By Cliff Goldmacher
Over the years, along with writing around a thousand songs, I’ve read quite a few books on the topic of songwriting and creativity. Below is a list of my top five books for songwriters in no particular order. If you’re serious about mastering the craft of songwriting, it would be well worth your while to give
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By Cliff Goldmacher
The difference, in my experience, between professional songwriters and hobbyists has very little to do with actual songwriting talent. Being a pro requires an ironclad work ethic to not only create a consistent body of work but also to develop and maintain what I like to think of as songwriting muscles. I’ve put together a
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By Cliff Goldmacher
Teaching songwriting and music business workshops over the past fifteen years, I’ve observed that there’s a “greatest hits” of questions that I get over and over again from my attendees. I thought it might be helpful to give you not only those questions to think about but also my answers. I’ve broken it down into
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Thanks to Shannon O’Keefe at ConsumersAdvocate.org and author, Leslie Cook, for this thoughtful article… For singers and songwriters looking to break into the music scene, online streaming services have become one of the main ways of getting their product before a wider audience. Being able to present your music to a larger number of people
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Teaching songwriting and music business workshops over the past fifteen years, I’ve observed that there’s a “greatest hits” of questions that I get over and over again from my attendees. I thought it might be helpful to give you not only those questions to think about but also my answers. I’ve broken it down into
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The blessing and the curse of recording your finished song is that you can really dig in a scrutinize every detail of the recording. The “blessing” part is being able to hear all of the things that are coming together to make your song sound great but the “curse” is that by listening so closely,
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For most songwriters, the idea of being a staff songwriter for a music publisher is a lifelong dream. However, in order for this dream to become a reality, you’ll need to be more than just a gifted songwriter. You’ll need to show a publisher – and yourself – that you’re ready to think and act
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The way that I like to describe what a music producer does is that a music producer is to a recording as a director is to a movie. In other words, the producer is responsible for everything from the musical arrangement decisions all the way to working with the vocalist and session musicians to make
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One of my greatest joys as a producer and engineer over the years has been bearing witness to the musical genius that is the session musician. The same people you’ve been hearing on recordings your whole lives are the men and women who make their livings coming into the studio and playing not only on
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In my experience, the single most important part of any songwriting demo is the vocal. The vocal carries your melody and lyric which, for all intents and purposes, is your song. And for my money, a great demo singer is the best way to guarantee that your demo will be well received. That being said,
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A great privilege one receives as a music producer in Nashville is getting to work with some of the finest session musicians in the world. These men and women have played on some of the best known albums of all time and even after all these years of working with them, I never cease to
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In the twenty-five years that I’ve been writing songs and, more recently, that I’ve been teaching songwriting, I’ve made and/or observed countless missteps in songwriting and navigating a songwriting career. Here are two big mistakes that you should attempt to avoid if at all possible. 1. Writing songs without thinking about the craft Given that
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When it comes to the job description of producers in today’s recording studio, the phrase “the more things change, the more they stay the same” comes to mind. While technological advances have made the studio a significantly more streamlined and efficient place to work, the principles of what makes a good producer have stood the
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Mastering the craft of songwriting has always required – and will always require – good, old-fashioned effort and time but as technology progresses, there are quite a few improvements to the ways songwriters can effectively manage their careers. Not only has technology enabled us to be more efficient but it’s also allowed us to bridge
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Engineers, strictly speaking, are responsible for the “nuts and bolts” of the recording process. In our current technological environment, this means not only a familiarity with ageless studio techniques such as microphone placement but also a deep understanding of the latest innovations in their chosen digital audio workstation (DAW) software and contemporary approaches to recording
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