When I first started writing songs, I was inspired and fearless. I was so deeply immersed in my creative process that I didn’t give any real thought as to how the rest of the world felt about what I was doing. However, when I decided to start thinking of songwriting as a potential career, I
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Having spent more than two decades as a songwriter and musician, I’ve collected some wonderfully distilled pieces of wisdom from friends and music industry luminaries. Here are a bunch of my favorites that I find myself using/referring to often. 1. “They don’t call it the music ‘friend’ or the music ‘nice.’” – Kate Wallace I
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“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson In my years as a songwriter, I’ve found it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” you’re going to hit a rough patch. The key, in my experience, is not trying to avoid these tough times but, rather, to learn to
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Ever wonder how pop stars keep it all together while still staying creative? Singer/Songwriter, Lisa Loeb, has graciously agreed to give us some insight into her approach. Introduction I made a brief list of a few things I’ve come up with that help me balance my life to include creativity and songwriting. Above all, I try to
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I thought I’d start this article with an analogy. Verses are to a song as vegetables are to a meal. And, just as we should all eat our vegetables, we should make sure our songs have interesting, well-balanced verses. To that end, I’ve put down a few things to keep in mind if you’d like
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So often as songwriters we hold the publishing deal out there as some kind of holy grail. I understand the mindset as so much of our work is solitary and the kind of industry acknowledgement that a publishing deal represents can be a very tempting proposition. In fact, signing with a publisher is a business
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For songwriters who don’t have the luxury of living in a music industry town like New York, Nashville or Los Angeles, music conferences are an exceptional way of concentrating your education and networking efforts into a much shorter time frame. The key is to maximize your preparation so that long before you actually arrive in
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First of all, I want to congratulate you for taking a big step forward in your career as a songwriter. If you’re considering submitting one (or several) of your songs for a music business opportunity, then you’ve gone to the next level beyond just writing songs and hoping the world will come to you. This
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I thought I’d address some common misconceptions about life as a songwriter that tend to either slow down our progress or discourage us unnecessarily. The more educated you become about the mostly unwritten rules of the music industry, the less often you’ll be misguided and the better prepared you’ll be to make the slow and
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Songwriting is art. Like all art, songs require a healthy dose of inspiration which is nearly impossible to predict or control. In that way, the spark that results in the creation of a song is a gift but the rest of the process is nothing more (or less) than good, old-fashioned work. By following through
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A practicing entertainment attorney for thirty years, Trip Aldredge may not have seen it all but he’s certainly seen more than most of us. Take a look below at his piece on situations where songwriters should consider consulting a music attorney. For more of Trip’s articles, take a peek at his blog as well. Introduction I seem
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Knowing when a song is finished is an entire article in and of itself so I’m going to predicate these comments on the understanding that your song is, indeed, done. While having a finished song is its own victory, there’s more work to do if you’re hoping to keep your records straight, stay organized and
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