Writing Music for Hit Songs: Including Songs from the '90s

by Jai Josefs

Book Overview

Everyone dreams of placing a song on the Top-40 charts, but few know how to take this dream and make it a reality. This book takes the beginning songwriter from music basics through creating complete songs in rock, country, RandB, and theatrical forms. The author uses real, current hit songs as examples; recorded by noted songwriters and artists including. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028646789
• ISBN13: 9780028646787
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Finally theory applied to real songs...

If you're sick of theory books that only use author's etudes or "Grandfather's Clock" type traditional songs as context, then this book is for you. Dozens and dozens of real, commercial hit songs are used as specific examples to illustrate theory. Use this book with iTunes music store to hear the "big concept" theory (ie. Song Structure, Modulation, Groove, etc.) and use your own instrument to really dig into the specifics. Do you want to know how Billy Joel came up with those chord changes? Do you want to apply creative harmony (chords) to a melody that you can't get out of your head? Do you want to make your songs more interesting melodically, harmonically or rhythmically? It's all in this little book (and much more). Do you play and sing a lot of songs? Have you noticed similarities between them? Some similarities are obvious (1,4,5 chords for example). Some are less obvious and some are downright confounding. Often you have this tickle in the back of your brain that there is something more important going on. There is. Why does this chord work so well here? Why do Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Hendrix, Dire Straits and so many other group's songs stand out? They sound so unique as to be instantly identifiable. Is there some pattern here? Yes. I'm so glad Jai Joseph did not go down the path of these BS internet sites advertising "The Secrets of Songwriting" or "The Secrets of Theory." There's no hype here. It's simply a very organized approach to applying music theory to the craft of songwriting. I'm a guitar teacher in baltimore. I use this book with my more advanced students. Some do not read anything but guitar tablature (and they don't want to learn standard notation). They still benefit enormously from this book. Some are not songwriters (and they don't want to be), but they do want to be able to learn more songs. They want to learn them faster and retain them over time. They want to be able to figure them out just by listening to the CD. This book has been a godsend for them. - Jeff Auen - www.baltimoreguitarschool.com

A very practical and easy understood approach to songwriting

The author is clearly a seasoned songwriter with an abundance of knowledge and skill. Yet, he is able to explain the technicalities of songwriting in such a way that the not-so-professional hobbyist songwriter like myself can follow. Having not had formal music theory training myself I could easily catch up with the essentials without feeling it was a hopeless situation. The author managed to keep my attention and deal with the music theory in such a fashion that I could not wait to see his next topic. I found the approach very practical. In fact, I could immediately apply what I learned and the results were immediate. Still, an enormous amount of information is contained in this book and I am sure I shall refer back to the detail many times in the future. It has also helped me better understand songs that already became hits and the book is full of real examples.

Excellent for learning to write songs

This book was exactly what I was looking for. I knew how to play the saxophone, but I didn't know how to write music. This book quickly moves through chords (I used "How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons" by Norman Monath to learn the chords on piano) so it's not for a beginner musician. But if you have experience playing an instrument (any instrument), and have access to a piano/keyboard, this book is for you. I'm almost finished with my first reading and I plan to go back and read it again, this time doing the exercises. I wish I had done them to begin with but I was so intrigued by this book I just couldn't stop long enough to do them! If you want to write your own music (and it's not as you may think), BUY THIS BOOK!

The most useful book of music theory/songwriting I've seen

I've paged through many books about songwriting trying to find a way to understand how to construct music to complement my lyrics. This book finally solved my problem and has absolutely revolutionized my songwriting. I wouldn't recommend this book for someone who is a complete novice in music theory because it moves very quickly through a great number of topics. I took notes to make sure I got everything I could out of it! I haven't looked at another music theory book since. If you're serious about writing better music, buy this book!

For anyone serious about writing better music. READ THIS!

It took me about 6 months to read and fully understand this book. It is so comprehensive and also has exercise to reinforce learned skills. Can be a refresher course for seasoned veterans of musical techniques or else an eye opening book of pure musical technique magic. A must read!MarQue