This is something I’ve been working on since last summer, and I’m very excited about this! I’ve just completed an updated 3rd edition of my songwriting manual, “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” It’s taken a long time because it is a fairly extensive rewrite of the original text. The second edition was a 221-page ebook, but this new edition has been largely rewritten, and considerably expanded. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” is now a 333-page comprehensive e-book.
The other e-books in my 6-eBook Bundle have gotten some minor upgrades as well.
The price for the full 6-eBook Bundle remains the same: $37 USD. If you purchased “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” in 2014, or anytime during the month of January, 2015, you are eligible for a deal which you can read about here.
The introduction and Preface of the ebook give some important background for what it takes to be a songwriter, and what you can expect to get from the full text. SEE THE TABLE OF CONTENTS (opens in a new browser window/tab)
Here is a short excerpt from the Preface of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”, 3rd edition:
WHEN GOOD SONGS GO BAD
It often surprises people when they discover how incredibly simple most of the biggest songs of the past fifty years are. That’s because simplicity is a design feature of great songs, responsible for why they’re easy to sing and easy to remember. Complexity, when there appears to be no particularly good purpose for it, has a way of driving a wedge between the intent of the songwriter and the enjoyment level of the audience. Complexity is not necessarily a bad thing in music, since some people like songs that take several listens before they can absorb it all. And you can build an audience that will love that kind of music. Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes, and other progressive rock groups have done it to varying degrees of success. But those groups build their audiences slowly. In practically any musical genre you can name, songs are successful, and quickly gather a following, if the melodies are easy to sing, easy to remember, with lyrics that use common, everyday words that you’d use in casual conversation.
The word “secrets” in the title of this book makes it sound like you’ll learn things that no one has known before. But in fact, they are only secrets to those many people who haven’t noticed what the pros have been doing all these years. They will be secrets in the same sense that grandma’s flaky piecrust is a secret: it’s irrelevant to the person eating it why it’s so flaky. (Note: If you want a flaky crust, use cold ingredients.) And because the only ones who care why it’s flaky (and not merely that it’s flaky) are other cooks who are trying to make a flaky piecrust, we call it a “secret.” To non-musicians, a great song is magical. But to songwriters, there’s nothing magical about it, even though some songs’ rise to greatness may be surprising. There are real, practically measurable reasons why good songs are good. Those reasons translate into the secrets that we call principles. You are going to learn how songwriters from the past have applied those principles to hits at the top of the charts as you move through the pages of this book. And you’ll learn how to apply those secrets to your own music.
So what are the secrets? You’ll learn that form is one of the most overlooked and essential components of a good song. You’ll learn how to create a verse that begs for a chorus. You’ll learn how to contour a melody so that it’s memorable and makes musical sense. You’ll learn how to make chord progressions work so that they don’t just sound like muddle. And you’ll learn how good lyrics touch the heart and mind of practically any listener. You’ll learn how to snag your audience with a hook that will keep people humming your songs all day.
The songwriting ebooks are all in PDF format, which means they are readable on any PDF-reading device: desktop, laptop, tablets, etc.
The ebooks are in a zipped file, so if you’re using a mobile device such as an iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle, or other such device, you might want to have one of the free apps that can easily handle zip files.
Or, of course, you could simply download the files to your desktop or laptop, expand them expand them to PDF, and then email the files to your mobile device.
I’m very excited to be providing the 3rd edition of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”! Please feel free to write me (gary [at] pantomimemusic [dot] com) if you have any questions.
Read more about The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 6-eBook Bundle
-Gary Ewer