It's Good Music: Irving Berlin's Advice for Simple Songs

By Jared Bowen

Irving Berlin had rules about songwriting: the wording should be kept simple, the music should be composed for average voices and it should have heart. What's more, he once said, the songwriter should approach it as business. His "9 Rules for Songwriting" and a host of other juicy bits have been compiled in a new book, The Irving Berlin Reader.

The book's editor, Benjamin Sears, is a  performer and noted music historian and he has compiled a vast array of primary and secondary materials from Berlin's life and work. He warns that taking Berlin's advice to craft a siimple song is actually very hard to do.