Song Maps: A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics

Essential Reading for Songwriters

Whether you're just starting out as a songwriter, you're an experienced songwriter or just looking for a new perspective on the beautiful craft of songwriting, Song Maps – A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics offers fresh insights to help you write your very best lyrics.

Does any of the following sound familiar?

• You worry that the lyrics you write just don't deliver their full potential but can't figure out why, even though technically they tick all the right boxes.
• You have great ideas but your finished lyrics somehow fall short of the emotional impact you wanted and, as a result, your songs get passed over.
• You have a busy schedule with limited time to write and have wasted too many hours chasing un-writable lyric ideas.
• You wonder how some professional songwriters always seem to get a particular dynamic in their lyrics, consistently writing songs better than 90% of what you hear on the radio.
• You are perhaps nervous about going into a pro co-writing session because you fear your ideas aren't worth bringing into the writing room.
• You know you have so many great titles waiting to be written but haven't found a way of systematically developing them into well-crafted lyrics.
• After writing an amazing hooky Chorus and a great supporting first Verse, you hit the dreaded wall that is “second verse curse”.

In Song Maps – A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics, I deliver simple, logical, well-defined solutions to these issues and more: I give you seven well-developed professional templates for you to bring your lyrics to life. I also provide you with a tried and tested process for writing lyrics using Song Maps. And I'll reveal the songwriter’s secret weapon. Much of this book contains new material. This is because, while I enjoyed building a firm foundation of knowledge about the craft from the songwriting programs at Berklee Music School and other sources, I discovered Song Maps afterwards, from my experience as a professional songwriter, writing either on my own or in the writing rooms of Nashville. Having been signed as a staff songwriter at Universal Music Publishing in Nashville, being nominated and winning awards for my songs including Grammys, Doves and hymn-writing awards, and after spending many years studying thousands of techniques and developing them in my own songwriting and in the writing room, I've had the privilege of teaching the material in this book to hundreds of songwriters and seeing a step change in their writing.

I have been blessed to watch them find their authentic voice in writing ideas to their full potential, helping them achieve their dream of moving from writing flat 2D lyrics to fabulous high-definition full-color 3D lyrics. As you assimilate Song Maps into your writing workflow, your songwriting will shift away from tentative, self-conscious, inhibited writing to strong, bold, intentional and vulnerable writing that does full justice to your original ideas, ultimately allowing you to make the impact you deserve as a songwriter.

If you implement the simple, easy-to-understand concepts in this book, I promise you your songs will be better crafted than 90% of the songs you hear on the radio. It will also transform your effectiveness as a co-writer. Importantly, no matter where your songs end up, you will be confident you have written a brilliant lyric and you have served your co-writers well. Let this book help you transform your lyric writing by using Song Maps in your songwriting workflow and take your song ideas to their ultimate potential by writing your best, truly golden, spectacular songs.

Simon Hawkins is an award-winning songwriter/producer and Amazon Best Selling author, based on the south coast of England. Andrea Stolpe, instructor at Berklee Music School, multi-platinum recorded songwriter, artist and author commented on Simon's book Song Maps: "Simon offers songwriters creative parameters where so many claim no parameters can be set. With such tangible tools, songwriters can experience great freedom and expect consistent results." Sue C Smith, five-time Dove-award winning songwriter, staff writer with Capitol CMG and founder of the Write About Jesus seminar for Christian songwriters, says: "Simon Hawkins is a gifted problem-solver, and so much of songwriting calls for just that. In Song Maps - A New System To Write Your Best Lyrics, Simon has shared the methods he has developed to catapult his own songwriting career and offered them to songwriters everywhere. It's going to revolutionize and illuminate the process for so many. What a wonderful, generous gift to the songwriting community!" Simon's passion for music goes back to when he started playing the organ at his church at the age of 12. For many years, he combined writing with an international career in oil and gas and investment banking, which took him and his family around the world. In 2004, Simon became a full-time songwriter and was quickly signed by Universal Music Publishing in Nashville (Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing/Universal CMG), where he has some 200 songs in his catalog. In 2010, he founded his publishing company, Great British Music, which now represents his work and helps others in the UK looking to access opportunities in the US. Simon's songs have been recorded by Vince Gill and Sheri Easter ("Livin' in the Rain"), American Idol finalist Mandisa ("Truth About Me"), Abandon ("Known"), Avalon ("Destined"), Gold City ("Never Too Broken") and many others in a range of genres. "Livin' in the Rain" reached #2 on the SoGo charts and was long-listed for a Grammy. In 2012, Mandisa's album "What If We Were Real," which included "Truth About Me," was nominated for a Grammy. "Never Too Broken" reached #1 on the SoGo charts in autumn 2014. Simon also received a Dove nomination for the musical LifeSong: The Musical, written with Sue C Smith. In 2015, Simon's modern hymn "He Is God" won the Integrity Music "Search for a Hymn 2015" competition, which he recorded with Integrity/Thankyou Music.