A career in songwriting is a long road where the actual big payoff moments – if you’re fortunate enough to have some – are few and far between for even the most successful writers. This is all the more reason to take the time and challenge yourself to find what’s unique about your own songwriting.
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Once you’ve decided to up the ante and put your songwriter demos out there for the world to hear, it’s in your best interest to pay close attention to every step in the recording process. One of the most vital of these steps is the mix of your song. It’s not enough to have a
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One of the many challenges we songwriters face is that we’re tasked not only with creating something from nothing but also our “somethings” need to be unique not only compared to what others have written but also compared to what we’ve written before. This is no small thing and the moment you think you’ve “figured
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As passionate as we are about our songwriting, the reality is that sometimes it’s difficult to motivate ourselves to write. Whether it’s the fear of plumbing our emotional depths or just good old fatigue after a long day, there are often obstacles to overcome when it’s time to write. While flashes of inspiration are great,
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The professional songwriting demo process is a necessary part of the equation for songwriters aspiring to get their material heard by music industry decision-makers and, hopefully, cut by successful recording artists. Despite the fact that hundreds of demos are recorded every week in places like Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, new songwriters often find
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Looking back over twenty-plus years to my first songwriting efforts, I remember my creative process as so personal and fragile that I was dead certain I would never open it up to another person. This would have seemed like co-painting or more like co-dating…just not going to happen. However, two things DID happen. One, I
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So you’ve written a great song, made a fabulous demo and now you’ll live happily ever after, right? Well, kind of… This article is the official “chapter after” you’ve written and recorded your song. There’s no doubt that being a great songwriter and having beautifully recorded versions of your songs is an admirable goal in
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Let’s begin at the beginning. You’ve written a song and, hopefully, you’re thrilled with it. So thrilled, in fact, that you want to record it right away and use every instrument in both the Western and Eastern musical traditions on the song demo. I don’t blame you one bit. There’s nothing more fun than dressing
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“Which do you write first, the music or the words?” This is the classic question that all songwriters get asked. In my experience, there’s no easy – or correct – answer to this one. Sometimes it’s the music, sometimes it’s the lyrics and, often, it’s some mystical, organic combination of the two. More importantly, there
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Charting a music career is a complicated endeavor to say the least. It’s doubly so given that you’ll have to make not only musical decisions but also critical business decisions along the way. I heard an expression a few years ago that really stuck with me as it outlines the reality of the choices we
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Working as a producer for the last twenty-five years, I’ve recorded all kinds of artists from “fresh off the boat” newbies to artists whose experience in the world of music doubles my own. In every case, my role as a producer stays essentially the same. It’s that role that I’m going to describe in this
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This guest post is from my friend and hit-songwriter, Fred Koller. Enjoy! _____ 1. At a very early age you should start listening to the radio every waking minute. If the radio station offers charts of the latest hits, these charts should be studied like you’re a biblical scholar searching for minute details. Calling request
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