To ask a songwriter if he has ever been frustrated during the process of writing a tune is like asking a drowning person if they need a life raft.

So when I saw the title The Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook - I knew I had to take a look.

The book was first recommended to me by Ruth Greenwood in a tip she contributed to the Songwriting Tips Project. Since I had been covering a lot of different songwriters and their methods of setting deadlines to complete songs, a book like The Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook seemed appropriate.

The authors of the book propose that songwriters should get together and form groups - or Songwriting Lodges, as they like to call them - where you set aside a 12 hour period and write 20 songs. Then the group gets together and plays their songs on CDs, tape, whatever, to the group for feedback and support.

To be honest - at first I was a little disappointed. I felt like I was being sold a concept about “Songwriting Lodges” as opposed to pure ideas on getting over the frustration we songwriters have to overcome. As someone who has their fingers in multiple projects, the last thing I needed was another group or association to join, maintain, or commit to.

I respect Ruth’s opinion so I kept reading.

Sure enough, the real nuggets of information I was looking for started shining through. My interest didn’t really grow until around chapter five, which is loaded with some phenomenal idea generators. There are probably 50+ idea generators with names like “Chain and compare”, “Forced first take”, “Put on blinders”, and so on. These sort of exercises are what a frustrated songwriter truly needs to get past those mental blocks.

After Chapter Five, the book dives right back into Songwriting Lodge information, offering variations on Lodge Themes and some more personal lodge experiences.

With all the inspiration whipped up in me from Chapter Five, I began to look at the Songwriting Lodge idea in a different manner than I had when I first opened the book. I began to think, “Hey, this might be a fun way to purge stuff out of my system, as well as a way to interact with other local songwriters.” I also began thinking about the possibility of - yes - hosting a Songwriting Lodge myself. I did a quick search online and even found an existing lodge here in Asheville.

The Verdict

Overall the book is good. I wish books like this would offer more disclosure up front before selling me on a concept - but Chapter Five and the oodles of songwriting tips there seemed to really redeem it.

I have already used variations on some of the idea-starters for some songs. That is worth the cost of the book alone.

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Reviewed by Don Mak

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