Pat's new book, Songwriting without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice, sets out a series of 14-day challenges constructed to improve both your object writing and your ability to discover and manipulate metaphor.
Writing great song lyrics requires practice and discipline. Songwriting Without Boundaries will help you commit to routine practice through fun writing exercises. This unique collection of more than 150 sense-bound prompts helps you develop the skills you need to:
- tap into your senses and inject your writing with vivid details
- effectively use metaphor and comparative language
- add rhythm to your writing and manage phrasing
Songwriters, as well as writers of other genres, will benefit from this collection of sensory writing challenges. Divided into four sections, Songwriting Without Boundaries features four different fourteen-day challenges with timed writing exercises, along with examples from other songwriters, poets, and prose writers. Contributing writers include multiple Grammy winning songwriter Gillian Welch, professional poet Caroline Harvey, a host of songwriters from the Berklee College of Music faculty, and others.
Includes foreword by professional songwriter Mike Reid ("I Can’t Make You Love Me", performed by Bonnie Raitt)
Not long ago I said to Pat, “Why bother with all this when great lyrics donʼt seem to matter anymore?” “They matter to you, donʼt they?” he shot back. And there it was. For reasons beyond my full understanding I had to confess that they did matter to me. A lot. If they matter to you, then buy this book.
If youʼre of a mind to want to get at the best in you, you hold in your hands, at this moment, a tool of inestimable value. …Faithfully following the principles set down in this book will not only help you find the right word but, more importantly, will be a constant companion in the life long journey toward understanding precisely what it is you mean to say.
- Mike Reid, Nashville, TN
Pat Pattison is the writing teacher I've been long praying for and his writing exercises are nothing short of revolutionary. I’m almost embarrassed to say that after over a decade of professional creative writing I don’t think I ever fully understood the function and craft of metaphor until diving in to the writing challenges of Songwriting Without Boundaries. With the elegant flair of a wonderfully mad scientist, Pat pulls the best out of artists and empowers us to make the work we've always wanted to make. The poetry I’ve produced since investing in Pat’s teaching has been some of the liveliest, most powerful, and most published work of my career so far. His smart, inventive, cut-to-the-chase instruction has been the necessary overhaul for my whole creative life; the very core of my writing practice has been revamped and infused with new, lustrous life blood. His books sit open on my desk, dog-eared and well worn.
- Caroline Harvey, professional poet, featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam
In the middle of working on these challenges I left for a writing/recording trip to Mexico to work on my new record...so I sort of had an immediate test of the effect of these exercises…it was pretty amazing…my writing didn't "change" per se - it was still me, working in my normal style...but, everything came faster, and more fluidly…some of the ideas almost seemed to fall-out fully formed…above all, I think that's the magic of this book…it preps your brain to be a better you...
- Bleu, songwriter, Artist/Producer, Los Angeles, CA
I have always found as a teacher that getting certain students to "get" metaphor was difficult; it sort of seemed like one either has the knack or not. But I feel like your approach may be one of the best methods of teaching writers to use figurative language I've encountered; and in fact, it may be the only one. I can't wait to use your book in my classes as well as in my own work.
- Bonnie Hayes, Songwriter, “Have a Heart” for Bonnie Raitt
Pat's step-by-step procedure for discovering metaphor is the most innovative, user-friendly approach I've ever experienced. These daily challenges take the mystery out of how great writing works. I've learned to let go of age-old barriers, explore my own creative spirit and write fearlessly.
- Sarah Brindell, Songwriting faculty, Berklee College of Music
Pat and his challenges have a way of saying "Psst, come here, back behind these familiar words... I wanna show you something..." And from there, an unknown vista comes into focus and changes your perspective forever.
- Rob Giles, Producer/Aritst, The Rescues, Los Angeles, CA
Back when I got my first record deal, I still felt insecure about my writing. Confidence can sometimes be the last thing one achieves. When Pat sent me these challenges, I started to dive in and I couldn't stop! It felt like a healthy drug, the "confidence pill.” The more you do it, the more you want to do. Thank you, Pat. These challenges brought back the focus, the fearlessness and happiness that I sometimes forget to have when I'm writing.
- Adriana Duarte, Recording Artist, Warner Music, Portugal
Before the challenges, I feared metaphor. If one crept into my song I probably wouldn’t have known about it. Pat’s exercises exposed metaphor for what it is – one of the most important and exciting tools a writer can possess. It flicked a switch in my brain, and suddenly I could see metaphors everywhere!
- Chanelle Davis, Recording artist, Melbourne, Australia
It’s out - the 2nd edition of Pat Pattison’s groundbreaking Writing Better Lyrics, featuring a foreword by three-time Grammy winner Gillian Welch and almost 100 new pages, including several new chapters plus expansion and reworking of most of the original chapters.
"[This book] is a priceless map through the minefields of cliché, boredom and laziness that often destroy even the best efforts...
I would not be the writer I am today without [Pat’s] teaching and his unique and comprehensive understanding of language, rhyme, rhythm, and structure. To this day, when I struggle with a lyric and find myself falling short, I am usually ignoring some very sound advice contained in these pages. And I read it again."
"The Must-Have Guide for Songwriters...Writing Better Lyrics has been a staple for songwriters for nearly two decades. Now this revised and updated 2nd Edition provides effective tools for everything from generating ideas, to understanding the form and function of a song, to fine-tuning lyrics."
I took a class with a great teacher named Pat Pattison... I learned a lot in that class...and I still read that book, Writing Better Lyrics. I think it's great.
- John Mayer
I've been writing most of my life, and I have to say that employing some of, some of (I said it twice because I'm not through with your book yet), your techniques, I have found places to pull from I never knew were there. Streams can coalesce to form a river, but if they never intersect, all you have are small streams. Your methods have caused an intersection of the many streams I have been pulling from, and I have now felt the force of the River, and I have to confess it is a little frightening. The impact is enormously draining -- a bit like going from a go-cart to a fighter jet. :)
- Kevin Wood
You are a gifted thinker and I'm very appreciative of how well your book was written. It's helped me to better critique my songs. It helped me to understand the things I did instinctively, both right and wrong. I'm beginning to develop a better flow when writing. Thank you.
This is the first year I've tried to pitch any material, and now I have one song already recorded by a major bluegrass artist and six others on hold with other major bluegrass/country artists, and the year is not over yet.
I hope to shake hands with you someday and thank you personally for the obvious extensive study and hard work you did helping people like me improve dramatically. You rock!
- Thomas Porter
Finally...the book we've all been waiting for! This is the newest, most authoritative, and most complete treatment of lyric writing available. If you have questions about metaphor, meter, structure, rhyme scheme, simile, or virtually anything else related to lyric writing, the answers are all here and all in one place. Best of all, for each subject covered, Pattison includes at least one exercise for the reader to do, using the skills taught in the chapter.
Pat Pattison is a teacher in the highest sense of the word -- he not only tells us what we can do, he shows us how to do it. Using examples from such songwriters as Janis Ian, Pat Alger, and Beth Nielsen-Chapman among others, he expertly examines every aspect of lyric writing in a way that leaves the reader with that wonderful feeling of "OOH! Now I get it!"
So... if you want to "get it," get this book. If you feel you’ve already got it, get the book anyway -- the last chapter alone is worth it.
- Renee Watkins, The Austin Songwriter
This is a much better book than I will be able to describe it as being, but I can tell you that if you only ever got to read the first two pages of it, your outlook of song craft would be dramatically shifted into a more profound and universal perspective. It's that kind of good. Read the full review
- James Linderman, The Muse's News, Canadian Musician Magazine, and Professional Musician Magazine
This has got to be the mother of "how-to's". Chock full of information and exercises for inspiration from start to finish, Pat takes the tough part of songwriting - the structure - and makes it seem simple.
His way of thinking seems so different from any I've come across before and yet all his words really strike home. They make me think about my song writing in a way I never thought about it before - as a process that really does have some sort of cohesive structure, whether I choose to acknowledge that or not.
After having read this book, I can see that not acknowledging it would be awfully silly. Why not try to write the best song I can write? This book will certainly help you do just that. In fact, this book is a must have in any songwriter's library. Read the full review
- Jodi Krangle, The Muse's Muse
"If I had a dollar for every time I've used this book, I'd be writing this in Napa Valley."
- Tom Hays, Platinum Pearls
Get both Songwriting without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice and Writing Better Lyrics - 2nd edition for a very special price!
Formerly titled Rhyming Techniques and Strategies
Berklee Press, distributed by Hal Leonard January, 1992
This is great stuff, the sort of kindle that lights the fires of your imagination. To make sure your imagination is stirred, every lesson includes a series of exercises. These exercises are not merely bemusing doodles; Pattison takes you well beyond the 'beginner' levels. ...your lyrics will improve.
Pattison has created a thoroughly accessible approach to learning and improving the skills that make for great lyrics. These books are chiropractic therapy for writer's cramp, and loaded with the sort of common sense that even the most prolific lyricist will find enlightening. There is no overlapping material here, since both books have their very specific purpose, and both [Rhyming Techniques and Strategies and Managing Lyric Structure] cover their ground magnificently. Buy them both. If you're like me, you just can't get enough of Pattison's straight-from-the-hip wisdom.
- Daniel Rue, Home & Studio Recording Magazine
Rhyming Techniques & Strategies is an interactive workbook which begins by explaining the nature of rhyme, why we use it, and how it works, then lays a foundation with exercises for the development of this crucial element in lyric creation. The author is clear in his explanations and provides insight and verbal illustrations, allowing the reader to explore the resultant possibilities.
- Dan Kimpel, Songwriter's Musepaper
Formerly titled Managing Lyric Structure
Berklee Press, distributed by Hal Leonard, January, 1992
Simply put, to know Pat's work is to revere it. He is the absolute master of the craft of lyric structure and it's consequential impact on the quality of a song. Period!
Instead of trying to deal with all aspects of lyric writing in a diluted overview, Pat instead, offers a very concentrated and detailed discourse on the aspect of song craft that seems to be most absent in most songwriters background...the deliberate use of structure.
The thing that Pat Pattison's books do better than any books out there, is make people write purposefully objective rather than aimlessly subjective. He does it in a way that channels creativity rather than controlling it and he does it with a sense of style and humor that is very engaging.
I can now see why the publisher decided to name this book, Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure because essential is just how I would describe it.
- James Linderman, The Muse's News, Canadian Musician Magazine, and Professional Musician Magazine
One book plus one tshirt! Either Songwriting without Boundaries or Writing Better Lyrics plus either Unstable or Write Fearlessly t-shirt.
*Please specify which book and which t-shirt in "Note to seller" section when ordering.
Both new books plus one t-shirt! Both Songwriting Without Boundaries and Writing Better Lyrics plus either Unstable or Write Fearlessly t-shirt.
*Please specify which t-shirt in "Note to seller" section when ordering.
Get all four of Pat's books at a great price! Songwriting Without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, Essential Guide to Rhyming and Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure.
Get all four of Pat's books at a great price! Songwriting Without Boundaries, Writing Better Lyrics, Essential Guide to Rhyming and Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure.
*Please specify which t-shirt in "Note to seller" section when ordering.
* While supplies last
