Writing Better Lyrics

In a lighthearted, engaging way, Pat Pattison shows how a detailed songwriting process can become second nature, until every lyric you write is powerful and professional and has audiences clinging to your every word.
You'll examine 17 extraordinary songs to discover what makes them so effective. You'll work through more than 30 exercises to learn to use language masterfully. You'll also learn how to: do a warm-up writing exercise for just ten minutes a day that will revolutionize your songwriting imagery; use a rhyming dictionary to unlock an abundance of fresh, unexpected rhymes; use a thesaurus to generate ideas and find evocative ways to express them; avoid cliches and create imaginative, meaningful metaphors and similes; use conventional "rules" - and break them - to your advantage in developing verses; and experiment with point of view in every lyric you write to make every song sizzle.

Pat Pattison is a professor of music and songwriting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.