Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice

by Pat Pattison

Infuse your lyrics with sensory detail!

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 than150 sense-bound prompts helps you develop the skills you need

   • 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.

Genres: Music, Writing, Nonfiction, Poetry, Reference, Art

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2011

Reviews

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a mental work-out! This has to be one of THE most useful books for the lyric writer and poet that I have ever read, period. After drilling you on making a more interesting choice of words (through sensory writing and the use of metaphor), Pat Pattison then brings out the big guns as he talks about how to put those words together in ways the create the most powerful rhythms. Some of these are so simple but you never knew how important they are until you see them described! I will admit that I cheated my way through this book: I read it cover to cover first to get inspiration, and NOW I'm going back and actually working my way through the exercises. This is gonna be grueling... but so rewarding.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives strategies for creating not just rhythmically pleasing songs, but also songs with substance and effective connection to the audience.
Good examples and lots of exercises that can be used by English departments, writer's groups and serious songwriters to produce better work.

[Dan Gillogly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed the way I write. Lyrics. Stories. Blogs. Articles. I continue to go back again and again to the exercises in this author's books to learn and re-learn timeless techniques and experiments.

[Oscar Viklund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jättebra bok !!

Fick mig att skriva
Det är en bedrift

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 1 out of 5]

For anyone who found this book useful, more power to you and your lyric writing! Personally, I found the book a total waste of time and money. It consists of uninspiring writing exercises and then many examples of how past students of Mr. Pattison answered them. (I hope those students got some of the book's royalties.)

Mr. Pattison himself is totally uninspiring. I was monitoring his Coursera course on song writing, too, and deleted my Coursera account after watching the first video. The video almost seemed like a parody of a professor, who had been teaching a course forever, lethargically telling slow students what they needed to know.

[Lamain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Push through and finish the book. Seriously. I know it’s tough and feels pointless, but my writing feels more free. I often spend time doing some of these exercises about the topic at hand in a session, in addition to freewriting in the morning. This book helps you get over the fear of being perfect and start exploring the free, creative part of your mind.

[Alexis Stankewitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for anyone who wants to access creativity. I liked this and I can definitely tell while reading this book why the author is a professor at Berklee College of Music.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nicely structured, step-by-step, prompt-based workshop for developing first your sense-based writing (that is, descriptive writing, or imagery), then your sense of metaphor, and then bringing it together. Each section is intended to be completed over 14 consecutive days, with 3 prompts per day: one 5 minutes, one 10 minutes, and one 30 seconds, with the goal of evading your inner editor and getting your juices to flow freely. Student examples for each prompt give new dimensions to the creative possibilities. I find that I do better at not panicking and wasting time with my inner editor if I allow myself a few moments to focus before I start the timer. Starting completely cold makes me write nonsense or nothing at all. Though directed primarily at songwriters, these exercises are great for any writer.

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers many helpful writing exercises which work to grow your skills through practice and timed scenarios. I am not prominently a songwriter, but this book is helpful for more than that. It is very versatile, being useful with prose and poetry as well as songwriting. It offered me a whole new perspective on using figurative language and metaphor, and enhanced my writing to be more colorful and unique.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing how many writing books there are out there that don't actually demand you write all that much. This book recognizes that the most important part of writing music is to actually write, and every day has you writing little 15 minute or so exercises that have immensely changed the way I approach music in general.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a series of exercises about writing song lyrics. Also good for general writers. I found it improved my writing. Gave me tools to get deeper into descriptive passages and metaphors. Get me out of my usual writing rut.

Best book of this type I have used.

[Greg Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me of the Odd Couple episode where Felix is walking around head in the clouds rhyming nonsensical couplets while Oscar confronts the teacher and accuses him of being a charlatan which is to say, I didn’t get much out of this read. Your rhyme time may differ.

[Kenya Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writing exercises.
This would be a great reference for any type of writer--poets, novelists, songwriters, etc.

[Mj Ismail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give 5 star because the book has opened my perspective. The author encourage my writing to be in sense-bound view which is really make sense.

[Bruce Kirby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to help you tap into your inner songwriter.

[Sophie Bowns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pat Pattinson’s books are absolutely brilliant and packed with amazing advice.

[R Gayle Godwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. I learned some things about writing songs.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good exercises for sense-bound writing, developing metaphors, and building structure in lyrics.

[Mai Nguyễn Hương · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing exercises that are simple and effective!!! Confidently say it transform my creative writing : more sense-bound, more personal and ultimately more emotive.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a great deal and have been using similar exercises in my songwriting. I gave it a three because many of the metaphor examples were cringe and sometimes conveyed stereotypes.

[Cindy Su · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Juliana Rew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a gift, since I occasionally take a stab at writing songs. I thought the approach was interesting: you engage in little writing drills that let you bring out your subconscious creativity. The author used the material produced by many contributors eager to share what they'd come up with in 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or even as little as 90 seconds. Some of the contributors were talented songwriters, like Gillian Welch. I'm not sure this will help me write better songs, but I did have fun, and I think the same concept will apply in the other types of writing I'm doing.

[Sabne Raznik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great exercises to get the creative juices flowing.

[Devis]

good