Song Maps: A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics

Song maps has given me a completely new perspective on the art of songwriting. Like many other aspects of the music industry, they are probably hundreds the books written about songwriting, but none using the technique of song maps. This is a tried and tested technique developed by the author himself who has had a very successful career in the songwriting capital of the world, Nashville.The author recounts how he would typically be hired to write in collaboration with at least one or two other writers in a 3 hour songwriting session and a lot of the examples and revelations that he gives have come from those experiences.In this book, Hawkins describes seven song maps (or blueprints if you like) that can be used when developing and writing a song, particularly if you regularly collaborate with others.The great thing about this book is that the author takes each song map and provides a huge array of song examples from multiple genres, each of which he dissects to explain the relevant song maps in greater detail.At the end of every song map, the author provides exercises that the reader can undertake to solidify their understanding of the song map in question.The author concludes by encouraging the reader to embark on further study of song maps and reveals even more songs maps that were not covered in detail in the book.Even though the author writes from the perspective of collaborating with others, the idea is to help the reader formulate strong song ideas that can be developed into songs of substance. Songs that will move people and be remembered for all the right reasons.Song mapping is a technique that can be used in collaborative songwriting as well as solo songwriting.As someone who enjoys writing songs, I am looking forward to exploring song mapping in greater detail and experimenting with it in my own writing.If you are a songwriter already, or if you are you looking to start songwriting, this book is a resource that you will come back to again and again as you seek to develop your craft.An easy, insightful and informative read.

This book was more a conformation than a revelation. I recognised many aspects of this song mapping technique from my own intuitive workflow.I particular liked the Taylor Swift examples the writer gave. The one thing that bugged me was that the writer is clearly a religious person and he uses his faith in God in a lot of the examples, that threw me off a bit. I found it also very country music orientated (of course these types of songs relay heavily on lyrics), with some more focus on modern rock and poprock it would've helped me better.

This book was perfect for me as an aspiring musician. I've had dozens of random song ideas and song titles over the years but no thoughtful nor efficient approach to go about formalizing these ideas into a song. I've just been stream-of-consciousness dumping lyrical lines or thoughts in OneNote, or as voice recordings. If you are seeking a more concise approach to writing and structuring lyrics, I highly, highly recommend this book.Simon has created a fantastic framework that helps you take an idea you have for a song title and evolve it into a structured song with lyrics. Lyric writing can otherwise be a "Wild West" creative process with no boundaries or laws. The system isn't meant to be constricting, it's just a fantastic starting point, as he does encourage you to create variations or experiments outside of the prescribed system once you feel ready.I especially love that (A) the book is not super long and overly verbose; it's powerful and pithy and (B) he uses specific examples from several different genres and time periods. including hits from the days of Ella Fitzgerald to more recent hits—at the time of writing this review—like Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off", Kelsea Ballerini's "Peter Pan", or Lukas Graham's "7 Years". He analyzes the structure of these songs without getting too "in the weeds." Short and sweet.He notes that not all genres have a strong emphasis on being lyric-driven. As aspiring musicians, we have an opportunity to carve out how music will sound in the future, and if a genre today can become more lyric-driven. Personally, I love the sounds of EDM but—with few exceptions —the genre is mostly devoid of original, thought-provoking, moving lyrics. This book will help me explore this route.Thank you Simon for creating this book. I am grateful for it.

I enjoyed reading the entire book.Simon opens with a realistic example of what being a songwriter is like. He makes it clear that you have to be dedicated and thick-skinned to succeed.The song mapping process, combined with his additional workbook are a must-have for anyone putting ideas together. One of my top reads of 2022. Thanks for the Silver bullet for the 2nd verse "curse." Want to know the secret? Pick up a copy!

If you’re already “mapping” or doing any kind of formula writing, this isn’t very helpful. If your not mapping, it is a very useful tool but it might not be the book I recommend for learning about it. Im a big reader/ researcher with the things I do so I would go for a more comprehensive book but if that’s not you, it’s a super easy read (read it in a day) and it’s affordable and probably worth it if your not doing any kind of pre planning when you write. Personally, I would recommend The Addiction formula by findeisen

I liked this book. I've studied with Pat Pattison and this book was helpful in a pragmatic way of offering useful templates for song structure and development. As I read this book I could apply the Song Maps to songs I've written and could see areas of improvement or why certain elements really didn't work. It has given me some structure to put around my creative ideas.

Explicación fácil de entender, buen libro para aprender sobre como escribir canciones. Realmente te abre la mente y te muestra una manera más efectiva de escribir

I couldn't help but feel when I read this book that I was sitting at a table with an industry great - just picking their brain.The author really lets you have it all, he doesn't hold back, he just VERY SIMPLY breaks everything down for you. I was pretty skeptical at first, then I pulled out a couple of pieces I was working on and applied two of the techniques he mentions and BOOM! I can also see me using creative elements of the techniques outlined in this book for other creative writing pursuits. I've re-read it a few times now and each time I get something out of it. It's an easy read, but it has good info in it. If you're a great song writer already, you'll still pick up some super useful tips. If you struggle from time to time like me, you'll absolutely love it.Just buy the damn book already.

I decided years ago that playing and singing songs was about all I was capable of. Now I'm motivated and excited to use this method to try writing my own. Thanks.

I am not a great one for books on song writing, but this is one I am more than happy to recommend. Whilst I haven't slavishly followed the song map process, what it has really helped me with is finishing a lot of half-written songs I had been working on for ages. Putting a bit more structure to my lyric writing - which is what the book is essentially aimed at - has enabled me to actually make progress on songs that I had just got a bit stuck with.So, if you are like me and have little problem coming up with music and melodies, but struggle with the lyrics - this is the book for you.