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    Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing
    Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing
    Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing

    By Marty Dodson and Bill O'hanlon

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever been frustrated when people don't get what you're trying to say in your song?
    Are you tired of waiting on inspiration to complete your songs?
    Are you not getting the response you hoped for from your songs?
    Is the songwriting process painful at times?

    Song Building, written by multiple hit Nashville songwriter Marty Dodson and aspiring songwriter and best selling author of 30+ books, Bill O'Hanlon, will help you:
    • Write songs faster
    • Avoid getting stuck on second verses
    • Generate song ideas and lyrics without waiting for inspiration to strike
    • Make your co-writing sessions go faster and easier
    • Upgrade your song lyrics to make them communicate better to your listener
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJul 15, 2019
    ISBN9781543977912
    Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing

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      Book preview

      Song Building - Marty Dodson

      Song Building: Mastering Lyric Writing

      Copyright © 2019 by Marty Dodson and Bill O’Hanlon

      All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      ISBN: 978-1-54397-790-5 (print)

      ISBN: 978-1-54397-791-2 (ebook)

      Dedication

      Marty: To my mother, Melba, who believed I could do anything.To my wife and best friend Candy, who is the love of my life.

      To my children, Matthew, Abby, Emily, Harrison, and Chris for whom I try to make the world a better place.

      To my grandson Elliott, who is the cutest kid ever.

      To Kim Williams, who taught me everything about being a songwriter.

      Bill: To my life partner Helen, who is a keeper.

      To all my songwriting heroes and mentors, including Rick Chudacoff, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Gary Burr, Georgia Middleman, Marty Dodson and Clay Mills.

      And to my parents, Bob and Janet, for filling our house with music and songs while I was growing up.

      Contents

      Introduction To This Book and To Song Building

      Song Structure and Blueprinting

      Ideas and Hooks

      Song Framing: Finding Unique Angles On Your Ideas/Hooks

      Song Furniture: Elevating Your Song Lyrics with Details, Texture and Spice

      Digging Deeper Into Song Blueprinting Methods

      Writing To The Title

      Finishing Touches: Lyric Editing

      Using Song Blueprinting in Co-Writing Sessions

      The Foundation: Your Best Songs Start In Your Heart

      Introduction To This Book and To Song Building

      Welcome to Song Building

      I’m Marty Dodson, a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve written thousands of songs before and since becoming a professional songwriter and earning my living from songwriting.

      I have written six #1 songs and have had more than 125 songs recorded by other artists, including Joe Cocker, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, The Plain White T’s, Don Williams, Johnny Reid, Billy Ray Cyrus, Diamond Rio, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, John Michael Montgomery, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricochet, Craig Morgan, Tracy Lawrence, Saving Jane, Big and Rich, Steep Canyon Rangers, Songs From The Road Band, and most recently, Blake Shelton.

      I have written songs for several musical genres including Pop, Rock, Country and Bluegrass. And I just finished writing songs for two musical theater projects, a first for me.

      Because I live and write mostly country songs in Nashville (and in English), it may be hard to believe that I even co-wrote the K-Pop song Bounce that knocked Psy out of #1 in South Korea and won Song Of The Year honors for South Korea and all of Asia.

      I also co-founded SongTown USA, an online community of aspiring songwriters I teach and mentor. Some of these songwriters have gone on to have their songs recorded and some have gotten music publishing deals.

      Although I am proud of these accomplishments, I mention all of this not to brag, but to tell you why you might want to listen to me and read this book. I am a successful, full-time professional songwriter.

      Inspiration is Rarely Enough

      Most amateur songwriters wait for inspiration. Songs come to them. Often they don’t like to change a thing because that’s how it came to me.

      In Nashville, songwriting involves much more than waiting for inspiration to strike. It is a profession. Professional songwriters treat songwriting like a job.

      Most pro songwriters schedule writing appointments daily, sometimes two or even three sessions a day. We show up with ideas, chords, lyrics and melodies, sit down with another writer we may or may not know, and get to work.

      It doesn’t matter if we are tired that day or don’t feel inspired. We show up and write songs.

      We don’t wait to feel inspired. Rather, we build songs. The inspiration muse shows up while we are hard at work applying elbow grease building and reworking the song until it is the best we can make it.

      Song Building

      It was in this context that I developed a method that helps me and others write our best songs quickly.

      I call that method Song Building. It consists of a number of elements, including Structures, Blueprinting, Framing, Furniture and Finishing Touches.

      In this book, I’ll teach you about Song Building: deliberately creating a song when you decide to sit down and write one. I will teach you how to apply my Song Building method to the songs you want to write, or to songs you have already written, increasing the likelihood they will strike a chord (see what I did there!) with listeners and get recorded.

      About My Co-Author

      Because most of my songs are co-written, I was delighted when one of the songwriters I have mentored, Bill O’Hanlon, became so excited about the Song Building idea that he offered to co-write this book with me.

      Bill has written or co-written 38 books (one of which, Do One Thing Different, resulted in him being featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show). Having Bill on board helped make the writing go more smoothly and much more quickly.

      This book, despite being written with Bill, is solely in my voice. This allows us to keep the pronouns clear and simple.

      Chapter 1

      Song Structure and Blueprinting

      Okay, let’s jump right in.

      Song Blueprinting is at the heart of Song Building.

      My co-author Bill took three torturous years to write his first book. He told me he left blood on the keyboards.

      In comparison, he wrote his last book in several months, writing only part time, and he told me, It was a breeze.

      What made the difference between writing his first and last books? Bill had learned through experience to blueprint his books before starting to write them.

      By blueprinting, I mean he takes time to pre-think what he is going to include and he decides what will go into each section of the book before he writes a single word.

      That has made writing his books faster and easier, but also more joyful.

      Similarly, the first and most crucial step in my Song Building method is to make sure you have a clear blueprint for your song before you start writing it.

      If you were to start building a house with only a vague idea of having several bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, you might discover in the middle of construction that you have left out something crucial, such as a garage or a laundry room. Because you didn’t think and plan ahead, you might find out too late that there isn’t actually enough room for the pantry door to open fully.

      In essence, a Song Blueprint is a clear outline or map of your future song.

      And in making that outline, you will boil each section of the song down to ONE simple idea.

      Song Blueprinting can even

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