approach adventure six-string songwriting

books:

The "Idler"
Will Self, Howard Marks, ...

Idle Ltd, 1999

As Dorothy Parker once sagely noted, curiosity is the cure for boredom, but there is no cure for curiosity. It is endless and free, unlike television, wine, or the water in our taps. It is more pleasurable and reliable than sex. It's what makes us human. Spend time with the curious minds of Stephen Fry, Philip Pullman, science writer Steve Jones, and more. Guest editors for this issue of Idler are John Lloyd, founder of QI and the producer ...

Guitar Man: A Six-String Odyssey, or, You Love that Guitar More than You Love Me

6 reviews
Will Hodgkinson

Da Capo Press, 2006

Inspiring, actually
Though the premise sounds pat -- a bit like a book proposal: journalist with no musical training picks up guitar with the goal of playing a gig in six months, and then writing about it -- Guitar Man in fact blossoms into an enormously entertaining, and by the end, exciting story. Will Hodgkinson is a funny, charming, smart, ballsy, sympathetic guide to the world of guitar and guitar obsession. ...

Song Man: A Melodic Adventure, or, My Single-Minded Approach to Songwriting

4 reviews
Will Hodgkinson

Da Capo Press, 2008

a lesson in love
As a fan of Hodgkinsons excellent first book about learning the guitar, I was glad to find he'd lost none of his insight when graduating to something much tougher - writing a song that really touches people. On the way, he finds some of the funniest and most tragic people in the music industry. I thought the scene from Narcotics Anonymous with failed and desperate songwriter Lawrence (who I ...