The Art of Writing Great Lyrics :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

The more I read, the less time I had to read

2008-07-16
When I first got this book, I couldn't put it down. It was so easy to read, so overflowing with great information that time just flew by as I sat on my sofa. By the time I was a few chapters in, I found myself spending less time with the book and more time writing. By the time I got to the last chapter, I was reading a small segment and then off to write some more.

Anyone who is thinking about starting a career as a writer should get this book.

Great resource for an aspiring staff writer

2007-01-20
Ms. Oland provides helpful advice for the person wishing to write and market commercial songs. She gives tips on becoming familiar with language, building vocabulary, and learning popular song structures. She also dissects her own writing process, step by step, for the reader.

Later chapters deal with the challenges posed by collaboration, strategies to deal with criticism, and the music business.

This book is primarily for the commercial lyricist, not the musician or the artist who writes for self-expression. Ms. Oland is of the opinion that a lyricist shouldn't write too much from personal experience, and that a commercial song should make the audience feel good because "no one wants a loser." But some of the most sincere music, which ended up being "commercial," was written out of angst (Alanis, Nirvana). Oland's term for this kind of music is "living room hits." (In her defense, she does state that when an artist writes this type of song for himself, the song may become a hit.)

Ms. Oland also mentions that she is a much stronger lyricist than melodist, and although she does mention using "dummy melodies," musician-lyricists might find a different method than Ms. Oland's.

However, this book does include much wisdom and helpful information culled from years of experience.

2 thumbs up 2 Pamela Phillips Oland

2005-05-19
While I am only half way thru reading "The Art of Writing Great Lyrics" I can already tell you that it is a very useful piece of literature. I have been singing since I was a child. I started writing my own songs about 5 years ago. I decided to purchase this book because I feel no matter how much natural ability you have education can NEVER hurt. I was surprised that much of what the book teaches you I already knew and practiced by instinct. It was a good feeling to know I am already doing it pretty much the way the professionals do. Now Ms. Phillips Oland does pump-up her own songs and she does do a bit of name dropping, but I also found that beneficial........you want to know the person teaching you is an expert of the field. Ms. Phillips Oland writes in a comfortable style. Reading her book is more like casual conversation rather than formal educational type verbiage. If you are looking for a book to get you well on your way to writing popular songs this is the book for you.

PAM OLAND'S GRAND PLAN

2004-04-11
Let's get right to it. If you truly want to be successful at something, find a mentor - someone who has been there and done that (and is still there and is still doing that).

The "that" in this case is songwriting, and Ms. Pamela Oland is the mentor who is still in the thick of things, decades after her ride to the stars with Frank Sinatra.

You can take decades to learn which turns to take and which to avoid, or you can buy Pamela's music road atlas, THE ART OF WRITING GREAT LYRICS, and get to your destination with fewer detours and disappointments.

Grab your poetic license, start your creative engine, and hit the freeway - and the Top Ten - courtesy of your tour guide and her fine book.

Tricks of the Trade 2003-04-28
Although I am a veteran and successful lyricist and thought I had nothing more to learn about this form of my art, I was amazed at how many "tricks of the trade" she gave me that I'd never even thought about. Pamela Phillips Oland's new, revised edition of her first book is so chock full of tasty little details that I found myself inspired with new song ideas on almost every page - which is why it took me so long to finish it. By now, it is underlined and starred and filled with margin notes and tabbed with so many colors, it looks like a pocupine!
Everything from setting up my writing environment to setting up the deal with my collaborator UP FRONT, to helpful hints about my great starts that fill my journals, was useful. We all get into a sort of groove that can so easily become a rut that simply adopting a new approach - that Oland suggests many of - like reading the dictionary or seeing with new eyes a character trait in someone you know well, can cause one of those wonderful light-bulb ideas to pop up over your head!
I always love hearing other songwriters' anecdotes about how songs we've all heard on the radio came to be.
The book is so well laid out that when I sit down to write, I sometimes just open it at random, read a box or an example of one of her lyrics - and the process by which she completed it - and that gets me going.
It will be so helpful to the fledgling songwriter, too. I've given it to my 14-year-old, guitar-playing, songwriting nephew who says he loves it. And since I gave it to him, I can see a definite growth in his ability to express his feelings more clearly now in his lyrics. There is a craft to writing lyrics that takes years of devotion and attention to develop and perfect.
Thank you, Pamela, for acknowlwdging what REALLY goes into perfecting this craft and writing it all down in so arganized a way!
- Lisa-Catherine Cohen, double-platinum lyricist (ASCAP) Lisa-Catherine.com

The Gospel of Songwriting! 2003-01-21
6 x 9 North American Distribution music Packed with literally hundreds of hints, tips, and inside information only a working writer would know, The Art of Writing Great Lyrics demonstrates proven, no-fail methods for everything from communicating through song, defining styles, and collaborating with a partner to studying the market, making a great demo, and getting started on a career. Full of creative exercises, writing do's and don'ts, and a handy A to Z checklist for reviewing new songs, The Art of Writing Great Lyrics provides a lifetime of proven success tips in one indispensable volume.

Love this book! 2003-01-18
Pamela Phillips Oland has taken the art of teaching lyric writing to a new level! As a new writer I needed not only guidelines for structure and content but also inspiration and her book gives it all. She helped me learn to define what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it! The stories are amazingly cool and funny. Her talent as a songwriter might just be surpassed by her ability to teach and inspire other writers to believe in their dream to do the same. If you can't write a song after reading this book then you just can't write a song!! Loved it!!

An Essential Lyric-Writing Guide 2003-01-09
A novice songwriter, I have found this book to be extraordinarily helpful, and fun to read to boot. I've always been a huge music fan and have dreamed of being a songwriter, and this book has a wealth of information about how I can get my career underway. Pamela Phillips Oland not only provides practical information, like how to structure a song and what to do with a lyric once you've written it, she also gives great tips on how to get inspired and how to write truly creative, original songs. The book is also full of amusing and helpful anecdotes. Like I said, I'm just starting my career, and now I know exactly what NOT to do (i.e., write a poem instead of a song, or write lyrics that no one can relate to)! I plan to refer to this book for practical information about writing lyrics and selling them in the industry, and also for reassurance and inspiration while I establish my career.

Try It--You Might Surprise Yourself 2003-01-08
I am a school librarian and first heard about this book when I read the rave review in Library Journal. I ordered it for the school library and was amazed at how many high school girls were putting themselves on the waiting list to borrow it, often sitting together with their rhyming dictionaries and writing tablets, seeming to be having the time of their lives with this book. About a year later, I saw the book just staring at me from the shelf in in the Borders in my neighborhood and the curiosity overtook me. I bought it for myself.

I had never really thought I had a talent for writing lyrics, so I started following the steps for writing cynically at first, then just cautiously. Before long, I was going through it with the same enthusiasm I had seen in the teenagers. Before I knew it, I was thinking differently, wondering how to use a catchy phrase as a lyric or how to turn an experience into a song. Words took on a new quality for me once I read this book-and I have read a LOT of books!

Well, I might only be a high school librarian, but there's nothing wrong with having a hobby, right? I think I am going to buy a second copy of this to give as a gift to my niece. I will feel like I have done something very special it makes her as happy as I have been in "discovering" this book.

I hear this author has a new book coming out soon. I can't wait!

"The Art of Writing Great Lyrics" 2002-12-26
While this book is entertaining, it is useless for those
looking for insights of the how-to variety. The author is
full of sometimes interresting though mostly borring anectodes
and has written some songs you may be familiar with. However,
this book lacks any substantive information on actually writing
lyrics. The examples are old and extremely dated and do not
provide any useful information other than what not to do. ...