The Songwriter’s Workshop
The Songwriter's Workshop is definitely among the best books about songwriting to read. It's another massive hit produced by Berklee Press, serving as the primary material for this school's most common songwriting courses. Not to mention, its content was compiled and revised by Jimmy Kachulis, one of the most respected professors at Berklee! (Don't mistake this praise for our bias toward Berklee; it's simply that this school has always published many great materials).
Most people find Kachulis' viewpoints quite interesting. He expressed that the reason he wrote this course and book is to offer readers a similar type of everyday training picked by most expert instrumentalists. In fact, most instrumentalists practice almost every day, barely feeling the differences between the two days. Hence, Kachulis compiles all those little exercises into one package so that even novices can practice them at home on their own!
The Songwriter's Workshop is supposed to be somewhat participatory, meaning it includes many assignments and prompts for each discussed practicing technique. Some book versions even come with CDs, featuring complementary audio for better practice. (In certain places, they are even available online instead of just via CDs).
Overall, people are a fan of this book due to its hands-on technique. To get better, you simply need to write more songs, and this book demonstrates exactly that.
Author: Jimmy Kachulis
Year of Release: 2003
Ratings: 4.3 stars (from 110 reviews)
