Sound Connections

I just got back from Sound Connections New Thought Music Conference and I’m reminded of how much you can learn (about songwriting) in a short period of time, when the conditions are right. I like to attend songwriting workshops, seminars and conventions and other music gatherings. I can often get more out of a weekend seminar that it could take all year to learn otherwise.

Half of what you learn at these things is from peers, people who may not be as experienced as the paid presenters, but who often have that one bit of info, that missing piece that is just what you needed to learn. Likewise, you share what you know with them.

So it pays to network. Some people say they aren’t good at networking. Don’t think of networking as schmoozing over drinks with strangers, although that works for some. My definition of networking is nothing more than meeting people like yourself, who also may think they’re no good at networking.

Networking starts as idle conversation. Don’t start with ‘what can you do for me?’ In fact, it’s more effective to ask, ‘what can I do for you?’ But to start, it’s just anything that gets you into a conversation.

We all have to eat, so never eat alone at a music conference. Tag along with a group and keep your ears open. Nod your head, take notes. Ask questions. Now you’re networking. If appropriate, get a business card and/or demo from everyone at the table and give yours to them.

The hardest networking conversation for me to start is one-on-one. But you can break the ice by asking ‘what type of music do you write?’ That should be enough to get any songwriter talking.

Most of us can’t afford to go to a songwriting conference more than once or twice a year. What can you do to network the rest of the time? That’s where the Songwriter’s Tip Jar shines. It’s like a songwriter convention 365 days a year.

Leave a comment or question on any post, and the community of readers (your songwriting peers) will answer you from their varied perspectives. You’ll get lots of different answers, reflecting different points of view. It’s not about right or wrong answers, it’s about what you can learn that applies to you (or that you can adapt to your situation) and about what you can teach.

Brush up your networking skills by connecting online. Get invaluable tips and advice from your STJ peers and those anonymous members who happen to be industry heavies. And don’t forget to give back.

Feed me

If you find our blog helpful and would like to continue to visit, try an RSS feed. It’s free.

The main benefit of RSS is that you save time. You avoid checking blogs only to find there is nothing new. If you haven’t tried RSS before, here’s a 3 minute video that explains it in plain English.

Of course, you can use RSS for any number of other blogs and news sites, not just ours.

The World Needs You to Do What You Love

If you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.

Check out this zenhabits post.

Play time

As a songwriter or lyricist, you may think of yourself as a wordsmith. The written word is a powerful tool. And even more powerful are words and music together.

To increase your word power (resulting in improved songwriting), you probably read a lot of books. You may also read poetry and study the great writers. And for an avid wordsmith, this is all fun.

On a lighter note, I suggest you also play Scrabble and other word games. It may be rest and relaxation, but it also keeps your mind sharp and develops that part of your brain that deals with words.

The making of a Steinway concert grand

Note By Note: The Making Of Steinway L1037 is a film airing on PBS that follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand – L1037 – from forest floor to first performance.

From the factory floor in Queens to Steinway Hall in Manhattan, each piano’s journey is complex — spanning 12 months, 12,000 parts, 450 craftsmen, and countless hours of fine-tuned labor. Filmed in key Steinway locations — the factory, Steinway’s reserved “Bank,” and private auditions — Note By Note is a loving celebration of not only craftsmanship, but also a dying breed of person who is deeply connected to working by hand.

Listen

To teach yourself to be a better songwriter, listen to all kinds of music. And I don’t mean putting music on in the background. I’m talking about active listening or study.

Try something out of your comfort zone, something you might not even especially enjoy or a genre you don’t know anything about. For many of us, that would include classical. Let me recommend a new CD called The Mozart Album. You can get an exclusive first listen free (the entire CD) at NPR.

If you’re already familiar with classical music, try punk, metal, polka, bluegrass, folk, jazz, reggae or whatever seems most outside your normal listening parameters. I’m not suggesting you’ll learn to like it, only that you will learn about composition.

When you listen, try to figure out why the song works (or not). And break it down. For example, you might ask ‘how did the writer make the emotion build and peak in the chorus, and how did he/she transition to a less intense passage after the chorus?’ Ask questions like, why did the writer choose that type of lyric or that intro and see if you can answer them.

Spending too much time entering data online

Derek Sivers latest blog post is like a dream come true. Well, it hasn’t come to fruition yet, but he lays out a plan for a more efficient, effective paradigm for musicians’ online presence. Let’s hope his old company, Host Baby, follows through with his plan.

His main contention is that indie musicians should not have to enter the same data over and over again into multiple web sites (their own site, MySpace, Facebook, etc). For one thing, it’s way too time intensive. I’m talking about uploading photos and mp3 files, entering upcoming venues and dates, etc.

Instead, he asserts that we should enter the data once in our own .com homepage website. Ultimately we have no control over MySpace and the others; including whether or not they even stay in business.

The exciting part of his vision is that the company that hosts your band’s web site should take care of copying all your updates from your web site to the various other online places you want to be (MySpace, Facebook, iTunes, etc.) The next step would be to make it so that any site (with your permission) can automatically pull the information.

Read more here.

Embracing change

Change in itself is neither good nor bad. In any given situation, don’t assume a change means a change for the worse. It could just as easily be a change for the better.

We’ve all seen articles on the music industry’s recent rapid changes and I’m not planning on adding my two cents here. Instead, I want to talk about change as it relates to songwriting.

How many times have you written a song and felt the pride of accomplishment, only to realize you could improve it by making one more little tweak, one more rewrite?

How many times have you asked for a critique only to be reluctant to make any of the recommended changes? Are you afraid of change or just too comfortable to change?

Change can be scary to children, going to a new school, for example. But change in itself is not good or bad. In any given situation, don’t assume a change means a change for the worse. It could just as easily be a change for the better.

Rather than automatically resisting change, try being consciously aware that you always have a choice: you can resist change reflexively or you can keep an open mind and decide on a case by case basis whether a given change is a good one or not.

In my own writing I can usually improve a song if I give it a little more attention (even when it seems already complete). Sometimes I change a single note, other times I write a whole new bridge or a better chord progression.

Being neutral to change (neither mindlessly resisting nor accepting it) will serve you well in songwriting.

3 secrets of songwriting success

Here’s a gold mine of insights into learning how to become a better songwriter from Michael Shorr, from a conference call. Listen to this 60 minute mp3 as he tells how he learned to become a songwriter, before going to Berklee, and then goes on to talk about 3 secrets to songwriting success in detail.

If you don’t have 60 minutes, just listen to the first 5 minutes and see if you don’t learn something good.

Guerilla Music Marketing

Here’s a tip for anyone trying to market their music on a budget. It’s the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook. I own an early edition and I refer back to it almost daily. It contains more than 201 self-promotion ideas for songwriters, musicians and bands on a budget.