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The five key steps to pitching songs in the Nashville Market, from a Music Row insider and pro songplugger.

Last year we reviewed the book How To Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby. It still stands up as one of my favorite books for inspiration and creativity. So I was very excited to see this book recently for a deal, which I subsequently purchased and started reading. Where How To Write Songs on [...]

(Note: The following is an excerpt from the book, “Inspiration for Songwriters: Tips and Tricks to Unlocking the Muse” by Stan Swanson.) All songwriters struggle with their lyrics to their songs from time to time. It’s one of the “hazards” of the trade. And many times we settle for words that aren’t what we mean [...]

Ryan Michael Galloway has released his songwriting book Hits and Heartbreakers – Songwriting Fundamentals for Love or Money. Clocking in at just under 70 pages, this book is billed as “a rapid-fire manual guaranteed to improve your songwriting”. In other words, the book dispenses with verbose niceties and gets down to the real reason you [...]

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 [...]

How to Write Songs on Guitar: A Guitar-Playing and Songwriting Course is less about the specifics of guitar playing and more about the craft of songwriting. I purchased this book myself (as opposed to the many review copies of books that are sent my way) because an initial flip through the pages had me thinking, [...]

(Editor’s Note: At this time we are only asking for reviewers in the continental United States. Sorry!) As the traffic and general knowledge of the existence of BloggingMuses grows, we are receiving more and more books from publishers with the request to review the book and publish our review online. At this moment we don’t [...]

Pro Tools (and other recording and production software packages) have truly leveled the playing field for songwriters and home studio enthusiasts. The barrier of entry in providing studio quality demos has been significantly lowered for the serious and mid-level home studio. This age of technological marvels also comes with a price. Many songwriters spend so [...]

There are countless tips, tricks, and advice columns on the Internet. Yet there is something magical about holding a print magazine in your hand, gleaning lessons from some of the world’s greatest songwriters. Your regional chain bookseller likely has several racks of magazines, and usually they have American Songwriter Magazine, Performing Songwriter magazine, and sometimes [...]