Reddit mentions of How to Write Songs on Guitar: A Guitar-Playing and Songwriting Course

A few things that have helped me with my songwriting that might also help you:

• If you come up with something that even sounds vaguely mediocre, record it! You might come up with something that at the time doesn't sound special, only later to listen to your recording and really dig it. don't let good ideas get away.
  
  
• come up with 3-4 chords to write the rest of the song around. You can use more chords, but 4 chords is a good start. I'd highly suggest looking a a key chart (included in link below) to see what chords fit in the key of your song. With some creativity you can chords outside the key, but a key/chord chart is an excellent starting point for coming up with chord progressions.
  
  https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/5f/d3/ff/5fd3ffb8940285beca8a39c744fad7d4.jpg
  
  
  
• Learn to play some of your favorite songs so you can see the behind the scenes music structure. You can learn a lot about chord progressions, song structures, successful key changes, and use of riffs by learning from famous songs.
  
  
• I find it easier to write lyrics after you've already come up with a vocal melody. Just hum some gibberish until you have a melody that sounds good. Once you have a strong melody, just let it bounce around in your head and see if any words start to stick to it. Write down whatever comes to you, whether you think its good or not. I'd also say don't set out to write to write a song about a specific subject matter, let the song decide what its about.
  
  
• There is one songwriting book that I absolutely recommend, Rikky Rooksby's How to Write Songs on Guitar. I bought that book 9 years ago and to this day still refer to it from time to time. It is backed with incredibly helpful information. Rooksby's other books Songwriting Sourcebook, Chord Master (the absolute best chord book IMO) are also incredibly helpful for songwriting.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Songs-Guitar-Expanded/dp/0879309423/ref=la_B001K87RIO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502982573&sr=1-1
  
  
• If you want to improve your lyrics, listen to Bob Dylan. IMO he is the best lyricist in music and you will get better at writing lyrics just through osmosis.
  

It may sound cheesy but I couldn't do without [Rikky Rooksby's How to Write Music on Guitar] (http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423). He deconstructs 1000's of songs and groups them together. Then with the use of his charts you can easily find what you're trying to do. For instance, the other day I was working on a riff/chord structure that went from D to G. I thought, man I could use some sort of chorus-y bridge thing to break it up. I looked in the book, according to the chart, thats a I to IV. So I found other songs that go from I - IV and then I skim through turnarounds using I-IV reading the song titles. I found a section that said Boston More than a Feeling, Tracy Chapman Talking about a Revolution, Foo Fighters Never Forget, Libertines Cant Stand You Now, and I thought, yeah, kinda what I'm going for, so they used I-IV-VI-V, so my bridge now (going back to the chart) D-Bm-A, since that lands on the V it's strong, and conjures up some nice emotion.

That's an instance where I already had an idea. He also has great starting points, for instance, he notes that in his chart, chords from columns 7-9 combined with 1-6 have a harder edge. It's a formula, when used generically make a Rolling Stones/Bad Company/Black Crowes sound, when re-arranged form White Stripes sound (I-IV-V with these 3 flattened chords) - i.e. Broken Boy Soldier E-G-D-E (I-bIII-bVII-I) plus C-B-A-G (bVI-V-IV-bIII).

I copied the charts and the pages that list bands versus popular turnarounds and have it in my music book for quick reference. It's completely invaluable.

You want this:

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423

It's shows you all the formulas with none of the bullshit. If you spend six months working through the chapters you will be able to write songs.

It's the best beginners music book I've come across in 25 years of music.

You don't need to know theory to write music. It's certainly useful, but it is by no means a necessity. You probably know more theory than you realize. There are likely various patterns and things that you recognize as common, you just don't have a name for it. A lot of music theory is just giving names to those things.

If you're looking for a good resource to get you going, I recommend Tom Kolb's Music Theory for Guitarists book. It's basically a crash course on A LOT of theory subjects. It's far from the most in depth look at any of the topics involved, but it does a great job of immediately relating everything to the guitar.

I also recommend Rikky Rooksby's How to Write Songs On Guitar. This book is a flat out classic of guitar and songwriting instruction.

Not free, but you might find How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Roosky interesting.

If you're looking for help writing songs and coming up with riffs, I would highly recommend How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby. It covers so much more than other songwriting books, and I haven't been able to find anything that even comes close to it.

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423

Also, take a look at the musician's institute books. IMO, they have been consistently putting out the best books.

http://www.halleonard.com/promo/promo.do?promotion=230001&subsiteid=7

It's a great book. Here's the amazon version, it's updated, but essentially it's the same thing. Once you learn keys/modes it's like a language that unfolds. You won't be "memorizing" anymore, as much as learning how the language is constructed.

If I may suggest a book along these lines, I have gotten way more use from this book than I ever expected to. It's not really about how to write songs (or even on guitar), it's more about how all these notes and chords fit together, and work together. Goes over dozens of different chord progressions (and lists popular songs so you can easily identify it in your head), chord substitutions, that kind of thing. Highly, highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423


I think this may be what you are looking for. Just started going through it myself but it already has all the different kind of chords and small examples of songs and artists that use each chord type and the type of mood for each chord chord type. Also has a progression chord chart as well.

Edit: I would check out the reviews for his other books about songwriting as well and determine from there which one is most suited for what you are looking for.

Well...point being don't overcomplicate it I guess. There are many good books about writing lyrics, definitely read one. It will at least give you all the mechanics of writing and good tips on writing in general.

This is one of the ones I have read that I found really helpful: http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423

Second if you are writing in a group it's exponentially more difficult than alone. For one thing it's hard to communicate a full vision for lyrics or a song until some sort of tipping point. Actually this is true of anything creative, so it might be better, if you are in a group to get at least a bit written ahead of time before collaborating. Also you absolutely need to just say upfront, this is gonna be corny and awkward as hell. In fact writing parody or joke songs is so easy cause you are detached from the emotion of it a bit. In real lyrics I suppose this isn't the case and so if you think of something you think is great others may not agree and feelings get hurt. Gotta get over this quick or you will get nowhere fast.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional musician, I have no songs written that are even worth sharing but I do collaborate with people creatively a lot. I have done a lot of improvised jams with lyrics and stuff to try and write but I should say that probably any professionals opinion would be better than mine.

Try books. They tend to be more focused on sequence and scope of information. While you may get some of the same info online, the manner in which a text will present it adds significant value.
here're two i've liked: http://www.amazon.com/Guitarists-Chords-The-Foundation-Melodic-Soloing/dp/1423483219/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1P4KMJPFH2RW2XY8WK6K

http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Songs-Guitar-Revised/dp/0879309423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411569974&sr=1-1&keywords=write+songs+on+guitar

have fun.

How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby

I don’t know if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s mostly about chord progressions. I have the keyboard one and it’s pretty good basics. I thinking some practical application (songwriting) will help you understand theory learning on your instrument.