Song Writing:

THE BIG ONE.

I think, and it’s just my opinion but, the song writer is the greatest part of it all.

They create the song the sound the piece.  The producer can then polish is all up.

You can have a good song made into something great or a great song made into the best song ever written but,  you can’t polish rubbish. If the song is bad even with the best production it will still be bad.  The creation has to be good.

There are 2 parts, music and words.  These can be as strong as each other.

Music can move people to tears or just make people dance and feel amazing.  It is a universal language.  Sometimes the words can be nonsense but the music can feel overwhelming.

Words can have a huge meaning to people and situations.  This also moves people in the same way.  If you can get the 2 to match…you’ve made it.

Pop music can have the same affect as classical, it just depends on how the human brain reacts to it.  Good songs will be agreed my millions and felt the same way by millions.

“To be creative, spontaneous in the moment and make music in the present tense, that’s what we’re all about live. I write the songs, we make the records and then the records become a departure point, the basic blueprint, the basic arrangement. I’m fairly restless creatively. I was never a very good Top 40 band guy because I never liked to play the same thing every time. Too often songwriters approach their songs like museum pieces. I don’t subscribe to that. I think of my songs as living beings that evolve and change and grow through the years.”

— Bruce Hornsby

MORE…….

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a Lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer.  Although songwriters of the past commonly composed, arranged and played their own songs, more recently the pressure to produce popular hits has tended to distribute responsibility between a number of people.  Popular culture songs may be written by group members, but are now often written by staff writers: songwriters directly employed by music publishers.

Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have outside publishers.

The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by some universities and colleges and rock schools. A knowledge of modern music technology and business skills are seen as necessary to make a songwriting career, and music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules.

Since songwriting and publishing royalties can be a substantial source of income, particularly if a song becomes a hit record, legally, in the US, songs written after 1934 may only be copied e authors. The legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law

Professional songwriters can either be employed to write directly for or alongside a performing artist, or they pitch songs to A&R, publishers, agents and managers for consideration. Song pitching can be done on a songwriter’s behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like “RowFax”, the MusicRow publication, and SongQuarters.

Songwriters signed to an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are known as “staff writers”. Being a staff-writer effectively means that during the term of a songwriter’s contract with a publisher, all their songs are automatically published by the company to which they signed, and can not be published elsewhere.

In the Nashville country music scene there is a strong staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal “9-to-5″ hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writer’s ‘draw’, an advance for future earnings paid on a monthly basis so they are able to eat on it.  The copyright of the songs written during the term of the agreement is owned by the publisher for designated period, after which the copyright can be reclaimed.  In an interview with HitQuarters songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up: “I was able to concentrate on writing the whole time and have always had enough money to live on.

Staff writers are common across the whole industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favoured in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract.  A staff writer contract with a publisher is a natural first step for any professional songwriting career, with some writers outgrowing the set-up once they achieve a degree of success and a desire for greater independence. Songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a “starter deal”, the success from which eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company so that he could “keep as much [publishing] as possible and say how it’s going to be done