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The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook: A Radical Guide to Cutting Loose, Overcoming Blocks & Writing the Best Songs of Your Life
Stop pulling out your hair and crumpling up paper – The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook blasts away your mental roadblocks so you can tap into your deepest creative resources. Whether you're a total novice or a seasoned pro, whether you're a pencil-and-paper songwriter or a gearhead with way too much recording equipment, whether you just want to go further as a songwriter or throw out everything and start over, The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook will revolutionize the way you write music. It outlines a radical new system – Immersion Music Method – designed to help you smash through creative block, become recklessly prolific, and make quantum leaps in your musical and compositional skills.
Bursting with mind-blowing tips and games and tales from the trenches of extreme songwriting, The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook will show you how to summon those elusive moments of inspiration on command, resulting in rogue creativity and fulfillment you never dreamed possible.
You'll learn how to:
• Confront and slay your biggest songwriting phobias
• Roll over procrastination like an armored tank
• Form a self-motivated group of composer friends (a “songwriter lodge”)
• Concoct new musical styles like a mad scientist
• Use technology to supercharge your creativity
Bursting with mind-blowing tips and games and tales from the trenches of extreme songwriting, The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook will show you how to summon those elusive moments of inspiration on command, resulting in rogue creativity and fulfillment you never dreamed possible.
You'll learn how to:
• Confront and slay your biggest songwriting phobias
• Roll over procrastination like an armored tank
• Form a self-motivated group of composer friends (a “songwriter lodge”)
• Concoct new musical styles like a mad scientist
• Use technology to supercharge your creativity
144 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
About the author
Karl Coryat
11 booksI was raised in Upstate New York and Connecticut. I moved west to study biology at U.C. Berkeley, and while in college, I became seriously interested in playing and recording music. My first (and pretty much last) real job was as an editor at Bass Player magazine, where I interviewed many famous musicians while honing my recording skills. In the 2000s, I wrote two music books that did very well: Guerrilla Home Recording and The Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook, the latter with Nicholas Dobson.
Around that same time, I started getting back into science, specifically cosmology and quantum mechanics. After reading several hundred physics papers and a bunch of books, in 2012 I won a prize in a major physics-essay competition. I spent the next four years organizing and writing The Simplest-Case Scenario, a philosophy-of-science book based on that essay.
On the musical side, I have transitioned more into live performance. I currently play bass and sing lead vocals in a popular San Francisco Bay Area band called Joyride. I also have another career as a comedian under a pseudonym, but that’s enough for now.
Around that same time, I started getting back into science, specifically cosmology and quantum mechanics. After reading several hundred physics papers and a bunch of books, in 2012 I won a prize in a major physics-essay competition. I spent the next four years organizing and writing The Simplest-Case Scenario, a philosophy-of-science book based on that essay.
On the musical side, I have transitioned more into live performance. I currently play bass and sing lead vocals in a popular San Francisco Bay Area band called Joyride. I also have another career as a comedian under a pseudonym, but that’s enough for now.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 20, 2011
A surprising find. I found this book to be the songwriters' (and musical experimentors') guide to breaking through (1) creative blocks, (2) stagnation through inaction, and (3) the minds' walls of judgment, self-criticism, EDITING instead of flowing, and expectation-making. If you use music recording/editing software, this might help you make headway in how to manage yourself, your recordings, your process of creative exploration. Dang, need to read this one again soon!
December 22, 2015
A really interesting book (http://matt.eifelle.com/2015/10/13/bo... for my full review)
December 15, 2019
Wow! This will be fun! Book describes the idea of songwriters gathering at dinnertime, not for an open mic, but to play the recordings they made that day. Book also describes many clever suggestions to create original music.
March 8, 2024
Nerds write a guide to turning your creative process into a game - though I'm yet to devote a day to trying this, the handbook's flowing with inspiring prompts guiding you how to get back in touch with the creative willingness to make mistakes you might have abandoned since childhood.
March 3, 2013
This is a fantastic book for overcoming creative blocks and realizing yourself as an artist. There are many methods, tools and processes that actually aid you in being more creative. Another interesting thing about this book is the global music making groups that have formed around Immersion Music Method. The group is called Immersion Composition Society and its made up of song writing lodges that meet once a month to share the music that they have created. Through some research I have discovered that thousands of songs have been created using this method and some of those songs are radio hits by well known bands.
November 21, 2014
Absolutely great! The core idea of the book is the 20 Song Day, where you try to write and record 20 songs within one intense, solitary day. Of course you can't do this, but in your attempts you might find your inner critic gets temporarily silenced, allowing spontaneous gems to appear. Certainly the best book I've read on songwriting - but in no may a how to.
If you want something more conventional, try Jimmy Webb's book.
If you want something more conventional, try Jimmy Webb's book.
November 5, 2010
an absolutely wonderful book for people struggling with songwriting. the ideas are a little over the top but it gets your mind moving for sure.
August 11, 2011
The book got me really excited to try out the method it described, but the actual results from that method left me wanting.
July 20, 2012
Many new and old ways to attack the songwriting process. Great ideas if you are feeling stuck or looking for a way to free up your current process.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews