Tom Bliss on Songwriting

[Fliss]

I just found a brilliant 35 page tutorial on songwriting, written by the wonderful folk singer/songwriter Tom Bliss: http://www.turnstone.tv/songwritinga.html

Fliss

[weatherford]

Downloaded to read later! Thanks, Fliss!!

[Marshall]

It's always nice to figure where the author is coming from on something like this. Songwriting is different things to different genre's.

I listened to his "Road to Bharou" and just about nodded off. It's a lovely piece, but very traditional/folkie long-winded story telling. Listening to "Gentle Maids Ashore" now. Nice, but also not my cup of tea.

There are many nice books on songwriting. I like Shiela Davis, "The Craft of Lyric Writing." It covers many genre's

[Fliss]

It's always nice to figure where the author is coming from on something like this. Songwriting is different things to different genre's.

I listened to his "Road to Bharou" and just about nodded off. It's a lovely piece, but very traditional/folkie long-winded story telling. Listening to "Gentle Maids Ashore" now. Nice, but also not my cup of tea.

There are many nice books on songwriting. I like Shiela Davis, "The Craft of Lyric Writing." It covers many genre's

I agree that where the songwriter is coming from makes a big difference, but I found it a great general guide and I think a lot of what he says is useful in any genre. Personally, I like the traditional folk roots style, though, anyway. I'm not familiar with the two songs you mentioned. "The Silverlode of Sark" and "The Violin" are probably some of the best examples of his work in my opinion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWZhJPaw9xw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVwaghfCoW8&feature=related

Fliss