This is a story about what I learned from my 60 year old aunt, who has been an unsuccessful song writer for 40 years. The point of this article is not to put her down(I love her), but to bring the light some of the pitfalls to avoid as a beginning song writer.
Shortly after I opened my studio doors, my relative began to indoctrinate me with lyrics and request for me to record them. The problem was that the lyrics were not formatted like songs, they were formatted like poems.
I could barely work my ASR-10, when my relative begin bringing lyrics in hopes that I could help her record her songs. I agreed and was all ready to start, and I asked her "ok..so how does it go?" The answer was "I don't have a melody yet". So there we were, two non-singers with no melody for her lyrics. No progress was made and the lyrics were just filed.
As a side note: When you are trying to sell your songs, remember that most potential buyers want to buy actual songs, not just the lyrics...so you need to make complete songs as present those.
Before long, this relative began to format her lyrics better, and even began to come to me with melodies in mind.
In regards to formats, you have multiple song formats to choose from, or you can just wing it...there doesn't have to be any rules....but if you want to learn about song formats just google (song formats).
So, my aunt has melodies now to her lyrics. The problem was that, as I mentioned before, she couldn't sing, so all her melodies sounded the same, and they sounded like country western, and eventually, as she got older, her songs began to sound dated lyrically.
So, we tried and tried to turn these lyrics into good songs, but they were trash. I told her to find a singer, and find a singer she did.....she found multiple singers but most of them had never recorded and were just very inexperienced in general. So the songs still didn't come out well. I'm sure this process frustrated my aunt and caused her to almost give up on music......So how do you stop this from happening to you?
Tip: To be a writer, you do not have to be a singer, but you do need to find or have access to someone who can perform you lyrics.
Some people write their lyrics without music, or they hear the music in their head while they are writing. In those cases, these writers need to find producers who can do custom tracks (you hum what you want and they play it). For the people who write without music, they just have to listen to a variety of instrumentals afterwards and pick the one that matches the feel of their lyrics the best.
I usually go with picking the music and letting the music inspire my lyrics. (You can find inspiring music at www.freshoffabreakup.com) Sometimes I attempt to sing melodies, just for timing guidelines for whoever is going to end up demo-ing the song. I also don't literally write my words down, I record them onto a little tape recorder so that I can make sure that I remember my lyrical pockets.
Next in order, is finding someone to record your song. You need a good or professional singer that is familiar with the genre of music you are seeking to make. What I like to do is ask potential demo singers to sing my song over the instrumental that I have chosen. That way I can determine how well they are at writing melodies. This is important to me because without a good, fast melody writer, the session will be long and there will be a good possibility that it won't turn out the way I want.
After the song is recorded and it sounds like you want it to, you have to have it mixed. Sometimes, the engineer that recorded it can mix it, and sometimes you may have to go to another studio for mixing. An important thing know is that need to know what you want mixing wise. If you do not know the correct terminology to describe to a producer or engineer what you want, then you can just bring different songs that have aspects of what you want your song to sound like, so that whoever is mixing your song can hear what you want. If you don't do this, most mixing engineers will just do a bland generic mix of your song (they don't care, they're getting paid either way, and I'm an engineer telling you this).
The last step is mastering. There are mastering houses that you can go to, but they may be expensive. At the beginning of your career, a less expensive route should suffice. That route would be asking the mixing engineer to master the song.
After your hit song is mastered, copyrighted, and registered with ascap, bmi, or sesac, then you are ready to submit!
That's it for now, stay tuned for more helpful advice!
Shortly after I opened my studio doors, my relative began to indoctrinate me with lyrics and request for me to record them. The problem was that the lyrics were not formatted like songs, they were formatted like poems.
I could barely work my ASR-10, when my relative begin bringing lyrics in hopes that I could help her record her songs. I agreed and was all ready to start, and I asked her "ok..so how does it go?" The answer was "I don't have a melody yet". So there we were, two non-singers with no melody for her lyrics. No progress was made and the lyrics were just filed.
As a side note: When you are trying to sell your songs, remember that most potential buyers want to buy actual songs, not just the lyrics...so you need to make complete songs as present those.
Before long, this relative began to format her lyrics better, and even began to come to me with melodies in mind.
In regards to formats, you have multiple song formats to choose from, or you can just wing it...there doesn't have to be any rules....but if you want to learn about song formats just google (song formats).
So, my aunt has melodies now to her lyrics. The problem was that, as I mentioned before, she couldn't sing, so all her melodies sounded the same, and they sounded like country western, and eventually, as she got older, her songs began to sound dated lyrically.
So, we tried and tried to turn these lyrics into good songs, but they were trash. I told her to find a singer, and find a singer she did.....she found multiple singers but most of them had never recorded and were just very inexperienced in general. So the songs still didn't come out well. I'm sure this process frustrated my aunt and caused her to almost give up on music......So how do you stop this from happening to you?
Tip: To be a writer, you do not have to be a singer, but you do need to find or have access to someone who can perform you lyrics.
Some people write their lyrics without music, or they hear the music in their head while they are writing. In those cases, these writers need to find producers who can do custom tracks (you hum what you want and they play it). For the people who write without music, they just have to listen to a variety of instrumentals afterwards and pick the one that matches the feel of their lyrics the best.
I usually go with picking the music and letting the music inspire my lyrics. (You can find inspiring music at www.freshoffabreakup.com) Sometimes I attempt to sing melodies, just for timing guidelines for whoever is going to end up demo-ing the song. I also don't literally write my words down, I record them onto a little tape recorder so that I can make sure that I remember my lyrical pockets.
Next in order, is finding someone to record your song. You need a good or professional singer that is familiar with the genre of music you are seeking to make. What I like to do is ask potential demo singers to sing my song over the instrumental that I have chosen. That way I can determine how well they are at writing melodies. This is important to me because without a good, fast melody writer, the session will be long and there will be a good possibility that it won't turn out the way I want.
After the song is recorded and it sounds like you want it to, you have to have it mixed. Sometimes, the engineer that recorded it can mix it, and sometimes you may have to go to another studio for mixing. An important thing know is that need to know what you want mixing wise. If you do not know the correct terminology to describe to a producer or engineer what you want, then you can just bring different songs that have aspects of what you want your song to sound like, so that whoever is mixing your song can hear what you want. If you don't do this, most mixing engineers will just do a bland generic mix of your song (they don't care, they're getting paid either way, and I'm an engineer telling you this).
The last step is mastering. There are mastering houses that you can go to, but they may be expensive. At the beginning of your career, a less expensive route should suffice. That route would be asking the mixing engineer to master the song.
After your hit song is mastered, copyrighted, and registered with ascap, bmi, or sesac, then you are ready to submit!
That's it for now, stay tuned for more helpful advice!
About the Author:
Learn more about keyword #1. Stop by Eric L. Mims J.d.'s site where you can find out all about keyword #2 and what it can do for you.
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