Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting - Softcover

Song has been a part of people's culture since the beginning. From classical and rock and roll to country and jazz--there are hundreds of thousands of budding and established songwriters burning to write the next great hit. The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Songwriting is the one-stop resource for all inspiring songwriters to learn how much musical training is needed, how to put together the basics of a song for various popular genres, how to tailor songs to different industries (TV and film), how to get great ideas, where to find collaborators, publishers and agents and how the Internet is impacting the world of songwriting.

Two-time Oscar-winning songwriter Joel Hirschhorn began his musical career as an RCA recording artist. As a key member of the Brill Building pop era, he wrote, with Al Kasha, a series of million-selling rock singles. Some of the artists who have recorded and performed his songs include Elvis Presley, Maureen McGovern, Aretha Franklin, The Chambers Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Mama Cass, Roy Orbison, Sheena Easton, blues legend Taj Mahal, Julian Lennon, and Charlie Rich. Hirschhorn's Hollywood years opened with songs from such films as The Cheyenne Social Club (featuring a collector's item duet pairing Henry Fonda and James Stewart) and Jack Lemmon's The April Fools. He later won Academy Awards for "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno. His score for Pete's Dragon and his song "Candle on the Water" received Oscar nominations. "I'd Like to Be You for a Day," his title tune from the Jodie Foster film Freaky Friday, was nominated for a Golden Globe. He received Tony nominations for two Broadway musicals: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Copperfield, starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Hirschhorn's career includes work as a scorer and orchestrator for prime-time specials starring Billy Preston, Frankie Valli, and Marilyn McCoo. His songs have been spotlighted in such motion pictures as Eyes Wide Shut, The Ice Storm, and Slums of Beverly Hills and television shows such as South Park and The Simpsons. He also scored several seasons of Knots Landing. The most recent of Hirschhorn's six books is the best-selling Titanic Adventure. He is presently a concert and theater critic for Variety.