Intention – The Bolder Dimension of Songwriting

Paul McCartney via last.fm

My buddy Wayne asked me to share this with my friends. It is a well written article about Songwriting that all songwriter's might enjoy.

Wayne Cohen, veteran multi-platinum selling ASCAP hit songwriter, producer and educator, owner of publishing/production company Stand Up Songs.

Wayne teaches individual and group songwriting tutoring sessions at his NYC Stand Up Studio and via Skype.

One of my song tutoring students recently sang me a song she was working on called ‘Listen You’, which I thought was a cool idea about missing that special someone. She had strong lyrics for her chorus, but the chorus chords she had were in a minor key just like the verse had been. The minor chords worked great in the verse, but the melody fell flat at the chorus. I call this kind of chorus melody problem flat lining, as in, the melody didn’t lift enough for a chorus. I suggested that she go to the relative major key for the chorus, and that the melody needed to be ‘happier’ to pay off the manic lyric idea she had set up. This eventually made for a killer chorus for that song.

This started me thinking, if the question is, ‘how do you write a breakthrough song?’

This experience with my student reinforced my conviction that having an intention when writing is the answer. In other words, if you can imagine the result you want before you get there, you have a much better chance of achieving that result.

I think lack of intention is one of the things that is crippling the music industry. I see creators in many fields (not just songwriters) influenced by the culture of immediacy that we are living in. I believe some songwriters are influenced away from writing a breakthrough song, expressing a riveting clear universal emotion with catchy melodies, and instead are focused on making trendy tracks that sell immediately. I think the craft of songwriting is suffering as a result, and this shortsightedness is contributing to a lack of certain songs’ longevity on the charts.

But keeping this idea of intention can be a tricky business when writing a song, because sometimes you don’t want to question that magical part of writing from pure inspiration. Great songs can seem to fall out of the sky and flow through the writer.

However there are so many facets of songwriting that can be improved by conscious thought. There are many examples of this, not the least of which is McCartney’s now clichéd story about ‘Yesterday’ starting out as a song he dreamed called ‘Scrambled Eggs’. After further consideration, the title and subsequent lyric story of ‘Yesterday’ had just the right feeling for the melody he dreamed. The title and lyric fit like hand in glove. But he worked at it ‘til he had something great. And that was all because of his intention to write a great song. Luckily he didn’t settle for ‘Scrambled Eggs’.

So, you ask, how can we take an OK song and make it better, with the right intention?

As a starting point, here is a quick intention checklist to run your songs by.
Intention Check List:

1. How do you want the song to feel?
2. Does every aspect of the song feel the way you want it to feel?
3. Does the lyric develop within a section, and from section to section, to express an urgent coherent story, the way you want it to?
4. Does the melody have the right flow, i.e., does it climax and subside where it needs to? (from the verse into the chorus, etc..)
5. Is there rhyme scheme consistency and development in the right places?
6. Have you mapped your melodic rhythm by using slash marks to count the number of syllables (for ex., map the V1 melody so that V2 will have the same melodic rhythm)?

Feel free to drop me a line and let me know how you did with the checklist…I’m curious! You can hook up with my buddy Wayne here: wayne@standupsongs.com

CAN I SEE YOUR LICENSE - MUSIC PUB SERIES

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When you finally get a call from a company wanting to use one of your sopngs, you'd better have your license forms ready to do business. Prepare all the license forms you expect you might need ahead of time, leaving particulars such as signatory names, song titles, dates, royalties and fees blank. They'll be fiolled in following negotiations.

A mechanical license is used to authorize phonorecords of a song to be recorded and distributed. You'll want to prepare a separate mechanical license for authorizing digital phono record delivery, also known as Internet Download.

You'll need two different forms of streaming licenses to authorize streaming songs on the Internet: one for fee-based streaming on demand, and the other fro promotional streaming such as that used by recording artists on MySpace. A master-use license permits all or some of a demo's recorded track to be used in a new recording or placed in a film or on TV. You'll also need to prepare separate synchronization licenses (permitting the song to be synchronized to picture) for placements in film, TV, and commercial advertisements. Additional licenses include those for use of your songs in video games and ring tones.

You could have a music-business attorney draw up these documents, but it'll likely cost you thousands of dollars, especially if license terms need to be tweaked during negotiations. A good entertainment lawyer typically charges between $150-$750 per hour. Anyone can learn to understand and write the legalese required to fashion their own licenses, by studying the right books. Remember in our last session "A Good Education" is my recommendation on required reading.

Once one of your songs is recorded, you'll need to register it with your PRO. If you don't they won't know who to pay performance royalties to when the song title appears in their sample surveys of radio broadcasts and the like. Go to the PRO's web site to download the proper registration form.

More on Monday....

A GOOD MUSIC EDUCATION IS PRICELESS

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To be successful, a music publisher must be thoroughly educated about the complexities of the music business. Here are three books I recomend:

All You Need To Know About the Music Business, 6th ed., by Donald S. Passman (Free Press, 2003). This is a must-read for music publishers, especially those who are also performing musicians or aspiring recording artists.

Music, Money and Success, 5th ed., by Jeffrey Brabec and Todd Brabec (Schirmer Trade Books, 2006). Reviewed in November 2007 issue of EM, this is the most comprehensive reference book for music publishers and other industry professionals I've read to date. The last chapter contains five sample contracts.

This Business of Music, 9th ed., by William Krasilovsky and Sydney Shemel (Billboard Books, 2003). Considered by some to be "old school" and short on dollars-and-sense advice, this book never-theless includes excellent chapters on copyright law.

We have 3 more segments to complete this music publishing series. Following that we will begin a series on Copyrights and Wrongs and for those of you interested in our real estate series, we will do that simultaneously.

If you have friends that are on your MySpace, FB or Twitter pages and feel that they would benefit from this series, please feel free to email them with a link to share this valuable information with them at http://composer62.blogspot.com

More tomorrow....

THE DIRECT APPROACH

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Industry directories are a must-have for music publishers. While they do not guarantee successful relationships with important industry decision makers, they do provide you with the information you need to make that first contact. The following list provides the name of each directory, its publisher's web site, and, where applicable, notes of interest.

A & R Registry, the Music Business Review (www.musicregistry.com). A comprehensive international directory of A &R staff and company executives for major and independent record labels. It also includes a useful list of music conferences and conventions.


Music Attorney, Legal & Business Affairs Registry, the Music Business Registry. A comprehensive international directory for contacts working in entertainment law.

Film & Television Music Guide, the Music Business Registry. An international directory of record labels, music publishers, film and television music departments and trailer houses, music supervisors, music placement and video game companies, composers, composer agents, orchestras, music editors, score mixers, music clearance departments, and more.

In Charge, Music Row (www.musicrow.com). This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date directory for the country music industry I've seen. Subscribers to the company's excellent Row Fax tip sheet also gain access to Music Row's expanded online directory.

Pitch This Music Directory,Pitch This Music (www.pitchthismusic.com). While this is a very limited directory for the Nashville area, it contains some exclusive, invaluable listings I've not seen elsewhere.

Producer & Engineer Directory, The Music Business Registry. Contains thousands of domestic and foreign listings for producers, engineers, and their agents.

Music Publishers Registry, the Music Business Registry. Do-it-yourself music publishers will find this international directory helpful in locating publishers for sub publishing and administrative deals. An administrative publishing deal is essentially one where a larger company handles royalty collections and disbursements, and sometimes licensing and promotion, for a smaller company such as your own.

Signing off for the weekend. More on Monday....

The Quincy Jones Music Consortium

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Q told me he had to go to Israel, to meet with Putin and other heads of state. He had to fix the Palestinian crisis before he died.

Anybody else tells you a story like this and your eyes roll into the back of your head. But Quincy's on an airplane seemingly more than he's home. He's trying to exact change. And people listen to him.

He hopes they listen to him about music education. He thinks we need it. That everywhere he goes people are listening to American music, but those in our country are woefully uninformed as to our heritage. He believes this has got to change.

Thus, the Quincy Jones Music Consortium.

Actually, he's not the only driving force. There's this guy Jeffrey Walker. A money man, presently a teacher at Harvard Business School. When he strode onto the dais and began speaking I was enthralled. Some people have a way of drawing you in and closing you, wrapping a net around you when you thought you were standing on the outside.

That's why I was in New York. For the second meeting of the Quincy Jones Music Consortium. Mostly those in music education. And Marty Albertson, CEO of Guitar Center, and Herbie Hancock, and me...

There's this organization, DonorsChoose.org Talk about the power of one.

Charles Best was a social studies teacher in the Bronx. Confronted with the challenges of the public school system. Where you've got the will, but very few of the tools. So, he created a site where teachers could put up their needs in plain English, and raise funds from the general public, seemingly instantly. It was easy to ask for the money, and usually it came rolling in. This is not a secret, Charles has been on Oprah, but watching him tell the story was inspirational. He wasn't about charisma, he wasn't about self-aggrandization, he was about results. (http://www.donorschoose.org/)

Wow. A teacher needs crayons, art supplies? Maybe only a couple of hundred dollars total? Who wouldn't give a couple of bucks. It's us helping us, in a world where there's gridlock in D.C. and those with the big bucks seemingly want a pound of flesh for the cash. Or require you to fill out so many forms and jump through so many hoops, you can't bother. Do you know how busy teachers are already?

And Charles is not the only one. Watch Carmine Appice play with the kids from Little Kids Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrrldQYS3c

David Wish was a first grade teacher in the Bay Area, in an underprivileged, undernourished urban school. He was also a fanatical musician. He wanted to meld the two. So he ran around to all his guitarist friends, told them they could either pay him the money they owed him, or give him one of their guitars. And with the resultant axes, he started a school music program. Where kids played the music they wanted to. Rock, hip-hop, everything that could be performed with guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

It's a raging success. David went on about scalability. He can instruct a teacher how to teach little kids to rock very quickly. And the cost to each individual student is miniscule.

But it is about teachers. He first roped in his aforementioned music friends. They didn't show up, they made excuses. They could play, but they couldn't instruct, they let the little kids down.

David now has 45,000 kids enrolled in Little Kids Rock: http://www.littlekidsrock.org/

And it is about teachers. Marty Albertson wants to train music teachers to do what music schools do not. How to interact with the community, to raise funds, to keep their music programs alive. He's willing to put up serious Guitar Center coin for a program called "All In" that creates multi-day gatherings to help these teachers learn how to do it.

And what do we want these kids to learn?

That's Q's passion. They've created an entire curriculum. Encompassing the history of American music. Screw kids taking lessons in order to raise their math and English scores, kids need to learn music for music itself. They need to know about their culture, where they come from, how they fit in.

But there are side benefits. There was this principal from the Bronx who told about the power of music. It kept kids in school. Students come to play. Otherwise, it's hard to keep their attention, they stay home, they join gangs.

Personally, I'd follow the wedge opened by David Wish. A simple program with results that can be easily understood. Use the excitement and passion to get kids playing contemporary music in all schools and then bring in history and orchestra behind it. You've got to start with success.

But the consortium is fighting on all fronts. They want some of that government money. And Quincy opens doors.

As for ultimate success...

I heard something brilliant from a fundraising expert. She said: "You don't need leadership if you have certainty."

Voila! That's it! People are always looking for the answer. Usually, the answer comes after the start. You've got to begin in order to find out where you're going. But if you never begin, you never get to the destination.

This is what has been lacking in the music business. It has historically been run by the labels, by the RIAA. Which are about protection of their present business model as opposed to any kind of vision, any kind of leadership. I wouldn't follow Mitch Bainwol anywhere. Nor the heads of any label. Because they've got their heads up their asses. Does Daniel Ek at Spotify have the answers? I'm not sure. But he's trying to lead in this uncertain world. Even Irving Azoff and Michael Rapino too. They're in search of answers.

When things are bad, we need to be led out of the wilderness. We've got to get behind somebody. Funny, in the music industry, the acts used to be the leaders. Some still are. Trent Reznor is a prime example. He's trying to do it without sacrificing his integrity, without selling out to the man, because music, when done right, must be pure. Shawn Fanning created a platform where all people could have all music. Was it economically flawed? Of course. But if you think restricting access to copyrighted material is the answer, you're unaware of how many sites hosting copyrighted material have sprung up since the crackdown on the Pirate Bay. They're multiplying like crazy.

So, will Quincy and Jeffrey and Marty succeed in their mission?

The answer is unclear. But they're leading. They're laying down their money and their time. And that's where you start.

http://qmusiqconsortium.ning.com/

Eric Garland On The Movie (Music) Business

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This is so right on, so exhaustive and prescient, that I must send it to you and you must read it.

Ostensibly about the movie business, i.e. its challenging future, Garland states that past is prologue and we look to what happened in the music business to know how things play out in the film business.

The key passage is this:

"They will have to chase legal remedies, legislative agendas, all the way to what they view as being the end of the line before they say 'OK, so this really is the landscape we're stuck with. As much as we didn't want it, this appears to be it. Now we have to just dive in and make businesses that work here.'

And that's where music has only just arrived in this country and note it hasn't even come close to arriving in a lot of European countries. If you ask Universal Music Group in the U.K. 'Are you going to win this war on piracy?' They will say 'Oh yes, swiftly and decisively and soon. The rate of peer-to-peer infringement will be down 70 percent in the U.K. in the next few months. They have specific targets. Not here. We've exhausted all of those paths. There's a big gap. If the music industry in this country just now sort of arrived at the conclusion where they say 'We just have to play on this field even through it ain't home court and there isn't a lot of advantage.' And in some territories, music hasn't even gotten there yet, then how can Hollywood be there?"

The above comes from the answer to the final question of the interview, you can scroll down to there for full context, but you should really take the time to read from beginning to end.

In other words, who you gonna trust, the media titans or a guy who makes his living on the computer, detailing how people actually use the Internet?

Mr. Garland is not histrionic. He has no agenda, other than making BigChampagne profitable, selling data. Please don't shoot the messenger, pay attention to him!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10383572-261.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0