Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting

I have about ten books on the subject, and no other book I've read comes close in terms of actual, practical skills necessary to develop songs. Other books go into sources of inspiration, interview famous songwriters and their perspectives, and different processes, but this is the only one that consistently gives detailed information about many facets of the song development process.For example, a lot of songwriters, especially those who aren't formally trained (which is most of them in the popular genres), come up with melody and lyrics first. How do you develop that into a complete song? Most other books simply mention that it can be done, but he actually goes into what first choices you have for accompanying chords, and policies about passing tones, and the strategy of either changing chords or notes in the melody to dress a song up. If you read only one book about songwriting and song development, I think this is the best choice.

Warning: People who want to learn basic songwriting should go elsewhere. ****************************************************************From 1965 to 1970 or so Jimmy Webb was inescapable. You watched the Carole Burnett show, and there were the 5th Dimension singing "Up, Up and Away." Turn on the radio, and Richard Harris' cake melted in the rain. Glen Campbell rode the Witchia line, drove through Phoenix, and ruminated about Galveston. Those incandescent melodies entered my childhood and have stayed with me. Hard rock drove this more upbeat music from the airwaves, but Jimmy Webb's legacy remains in the catalog of fine songs he wrote at a precocious age. Now his book gives us some insight into the mind who might arguably be called the last great songwriter of the 20th century. Many people coming to this book will eagerly open it, hoping to extract the secret than made Jimmy Webb into a wealthy man, and they will come away dissappointed and frustrated. This is not a book about how to write a song, so much as it is a repository of the mind of Jimmy Webb. True, Jimmy writes about how he composes a lyric, and how he creates a chord progression. His discussion of prosody is excellent, too. But there is more here that simple technical discussion of song writing. This book a cultural history of the American song up to the end of the 1960's. Jimmy Webb gives us stories, his own history, his background, and discussions of songs from the beginning of the modern era to the present. For some like me, who has a deep interest in American Cultural history, this book is a gem. Musican theoriticans might have a fit when Jimmy Webb starts giving his version of Secondary Dominants and other chord substutions, but again, when they've written "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" I'll listen to them. Other reviewers say that it would be better to have some knowledge of music theory before you read this book, and I agree with that. When Jimmy starts on about 7th chords No 3 with a minor 2nd in the bass, you might start stratching your head if you don't know what he's talking about. Have a keyboard around so you can play the examples. This book is like taking a master class from a professional, not a seminar by a music teacher who never's sold one song, let alone had hit after hit, gold records, Grammies. Jimmy Webb is an authentic American genius - he and Brian Wilson on the west coast - Dylan on the East - who blew the roof off of the stilted 32 bar song and the 12 bar blues. Tunesmith is about songwriting, not about how to write a song. If you have to ask the difference, you'll never know.

I'm not a fan of Jimmy Webb and came to know him through Paul Zollo's book Songwriters on Songwriting. As a beginning songwriter (but longtime musician) I found a lot of great things in this book. This means I have no reverence for Jimmy Webb & am reading this as a simple student of songwriting. I'm about halfway through with it right now.Jimmy Webb's dedication to his craft is obvious, and it comes through the pages. The increadible amounts of work that go into writing a song are tracked momenty by moment in this book. Just about every step to songwriting, all of the options are in these pages. From various "tricks" of chord substitution to which rhyming dictionaries he likes and why - it's all here. His approach to songwriting is that of a master craftsman, and he doesn't hold back in his lessons.One odd thing. As a musician I was able to follow through as he introduced different elements - inverted chords, 7th chords, etc. The novice, however might have difficulty. He introduces each piece individually, but then makes logical leaps that I still don't quite get. Specific examples escape me, but he'll take great pains to describe something simple and a paragraph later give you an example that incorporates something he hasn't yet introduced to you. He'll go on about how to construct a triad, and then jump PAST 7th chords. I was able to follow it, but I've been playing music for 10 years.I also disagree (but this is personal preference) with his chord substitution ideas: just find any chord with one note in common. Maybe he brings it all together in a later chapter, but he should let the reader know that he's wandered into the land of Chordal Compositions (compositions with no particular key) and away from the diataonic world that dominates Western music. Then again, maybe I'm just an old stick in the mud who Likes Diatonic composition. :)These two points aside, this book still rates 5 stars. I've learned SO much from this book that it's earned a permenant spot on my bookshelf. I thank Jimmy Web for giving this gift to the world.Somewhat more pedestrian, but also reccomended is "Writing Music for Hit Songs." It may pay to go through that book before getting into this book. It may help fill in some of the gaps I mention above. It's a straightforward good book.Write me at [email protected] with comments or questions. I'm ALWAYS interested in talking music with anyone - experts, beginners... anyone.

For those currently seeking to expand their knowledge of the skill of songwriting I couldn't go past recommending "Tunesmith - Inside the Art of Songwriting" by Jimmy Webb of Macarthur Park, Galveston, The Highwayman etc fame.Published in 1998 it's both comprehensive, and contemporary yet written in a warm, friendly style. It's comprehensive in it's explanation of . inspiration and how to cultivate it . the process of writing a song . the structure of songs in their many conventional forms (and some not) . the vexing topic of rhyme (To rhyme and how to rhyme, that is the question as even non-rhyme can be considered a deliberate rhyming act.) . the development of melody and musical literacy (This section is great for those at all levels of musical experience as it starts from the basics but goes way beyond for those who need/want it.) . the business of music (how to promote and market your songs, how to win friends and influence influential people in the music business in the age of computers and the internet) . the commercial realities for a songwriter . keeping the faith in yourself It's contemporary nature is particularly important in a dynamic and diversified industry. You feel real empathy here and a sense of being treated as an equal. Jimmy makes no bones about the fact that it's a precarious and at times disheartening business. Any illusions you may have about quick and sustained success through songwriting before reading this, are dispelled. You realise that even someone of Jimmy Webb's skill and stature has had a hard go of it - with a golden period, a long drought, a brief encore and a smattering of hits and misses since, but he admits he wouldn't change it for anything. And couldn't help it anyway. So it's a hard reality, but I believe that accepting it can help sustain you for the long haul.If you don't have commercial aspirations then treat it as a terrific book about making your songwriting more informed, flexible and, believe it or not, spontaneous.What got me the most though was Jimmy's passion for the art. You feel it on every page. He evokes the feeling I occasionally get, sharing my songs with other writers, that we're part of a unique brotherhood/sisterhood that tries to give voice to the human spirit - in a fairly succinct and melodious fashion.

It's an event when Jimmy Webb, the songwriter who epitomized both the romance and the innovation that characterized the songcrafting of the sixties and seventies ("By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "MacArthur Park," "Up, Up, and Away," etc.) turns his attention to writing a book about the songmaking process. Not only a great songwriter, Webb in his heyday was also admired as the possessor of a bright youthful intellect and a zany, happy sense of humor. The bulk of his hit-laden song catalog was completed by age twenty-five or so, at which time Webb mostly disappeared. For those insiders and fans who have been paying close attention, Webb has added to that catalog in more recent years, contributing such underpublicized gems as "If These Walls Could Speak" (Amy Grant, et al, early eighties) and "California Coast" (Linda Ronstadt, about 1990), a song that also helped celebrate the comeback of Brian Wilson, who created delicious and plaintive Beach-Boys-style background vocals for the cut. In TUNESMITH, we're allowed to be there as Jimmy Webb explains which writers and which songs he has admired, and we watch in fascination as Webb dissects a few of these personal favorites to lay bare the structure and the art within. Jimmy Webb is said to have spent four full years creating TUNESMITH, and his love for the craft is obvious as you turn the pages and absorb the insights being shared. A tip for researchers: Paul Zollo did an excellent retrospective interview with Webb after the songwriter had been silent for at least a decade. The original interview can be found in the annals of SongTalk, the journal of the National Academy of Songwriters, or much more easily in Zollo's excellent book of reprints, SONG- WRITERS ON SONGWRITING. And finally, a trivia question for Webb fans: on which pop album can a version of Jimmy Webb's very first song, "There's Someone Else," written as a teenager in Oklahoma, be found? Answer: Art Garfunkel's "Watermark."