According to the article, there seems to be more and more options available these days for online guitar instruction of varying formats and quality. However, there’s only one credited in Ivan’s article as the Professional Choice for high quality, college-level, accredited guitar study online: Berkleemusic.

Thanks, Ivan. I’m a huge fan of Berklee’s Continuing Education faculty, staff, and online courses and I couldn’t agree more!

In case you missed the big occasion, last week a federal court judge ruled that AOL, RealNetworks and Yahoo! must pay licensing fees to ASCAP for the streaming of music on their sites.

Visit this Link to the catch up on the Full Story:

COURT DECISION

I know—the idea of a company having to pay for the use of music shouldn’t really be all that surprising. But over the past several years, creators and publishers have watched whole enterprises emerge, all based on the free use of music. The cyber-gurus told us “information wants to be free”—that the whole idea of copyright is a vestige from another era no longer beneficial to our wired way of life. The theory seems to have been that while a single unlicensed use by a film company or record label would never be tolerated, violations done on a mass scale would force licensors and even the courts to rewrite the old rulebook. Turns out that it just isn’t so or at least not yet.

For now, the digital world is going to have to ante-up and pay the bill, not only for the music they’re using now, but also the music they’ve been using as far back as July 1, 2002. Web-based companies that utilize music-streaming will need to obtain a non-exclusive blanket license, in the same way that radio stations, television stations, bars, restaurants, performing halls and others have for decades, from the performing rights societies, i.e. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. The fee for the license will be 2.5% of the service’s “music-use-adjusted revenue”. That rather clumsy terminology is short-hand for a formula that takes into account the amount of revenue generated by the business, the advertising and promotional costs for that business, the total number of hours that music is streamed, and the total hours that the web service is used. If you’re trying to do the math at home, don’t bother.

The people that have done the math say the number owed by the Big Three under this decision could be over $100 million. Of course, now that legal precedent has been set, and the courts have established that the basic performance licensing system is appropriate and applicable to these web-based services, it shouldn’t be long before BMI and SESAC step up to get their piece as well. After that, they’ll be moving on to all of the other music-streaming sites. Needless to say, there’s a lot of money in them hills.

The problem is, there may not be as much as there needs to be. Clearly, some of these services, maybe even some of the most prominent, will never be able to cope with the costly invoice now sitting on their desk. Many of them have hardly figured out how to effectively monetize their own businesses. We’ll undoubtedly hear many heart-wrenching stories of financial ruin and laments about how the licensing organizations are choking the business, standing in the way of progress, and violating the American public’s right to unlimited, unfettered, uninterrupted entertainment.

Too bad. Happily, the courts have reaffirmed once again that there really is no free lunch. This is good, since songwriters and publishers have had to pay for their lunch all this time, and will for the foreseeable future. Kudos to ASCAP for fighting the good fight. Credit goes to the court for making the right call. Here’s to a victory that’s all the sweeter for the long road it took to get there. Some things are worth waiting for.

$100 million is one of them.

“Is it common practice for (unknown) writers to contribute some money to the recording costs of a song? More specifically, a company wants to produce one of my songs and they are asking me for $350. I was just curious if you knew if that was something that often happens, or if that’s a bad deal.”

Let me start by saying it is common practice for all writers, known and unknown, to contribute money to the recording costs of a demo. It is not common practice for songwriters to contribute money to the recording costs on a record. There is a distinct difference between the two, so let me outline just a few of those differences.
A demo is a recording we songwriters invest in for the purpose of pitching to various artists. It is a representation of our work, like a portfolio. When I record a demo, I book session players, a day in the studio, an engineer, and each of these people is paid a fee for their work. A demo is not sold for profit, and no royalties are to be gained from my demo. When a writer is backed by a publisher or label, that writer/artist still pays for expenses such as studio time, etc. The caveat is that because it’s written into our contracts as recoupable items, services the label or publisher pays for up front but we pay for as the sale of our music brings in money, we sometimes overlook the fact that we’re still paying for the process. The label or publisher is just the investor, constantly assessing whether you as an artist or writer is a risk they are willing to take.

When you’re faced with a proposition from another company to record your songs, I encourage you to consider what that company is going to do for you. If the company only serves as a demo house, a studio with musician(s) that churn out a demo of your song for you, then that’s essentially the same as having a producer. All you’re doing is hiring out the pesky details of finding and hiring musicians, a place to record, an engineer, etc. If you’ve heard other demos from this company and you feel their sound would be a great match for your songs, then this service may be valuable for you. The trouble is that many companies out there, and individuals in the business of producing music, don’t care whether they can add anything to your music. They are simply out there to lay down some cheap tracks underneath what they view as just another songwriter without the resources to record their own music.

If the individual or company boasts the ability to get your music into the hands of industry professionals, then there are a few questions you should ask. First, ask them to provide you with the contact information of the people they will forward your music to. Without being able to follow up with the folks who supposedly listened to your music, you not only have no way of knowing if they actually did listen, but you also have no way of forming a relationship with these people if they did listen and like your music. Rarely will a music professional such as a producer, publisher, music supervisor, label exec, etc., track you down about your music – even if they liked it. You can imagine the incredible volume of music these people have to listen to each day, and so the key is to keep yourself as visible as possible so that when opportunities do arise, you are there to remind that person your music would be perfect for those opportunities.

Another important consideration when farming your songs out to be produced by others is the ownership of the master. Demand that you own the master. The production house is simply work for hire, and you are paying them to function as a producer, organizing the bits and pieces of the recording process. There should be no lingering fees such as royalties if the song is placed in a film/TV or on someone else’s record.

The bottom line comes down to relationship. If you believe after a continued relationship with a point person at the company who wishes to record your song, that the song will be demoed with care, then go for it. Typical demo costs depend on the process, whether live musicians were used, a facility was rented, etc. You’re paying for the time and resources of those involved, and so you can estimate the value fairly accurately by taking into account the process in which your song is demoed.

In all cases, I encourage you to keep building your network of musical contacts. Find friends who have the equipment to record. Start with a basic guitar/vocal or piano/vocal and get a sense for the areas in which your songs need to improve before sinking serious money into a full-fledged demo. My final advice is, if a point person at a company is not willing to invest more than the 3.5 hrs it may take to record your song, then you may be disappointed in the results. Build relationships that pave the way for your music to evolve and flourish.

This is a fairly easy task, but some of my students have been surprised at the results they get. Understanding the way in which Pro Tools will apply the new names can clear up the confusion. Here we see a simple session with four edited footstep regions.

One might assume that a renaming command would name these files from top to bottom in the tracks view. However, Pro Tools doesn’t look at the track order when renaming, it looks at the order of the regions in the Region Bin/List! If we were to rename these 4 regions the naming order from top to bottom would be 3, 1, 4, 2 based on their order to the left in the region list. If you sort your region list by a known parameter you can force the renaming to operate in the way you want. Watch what happens when we sort our list by name, like this :

After we run the Auto Rename function we get this :

Notice the order on the regions. If you look at the track view only you see the rename function ordered the regions 1, 3, 2, 4. Take a look again at the original and then how the regions were ordered in the region list. I hope it makes sense now!

Using the PT ordering function you can effectively order almost any region list to obtain the sort of functionality you need on your project. In this example you can see that I’m sorting by Timestamp :

Which in turn, makes the rename function order the regions in the track view as 3, 1, 4, 2!

I used to always export my regions/files for renaming functions in other applications, but given ProTools fairly robust functionality, the need for that is less. Just keep an eye on your region list and it should all start making more sense!

“Our collective kids now outnumber the band more than 2 to 1,” explains vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson. “We set out to make a record that would be entertaining for them…not strictly a children’s record, but a record that children would really enjoy. Making the focus about what our kids like was a truly liberating process and fun for the whole band.”

Here’s a music video based on their kid’s song entitled “7, 8, 9.”

I’m a big fan of BNL and also of high-quality music for children. To me, this album represents the best of both!

There are a couple of demo videos on Digi’s site… check them out here:

LINK TO TRANSFUSER

From the looks of it, Transducer might be really easy to integrate into some of the M-audio MIDI instruments, such as the Axiom line, Trigger Finger, and even the Xponent with Torq because of its ability to map effects to knobs and samples to pads. As I’m on vacation at the moment, I have yet to download and play with it, but if any of you do, please feel free to post your comments here to this blog. I’d certainly be curious here what you think. And if you have some suggestions on things to fix, I can pass those along to Digidesign too.

Nevertheless, those songs were mine. I wouldn’t want to think of them as orphans. Actually, I never knew songs could be orphans. But apparently, they can. Imagine them, sitting homeless and forlorn by the side of the road, waiting for someone to come by, offer a ride, and take them away…

Could happen. I saw a fascinating blog recently:

Music-Technology-Policy

which on Friday, April 25 addressed the issue of “orphan works” – a subject currently in front of the United States House and Senate. “Orphan works” are copyrights (songs, books, recordings, you name it) for which it is not possible to identify or contact an owner. What the author of Music-Technology-Policy, Chris Castle, very adroitly points out is that there are large commercial interests, Google in particular, that have a vested interest in supporting legislation to make it possible for these “orphaned” works to be used freely, without compensation or risk of penalty.

The problem is largely one of definitions. Certainly, anyone with experience in publishing would be willing to acknowledge that some works do fall into “orphan” status. Disputes between writers, convoluted copyright histories, failure of heirs to continue to administer copyrights, works essentially abandoned by their own authors (remember that scene in “Raising Arizona” where they leave the baby on the car)—these are all situations that can eventually make it impossible to identify the proper owner of a copyright. But companies like Google are setting the bar pretty low.

According to the blog, Google’s Lester Lessig has referred to “out of print books” as orphans. Google’s General Counsel has said publicly: “These works include those for which the author or assignee of the work – the work’s “parent”—can no longer be determined, usually because the contact Information on the copyright registration is out of date”. They also expand that definition of orphan to include “works that have been, for all intents and purposes, ‘disowned’ either because any potential monetary value of the works has expired or because their authors simply are not interested in enforcing copyrights on their works”.

Wow. Those are pretty broad definitions. To claim that just because something is “out of print” makes it an orphan would put a huge portion of American music’s master recordings into the home for wayward record albums. Only a very small portion of recorded music can ever be profitably kept “in print” at any given time. But it may still be actively used in movies, television, advertising, etc. Similarly, labeling something an orphan because of an incorrect contact on the copyright registration is like deeming anyone with an incorrect address on a driver’s license a fugitive. Copyright registrations are notoriously out of date, which is why large film studios use search services that specialize in tracking down authors and publishers.

Finally, to decide that works generating little income or for which the authors are no longer actively engaged in protecting the copyrights are “orphans” overlooks some fundamental realities of publishing. At Shapiro Bernstein, where I work, we have a song in our catalogue that for over two decades generated income in the low three figures (and that’s counting dollars and cents). But upon rediscovering it in the vaults, more than 50 years after its initial creation, the song suddenly found a new life—showing up in a Tarantino film, and then catching to become a stadium anthem, then finding its way into several national advertising campaigns. The song now generates more than enough income to keep its writers living well, and to renew their interest in their long lost “baby”. Songs come back. And when they do, the copyright owners get interested very quickly.

The point of all this is not to encourage you to write your Congressman about the “orphan works” legislation—though I wouldn’t discourage it either. The real point is to remind you once again of how important it is to maintain and update all of the information necessary for administering your copyrights.

Check your ASCAP registrations regularly. Make sure your publisher and your PRO have your correct address. Maintain accurate copyright registrations. Remain ever vigilante for unauthorized uses.

I’ve made all of these points before, both here, and in my book “Making Music Make Money”. It is a primary concern of my Berkleemusic class, Music Publishing 101. Whenever I talk about this subject, I usually emphasize that the songwriter is also a publisher of his or her own work, at least until he or she decides to assign that responsibility to someone else. As publishers, it’s our job to administer and protect the copyright.

But here’s a new way to look at it. You’re not only your song’s publisher. You’re the parent. You created it—now you have to take care of it. If you don’t, there are plenty of large “content” –hungry companies and creative “pop culture alchemists” who will be more than happy to take your song and call it their own. In this Information and Entertainment Age, nothing of value will stay an orphan for long.

I’ll be the first to admit there is a lot left to learn. I hope there are songs I have not yet written that will blow my other songs out of the water. I know there are ideas I have no yet had because I lack the experiences and the breadth of mind to conceive of them. But, that’s the beauty of an art that evolves as I evolve.

That said, I am sometimes asked what some of the most common pitfalls of new writers are. I’m sure the question is of particular interest so that those asking can evade the pitfalls and skip that step in the process of honing the craft. However, the most common pitfall is not writing frequently enough to understand where the other pitfalls lie, and so it’s a bit of a catch-22.

If you are writing a song a week, or at least a few songs a month, you’ll find yourself moving along a path to becoming better. Some of the scenery you might encounter along the way is generalized lyrics, strings of songs that are beginning to all sound the same, a lack of ideas, complex or difficult melodies that fall short of being memorable, disconnected harmonic progressions, etc. Which combinations of these depend on our musicality, training, our influences, our listening habits, and so on. With practice, we can improve no matter what our foundation.

But one particular pitfall I remember so clearly from my own experience (or lack thereof), had to do with the lyric content of the songs. I wrote the typical themes, love lost, love found, being the angry dump-ee, and being the self-righteous dump-er. As a whole, I suppose the lyrics weren’t particularly bad, but just not particularly memorable. The themes were universal enough, but what was missing was heart. My heart wasn’t in them. As years went by and I started writing for life events and experiences closer to me such as death in the family, or a celebratory song for a wedding, an interesting shift happened. Instead of the songs becoming less accessible because they were so much more specific to my situation, they were becoming more universal because they were specific and purposeful. It didn’t matter that my description of canning peaches as a little girl with my Grandma wasn’t a universal idea. What did matter was that by revealing personal and vulnerable details with the listener I connected us for a moment in time. I was singing about real situations, believable situations.

Now, one could argue that songs about canning peaches with my Grandma aren’t commercial. Indeed, it may not fit the mold. However, while I was writing detailed songs about my own life experiences, I was becoming fluent with a tool. I was involving words and situations I didn’t normally use in love songs, and taking risks with content beyond the ‘we met, we got married, we had a child’ formula. Eventually, that tool became a part of my process without my having to consciously think about its use. That’s the whole point with studying a songwriting process and gaining new tools. The tools themselves are merely vehicles for getting where we want to go. We’ll employ different tools in different songs, depending on what we need to accomplish.

Whatever pitfalls that keep us all from writing what we feel are our greatest songs, all can be conquered or at least minimized by exercising our writing muscle. Write often, and write without hesitation.

London Calling 2008

This is the UK’s largest music industry exhibition conference and live showcasing event, with over 3500 attendees from 45 different countries. Not too surprisingly, the focus of the conference is on independent music and the future of the music industry– which may be one and the same thing. Definitely an appropriate topic when EMI Records, the UK’s biggest label, is about to lay-off a huge percentage of their workforce (that is, if they can ever get around to it). Should be a great conference, and a showcase opportunity that’s worth considering, even for American bands. Maybe especially for American bands…

That’s because London seems to be one of the last spots on earth with a passion for new music. You can feel it when you’re there– this is one place where people still go out regularly to clubs to see new bands, where new, unique artists emerge with some regularity, and where the industry has rediscovered that music without a TV show or a featured spot in an advertisement can still matter to people. Looking at the artists that have broken out of the UK in the past two years, from Amy Winehouse to Corinne Bailey Rae to James Blunt to James Morrison and now Duffy, it’s clear that UK is in one of its most productive periods in years.

What’s really interesting is that the UK is now breaking not only their own native artists– but Americans as well! The Scissor Sisters have all the cachet of a UK act, having become European superstars virtually overnight. The crazy thing is that they’re not British at all. They’re a New York act that made the journey to England, in search of a more open, responsive radio environment, and an audience that still appreciates a mix of style, humor, and a little camp, mixed in with some great songwriting. The same is true of last year’s big success story, Mika– another American artist that had to go to the UK to find his true home.

It’s quite possible that this year will bring another example, with the NY singer-songwriter Julian Velarde. After several years of building a following in NY’s Lower East Side club scene, this singer-songwriter still hadn’t landed the label or publishing deal he was looking for. Then suddenly, the British A&R scene started buzzing about him and created something of a feeding frenzy, with UK execs flying across the pond to throw out offers and scoop him up right under the noses of the US A&R community. If Julian’s album is the hit that many expect it to be, there will be some A&R weasels over on Madison Avenue and at Rockefeller Center with some serious explaining to do.

Songwriters and artists have to realize that they are in a global business. Of course, that means that you can sell your records all over the world. But it also means that you can make your records all over the world. If you’re not finding the recognition that you’re looking for where you are, or if your sound is not a fit for radio in this country– there’s a flight at JFK that might solve your problem. It’s worth a trip to see if the grass might be greener on another shore.

I was wondering what ideas you might have regarding dramatic writing? In other words if a client said to you, “I need a melody that says “adventure,” perhaps as underscore to a scene in a movie or music bed, what would you do? Would you simply run to your instrument and start pounding out ideas until something came out that you liked? Or, is there another way to approach this? What are qualities of a motif that says, “adventure.”

Let me know our thoughts,

All the best ~ Jerry

http://www.ascap.com/playback/2002/december/features/songsfilmtv.aspx

Judging from the contents of my inbox, most of the college grads’ dream job is in A&R at a major record label– everyone’s asking to be hooked up with someone at Sony, or Warner, or Universal. The strange thing is the other set of resumes in my overloaded mailbox are from friends working at major labels and publishers, many of whom have been ensconced in that system for years. And they’re all asking me to keep my eyes open, because they’re desperate to get out!

Someone knows something the other doesn’t. The truth is that as the business shrinks, the most dangerous spot to be is inside a multi-national corporate behemoth. With veteran A&R people being laid-off in droves, those entry-level opportunities are pretty hard to come by. But even if you get one, you might not want to unpack your boxes right away. It’s hard to look at the current economic situation in the record industry and anticipate much of anything except another round of cost cutting come December. That dream job might be exactly that.

The problem is that too many students are still buying into the MTV and Idol-fueled myth of the mighty “record label”, with its expense- account toting execs, skyscraper offices, and superstar glamour. Industry insiders know that this particular dream exists more as flashbacks in the nostalgic minds of middle-aged A&R weasels recounting the good old days, or Doug Morris, than in the day-to-day reality of the people who actually make records. But then, those people aren’t at the major labels anymore, anyway.

The truth is, the music business is alive and kicking among hundreds of small to mid-size firms that serve every possible niche and need for an expanding, but increasingly diverse audience. If you’re looking for a job in the music industry, this is where you want to be– in companies that are growing, and with people who are energized and enthused about what they’re doing.

My advice for job-hunters? Broaden your scope. I spoke this week at a very good panel for an organization called “Women In Music” (don’t ask me how that invitation came about), and the theme that emerged overwhelmingly was the incredible range of jobs now available within the industry. The panel itself included band managers, booking agents, music supervisors, music lawyers, major label publicists, musicians, concert promoters, indie-label owners, and that was just the start. It touched on opportunities in merchandising companies, performing rights organizations, radio, satellite radio, the blogosphere, music journalism, video production, ringtones, video games and… is that enough?

Here’s another idea. Have you thought about all of the companies outside of the entertainment business that are expanding into music? Major corporations from Starbucks to Nokia to investment funds are creating music-centered businesses, from labels, to concert halls, to publishing concerns. If you’re going to work for “the man”, at least work for a man with a new idea.

And here’s one last idea– maybe the best one of all. Why not start your own business? The upside of the disarray in the music business is that the field is wide-open for young entrepreneurs with good ideas and an eye to the future. Nothing is set in stone anymore– and people are desperate to find new ways of doing business. If you have the idea, DO IT!

When you’re setting out to sea on a small sailboat, the outlook can be pretty daunting– and it’s easy to assume that the big ship out on the horizon would be a much safer spot to be. But if that ship has a hole in the side, and you know how to sail– you’re probably better off on your own. Security is an illusion anyway.

More than anytime in recent memory, the music business needs creative young people who can create new business models and reinvigorate an industry dominated largely by leaders who’ve proven woefully out of touch. But there are no invitations to this particular dance. You just have to show up and get to work.

Welcome to the jungle…

Women In Music
Paul McCartney First Artist to Sign with Starbucks Record Label
Resume Help Tool from Hot Jobs

A MAX/MSP Patch

While updates over the years have focused on, new objects and support for new OS technologies, the basic look and feel of MAX hasn’t changed much since it’s initial commercial release from Opcode. (Does anyone remember them?) MAX 5 addresses this with a complete rewrite of the entire underlining code, aligning it with current hardware and OS software platforms. A revised user interface includes a variety of on-screen de-bugging tools. Some of these, like a visual display of signal level at any connection, easily translate into powerful ways to learn about signal flow and processing. Visually, objects are much easier to look at, and a new user interface view separates the underlying patch structure from how it appears to a user/performer. Last year Cycling 74 announced an alliance with Ableton, makers of Live, and entire look of the new release of MAX looks a lot like its German cousin.

<img src='http://michaelbierylo.berkleemusicblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/max_fm1.jpg' alt='MAX FM1' border="3"

A MAX/MSP patch in presentation view

While many cutting edge artists and researchers are using MAX, people often ask about the difference between it and other "modular" sound synthesis tools, specifically Native Instrument’s Reaktor. Why would you use one and not the other? You can think of Reaktor as a greatly expanded software version of Alessandro Cortini’s Buchla 200e, which I talked about in an earlier entry. It’s a really great tool for building all sorts of software instruments. One of it’s strengths is the capability to design control panels that clearly display the parameters and functions you build into an instrument. You only see the controls you are going to use, and depending on the instrument, that can be a few, or many. While MAX 5 addresses this with its new presentation view, there’s more to MAX than building synthesizers.

The real power of MAX is that it’s a complete programming environment with objects to process, store and retrieve data input. These expanded capabilities make it a great to build all sorts of cool, interactive performance systems. Best of all, it includes Open Sound Control and Rewire capabilities, which means you can use it with a variety of other software, including Reaktor and even Reason. Got a Nintendo Wii? Your Wii controller sends all sorts of data about position and acceleration that the game receives via Bluetooth. Got Bluetooth on your laptop? You can program a simple interface using MAX that will take the data coming into your computer from your Wii controller and translate it into MIDI data that you can use to control Reaktor or Reason.

Pretty cool… That said, MAX (or Reaktor for that matter) isn’t for everyone. If you’ve got some hacker instincts, you’ll be able to get around MAX after working through the excellent tutorials that come with the program. Plan on a few weekends of focused study and experimentation and you’ll be on your way. Cycling 74 has a very good video introduction that will give you a taste of what the program is all about.

“As part of our ongoing transformation, we are committed to examining all aspects of our business that are not directly related to our core,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, president and ceo in a press release here. “We have had numerous successes in music and books including eight GRAMMY® Awards and three No.1 books on the New York Times bestseller list. However, now is the appropriate time to restructure our Entertainment business to better align our efforts with our overall business strategies.”

Hear Music, founded in 1990, was purchased by the Starbucks in 1999. In 2007, the company partnered with Concord to release Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full, record, his first non-major label recording. Hear Music has also released music by Dave Matthews Band, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, and Wilco.

I’m a fan of alternate retail and distribution outlets, and completely targeted niche-marketing campaigns. But I tend to agree with Mr. Schultz in that perhaps managing Hear Music has interfered with Starbucks core market, and the resulting changes are designed to refocus what they’re good at: selling high priced coffee. The fact is that Starbucks/Hear have done some great things for developing artists (including being an instrumental partner in breaking Antigone Rising, whose members are current Berkleemusic students!), but the sales from Starbucks were marginal at best. The New York Times reported lat month that on average each Starbucks location sells only two CDs per day!

NPD Market Research’s annual survey of Internet users, which is some 80 percent of the population these days, found that 10 percent of the music they acquired last year came from paid downloads. That is a big increase from 7 percent in 2006. But since the number of physical CDs they bought plummeted, the overall share of music they paid for fell to 42 percent from 48 percent.

Most people are getting music from their friends — either burning CDs or ripping digital files. And despite the record industry’s crackdown, there is no reduction in the number of people of peer-to-peer file sharing service.

“The number of people who do peer to peer in 2007 versus 2006 has been stable,” said Russ Crupnick, who runs NPD’s music service. “The number of files taken per users has increased significantly.” This is because of the shift of many users from Limewire to BitTorrent, which makes it easier to download whole albums.

Quite surprising is the continued strength of AM/FM radio. People listen to music on the radio more times per week than any other method. Listening to music on a computer has the third largest number of people, followed by listening on a portable device like an iPod.

The music labels will look at this data and say, “If we just stick with the CD and the Apple model we are in deeper trouble,” Mr. Crupnick said. Yes indeed.

Read more from the New York Times.

The chorus of a song is for some of us the first section that begins to take shape during the writing process. Whether we start from the title or a theme, focusing the chorus to sum up the main point of the song is essential for any great purpose to form. If the song is worth writing and listening to, the chorus proves why.

In my opinion, what makes choruses so difficult to write is the responsibility that section has in summing up my point. If I make the listener wait too long to get to that main point, or if that point is vague, I stand to lose the attention of my audience completely. The chorus has to capture the essence of what I’m trying to say, and in a way that is immediately accessible to all the ears that have waited a minute or more for that essence.

When I already have a title idea, the first step I take in writing a memorable chorus is positioning that title in the power positions. Depending on the structure, those positions are the first line, the last line, and sometimes the middle of the chorus section. Take a listen to some of your favorite tunes and notice where the title line sits.

Next, I speak the title line out loud, noticing the highs and lows of the language. The stressed syllables falling on stressed beats of the measure allows the lyric to sing as naturally to the melody as it speaks in conversation. This idea of conversational quality is so important to the title line. If the way the title sings upsets the natural flow of the words or syllables, then the listener will be paying more attention to ‘how’ I’m singing rather than ‘what’ I’m singing. The result is my song becomes less believable. For more details on stress placement, refer to Pat Pattison’s course ‘Writing Lyrics to Music.’

After I’ve set my title to a catchy melody and tried out a few power positions, I’ve got to write some of the developmental lyric that falls between those title lines. I like to give some thought as to how I’m going to recolor the title at the end of the chorus. The key line in recoloring is the line before the last repeat of the title. That line holds the responsibility of twisting or adding dimension to the final title line. As an example, here is the chorus from a song of mine “Kaleidoscope” off my CD, Breaking Even.

Power position Not anymore
I’m letting go
I’m not gonna
be a kaleidoscope
I’m saving my life
or what’s left to lose
And taking it back from you
I was afraid
of some kind of change
Power position But not anymore

In order to frame the chorus in the title, I needed to allow the last line title idea to finish off the sentence I started in the second to last line. That new idea of being afraid of a change offered just a bit more insight into my final point, ‘not anymore’.

Once I’ve brainstormed a bit on those power positions and how to close the chorus section with a powerful final idea, I start to think about the internal lines, the developmental ideas in the chorus. Line one introduces the melodic hook I’ve chosen to become the ‘motif’ of my chorus section. Line two repeats that melodic motif, as well as line three. The lengths of my lines reflect that repetition of the melodic motif, and so I’ve used structure to help me decide the phrase lengths. For more information and a listening example, refer to my blog ‘A Short Songwriting Lesson, Part 1 and 2.

With lots of repetition in the melody, a rhyme scheme starts to surface. In your own choruses, a great idea would be to listen to the chorus sections of some of your favorite songs and note the structures. Listen for the rhyme scheme and any melodic repetition. Then, write your own chorus using the same or similar structure.

As for the lyric ideas, I use a process called ‘destination writing’ to develop those internal line ideas. Very simply, I journal about the very theme and title I’m writing about. From this paragraph of conversational ranting, I lift lines and throw them against the melodic hook. I look for any rhyme potentials, like ‘afraid’ and ‘change’ or ‘kaleidoscope’ and ‘letting go’. There are gems hidden within the journaling that make the process of constructing the chorus much easier than if I had plodded along line by line from top to bottom. For those of us who feel more comfortable talking out loud rather than writing our thoughts, try recording yourself talking about the idea or title. Just find a quiet and private place, and let your mind drift as you delve down into the core of what makes that title worth writing. What you’re looking for are those big thought ideas, as if you were standing outside the situation looking in. Try these sentence phrases to get you started:

All that really matters is…
What I really want is…
If only…
If things were different I’d…

Challenge yourself to write a chorus each day. Finding out how you move through your own writing process will come as you write consistently. Try new processes, and continue to refine as you feel what stalls and what encourages your creativity.

Have fun,

Andrea

Why Use Scanning Technology?
If you are using music production software then you might be interested in scanning technology so you can take a piece of printed music, say a bass or piano part, and scan and convert it into a sequence. The more common use of scanning technology is to save time inputting notation into Finale or Sibelius or other music notation software. Scanning can be a fast way to input parts from printed sheet music.

Three Scanning Technology Options
There are currently three scanning technologies. They include:

1. SmartScore Lite and SmartScore Pro – for Mac and Windows computers and is integrated with Finale Notation software
2. PhotoScore and PhotoScore Ultimate – for Mac and Windows computers and is integrated with Sibelius notation software
3. SharpEye – for Windows computers. The software costs $169.00 and SharpEye Music Reader converts a scanned image of printed music into a MIDI file, a NIFF file, or a Music XML file.

Required Hardware
You will need a flatbed scanner to scan the sheet music you want to convert. You don’t need a high-end scanner since music is typically scanned in black and white or grayscale and at a relatively low DPI (dots per inch) of 300. Most scanners will work for this purpose. Do check with the software company’s website for recommended scanners. I have had good success with Canon and Epson scanners. The one I am currently using is a Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 that I paid less than $50 for. It is a no-frills scanner, but does the job nonetheless.

Sibelius’ recommendations for scanners
SmartScore’s recommendations

Sibelius = PhotoScore
Sibelius ships with a free, lite version of PhotoScore. This version can do basic scanning, but there are significant limits. For example, the current shipped version does not recognize triplets. So, if you want the most powerful scanning option for Sibelius, I recommend that you purchase the full version of the software, PhotoScore Ultimate.
There is an excellent help file posted in the Sibelius website, written by Bruce Munson.

Finale = SmartScore
Finale notation software ships with a lite version of SmartScore. You will get much more accurate results if you upgrade to the full version of SmartScore Pro. The best place to get familiar with scanning in Finale is to view the tutorial video. Launch Finale. From the Help menu, choose QuickStart Videos. Then select Getting Started > Importing Music > Scanning.

Scanning to MIDI
If you want to convert sheet music to MIDI to import into Music Production Software, then scanning software can be a solution for you. There are several options to choose from including Musitech’s MIDI Edition and Neutron’s PhotoScore MIDI.

It may take some time to get the right hardware and tweak the software settings to get accurate results with scanning. I have found it is worth the effort.

It speaks of the frivolous existence of delivering hi-res digital audio. You know, anything above our Redbook Audio CD standard of 44.1kHz 16bit PCM digital audio. OK, so certainly I have a bias here…

If you read the article it discusses a recent year long research project involving blind testing of CD playback vs a Hi-Res format (DSD). However, my immediate reaction was that they were all missing the point!

I do respect and admire the Mix Magazine author, but I have to believe that he knows the presented angle of the research misses the mark. The argument for hi-res audio, for me, has always been based on the increase in available processing power and not in the additional delivery of stored information to the consumer.

My experience has shown that a hi-res recording of the “basic” tracks of a mix really does improve the quality of the final mix. If the DAW has 24 bits of information and over twice as many samples (96kHz) to work with in ALL of the DSP involved, it will be a better mix. ALL of the calculations will be improved, throughout the life of the project.

The use of higher resolution (both sample rate AND bit depth) leads to a better final mix regardless of delivery format.

I’d love to see a research project look at the underlying presence of processing etc in the digital audio world rather than focusing on that last element of delivery format!

Some cool events happening nationally, including Bjork’s screening of her new 3-D video “Wanderlust” (complete with 3-D glasses!) at a number of indie stores:

I go in depth into brick and mortal retail in lesson 4 of my Music Marketing 201 course. I’m all about the Future of Music, and I know it might seem counter intuitive to discuss a marketing segment that is clearly struggling on whole, but I think to discount physical independent retail (I’m not talking about the big box retailers here), even if it is not necessarily a growth segment of the industry, is a mistake. There are some amazing independent retailers that can be tremendous partners for developing artists. Josh Madell at Other Music in NYC, Eric Levin at Criminal Records in Atlanta, Mike Dreese at Newbury Comics in Boston, John Kunz at Waterloo in Austin and many other forward-thinking music retail owners still play a big part in “breaking” artists. They are community focused, Internet savvy, and have an infrastructure in place to promote new music. A successful musician needs to have their marketing campaign firing on all cylinders. I still believe that a physical retail campaign, even if it is accomplished through consignment, should certainly be considered as part of the big picture for touring artists that can draw outside of their hometown.

Built as both a networking event and an expo, the participants meet each other and also learn what they each do. Filmmakers speak about making films and composers and engineers discuss creating sound for those films.

If you’d like to find out more and see additional pictures go to the official website!

1. You could easily spend every week of the calendar year at some kind of music conference. At present, there appears to be a bigger industry in talking about the business of music than in actually doing the business.

2. You really can have too many black canvas shoulder bags.

3. There is no excuse for not meeting the people in the industry that you need to meet in order to move your business ahead.

While I was at the WMC, someone attending a panel asked:

“Everyone is talking about new income from things like television and advertising placements, games, and mobile music. But how is an independent songwriter supposed to get their music in these situations when they don’t know the right people or have any contacts?”

A murmur of solidarity arose from the audience.

I was incredulous. I had just come from a panel on mobile music that featured executives from Blackberry, Globefish Media, and Mozes, Inc. literally inviting people to approach them after the discussion and give them music. In the audience that day, there were people like Ed Razzano from Ricall, a company debuting a remarkable new web-based format to help independent musicians, labels, and publishers market their music to film and television. At the “I Create Music” Expo last week, songwriters had access to top music supervisors like Deva Anderson, Gary Calamar, and Billy Gottlieb. They were able to learn from industry legends like Billy Steinberg, Steve Miller, and Jon Bon Jovi. If all that failed, they could check out a more humble panelist like yours truly—our panel was called “Mind Your Own Business: A Toolkit For Self-Publishing-Career Building Workshop”.

The real question might be: How can any songwriter still complain about a lack of access to industry insiders or a lack of knowledge about how the business works?

The truth is that there are probably a few other industries in which top executives are more visible or accessible, or spend more time just generally hanging out (which may actually be part of the industries problem). The other more unfortunate truth is that relatively few songwriters, even those that pay the money to attend one of these conventions, take full advantage of the opportunities that are there.

Obviously, just because Desmond Child is speaking at a conference doesn’t mean you’re going to meet him. Handing Pete Ganbarg your business card doesn’t make him your new best friend. You might cross paths with the person that could transform your career and not even hold the elevator door for them. Some of this comes down to chance. But not that much.

The real key is that most writers don’t know how to work a music conference to their advantage. So in the interest of making that registration fee pay off, and making my experience on panels like the ASCAP Expo a little more rewarding, here are 3 tips for getting the most out of a music conference:

1. Prepare. There will likely be several hundred people showing up with the same bright idea that you had, which means: you’re entering a war zone. Come prepared. Check the schedule of panels and events well in advance, and research the panelists to identify the key events you want to attend, and the particular people you want to meet. Google those people who make your most wanted list—try to find a photo so you can recognize them, should you see them in the hall.

2. Memorize. Faces. Names. Companies. You might not meet the person you’re looking for while he or she is on a panel. But you might be seated next to him or her at another panel. If you see a name on a badge, you need to be able to remember who the person is and what he or she does. And there’s one more thing to memorize:

Your lines. You need to be able to explain who you are and what you do in a clever, interesting way in ten seconds or less. If you’re working with someone important, or have a hit in the making, or just topped the charts somewhere—that story needs to be told. Fast.

3. Ask one good question. I know—it seems too easy. But trust me on this, when the panel concludes (as they always do) with a period of questions and answers, 95% of the questions will be either irrelevant, so personally focused as to hold no interest for anyone other than the person asking, or revealing of a complete ignorance about the people on the panel.

If you ask one serious question that illustrates knowledge of the specific sector of the industry being discussed, or even better, knowledge of one of the panelist’s specific business activities, you will be noticed. I promise you, anyone on the panel will be more than happy to speak with you afterward. It’s as simple as that.

For songwriters and developing publishers, there is no conference more useful than the recent “I Create Music Expo” in Los Angeles. Within three days, you can learn virtually everything you need to know about the music industry and the songwriter and publisher’s place in it. So no more excuses about not knowing the right things or the right people, it’s all there for the taking. Hope to meet you there next year.

To See What Took Place at both Conferences Please Visit the Below Websites:

ASCAP
Winter Music Conference

There are many retreats to choose from, some in the backdrop of white water rafting in the Grand Canyon, some as long weekends portaging in northern Minnesota, and still others as single day experiences at a college or university. There is one retreat in particular that I’d like to talk about, called The Swannanoa Gathering, Contemporary Folk Week, held at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.

Throughout the summer, The Swannanoa Gathering offers several retreats all focusing on a different style of music and culture. The retreat for songwriters that I highly recommend is Contemporary Folk Week, held this July 27th thru August 2nd. Last year I was honored to be an instructor at the camp, and spend 6 glorious days surrounded by songwriters and performers who regularly take one week out of their schedules each year to take part in this event. What makes the retreat so special is the opportunity to connect with other writers outside of the fabric of the industry. During this time, I couldn’t help but to return to the reason why I began writing songs in the first place – because I simply love it.

Participants can choose from several courses offered by esteemed writers and performers in the industry who have been invited to share their insights. During the days you’ll find yourself bulking up on your tools for the craft, while evenings are spent listening and sharing songs in the round with instructors and other participants. And all of it happens among the beautiful green landscapes of a quaint North Carolina town.

If you’re looking for a chance to get away this summer, to focus on your craft just a little more, or rekindle some excitement lost among the busyness of everyday life, take a moment to check out this retreat. It truly was an experience I will remember for a lifetime.

http://www.swangathering.org/Catalog/CF/sgcfsched.html

On staff this year are: Vance Gilbert, David Wilcox, Peter Mulvey, Kate Campbell, Brooks Williams, Cliff Eberhardt, Anais Mitchell, Kyler England, Siobahn Quinn, Ray Chesna

When selecting a song to copy, make sure that it is full bandwidth audio (like what you find on an audio CD), not a compressed audio file format (such as MP3 or AAC). You need to be able to hear every nuance of the original production, and a 128 kbps MP3 file just isn’t going to cut the mustard, there’s just too much audio content missing. You can audition MP3 files to find the song that you want to copy, but when you’ve identified the song, you should buy the audio CD to ensure that you’re listening to the best quality audio available.

The object of copying a song is to get as close to the original sound as possible. However, even though this is a great bar to shoot for, it’s not usually possible from a technical standpoint. For example, the producer used a $20,000 Lexicon 960L reverb unit, and all you have to work with is D-Verb (the Pro Tools LE factory reverb plug-in). Obviously, their sound isn’t going to compare. Fortunately, simply going through the process of copying the song as closely as you can is practice enough. Even if your copy isn’t a dead ringer, you’ll still be going through the steps and experiencing the techniques required to create the producer’s sound. Of course, ultimately, the idea isn’t to become a clone of your favorite producer, it’s to learn a variety of techniques and then to apply them in your own unique ways.

Neither is it necessary to copy an entire song, from start to finish. It’s fine to copy just a short section of the song. For example, the chorus, the bridge, or simply the intro beat. The production elements that you’re wanting to emulate are, more often than not, contained in only a few bars of the music. Copying just a section makes it convenient to loop the part, then beat match your session’s tempo to the loop. This also makes comparing your copy to the original song, right in your session, a total snap. Plus, with your session beat matched to the original, it becomes possible to extract the loop’s groove (using a tool like Beat Detective in Pro Tools) and apply it to your own tracks.

Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself when you copy a production:

Attached is a Pro Tools session in which I’ve imported and looped a short drum loop from Missy Elliott’s “Sockit2me” (produced by Timbaland). Then, I’ve used Xpand! and the Pro Tools LE stock plug-ins to copy the song’s basic production sound. It’s not perfect because of the limited palette of sounds I had to work with, but it certainly captures the flavor of the original beat. In fact, I even picked up an interesting production trick along the way: hard panning a gated reverb return to the left speaker, and then hard panning the original dry signal to the right speaker. See if you can hear this effect in the original loop and then find how I recreated it in my mix.

Copycat Cool Pro Tools

Non-conventional career opportunities beyond the classroom also abound. They include starting a private teaching practice; licensing a music education franchise like Music Together or Kindermusik, writing and arranging instrumental or choral music; authoring music education methods and materials for music education publishers; writing articles on new approaches to music education; writing reviews in trade publications for new products and services in the field; serving on music industry boards to forge innovative partnerships; presenting sessions at State and National music education conferences; consulting and advising for music industry manufacturers and publishers who develop music education products but are removed from the daily classroom experience; and the list goes on.

The late Sandy Feldstein, CEO of PlayinTime Productions and a well-known luminary in the field of music education, shared his thoughts on opportunities available to aspiring music educators in this interview filmed in August of 2006.

As Andrew Surmani, Vice President of Alfred Publishing explained in his interview with Artists House Music, there are many kinds of positions a music educator could fill at his company including sales, marketing, finance, production, editorial, and licensing. Click here for Andrew’s interview.

Music educators are skilled, resourceful and very effective communicators. These traits combined with a strong foundation in music and music education is a powerful set of attributes that will open the door to many career opportunities along the way. Be open to these opportunities—in the classroom or beyond—as trained music educator, you have the skills to succeed!

The Game Developer Magazine has been doing a salary and other compensation survey for several years now. They recently released the 7th annual report. If you are thinking about working in the Video Game Industry it is well worth the cost of the digital download (or the magazine if you can find it!)

A few tidbits for audio professionals from the report…. 92% of audio professionals reported having some college-level coursework, predominantly a Bachelor’s degree or higher. I know there is an increasing trend in the U.S. for college level coursework regardless of profession but this seems indicative of the necessity to get some training/education before you start looking for a job working on game audio.

Salaries continued to increase, even for people with three years experience or less. That is great news! We’re still lacking on representation of women in game audio at just 8%. Not that the industry in general is doing much better…

All in all, salaries and bonuses were up in the game audio departments. It should be noted that the industry still continues to hire contract audio professionals more often than full-time employees although from my discussions with audio directors, more positions seem to be opening up each year.

With entry-level positions averaged at over $60k the video game industry should be a goal for many of you aspiring sound designers and composers, but only if you really want to work on video games!

Alessandro Cortini

I knew that Allesandro was doing a lot of work with modular synthesizers so I was keen on having him discuss strategies for integrating said devices into the composition/production process. On Monday afternoon he arrived to my composition seminar with his Buchla 200e modular synthesizer. What followed was a master class in the architecture, aesthetics and compositional strategies behind working with this wonderful instrument.

Alessandro Cortini’s Buchla 200e Modular Synth

There are two schools of thought regarding electronic instruments. These stem from the thinking and designs of two pioneers of early commercial synthesizers form the 1960s: Bob Moog and Don Buchla. Moog, working on the East Coast in upstate New York, felt that electronic instruments should be played by musicians, and his designs focused on the keyboard as the main connection between the player and machine. Buchla, on the other hand, was in a more free-thinking environment that was San Francisco, and he felt that the synthesizer should encourage a completely new way of developing and exploring musical ideas. (You’ll notice that Allesandro’s 200e has no keyboard controller.) From these two schools of thought came two early examples of commercially released synthesizer music. Just about everyone has heard of Wendy Carlos’ Switched On Bach that used the Moog Modular, and remains to this day, one of the best selling classical music albums of all time. Around the same time, Bay-area composer Morton Subotnick released an album called Silver Apples of the Moon, which was a showcase for the Buchla and the kind of music-making it encouraged.

Needless to say, in the mass market, the standard keyboard controller is the dominant interface for electronic music making. However, there are always those who are looking for new, unexplored or under-appreciated ways of manipulating electronic sound. Fast forward to 2008 and we find Cortini, who’s original calling was as a guitarist, touring and collaborating with Trent Reznor and NIN. Although he covers classic keyboard, bass and guitar parts on the road with NIN, his real passion is creating unique sound textures and rhythmic patterns that are used throughout the show.
While modular synthesizers are designed for studio use and are generally don’t stand up well to life on the road, Allesandro had a system built specifically for touring by EAR–Electro Acoustic Research. Onstage, there’s a Pro Tools system running backing tracks used in the show, and the EAR modular system gets it’s timing from it, so the rhythmic patterns it generates will always be in tempo. While this might seem like an obscure technical concept, Allesandro easily demonstrated how this was done in my Advanced MIDI Production class where he clocked his Buchla 200e to Logic.

During his week at Berklee, Alessandro talked a lot about using a modular synthesizer to generate musical ideas. The heart and soul of this comes from the different ways that a modular system controls musical timing. In general, this comes from a combination voltage-controlled step sequencers, and LFOs (low frequency oscillators), where the LFOs control tempo, rates, and rhythmic divisions, and the step sequencer produces control for pitch and other levels. Both of these sources are used to trigger envelopes that shape the sound. While this might sound simple, the routings and possibilities available in a modular system staggering. Check out this clip from YouTube of Allesandro tweaking his Buchla 200e. NIN fans might hear some vaguely familiar patterns and sounds.

In future posts I’ll be referring back to Allesandro Cortini’s Berklee visit. You can hear his work on both modular synthesizer and guitar on the new NIN release Ghosts I-IV. There are some cool studio shots of the sessions up on Flickr.

1. You can extract (or “copy”) the parts from the score in any order you wish. It’s usually a good idea to check off each part on the score as you go, so as not to forget one (It wouldn’t look good for you if you got to the session/rehearsal and were missing a part).

2. Make sure that measure numbers, rehearsal information and double bar lines are all properly placed. When laying out the page, try to place all double bar lines on the far right. Conversely, new sections should start on the far left. These last two sentences simply make it easier for the player to read.

3. Check over each extracted part for missing accidentals, dynamics, note stems, articulation, wrong transpositions (even for one note), and missing beams. It sounds fundamental, but it is very easy to make a mistake at any time. So, whenever you check over a part, a copying mistake or left-out information is almost always found—even in professional work. It only makes sense then to take two minutes to check your work. This last step can be done after all parts have been copied or after each part is completed.

4. If multiple pages exist, be sure to tape each page (edge to edge). This will help insure that the pages won’t be falling off the music stand in the middle of a performance.

Until next time,

Jerry

Extracted Part

If you’ve spent a lot of time (and erasers or electricity) on the lead sheet and sketching stages, this part should go easily and actually might be fun. Now you’re just transferring information that’s already been slaved over - in a neat and precise way. The most grueling part is usually in the sketching stage, because this is generally where you have to create. Creating is not always easy. The end result, however, is worth it.

1. If working in pencil, transfer all information from your sketch to the appropriate staffs on the score page. Double and triple-check this process. It is at this point that many mistakes can and will occur. The best way to work is a page at a time. Start at the top of the page (in this case, trumpet), and work your way across and then down the page. If you start, for example, by putting in the rhythm section first, you’ll smudge the lead on the score paper as you rest your hand or arm on the lower parts.

2. Write in all dynamics and articulations that you wish to use. Don’t forget about measure numbers for every measure, as well as rehearsal markings that you’ve already written on the sketch.

3. When you feel that you’ve completed the scoring process, go back to the sketch, and make sure that you’ve transferred everything the way you want it-especially harmonizations of any kind.

4. If you are using a notation software program such as Finale or Sibelius, the notes are already input ino the staffs. You should now “format” the pages for the number of measures and systems per page - it won’t necessarily be the same on each page. This can be very tricky but remember one thing: It is better to turn a lot a pages and be able to easily read the music than having less pages but the font is so small (more measures) that it can’t be easily read. Also, try to get all double bar lines (ends of sections) to appear on the right side of the page. In this way the beginnings of sections will all appear on the right.

5. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to proofread your work at all stages. A mistake made (wrong pitch for example) in the lead sheet or sketching stages will show up in the scoring stage as well if not found.

In my next post I’ll finish the process and talk about part extraction, which is historically known as “copying.”

Until then,

Jerry

Completed Score Page

Years later while writing with Thom, I got to experience his mastery first-hand. Aside from being a top-rate songwriter, he is a genuine example of how quality, honesty, and authenticity can be retained over a long career in the industry. His warmth and sincere interest in inspiring those poised at the starting line in their career sums up what I have learned to be at the core of this songwriting legend. Whenever I need to remember why I got into this business, I go back and read these words of one my most revered songsmiths, Thom Schuyler.

Great Songwriters

“The King James Version of the Bible is full of rich imagery and flowery
language that is often difficult to interpret. For instance, a passage from
the Gospel of Matthew reads: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” Simply
translated it means that heaven will be full of songwriters. A rough
calculation would lead to the conclusion that fewer than 10% of those people
who have determined to call themselves songwriters will succeed in earning
even a modest living from their work in that field. On the other hand, a
chosen few will be rewarded handsomely for their pursuits. The gulf that
separates these two groups is full of tens of thousands of songs that are too
long, too short, too country, too pop, too complicated, too ordinary, too
hard to sing, too much like another song, not quite right, too good, too sad,
indistinct, unnecessary, ill-conceived and probably lost forever. And, back
to the scriptures for one last tortured image: Why is it then that “many
be called, but few chosen?” Well, I think there are three reasons: Timing,
talent and tenacity. The talent, however, is the key.

Great songwriters, I believe, have remarkable gifts. Clearly there is a
fundamental understanding of and instinct for melody and harmony, rhythm,
chord progression and other musical components that fit together to create
the popular song. And, although I will say little more about these musical
components, I suspect that most folks are initially drawn into a song because
of its melody or beat or the instrumentation in which it was set or because
of a particularly stunning vocal performance. Song structure, that is the
verse, the channel, the bridge, the chorus, etc. is easily studied and
learned. For me it is in the story-telling that the cream rises to the top.
Great songwriters look at the world through two eyes: One is the eye of a
prophet, one is the eye of a child. They listen to the world with two ears:
One is the ear of a poet, one is the ear of a spy. Great songwriters seem to
be, at the same time, standing right in the middle of everything and yet
somehow just outside. They are preoccupied with the subtle twists and turns
of language. They thrive on irony, consider pathos their own, fertile field,
elevate the simple to the sublime, depend a great deal on the word blue and
regret that there are fewer than a half-dozen pure rhymes for love. The work
itself is tedious requiring equal amounts of spontaneity and patience. I
would call it something like mystical labor. Most writers will tell you that
they had very little to do with the best songs that they produced other than
having the wisdom to stay out of their way. Then again, they’ll also tell
you that you’ve never heard the best songs they’ve ever written because they
haven’t been recorded and likely will never be. Great writers write 8 hours a
day, 40 hours a week. Others write only when they are inspired. Some
succeed because they are diligent craftsmen. Others have such deep resources

that great songs seem to just roll out of them. They draw from their own
experiences, reflect on the experiences of others and they also make shit up.
They have earned money from masterpieces and they have earned money from
tripe. They are not messengers, they are not ministers, they are not
counselors; they are songwriters. And, great songwriters, I believe, have
remarkable gifts.

Harlan Howard, Bob McDill, Dave Loggins, Hugh Prestwood, Tony Arata, Don
Schlitz, Bobby Braddock, Dennis Linde, Gary Burr, these are not the best
songwriters in Nashville; they are the best in the world. I use their names
for several reasons. In the 24 years that I have walked the streets of Music
Row these gentlemen have been the most consistent, most diligent, most
commercial, most profound, most enduring, most studied, most appreciated and
most successful of them all. There are more, many more but, these men have
climbed the mountain, they have found their own voices and those voices are
distinct. And, guess how they found their own voices? They worked alone.
Somehow the collective wisdom of Music Row has determined that if we put two
or three or even four songwriters together in a room the result will be a
song that is two or three or four times better when, in reality, the creative
process is diluted, the focus blurred and the result is an innocuous little
ditty that has all the right parts and then some unrecognizable 24 year old
kid from Oklahoma will record it, a promotion team will run it up the charts,
someone, somewhere will hear it on their car radio and think to themselves,
“That sounds just like the last song they played,” and then the song will win
a BMI Award, the songwriters and publishers will make money and so the
publishers will encourage the writers to write more of these ditties, the
promotion team will urge the A&R department to get the kid from Oklahoma to
record more of these kinds of songs because they can run them up the charts,
the guy in the car will start listening to the Top 40 station because, “He
just can’t stand this shit anymore,” the head of the sales department will
tell the label head, “That kid from Oklahoma may be having hits but, he’s not
selling records,” the kid will be dropped, staffers at the label will be let
go, the songwriters’ option will not be picked up, stand-up comedians will
make jokes about country music and, eventually, we will all die. This, in my
opinion, is the unnecessary result of co-writing.

Finally, let me say this about Garth Brooks. There is much spoken and
written about his remarkable accomplishments but, our opinions of him,
positive or otherwise, are irrelevant. The people have voted. He has
reached them. He did it with shrewd, global marketing, with an astonishingly
exciting live show and with a very vital, world-wide partnership with his
record label. When it is all counted up, factored out, studied and analyzed,
may it be remembered that he also did this:

And now I’m glad I didn’t know
the way it all would end
the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could’ve missed the pain
but, I’d have had to miss The Dance

Of all the wonderful opportunities that have been afforded me in this
town, in this business, it fills me with the greatest joy and satisfaction to
be able to say that I am a songwriter.”

Thom Schuyler
http://www.thomschuyler.com/discography.html