Pat Pattison — Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics

Around 2015, I took Pat Pattison’s Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics, a songwriting course that completely changed the way I thought about writing lyrics.

Pat Pattison is a professor, songwriter, author, and songwriting educator best known for his work at Berklee College of Music, where he taught songwriting and lyric writing. His approach goes well beyond simply trying to find words that rhyme or writing whatever comes to mind. Instead, he treats lyric writing as a craft that can be studied, analyzed, and developed through specific techniques.

For me, this was an eye-opener.

The Course

The course is available through Coursera as Songwriting: Writing the Lyrics. It focuses specifically on the craft of lyric writing and introduces a much more deliberate process for developing lyrics.

One of the biggest things I took away from the course was that good lyrics don’t necessarily appear fully formed. There is a process behind developing them.

The course gets into concepts such as rhyme, word choice, imagery, metaphor, phrasing, and the relationship between different sections of a song. It encourages you to approach lyric writing as a process that can be studied and worked through, rather than simply waiting for the right words to appear.

That change in perspective was extremely valuable to me.

The process can initially feel slow. You’re not necessarily sitting down and writing an entire lyric from beginning to end. Instead, you’re working through ideas, finding better words, exploring different possibilities, and deliberately developing the lyric.

At first, that can feel like a lot of work.

But once you start studying the process and actually working through it, it becomes much easier.

The Books You Need

Two books became particularly important to my work with this course:

Roget’s International Thesaurus, 7th Edition

I have the 7th Edition of Roget’s International Thesaurus.

This isn’t simply a book for finding synonyms. In the context of Pattison’s approach, it becomes a tool for exploring language and finding the precise word or concept you’re looking for.

Having a physical thesaurus available while working through lyrics can open up possibilities that you might not think of on your own.

The Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Including The Poet’s Craft Book

The second book is The Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Including The Poet’s Craft Book.

This became another important tool for understanding the songwriting process. Rather than simply looking for an obvious rhyme at the end of a line, the book helps demonstrate how rhyme and language can be used much more deliberately in songwriting.

A Deep Dive Into Lyric Writing

One thing I would emphasize about this course is that it is not a quick songwriting shortcut.

This is a deep dive into the craft of writing lyrics, and the process can take considerably longer than simply sitting down and writing whatever comes into your head.

That’s actually one of the things I found valuable about it.

The course taught me to slow down and examine the words I was using. Instead of accepting the first word that worked, I started thinking about whether there was a better word, a stronger image, a more interesting rhyme, or a more effective way to express the idea.

Once you understand the process, it starts becoming more natural.

MasterWriter

I also use MasterWriter, which is now a web-based, non-AI writing platform.

I’ve continued using MasterWriter as part of my songwriting process. I use it when I’m working on ideas and developing lyrics, and I also use it as a place to keep and organize my lyrics. It has become a practical part of my songwriting workflow.

MasterWriter is much easier and faster to use than going back and forth between physical reference books, and I still find it very useful when I’m working on a lyric.

I’ve often wished there were a software program that could take everything Pat Pattison teaches and turn that entire process into an easy-to-use songwriting application.

To date, I haven’t found anything that really does that.

Part of the reason may be that Pattison’s approach relies on very specific reference materials, including the particular thesaurus and rhyming dictionary used in the process. There could also be licensing issues involved in incorporating those specific reference works into software.

So for me, MasterWriter and Pattison’s course serve somewhat different purposes. MasterWriter is a practical writing and organization tool, while Pattison’s course taught me a deeper process for actually developing the lyric.

“Could Have Been So Easy”

One of the songs that benefited from what I learned was “Could Have Been So Easy.”

The course helped me understand how to approach the lyric differently and gave me tools for actually getting through the writing process instead of getting stuck trying to find the perfect words.

It wasn’t just about learning a few songwriting tricks. It changed the way I approached lyrics.

And that knowledge carried over into many other songs I wrote afterward.

One of Many Lyric-Writing Studies

Pat Pattison’s course was one of many lyric-writing studies I’ve taken over the years.

Each course, book, teacher, and songwriting method has contributed something different to the way I approach songwriting. Some have focused on lyrics, some on melody, some on structure, and others on the overall songwriting process.

I’ll be documenting the other songwriting courses and lyric-writing studies I’ve taken in separate sections as I continue building this songwriting education history.

I don’t think a songwriter needs to take this particular course to write great songs. Plenty of great songwriters have never studied Pat Pattison’s methods.

For me, though, it was an extremely valuable addition to my songwriting toolbox.

That’s really how I look at songwriting education in general. There isn’t one course, book, or method that gives you everything you need. They’re tools for the toolbox. You take what works for you, apply it to your own writing, and continue developing your own process.

If you’re a songwriter who is interested in improving your lyrics and learning a more deliberate approach to lyric writing, I highly recommend this course.

You don’t have to use everything Pattison teaches. You don’t even have to agree with every approach. But learning another way of looking at lyrics can open up your writing and give you more tools when you get stuck.

For me, that’s exactly what this course did.