Simon Hawkins - Song Maps: A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics

SONG MAPS - A NEW SYSTEM TO WRITE YOUR BEST LYRICS

Simon Hawkins

Copyright 2016 Simon Hawkins

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published by Great British Book Publishing, London

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I've found that readers have most success implementing Song Maps when they have the opportunity to work through some real-life exercises and examples of putting the principles in the book into practice.

So to say thank you for purchasing Song Maps A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics, I'd like to give you the Workbook for free!

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DEDICATION

To my beautiful, super-talented wife, Sandra.

To God, Author of all.

To all who carry a deep hunger to excel in their craft for His glory.

Contents

Chapter 1 - Intro

It has never been harder to make an impact as a songwriter. To survive, let alone be recognized and win awards, your craft has to be the best it can be. And then some.

Whether you're just starting out as a songwriter, you're an experienced songwriter or just looking for a new perspective on the beautiful craft of songwriting, this book offers fresh insights to help you write your very best lyrics.

Does any of the following sound familiar?

• You worry that the lyrics you write just don't deliver their full potential but can't figure out why, even though technically they tick all the right boxes.
• You have great ideas but your finished lyrics somehow fall short of the emotional impact you wanted and, as a result, your songs get passed over.
• You have a busy schedule with limited time to write and have wasted too many hours chasing un-writable lyric ideas.
• You wonder how some professional songwriters always seem to get a particular dynamic in their lyrics, consistently writing songs better than 90% of what you hear on the radio.
• You are perhaps nervous about going into a pro co-writing session because you fear your ideas aren't worth bringing into the writing room.
• You know you have so many great titles waiting to be written but haven't found a way of systematically developing them into well-crafted lyrics.
• After writing an amazing hooky Chorus and a great supporting first Verse, you hit the dreaded wall that is s-e-c-o-n-d v-e-r-s-e c-u-r-s-e.

In Song Maps A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics I deliver simple, logical, well-defined solutions to these issues and more: I give you seven well-developed professional templates for you to bring your lyrics to life. I also provide you with a tried and tested process for writing lyrics using Song Maps. And I'll reveal the songwriter's secret weapon.

Much of this book contains new material. This is because, while I enjoyed building a firm foundation of knowledge about the craft from the songwriting programs at Berklee Music School and other sources, I discovered Song Maps afterwards, from my experience as a professional songwriter, writing either on my own or in the writing rooms of Nashville.

This book is for those who are tired of writing ideas that, despite being good in concept, end up being flat when finally written. Or those who find it difficult to know how to develop their songs to give them the emotional punch they originally had in mind when they first had the idea. It's for those searching hard for that elusive "aha" moment when trying to develop their lyric writing craft to pro-standard, rather than wasting years trying to work it out by themselves.

Having been signed as a staff songwriter at Universal Music Publishing in Nashville, being nominated and winning awards for my songs including Grammys, Doves and hymn-writing awards, and after spending many years studying thousands of techniques and developing them in my own songwriting and in the writing room, I've had the privilege of teaching the material in this book to hundreds of songwriters and seeing a step change in their writing. I have been blessed to watch them find their authentic voice in writing ideas to their full potential, helping them achieve their dream to move from writing flat 2D lyrics to fabulous High Definition full-color 3D lyrics.

Known by many as the guy who teaches lyric strategies, I've explored and analyzed thousands of song lyrics in many genres, studying what makes them work and what lets them down. I've also critiqued hundreds of lyrics given to me by students of songwriting.

Through the lessons in this book, you'll gain a whole new set of tools that will help you simply and swiftly deal with the ups and downs of writing lyrics so they will deliver the emotional punch you are looking for, tools that will make your songs stand out in the marketplace and help you achieve your potential and calling as a songwriter.

Whether you're looking to better manage the idea flow of your lyrics, increase your bank of writable ideas, walk into a pro co-write with confidence or look at your lyrics afresh and make them *** SHINE *** you will find this book essential reading.

Sue C Smith, five-time Dove-award winning songwriter, staff writer with Capitol CMG and founder of the Write About Jesus seminar for Christian songwriters, says:

"Simon Hawkins is a gifted problem-solver, and so much of songwriting calls for just that. In Song Maps A New System To Write Your Best Lyrics, Simon has shared the methods he has developed to catapult his own songwriting career and offered them to songwriters everywhere. It's going to revolutionize and illuminate the process for so many. What a wonderful, generous gift to the songwriting community!"

Let this book help you transform your lyric writing by using Song Maps in your songwriting workflow and take your song ideas to their ultimate potential. Find out how you might be compromising the quality of your lyric writing by not seeing the full range of possibilities. Take action to quickly screen out un-writable ideas, the titles that suck your time away from writing your best, truly golden, spectacular songs.

Andrea Stolpe, instructor at Berklee Music School, multi-platinum recorded songwriter, artist and author says:

"Simon offers songwriters creative parameters where so many claim no parameters can be set. With such tangible tools, songwriters can experience great freedom and expect consistent results."

As you read on, you'll hear about how I discovered how to shift from writing what I call "2D lyrics" to crafting fabulous, dynamic "3D lyrics"; about the songwriter's secret weapon; about the difference between a title and a writable idea; about why the flow of ideas is important within your lyrics; and a foolproof four-step process for writing with Song Maps.

I'll share with you specific steps that will help you transform your writing workflow.

When you take the time to develop your craft, there is a vast body of knowledge that makes up the technical side of the craft, which you need to have before you can shape your songs to their full potential.

Pat Pattison, Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry at Berklee College of Music, said it best:

"Much of lyric writing is technical. The stronger your skills are, the better you can express your creative ideas."

And Pat is rightit's up to each one of us to decide how much we're willing to invest in our own craft, to be students long enough to achieve our full potential as writers.