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Having a Song Baby Part 4, A Free Mini Course

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Ok, Now that you have the basic song parts down, it is time to make some meaningful changes.  Remember rewriting the verses of the song to convey a deeper emotional experience and to take the listener to the place by using descriptive words?  That is basically what you are going to do with the music.   If you have some home recording equipment, you should definitely use it to record your song.  If you do not have recording equipment, use your mobile phone, or even a cheap voice recorder will do.  Record it once through, from start to finish.   Get ready to listen.  This is actually an important step, you will want to have a clear, focused mind and ear.  Some people do meditation, some people do breathing exercises, I prefer the breathing exercises.  Do whatever floats your boat, but get ready to listen critically at the music and grab a pencil and paper to take notes. As you listen to the song the whole way through.  Listen for things you may want to change about the l
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3 easy steps to starting your business plan.

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Starting a business can be a daunting task for anyone.  Trying to build a business in the music industry can be down right frightening.  A lot of people who try to make it inside the music industry do not approach what they do like a business.  Below is a bit of background and an exercise that will help you begin to think about what you do as a business, and help figure out where your focus should be. Throughout history, there have been many parables about knowledge and understanding.  One of the most famous was written in Ancient Greece by a poet Archilochus, and further expounded upon by Isaiah Berlin in the 1950s in an essay called The Fox and The Hedgehog where Berlin examines Tolstoy’s outlook on history in his philosophy of history in his epilogue to war and peace.  The Fox and the Hedgehog basically says that the clever fox is sort of a jack of all trades, knowing a little bit about many subjects, being fascinated about the breadth of subjects that are available to s
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Having a Song Baby Part 3, A Free Mini Course

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Now to the bridge.  Listen, all this stuff refers to something that is totally subjective.  Music is art. Art is subjective so, take it for what it is worth. There is not a whole lot to say about the bridge of a song except to say that it can be approached in a few different ways.  Some artists use the bridge to communicate a transition, some use it to communicate a link to an earlier emotion or part of the song, some use it as a breakdown before the climax, and some use it to convey a totally different emotion and vibe altogether.    1- The transition      Some bridges are written to transition the song from one part to the next, a simple, short piece, that reflects the direction of change.  If the key of the song is major and the final part of the song is in the minor, then the bridge may be written in the ascending major, or the Dorian mode, to convey a bit of melancholy but not an overwhelming feeling of sadness.  If the song transitions from one instrument orchestra
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Having a song baby, a free mini course, part 2

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Writing the verses This seems to be the simplest part of song writing, so I won’t spend a ton of time here.  The first thing you need to remember is that you are not only trying to convey an idea here, if you were you could just write a paper.  You are trying to emotionally connect with and move your audience.   First figure out weather you want the song to rhyme or not, then figure out which rhyme scheme you want to use.  Once you have that down, get to work. When you are writing for your verses you should try to use more emotionally moving words and phrasing, that being said there is definitely more than one way to skin a cat here.  Again for example, if I were writing my song about being on stormy seas the idea I want to convey is chaos: As life tosses me around  I just can’t go on Through the smells and the sound I’m almost too far gone This is a simple idea that conveys some basic emotions that I want to be present in the song. And here is a w
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Having a song baby, a free songwriting mini course, part 1

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The Hook Fist off let me be clear about a few things here.  Not all songs have the same format but most popular music follows a similar format. This rings true from classical music to metal, and country to hip hop. Secondly, if this is something you do not want to follow because it gets in the way of your artistic expression, don’t.  Don’t let this guideline stop you from being the most authentic version of YOU when you are doing your thing. That being said,  popular music songwriting all tends to follow the same sequence and rules.  An intro, verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus, (bridge, chorus) or (bridge, verse 3) chorus, outtro.  And the chorus can also have a pre-chorus but lets keep this simple for now. Today we will focus on writing a great chorus.  If you have a melody already chosen, great! If not, I often find it easiest to come up with the song idea first, then write the melody for the chorus, then write the words.  I take the emotion I want to convey and think about
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14 things you should know about your audience that will help you grow

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                  The importance of knowing your audience,                      Picking up on the subtleties. Hello there,  I decided to take on a rather tough subject. Marketing has changed so much over the years that most marketing efforts are largely ignored by most people.  Psychographic marketing is a way to really focus your marketing efforts to help grow your audience and your income as someone working in the music industry by being able to break through the clutter and find your audience.             When talking about marketing, particularly digital marketing, it is difficult to miss the term Demographic but if you are new to the task it is easy to overlook.  Even though the demographic approach is effective, don't sell yourself short!  In your marketing efforts, you should adopt the principal of the psychographic profile when trying to gain the attention of potential fans. To use a hunting analogy, if network television commercials are the shotgun equivalent
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Everyone Loves a Resources Page!

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Everyone loves a resources page! Since that is the case, here are all of the resources I use and or recommend.  Have some fuel for your music career's engine! Blogs:      Business: Obviously mine. Ha! www.bandlauncher.blogspot.com Side Hustle Nation www.sidehustlenation.com The Smart Passive Income www.smartpassiveincome.com Submit your music https://www.anrfactory.com/submit-demo/ https://indiepulsemusic.com/about/ http://www.highclouds.org/music-submissions/ https://xunemag.com/submit-music/ https://www.indieshuffle.com/ http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/contact/ http://www.musicemissions.com/ http://aurgasm.us/contact/ https://countryfriedrock.org/contact-info-for-interested-bands/#.W9z9riMwhQJ http://drownedinsound.com/contact https://emergingindiebands.com/ http://www.factmag.com/about/#contact http://www.knoxroad.com/contact/ http://www.hearya.com/contact-us/      Music Industry www.dittomusic.co
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