how to market yourself. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Madonna are some of the songwriters and artists who have been talked to.

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