Customer Reviews
interestingly conceptually and practically 
2008-09-30
chord progressions, rhythms, melodies, lyrics are covered. A great resource for chord progressions. would like more thoughts covered on melodies. I am a novice guirtarist and this is perfect.
awesome for beginners or pros 
2008-09-21
Very detailed book about every aspect. Tons of examples and chord diagrams. Just get it!
Excellent Book 2008-05-27
I checked this book out of the library so many times that I finally decided to buy it. The chord progressions and examples are what make this book great, and they apply to all types of musical instruments. I use this book to compose on the computer, then sequence the songs into synthesizers.
As for the negative reviews, my guess is that they don't understand what a chord progression is. But if you do, and especially if you've ever gotten stuck as a songwriter, get this book.
Artificially Inflated Text 
2007-11-12
A lot of technical issues covered. The outstanding thing about this book (& by outstanding I mean the thing that stands out, not the thing that is excellent) is that the author wants to tell you every song that fits into each and every category that he mentions. Example: for the chord sequence I, IV, VI, V there are ten examples in contemporay music and He wants to name each and every one of them, then he will do the same thing for chord sequence I, VI, IV, V. Etcetera ad nauseum! This is a thin book; It could be a lot thinner and convey the same amount of (interesting) information.
Excellent resource... 2007-10-09
This book is not going to make you a great guitar player and this book is not going to make you a creative person(but what book can??) What this book will do is give you a very strong foundation for chordal progression. The pop song which has been predominant for the last 50 years is analyzed in a straightforward handsome manner. A person with a basic understanding of guitar chords can get through this book and it is an excellent reference guide for those that are advanced musicians.
This book is great for connecting the dots musically. For example, if you have written a bunch of riffs but don't know how to turn them into a song this book can help you gain direction.
Again this book can't make you creative but it can help a creative person get a lot more output from focused effort. This book can give your chord sequences direction in affect turning your meandering strumming into an actual song.
excellent 2007-08-14
Now anyone can write and play their own songs on the guitar - with no prior training! This inspirational handbook teaches readers how to play guitar, while providing a solid foundation in songwriting techniques, using well-known songs as examples, easy-to-follow text, and graphics that explain and demonstrate lyrics, melody, harmony and rhythm. This book's straightforward style will have even those who've never played a guitar or written a song making music with ease.
Superb Book 2007-01-09
I have been playing guitar, and writing songs for 15 years. I learned a good bit from this book that I wish I would have known when I first started 15 years ago. You probably think you know how to write a song, but unless you have been trained in music theory, you probably have just been doing things that sound good without understanding why. This book does not go into extreme detail on any one subject in songwriting, its sort of like an really good overview on information such as melody, lyrics, chords, progressions, song types, etc.. It shows you all the pieces you need and more importantly WHY they sound the way they do or go together. It is for the person with beginner-intermediate music theory skill, or for any skill level guitar player. Information is well organized, easy to understand, and backed with examples from popular songs. Not songs like "Greensleeves" and "mary had a little lamb", but beatles, nirvana, oasis, madonna,etc.. Check out this guy's other books- I was very interested in the chord progression section and got his book on that subject. I think it is even better than this one.
Great Book on Songwriting 2006-11-02
This is a must have for any guitar player trying to write songs, especially the singer / songwriter type. This book is filled with ideas for songs and how to incorporate the guitar into your songwriting. What I like most about this book was the numerous chord progressions listed and what mood each progression can create. It gives examples of songs that use the progressions and what genre of music they fit best. I loved this book and use it regularly. If you are looking to write music and lyrics this is a must.
Stunningly bad 
2006-10-05
To be honest, I've owned this book forever but after seeing someone ask about it on another forum, I just wanted to log in here and write a quick review of it as a warning to potential customers because I found it so poorly executed. This book basically consists of Rooksby very quickly presenting a topic in overly simple terms and then citing hundreds of examples of existing known songs that are supposed to illustrate his idea. This sounds like a great idea in principle but in execution it all falls apart. The examples read like pure fluff and do not cover any detail whatsoever, he does not even go into high level things like chord progressions, etc, from the examples. I presume this is due to copyright restrictions, etc. It would have made much more sense to license a few decent examples and really show how they illustrate the point. Or heck, the book is about song writing, why not actually WRITE a few over the course of the book??
The CD that came with the book is literally content-free, too. There's almost nothing on it. Again, this is in spite of all of the external music cited (some of it obscure) and due to the lack of specifics in the book. The CD can literally be thrown away without harming use of the book. It appears to be included in the book as reassurance that there is something there... i.e. a marketing move more than a useful resource for the customer.
So, really, in spite of the hundreds of general examples cited in the book, there is not a single specific detailed piece of information I can remember off hand. Ie. almost no tab, chord diagrams, or sheet music style content. Almost nothing specific about the guitar's interaction with the rhythm section and the specifics of writing for the rhythm section or vocal melody are covered either. And of course, the tell-tale item: nothing is composed/written by Rooksby for the book.
Looking at the presentation, its very slick. The book looks nice, the layout is great, the writing style is enthusiastic, its easy to WANT to like it but when it comes down to it it's good looking book that doesn't achieve its objective. I regretted the time I spent reading this book hoping for it to get better... Thankfully it's extremely short too, but I won't even bother going there at this point. ;)
So, basically, this book is just flat out not useful and the time spent looking for a different, more suitable, book on the topic will be rewarded many times over.
Also, avoid Rooksby's "Riffs" book as well, it suffers nearly the exact same set of problems as this one.
Neither fish, nor flesh. 
2006-09-04
It's not a guitar method neither a complete songwriting book. Perhaps it's both, but I find it quite boring and not focusing.
