Customer Reviews
This is what I've been looking for all these years. - By: Mr. S. Thorarinsson, 05 Jun 2008 
This book has it all as songwriting goes.
Chords sequences, song structures, harmony, how to write lyrics, famous songwriter quotes on their insipations & more.
There are also frequent examples of songs, we know & grew up with, that refer to the issues being tackledin the various sections.
The book even has a suggested album listening list for various styles of music for inspiration & eye-opening.
And finally something that I haven't seen mentioned before is the extremely high producion quality of the book. This is probably the nicest looking & highest quality print publishing I own now for musicianship, & my musicbooks produce quite an impressive stack if piled up.
Beutiful & jam packed full with knowledge pretty much sums it up, thank you Rikky Rooksby & Backbeat Books!
Really did nothing for me... - By: S. McCormick, 02 Apr 2008 
Perhaps it's because I consider myself a reasonably experienced writer but this book just made me think, close the book, pick up the guitar & just play the thing!
I see there are a number of people who strongly disagree, so keep an open-mind. It might just work for you!
Must have for all guitarists - By: Mr. Paul A. Brown, 23 Mar 2008 I rarely rate or write reviews on items that I have purchased however, I feel that this is a book that should bein the library of every guitarist (whether aspiring to be a writer or not). The theoryin this book is written clearly &in a way that everyone can understand. It also gives a great insight into the minds of some of the great writers & gives insight into how they may have constructed their songs.
brilliant book,buy it!!!!!!!! - By: Mr. R. Bonam, 31 Dec 2005 This is the book i've spent years searching for.A no nonsense guide to writing & understanding chord progressions & songwriting techniques.this book is invaluable also if your trying to pick chord progressions off of albums as it provides vital knowledge as to which chords could follow.Allin all a fantastic book,in fact the only other songwriting book that compares is ricky's other book 'The songwriting sourcebook'.
These are two essential books.
Superb and practical guide to songwriting - By: J. Whiting, 23 Jun 2005 As a keen songwriter, I have found this book invaluable. This is the sort of book where you can turn to any page & you *will* find something vital to making music. The author never explicitly supports any one way of playing guitar or writing a song. On the contrary, the book teaches "if it works, & you like it, then who can say something is done wrong." If you have the patience to really STUDY & DIGEST this book, it will teach some invaluable lessons.
I especially liked the sections on basic & non-basic chords. Rikky only teaches the chords you'll use, & how to use them. None of those Fm13b5b7 chords that clutter the chord books. This alone is worth the price.
But's there's more!
He provides an exhaustive 'study' of the basic chord progressions (e.g., I VI IV V, I V IV III,) with song titles that use them. Whether your tastes run to Johhny Rotten or Johnny Mathis, you'll find an example here of a popular song using that progression, as well as lots of tips on creating non-standard progressions (if it sounds good & you like it...)
The section on how to go about using inversions & keychangesin the real world is worth the price just for this info. This is the sort of thing that makes the standard progressions sound much more harmonically interesting.
There are also chapters on composing lyrics, structuring songs, finding subjects, avoiding cliches, & making demos.
However, don't expect to find instruction on playing rhythm, or lead, or this style or that style, or scale patterns.... There are plenty of good books dealing with this sort of instruction; this one isn't one of those.
And it doesn't pretend to be one of them. It might touch on some of these areas, but only as it relates to songwriting, specifically songwriting on guitar.
Best of all, he presents a BUNCH of alternate tunings, not just the most widely-used G/A, D/E, & drop D tunings (the most popular). He also provides an abundance of chords for each tuning--very handy!
There are also chapters on composing lyrics, structuring songs, finding subjects, avoiding cliches, making demos.
This book doesn't have any chords or theory that you can't findin other books, like "The Guitar Handbook". But what it does offer is better context relative to songwriting. Some books can overwhelm you with scales, chords, theory etc.It also gives you ideas on how to approach songwriting from different angles to come up with something new.
Finally, he breaks down some of the great songs of the past 50 years & shines a light on what makes them so timeless & evocative. While this is basically a theory book (covering chord types, chord progressions, key changes, etc.), don't let that scare you off. He keeps it as uncomplicated as possible &in all honesty, these are things you really should know if you aspire to write top quality songs. No book can really make you a top songwriter but if your goal is to write quality songs that you can be proud of, whether or not they make you an instant millionaire, this book will teach & inspire you.
I love it, & recommended it to all my guitar buddies.
