88 Songwriting Wrongs and How to Right Them: Concrete Ways to Improve Your Songwriting and Make Your Songs More Marketable

I met Pete and Pat Luboff at the Taxi Road Rally in November 2006. I was so impressed with their depth of knowledge of the music business that I bought this book. Glad I did. This book is perfect for a new songwriter like myself. Each chapter represents one of the 88 things. Each chapter is short, very informational, and encouraging. It is an easy read and fun too. Pete and Pat have been in this business a long time and this book is full of experiences they have learned the hard way. Now they are sharing them with the world.

First off the style in which it was written is really cute. It was lighthearted and extremely fun to read. My favorite thing about it was the little stories it had. Things I never knew, that really inspired me. I liked reading about how famous songs were rejected over and over before getting signed and recorded. If you're feeling rejection or dispair, this book will definitely pick you up. It contains great information on writing lyrics. If only it had some more info on the music part of songwriting. The stories are funny and entertaining and the information is really good. I think this book is absolutely mandatory for any songwriter! I don't give many 5 stars but this book gets 5 easily!

There is a saying, the obvious is only obvious once it becomes known. This is the case here. While reading the book I said to myself this is so obvious mistakes that one often make - however it was not so obvious until I saw the common wrongs and how to right them. It is very practical and to the point, yet it helps tremendously. This is the kind of book one has to read thoroughly the first time around, and then scan through every so often just to refresh the memory. It can serve as a "checklist" from time to time to make sure you are on the right track with a song. I enjoyed the book and think it makes a contribution to songwriting skills.

This is an amazing book as far as teaching you one of the fundamental aspects of song writing goes, which is giving the song proper STRUCTURE. It teaches song structure from strictly a lyricist's point of view however, such as verse/chorus structures or verse/bridge etc. The book is worth its weight in gold for this info alone. But it lacks ANY information on how to write the music for the song. But nevertheless, it has some greeaattt ideas. Buy it for its really cool ideas on how to write song lyrics (but don't look for music composition in it.) One of the great ideas it has, though, is to write lyrics while listening to one of your favorite song's music. Conversely, you could write the music for your song's lyrics, by arranging your music to one of your favorite song's lyrics. Do you see what I'm saying. This really really works to give you an awesome song structure!

As a professional songwriter, I struggled for years as a victim of my muse, and uncreativity. The suggestions in this book unlocked my potential as a writer. I recommend it, and have added it's precepts to my own publications and workshops. It contains detailed information on the entire process from inspiration to puiblication.