Full Description
The songwriting class you always wish you'd taken, taught by the professor you always wish you'd had.
With humor and empathy, acclaimed singer-songwriter Mike Errico unravels the mysteries of songwriting and the practicalities of a musical life in Music, Lyrics, and Life. It gathers the tools, prompts, and ideas that Errico has used to inspire students on campuses from Yale to Berklee to NYU, helping you cultivate creativity that's intrinsic to who you are and undeniable to whoever is listening.
Alongside his own lessons, Errico interviews the writers, producers, and executives behind today's biggest hits and investigates larger questions of creativity in conversations with innovative thinkers: astrophysicist Janna Levin explains the importance of repetition in both music and in the exploration of the universe; renowned painter John Currin praises the constraints of form, whether it's within a right-angled canvas or a three-minute pop song; bestselling author George Saunders unpacks the hidden benefit of writing, and revising, authentically; and much more. The result is that Music, Lyrics, and Life ends up revealing as much about the art of songwriting as it does about who we are, and where we may be going.
This is a book for songwriters, future content creators, music lovers, and anyone who wants to understand how popular art forms are able to touch us so deeply. Mike Errico has honed these lessons over years of writing, performing, teaching, and mentoring, and no matter where you are on your songwriting journey, Music, Lyrics, and Life will help you build a creative world that's both intrinsic to who you are, and undeniable to whoever is listening.
Contents
1. Terms of Service
2. Some Tools
3. God? Y/N
4. Your New Attendance Policy
5. Behold! The Awesome Power of the Daily Journal
6. Silence
7. What the Brain Likes
8. Mission Songs
9. The Quadrants of Trust
10. Blue
11. Rhyme and Repetition
12. Who Are Your Collaborators?
Interlude: Five Gems from the A&R Department
13. Facing Down the First Draft
14. The First Draft
15. Troubleshooting
16. Writer's Block
17. Related Tips from Unrelated Fields
18. Beware the Ides of Myspace
19. Walk the Walk
Interlude: Five Gems from the Melodic Math Department
20. Transformation Cost
21. Facing Down the Second Draft
22. Is It Done?
23. No, Really: When Is It Done?
24. Dealing with Critics
25. Money
26. The End of This Book Is the Beginning of Your Next Song
Appendix: Summer Reading List for Sometime Later in Life
