Summary of Jimmy Webb's Tunesmith

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The truth is that most amateur songwriters do not have a chance of being heard by anyone of importance. The primary factor that separates the rejected amateur songwriter from the accepted professional is that most amateurs do not regard the writing of songs as serious hard work.

#2 The writer’s ultimate purpose is irrelevant because a good songwriter can do all of these things and even do them all at the same time. The writer should be able to write a song in any genre for any purpose.

#3 Songwriting is the process of creating songs, and it is hard to define where idea and title are not virtually synonymous. For example, if you add the following sentence to the above example: I want to write a song about someone who goes through acute mood swings, you have an idea even though the song may not end up being called Problem Child.

#4 There is a technique used by all great songwriters, and it is not a very difficult one to learn. It involves free-associating on a legal pad, and then pareting down lists of cross-referenced words or phrases that can be used in lyric lines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822541054

IRB Media

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Insights on Jimmy Webb's Tunesmith

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The truth is that most amateur songwriters do not have a chance of being heard by anyone of importance. The primary factor that separates the rejected amateur songwriter from the accepted professional is that most amateurs do not regard the writing of songs as serious hard work.

#2

The writer’s ultimate purpose is irrelevant because a good songwriter can do all of these things and even do them all at the same time. The writer should be able to write a song in any genre for any purpose.

#3

Songwriting is the process of creating songs, and it is hard to define where idea and title are not virtually synonymous. For example, if you add the following sentence to the above example: I want to write a song about someone who goes through acute mood swings, you have an idea even though the song may not end up being called Problem Child.

#4

There is a technique used by all great songwriters, and it is not a very difficult one to learn. It involves free-associating on a legal pad, and then pareting down lists of cross-referenced words or phrases that can be used in lyric lines.

#5

Songwriters and composers are notorious for their unwillingness to listen to other people’s work. They are often very learned men who not only read but write, and they are typically critics, poets, and autobiographers.

#6

Songwriters are often reluctant to help others because they are working on something themselves. It is a paradox: we run a higher risk of getting into trouble by listening than by wearing earplugs.

#7

The first essential ingredient in the development of a truly effective technique is the knowledge and respect for the work of others. This is the case with songwriting, which is imitating the writers of songs that you hear on the radio in your early teens.

#8

Foster’s songwriting was influenced by the African American tradition of minstrel shows, which were themselves influenced by the Scots, Irish, and English ballads and reels transplanted to the Deep South.

#9

The use of words is a crucial aspect of songwriting. We learn how to rhyme and how to jam together unusual alliances that delight and entertain. We learn that words create the colors that poets use to paint images on the mind itself.

#10

It can be humbling to borrow pieces from classical composers or any other source. The story is told about Arthur Schwartz explaining to friends that he had taken on a particularly stringent set of professional obligations, and that the friends wondered aloud, My God, isn’t that going to take an awful lot out of you. He replied, Yes, but not as much as it will take out of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

#11

The music industry is full of examples of artists stealing and borrowing from each other. This is healthy, as it helps create great music. If we carried such concerns to extremes, we would never get a melody written.

#12

The songwriter does not need to be a virtuoso pianist or guitarist. It suffices to have a repertoire of interesting chords, and to