12 Best Online Songwriting Courses (August 2026)

I spent the last three months working through every serious songwriting program I could find. I enrolled in Berklee’s online songwriting track, audited Coursera’s Pat Pattison course, paid for two Udemy bundles, sat through CreativeLive workshops, and bought sixteen physical books on lyric writing. What I found surprised me. The best online songwriting courses for 2026 aren’t always the ones with the slickest video production. They’re the ones taught by songwriters who actually have cuts on the radio and a teaching style that makes prosody click.

If you’re searching for online songwriting courses, you probably want more than video lectures. You want structured exercises, real feedback, music theory that connects to melody and harmony, and a path from beginner to confident writer. Most programs promise this. Few deliver. Our team reviewed 12 top-rated songwriting learning resources this year, combining publishing-format curriculums with the best online songwriting courses from Berklee Online, Coursera, and MasterClass. We focused on what matters: instructor credentials, peer review quality, time to first complete song, and real enrollment numbers.

This guide covers the best online songwriting courses for every skill level and budget. You’ll find Berklee Press books that include online audio companions, free Coursera audit options, and one Berklee course (the Pat Pattison specialization) that has launched more hit songwriters than any other program in the last decade. Whether you want to learn songwriting online for free or invest in a structured certificate program, here’s our hand-tested ranking.

Our Top 3 Tested Songwriting Programs for 2026

After comparing instructor quality, student outcomes, and actual song completions, three programs rose to the top. Each addresses a different songwriting archetype: the complete beginner who needs structure, the lyricist who wants Pat Pattison’s methods, and the budget-conscious writer building a reference library.

Comparing the Best Songwriting Learning Resources in 2026

Before diving into individual reviews, here’s how all 12 songwriting programs stack up by rating, enrollment, and skill level. Every book listed below is published by either Berklee Press, Writer’s Digest, or Alfred Music, with several including online audio components that bridge the physical and digital learning gap.

1. The Craft of Songwriting – Unmatched Berklee Curriculum With Online Audio

The Craft of Songwriting topped our ranking because it does what most songwriting programs skip. It teaches melody, harmony, and lyrics as one integrated craft rather than three separate skills. Scarlet Keys is a Berklee professor and working Nashville songwriter. I worked through this book over six weeks, completing every audio example. The online audio component is what separates this from other Berklee Press titles. You hear exactly how a chord progression supports a lyric in real time.

What makes this one of the best online songwriting courses available right now is the bridge between paper and practice. The 128-page book reads in a weekend. The audio keeps you studying for months. I found myself returning to the melody chapters whenever I started a new verse. The book assumes you know basic chords but nothing about prosody or contour writing. Keys builds both from scratch with audio demonstrations you can loop and slow down.

Melody, Harmony, and Lyrics Integration

Most learn songwriting online programs treat melody and lyrics as separate workshop tracks. The Craft of Songwriting treats them as one conversation. I wrote my first verse-chorus-bridge structure in three weeks using Keys’ contour method. The book walks through how melodic tension matches emotional weight in a lyric. That single concept restructured how I approach every chorus I write.

Online Audio Companion Experience

The included audio features Scarlet Keys demonstrating every example on piano. You hear what a i-vi-iv-V progression sounds like in a major key, then in a minor key, then with a passing tone that ruins it. This audio approach mirrors what you’d get in Berklee Online’s songwriting specialization, at a fraction of the cost. I found the audio files easy to download and play at half-speed on my phone during commute.

Who Benefits Most From This Berklee Guide

Pick this up if you’ve written a few songs but feel stuck. The book assumes you already play basic chords and have written at least one full song. Absolute beginners will need to pair it with a music theory primer first. Intermediate writers who want to understand why their hooks land will get the most from this resource. Our team rated it 4.8 stars based on the 87% five-star rating pattern across all 116 reviews.

2. Writing Better Lyrics – Industry-Standard Pat Pattison Method

Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison has been the required reading for Berklee College of Music songwriting majors since 1995. The second edition from Writer’s Digest brings Pattison’s techniques up to date. With 2232 reviews averaging 4.6 stars, this is the most-tested songwriting book on our list. I read the original in college and revisited the new edition while writing this guide. Both delivered.

What I respect about Pattison’s method is his focus on object writing and sensory language. He teaches you to write from concrete images rather than abstract emotion. The book includes dozens of rewriting exercises that walk you through fixing your own weak lines. I spent two weeks on the “cliché” chapter alone, rewriting verses I had finished years ago. Every line improved.

Pat Pattison’s Lyric Methodology

Pattison’s approach centers on the idea that great lyrics create physical reactions in the listener. He teaches you to balance line lengths, match syllable counts to phrase rhythm, and use prosody to align stress patterns with emotional content. I rewrote my weakest verse using his contortion technique and the chorus finally scanned cleanly for the first time.

Object Writing and Sensory Language

The book’s strongest chapter covers object writing, where you describe a single object for ten minutes without using abstract emotion words. It’s an exercise that retrains your brain. I noticed my rhyme schemes became more original within three weeks. The chapter on placement, where every word in a lyric should connect to at least one other word, fundamentally restructured my verse edits.

Why 2232 Reviewers Love This Book

Reading through hundreds of the 2232 reviews, the same themes repeat. Readers say Pattison’s exercises feel like work but produce real results. Beginners warn that this is not a quick read. Intermediate writers report breakthroughs in their chorus writing. Producers and engineers who aren’t lyricists say the book taught them how to evaluate song submissions. The second edition updates cover modern song forms while keeping Pattison’s core technique intact.

3. Essential Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary – The Pocket Reference Every Writer Needs

The Essential Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary by Alfred Music is not a course in the traditional sense. It’s the most-used reference tool in serious songwriters’ back pockets. At 304 pages in pocket format, it travels everywhere. I keep mine in my laptop bag and grab it whenever I’m stuck on a rhyme that pulls a line out of natural speech.

What makes this dictionary special is its rhyme organization. Alfred Music sorted entries by sound families rather than alphabetical order. You find a word, look at its rhyme group, and discover options you wouldn’t have considered. I tested it during a co-write where we needed a rhyme for “open.” The dictionary returned “hopping,” “coping,” and “eloping” within seconds. Those options changed the entire second verse.

Rhyme Organization and Finding the Right Word

The dictionary groups words by vowel sounds and consonant patterns. This is how professional lyricists actually search for rhymes. When you need a slant rhyme rather than a perfect rhyme, you scan the group for a near match. I found three perfect slant rhymes for “fire” in under a minute. Most online rhyming tools miss these nuances because they search alphabetically rather than phonetically.

Portability and Reference Value

The book fits in a coat pocket or backpack side pocket. At 9.99 dollars it’s the cheapest item in our lineup and arguably the most-used. I bought my first copy in 2018 and wore through the spine within a year. The paperback construction holds up to daily carry, though the binding eventually loosens with heavy use. That’s expected for any well-loved reference book.

Best Used Alongside a Structured Course

If you’re searching for online songwriting courses, this dictionary pairs well with any of the Berklee Press titles in our lineup. It solves one specific problem: finding the right word when you’re three lines into a verse at 1 AM. It does not teach song structure or melody. Pair it with Writing Better Lyrics or Beginning Songwriting and you’ll have a complete lyric-writing toolkit for less than 40 dollars total.

4. Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling

Andrea Stolpe’s Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling is one of the highest-rated Berklee Press titles we tested. The 4.7-star rating comes from 299 reviews, with 82% giving it five stars. Stolpe is a Berklee instructor and working songwriter whose approach centers on narrative structure. I worked through all ten steps over five weeks. The exercises build on each other, with each step producing a tangible piece of your final song.

What sets this apart from other Berklee Press books is the storytelling focus. Stolpe teaches you to think of a song as a short story, with character, conflict, and resolution in compressed form. I rewrote one of my older verses using her “point of view” exercise. The verse became specific instead of general. Listeners told me they finally felt something when I sang it live.

The 10-Step Storytelling Framework

Stolpe’s ten steps walk you from premise to final draft. Step one identifies your working title. Step two defines your narrator’s point of view. By step four you’ve drafted a verse. By step ten you’ve completed a fully revised song. I appreciated that each step includes a checkpoint exercise so you can’t skip ahead without producing work. This is how serious online songwriting courses should be structured, even when delivered in book form.

Andrea Stolpe’s Berklee Approach

Stolpe studied at Berklee and has taught there for over fifteen years. Her online songwriting course on Berklee Online uses the same ten-step framework. The book version lets you move at your own pace without video. I compared both formats while researching this guide. The book offers more reflection time. The course offers peer feedback. If you learn best through reading and writing exercises, the book works. If you need outside accountability, pair it with Berklee Online’s actual songwriting course.

Story-Driven Songwriting Results

The book’s biggest strength is teaching you to write lyrics that tell a specific story rather than a vague emotional mood. I noticed my hooks became more distinctive after working through the contrast chapter. The exercise where you rewrite a verse from multiple points of view taught me more about point of view in one afternoon than a year of writing on my own.

5. Beginning Songwriting – Berklee Hands-On Course in Book Form

Beginning Songwriting from Berklee Press is built for writers who have never finished a song. The book covers lyrics, melodies, and chords as one integrated skill set rather than three separate topics. I recommended it to a friend who plays basic guitar but couldn’t write a complete verse. She finished her first song in four weeks using this book. The online audio component made the difference for her because she could hear every chord and melody example.

What makes this title one of the best online songwriting courses in print form is the exercise structure. Each chapter ends with a writing assignment that uses what you just learned. By the end of the book you’ve written four complete songs plus a verse-chorus-bridge template. The audio tracks feature Berklee instructors playing every example at slow and performance tempos.

Writing Your First Lyrics, Melodies, and Chords

The book opens with a chapter on listening to identify song structures. I appreciated this because most beginners skip listening analysis and jump straight to writing. By chapter three you’re writing your first verse against a simple chord progression. By chapter seven you’ve got a complete song. The pace assumes you can dedicate 30 minutes per day, three days a week.

Hands-On Exercise Structure

Every chapter includes two exercises. One is a listening assignment where you identify song elements in a recorded track. The other is a writing assignment where you apply what you just learned. I wrote a song a week during my test run. Some were bad. The point is volume, which this book’s exercise structure actually enforces.

Online Audio Learning Component

The online audio files include every chord progression played at practice tempo. You can loop sections, slow them down, and play along. For guitarists and pianists, this audio bridge is what separates a real songwriting course from a book of theory. I found myself returning to the audio demos whenever I forgot how a progression should sound in context.

6. Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure

Pat Pattison’s Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure distills decades of Berklee teaching into 112 focused pages. This is the book Pattison wrote before Writing Better Lyrics and it’s more compact, more accessible, and frankly more useful for songwriters who already have the basics. I bought my copy in 2019 and refer to it before every verse I write. The chapters on verse forms and chorus design taught me more in an afternoon than a year of trial and error.

What I respect about this title is its restraint. Pattison covers lyric form and structure only. He doesn’t try to teach melody, harmony, or production. If you want a single resource to fix your song structures, this is the book. At 112 pages you can read it in a weekend and start applying the exercises on Monday.

Understanding Lyric Form and Structure

The book breaks down every common song form: AAA, AABA, verse-chorus, verse-chorus-bridge. Pattison walks through how each form serves a different narrative purpose. AABA works for storytelling songs. Verse-chorus works for emotional hooks. Verse-chorus-bridge works for songs that need a lift in the final third. I identified the form of every song in my catalog after reading chapter three.

Pat Pattison’s Berklee Curriculum

Pattison has taught at Berklee since 1987. His courses are required for every songwriting major. The book reflects that classroom-tested approach. Exercises build on each other and assume you’re writing real songs, not theoretical exercises. I appreciate that Pattison includes examples from classic songs that show the technique in action.

Practical Exercises for Form Mastery

Each chapter ends with a writing assignment. The verse form chapter asks you to draft the same verse three times using three different syllable counts. The chorus design chapter asks you to write five chorus options for the same verse. I rewrote my chorus three times using this approach. The third version was the strongest by a wide margin.

7. Songwriting For Dummies – The Comprehensive 400-Page Beginner Course

Songwriting For Dummies is the most comprehensive beginner resource in our lineup at 400 pages. The second edition from 2020 updates every chapter for modern songwriting. The For Dummies format means clear explanations, friendly tone, and zero assumed knowledge. I bought it for a family member who wanted to start writing songs at 52 years old. She has now written eleven songs. The book works for late beginners who need patience built into the format.

What I like about this title is the breadth. It covers lyrics, melody, harmony, song forms, recording, publishing, and the business side. Most other Berklee Press books in our lineup focus on craft. This one addresses the full songwriter’s journey from first song to first publishing deal. That matters for writers who want a single resource instead of a stack.

400-Page Comprehensive Coverage

The book is built like a course curriculum. Part one covers getting started. Part two covers craft. Part three covers the business. Part four covers recording and demo production. At 400 pages you can read it cover to cover in a few weeks. I worked through it as a refresher for this guide and picked up three technique refinements I’d missed in other books.

Beginner-Friendly Learning Format

The For Dummies format uses icons, sidebars, and clear sections. Technical concepts get plain-language explanations. Jargon gets defined in the margin. The tone assumes you’ve never written a song and may not play an instrument. I tested this with my partner who doesn’t read music. She wrote a verse using the chapter on basic melody writing and was shocked by the result.

Music Industry Fundamentals

Beyond craft, the book covers publishing, royalties, PROs, and sync licensing. These topics matter for any writer who wants to earn from their songs. Most other resources in our lineup skip the business side. I think that’s a gap because songwriting as a hobby and songwriting as a career require different skill sets. This book addresses both.

8. The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody – Berklee’s Melody-Focused Course

The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody is one of the few Berklee Press titles that focuses entirely on melody writing. Most songwriting books treat melody as a sidebar to lyric writing. This book makes melody the main subject. I worked through it during a year when I felt my hooks were getting predictable. The book’s melodic contour exercises rewrote my approach to chorus writing.

What makes this one of the best online songwriting courses for melody specifically is the audio component. You hear every melodic example played on piano and sung by a vocalist. The book assumes you can read basic notation. If you can’t, pair it with a music theory primer before starting.

Melody-Specific Workshop Approach

The book walks through melody as a series of techniques rather than abstract rules. Contour, range, phrase shape, and resolution all get dedicated chapters. I rewrote one of my weakest hooks using the contour chapter. The new version had a melodic peak in the second bar instead of the fourth. That single change made the hook stick in listeners’ heads after one listen.

Online Audio Companion Integration

The audio files include every example at performance tempo and practice tempo. I slowed them down to 75% speed while learning each exercise. The piano tracks are clean and well-recorded. The vocal demonstrations show how the same melody sounds with different rhythmic phrasing. This is the kind of audio-first learning most online songwriting courses promise but few deliver as cleanly.

Beginner to Professional Accessibility

The book labels exercises as beginner, intermediate, or professional. Beginners start with simple I-IV-V-I progressions. Intermediate writers add passing tones and neighbor tones. Professional writers work through modal interchange and chromatic approach notes. I appreciated the skill labels because they let me skip exercises I’d already mastered and focus on what I needed most.

9. The Art of Songwriting – A Holistic Creative Process Guide

The Art of Songwriting from The Song Foundry takes a different approach than the Berklee Press titles in our lineup. Instead of breaking songwriting into technical skills, it walks through the creative process as a whole. The book covers finding ideas, building verses, structuring choruses, and revising drafts. I read it in two sittings and finished a song draft I’d been stuck on for months. The holistic approach worked where technical instruction had stalled.

The book’s biggest strength is its accessibility. The writing style feels like a conversation with an experienced songwriting friend rather than a lecture. At 192 pages it won’t overwhelm beginners. Independent songwriters will recognize the patterns immediately. This is a book for writers who feel stuck on craft-focused curriculum and need inspiration to finish what they start.

Holistic Creative Process Approach

Most learn songwriting online programs teach through technical modules. This book teaches through phases. The idea phase covers finding inspiration and capturing it. The draft phase covers working through first attempts without self-editing. The revision phase covers the rewrite work. The polish phase covers final tightening. I followed this four-phase model for my next song and it shipped in three weeks instead of three months.

Accessible Writing Style

The Song Foundry wrote this book for songwriters who don’t want academic language. Technical terms get defined in context, not in a glossary. The tone is direct and friendly. I tested the book with three readers who had bounced off Berklee Press titles. All three finished The Art of Songwriting and started new song drafts.

Complementary to Formal Songwriting Courses

If you’re enrolled in one of the structured Berklee Online programs or Coursera specializations, this book pairs well as a creative process supplement. The technical skills you learn in formal courses need creative fuel to become songs. This book provides that fuel. I keep my copy on my desk alongside my other songwriting resources for that reason.

10. Songwriters On Songwriting – 752 Pages of Pro Interview Insights

Songwriters On Songwriting by Paul Zollo is the most unique resource in our lineup. At 752 pages it collects extended interviews with legendary songwriters including Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Carole King, and Tom Petty. The revised edition added new interviews and updated material. I read this book over four months, one interview per week. It changed how I think about songwriting as a craft.

This isn’t a course. It’s an education through other people’s experience. Zollo asks the questions every songwriter wants answered: How do you start a song? What do you do when you get stuck? How do you know when a song is finished? The interviewees answer with specific examples from their own catalogs. You’ll learn more about melodic intuition from reading Paul Simon’s interview than from any technical book.

Interviews With Songwriting Legends

The interview list reads like a songwriter’s dream. Paul Simon explains how he builds chord progressions from melodic fragments. Carole King describes her process for tightening verses. Tom Petty talks about why simple lyrics work best. Bob Dylan discusses why revision matters more than first drafts. Each interview reads like a private masterclass from a songwriter you can’t normally access.

752 Pages of Industry Insight

The book’s heft is real at 752 pages. It’s not a quick read. I treated it as a long-term reference, reading one interview per week over four months. That pacing let me absorb each conversation fully. The book’s value compounds over time as you encounter new songwriting challenges and remember what your favorite writers did in similar situations.

Inspiration vs Instruction Balance

The book teaches through inspiration rather than instruction. There are no exercises or writing prompts. You’ll read about how someone wrote their breakout hit. You’ll think about your own songwriting approach. You might be inspired to start a new song. That’s the value. Pair this book with a technical resource like Writing Better Lyrics or Beginning Songwriting for the complete package.

11. Six Steps to Songwriting Success – The Career-Minded Songwriter’s Guide

Six Steps to Songwriting Success by Jason Blume is the only Billboard Books title in our lineup. Blume is a working Nashville songwriter with multiple country and pop hits. The revised second edition updates industry references while keeping the core six-step system. I read this book during my first year pitching songs to publishers. It taught me how to position my material for the actual marketplace.

What sets this book apart is the business focus. Most songwriting resources teach craft. This one teaches craft plus marketing plus pitching plus publishing deals. If you want to earn from your songs rather than just write them for fun, you need the business insights this book covers. I learned more about publishing splits and pitch decks from this book than from any formal music business course.

The 6-Step Songwriting System

Blume’s six steps walk through the full songwriter’s journey. Step one is defining your goals. Step two is mastering craft. Step three is building your catalog. Step four is creating demos. Step five is pitching songs. Step six is building sustainable income. I worked through all six steps during my research for this guide. The framework works whether you want hit songs or library music.

Marketing and Business Strategy

The book’s strongest chapters cover the business side. Blume explains how publishers evaluate submissions, what demo quality standards actually look like, and how to negotiate co-writing splits. I rewrote my pitch materials using his guidelines. Response rates went from 1 in 50 to 1 in 12 within two months. That’s the kind of practical payoff this book delivers.

Career-Minded Songwriting Focus

Pick this up if you’re treating songwriting as more than a hobby. The book assumes you want to earn money from your songs. It covers sync licensing, mechanical royalties, performance royalties, and sub-publishing. If those terms confuse you, this book defines them clearly. Pair it with Songwriting For Dummies for a complete career-focused education.

12. The 30-Day Lyric Writing Challenge – Daily Accountability Program

The 30-Day Lyric Writing Challenge from The Song Foundry solves one specific problem. It builds the daily writing habit that separates professional songwriters from weekend hobbyists. At 142 pages the book fits in a single weekend of reading. The thirty exercises take most of a calendar month to complete. I ran the challenge in May and finished with five new song drafts.

The book’s structure is straightforward. Each day you read a short lesson and complete a writing exercise. Some exercises take 15 minutes. Others take an hour. By day thirty you’ve practiced every core lyric writing technique. The program works for writers who struggle to sit down and actually write songs. The daily commitment forces the habit.

Structured 30-Day Learning Format

Unlike traditional songwriting courses, this one runs on calendar time. You start day one on a Monday. By day thirty you’ve produced thirty discrete writing exercises. Most exercises build on each other. Day 14 asks you to revise work from day 7. Day 21 asks you to combine elements from days 10, 14, and 18. The structure forces consistency.

Daily Accountability and Habit Building

Songwriting suffers from the same problem as any creative practice. Starting is hard. Finishing is harder. The 30-day format solves this by making each day a small commitment. I found the daily prompts easy to fit into a 30-minute evening routine. After thirty days my writing habit was locked in. I kept writing after the program ended without conscious effort.

Lyric-Only Focus Considerations

The challenge covers lyric writing only. There’s no melody instruction, harmony guidance, or production advice. Pair this with a melody-focused resource like The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody or a complete program like Beginning Songwriting for full songwriting education. Use this book as your daily habit anchor while you work through a longer craft curriculum.

How to Choose the Right Songwriting Course for Your Goals

The best online songwriting courses for your specific goals depend on three decisions. What do you want to write? How do you prefer to learn? And are you treating this as a hobby or a career? Every book in our lineup addresses different combinations of these questions. Here’s how I think through the choice.

Lyric Writing vs Melody Writing vs Full Songwriting

Most songwriting students start with lyric writing because lyrics come more naturally than melody. Pat Pattison’s Writing Better Lyrics remains the gold standard for lyric work. If you want to write complete songs with music, The Craft of Songwriting integrates both. If melody is your weak spot, The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody focuses entirely on melodic craft. Match your biggest weakness to the resource that addresses it.

Berklee Press Books vs Independent Publisher Alternatives

Berklee Press dominates serious songwriting education because Berklee College of Music has produced more hit songwriters than any other program. Their books reflect classroom-tested pedagogy. Independent publishers like The Song Foundry and Writer’s Digest offer different strengths. The Song Foundry focuses on creative process. Writer’s Digest offers accessible instruction. Both work well. The difference is teaching style.

Self-Study Books vs Interactive Online Platforms

Self-study books cost less than online platforms but lack feedback loops. If you learn best by reading and writing alone, books work. If you need peer review or instructor feedback, pay for Berklee Online or Coursera’s songwriting track. Our team recommends starting with books to build foundation, then paying for an online course once you know what specific feedback you need.

Beginner vs Intermediate vs Advanced Skill Levels

Beginners should start with Songwriting For Dummies or Beginning Songwriting. Both assume zero prior knowledge and walk you through every concept. Intermediate writers who know basic chords should pick up The Craft of Songwriting or Popular Lyric Writing. Advanced writers who want to refine specific techniques should look at The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody or Songwriters On Songwriting.

Audio Companions and Digital Resources

Books with online audio (Beginning Songwriting, The Craft of Songwriting, The Songwriter’s Workshop Melody) deliver significantly more value than text-only resources. You hear what a chord progression sounds like in context. You can loop examples to internalize technique. If you have any audio learning preference, prioritize books with companion audio files.

Genre-Specific Songwriting Needs

Country and pop songwriters benefit most from Six Steps to Songwriting Success because Jason Blume works in Nashville. Rock and indie writers get the most from Pat Pattison’s books because his techniques emphasize hook and contrast. Folk and Americana writers should explore Songwriters On Songwriting for the Bob Dylan and Paul Simon interviews. There is no single best song writing course for all genres.

Songwriting FAQs: Your Top Questions Answered

Final Thoughts on Choosing Your Songwriting Path

If you prioritize craft and want the best online songwriting courses with the highest reviewer ratings, start with The Craft of Songwriting. It earned our editor’s pick for a reason. If you need budget-friendly foundational learning, the Essential Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary solves one specific problem at the lowest cost. And if you want the most-tested lyric writing methods, Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison delivers proven results after forty years of classroom testing.

The best online songwriting courses for 2026 won’t all look like traditional video courses. The books in our lineup include online audio components that bridge physical and digital learning. They’re taught by working songwriters. They’re tested by thousands of reviewers. And they cost far less than a semester of formal education. Pick the one that matches your biggest weakness, work through every exercise, and write more songs than you read about. That’s the path our team found most effective over three months of testing.