John Braheny is a consultant for songwriters and the author of “The Craft and Business of Songwriting”.  Learn more about him at www.johnbraheny.com.

John Braheny is a top consultant for songwriters, performers and industry entrepreneurs. He is a consultant and screener for TAXI, the independent A&R company, and offers valuable feedback on songwriting craft and business and career strategies for performers.

John is one of the most respected people in the music industry, and, more specifically, in the songwriting community. From 1971-1996 he co-founded and directed the legendary Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase (LASS), which BMI sponsored for 18 years.

During that time the organization gave exposure and opportunities to a virtual Who’s Who of up and coming singer-songwriters, including Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, Janis Ian, Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff, Stephen Bishop, and Diane Warren.

John graciously took some time away from his busy schedule to discuss songwriting with Serve The Song over the phone and via email. Below is the first part of our conversation.

1. Most readers of Serve The Song are DIY songwriters and producers. Can you talk a little bit about how they need to think like entrepreneurs to move their careers forward?

Sure. In some way or another we’ve always had to be entrepreneurs, even during the days when everybody aspired to a major label deal. We had to find managers, booking agents, hire or select musicians for our bands, select and book recording and rehearsal studios. We had to handle and budget our money and we had to promote ourselves. If we found a manager, many of those tasks would be taken over by him/her and/or a business manager. If we got a major or indie label deal, the company would often take over the jobs of finding a booking agent, selecting a producer and paying for marketing and record promotion.

One of the most expensive items was marketing/promotion. The record had to be good enough for radio airplay and promoted to radio with a combination of in-house and out-sourced promoters. In the old label deals most of that cost would be recouped by the record companies through record sales. Production costs, tour advances and sometimes promotion costs were recouped from the artists royalties before the artists got their first penny.

Currently, most of those things still have to be done, but DIY artists now have a vast array of services and resources to help them with booking, accounting, and fan-base management. What that does, however, is to put the responsibility of developing your career solely on your own shoulders. It requires self-discipline, good time management skills, networking skills, the willingness to seek feedback on your work (an often under-appreciated service that was provided in the past by music publishers and record companies) and to commit to growing and learning as an artist. So without the record label or a good manager, you can’t blame failure on anyone but yourself.

The bottom line is that even if you do aspire to a major label deal, labels want to sign successful entrepreneurs who have demonstrated a real commitment to their careers. I’ve heard many record execs through the years remind artists that when the deal is signed, that’s when your REAL work begins. These days I’d disagree. Your work as an entrepreneur starts when you decide YOU want to make a living doing what you love.

2. Besides pitching songs to established artists and TV/movie music supervisors, what other opportunities are available to today’s DIY songwriters and producers?

Getting your songs into film/TV is the biggest but there are other opportunities. Video games are using more actual songs aside from scores and more games are getting set up so that the songs can be changed out and new songs used. Songs in greeting cards are getting big, although they’re still dominated by old hits. There are many compilation CDs created for charities that will use songs that focus on their particular interests (medical, animals, armed forces family charities etc.). You won’t see a lot of income from those compilations but it’s a good way to get your songs out there to help people discover you. Sponsorships and endorsement deals can be a good income generator or a way to finance your road tours, equipment, etc.

Some contests offer cash prizes and all offer recognition if you win. Good indie producers are always in demand if you’re willing to work on “spec” until you get real opportunities. It’s also good to attend audio school combined with internships that prepare you and put you in line for those opportunities. Always look toward your classmates and contemporaries as potential partners on projects. Join forces and collaborate wherever possible and jump on any creative opportunity. This is not a time for competition, but for cooperation.

I’ll mention here that one of the best ways I know to connect with new opportunities if you feel you have a viable catalog of songs is to join TAXI. It’s a great opportunity to get constructive critiques to help you grow as a writer and artist.

3. In the old days we used to be able to pitch material with just a simple guitar and vocal demo. Given the current level of competition out there, what is the minimum quality standard songwriters should shoot for when pitching their demos? Does everything need to be slickly produced? Is it possible to get an acceptable level of quality in a home studio environment?

If you learn to use your home studio equipment well – your software and samples, plug-ins and outboard gear as well as old-school microphone placement techniques, you can do very good demos on your own that are comparable to masters costing thousands of dollars in expensive studios not all that long ago. So don’t think you have to get that elaborate. You need clean, undistorted sound. The kinds of demos you present to whom is a topic I cover extensively in my book but I’ll try to be brief here. If the song is for country or a pop ballad, and has a great, unique lyric and melody, you can get away with a well-played guitar or keyboard and vocal. The vocal MUST be very good. If you know anyone who’s a better singer than you, hire them to sing it. If you’re a band, you obviously use your band. If you write rock or R&B, Hip-Hop, etc. you need a great rhythm section and a great singer. This is a generalization and there are a lot more nuances to this question.

4. How important is storytelling when it comes to writing a great song?

What’s most important is engaging and holding the listener’s attention lyrically, melodically and rhythmically. Storytelling is one of the most successful time-tested lyrical approaches. There have always been great story songs in all cultures. Holding a listener’s attention with a well-developed story has been a staple in all genres. The linear narrative like “Coward of The County” or Eminem’s “Stan” or Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” is one kind of storytelling but you can also tell a more non-linear, abstract, emotional story that leaves more to the listener’s imagination. Ultimately, it’s a magic combination of lyric, melody, groove, production and arrangement and performance that together tells, and sells, the “story”, regardless of how you define it.

5. How important is an understanding of music theory and various song forms?

What both of those give you is a toolbox. If you only know one chord progression or one melodic mode, you’ll start repeating yourself very soon. Your writing will get stale. Though it’s not necessary to know music theory to write a good song, understanding the theory will help you to know how to analyze your own instinctive artistic choices. Once you know them you know how to control them and expand them.

Song form, or structure, is very important if you’re writing contemporary music that you want to be commercially viable. There are many viable structures to choose from. Although you should have them all available in your toolbox, it’s equally as important that you understand why they work. Song structure serves as a matrix that helps to guide the listener through the song with a combination of predictability and surprise that serves to hold their attention. If you have 5 0r 6 verses in a row with the same melody, it doesn’t hold a listener’s attention as well as a verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure that introduces a listener to 3 different melodies to keep it interesting. Note that the bridge (surprise factor) comes after a repeat (predictability factor) of two verse/chorus modules.

You always need at least two of something before you can introduce a surprise. If, say, you had 4 different sections in a row where nothing repeats, though it may be interesting to progressive rock or jazz fans, it’s hard to hold the attention of a mass market audience who likes to “own” a song by learning the chorus and participating.

There are styles of music that don’t need to use the same structures as pop music because the audience doesn’t need these structures to hold their attention on radio while they’re thinking about/doing something else. Dance music is generally built for clubs where the music surrounds the listener and depends on a different mix of ingredients (groove, sounds, etc.) to delight its audience. Musical theater uses songs to move the story along and develop characters and already has the attention of a viewing audience. To some extent, music for film/TV doesn’t always require the same kind of structure and dynamics as radio music because its function is more about supplying a “vibe” or emotional underpinning to what’s happening on-screen or saying lyrically what the characters are thinking. In that case, the screen, not the music should hold your main focus – unless the film is about the music.

Check out Part 2 of “A Songwriting Conversation With John Braheny”, and please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Photo by Adrian F

This is a guest post from Rob Oxoby.

Like anything, songwriting improves as one practices one’s craft. Practicing songwriting can often be a daunting task not only because it seems odd as a concept (What is the difference between practicing songwriting and being creative by actually engaging in the process of songwriting?) but also because it requires admitting that your own songwriting needs improvement.

Many times, once we write something we have a hard time letting it go, admitting that it needs complete rewriting or that may just not be that good to want a live performance or recording. Many years ago, I read somewhere that Charlotte Cafferty (then guitarist of the Go-Go’s) wrote hundreds of songs that never saw life beyond her notebook. She viewed these is not good enough for live performance and use them as examples to learn and practice what worked and what didn’t work.

Personally, for every 10 songs or so I write, one makes it in front of a band; and for every five that I bring to the band, one makes it to a live performance or recording. While this may suggest that I’m extremely prolific or just plain suck at writing, I take a different view: In a sense, all those bad songs I write are practice for the good songs I write.

In any event, admitting that a song you have written requires rewriting/retooling/rejecting can be difficult. Sometimes when I’m just not in the mood to rework my own material, I turn to the work of others. My approach is this: How many times has a song you don’t particularly like gotten stuck in your head? It happens to me all the time. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and one of my kids’ favorite songs is stuck in my head. Sometimes I (inadvertently) hear a song by an artist I don’t like, only to have the song repeat over and over again in my head throughout the day. There must be something about these songs that makes them “stick.” So, I use these songs as material to practice my songwriting. Literally, I take these songs and start rewriting them, taking them apart to figure out what makes them tick and why they are so catchy. At the same time, I’m honing my own skills with melody, harmony and rhythm.

Deconstructing a Hit

When practicing songwriting, it’s useful to think about what it is that makes these songs (perhaps regrettably) so memorable. Is it the melody? Is it the artist’s phrasing? Is it the rhythm or chord progression? As such, rewriting an existing song can serve several important purposes:

1. By dissecting and rewriting an existing song you can learn a great deal about what makes its melody catchy or its rhythm addictive. I often take an existing song and try to change one aspect (e.g., melody rhythm progression) while keeping everything else constant. This allows me to see how, say, the artist phrasing works within a melodic or harmonic structure. Sometimes I keep the melody and try to change the chords or rhythm in order to understand how a seemingly catchy melody can be supercharged by the right rhythm and harmony to create a monster you can’t get out of your head. Through this, you learn what works and what doesn’t for more general songwriting.

2. This type of work also gives you an opportunity to step outside of your genre. Maybe you can take that goofy Carrie Underwood song about cheating and turn it into a mambo? Maybe you can really stretch out an do what these guys did, converting a Brittany Spears song into a fugue. By stepping out of your genre and writing something really different, you open yourself up to new ways of conceptualizing a song. You hear new rhythms and phrases that may spark ideas for your own original material.

3. Finally, by working from an existing song you are not only learning from an example of a “successful” song, but you’re also practicing your own craft. In re-writings say a Beyonce song or something from the soundtrack to bear in the Big Blue House, it’s impossible for you not to interject your own ideas and style. As such, your songwriting, arranging, and your toolkit of songwriting tricks and ideas can only get better.

Rob Oxoby

robbyoxoby@gmail.com

This is our first poll here at Serve The Song.  Cast your vote right here in this post, or use the sidebar widget while you browse the rest of the site.  But don’t stop there.  Use the comments to share your opinions on this topic.

[polldaddy poll=1599937]

My vote?  

I almost always write the music before writing any lyrics. Lyrics have always been weak part of my songwriting game, although both are equally enjoyable.

I usually begin by strumming some chords or crafting a riff on guitar.  Then I’ll hum or sing a vocal melody without singing actual words.  Then something kind of strange happens (at least I think so).

I begin to replace my humming random words and phrases.  These words are usually meaningless and probably don’t make any sense at all.  But the syllables and emotions that each word brings serves to inspire the general direction of song.

I find this is a great way to see where my natural emotion will take the song, especially when I’m searching for a topic to write about.  I’ll draw on these random words and phrases and use them as a starting point to write something meaningful.  Now the song is on a roll…

Over to you…

Cast your vote and share your opinions below!

This is a guest post from Cliff Goldmacher, a songwriter/producer with recording studios in both New York City and Nashville. Along with teaching workshops for songwriters around the country, he’s a regular contributor to EQ Magazine.  For more about Cliff, visit www.cliffgoldmacher.com

As a result of recording and producing literally hundreds of demos, I’ve learned that it is always better to “Prepare and Prevent” than to “Repair and Repent.” Here are a few steps you can take to help make your demo recording experience more successful.

Song Preparation:

It may sound obvious but make sure your song is FINISHED. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had clients come into the studio only to start rewriting a part of the lyric or melody. It is significantly less stressful (and quite a bit less expensive) to write a song when you’re not paying the studio an hourly fee.

You can also benefit from trying a few rough recordings at home before you get to the studio. The simple act of listening back to a song instead of performing it will reveal any weaknesses or issues that need to be dealt with before the studio clock is running. The last of these rough home recordings will become the definitive work tape.

The Rough Recording:

This is any simple, inexpensive recording that you do on a hand-held tape recorder, mini disc player, mp3 recorder, etc. Generally a piano or guitar plus a scratch vocal will do the trick. The key here is not a perfect recording but rather an accurate representation of the song structure. In other words, it doesn’t have to sound great as long as the chords, melody and lyrics are correct. The purpose of this work tape is to provide the demo vocalist and session musicians with a final version of your song that they can learn from.

The Players:

Let’s start with the demo vocalist. It’s always a good policy to get a copy of the work tape and the lyrics to the singer a week or so before the session. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the singer can let you know what key the song should be in to best suit their voice. This way, if you end up recording instrument parts before the singer does their part, you’ll know the correct key. Secondly, the more time the singer has to learn the song, the less time he or she will take to sing the song when the studio clock is running.

When you get to the session, it’s wise to have printed lyric sheets for the engineer, musicians and vocalist. The lyrics should be typewritten and have each chorus written out in full. The reason for this is that you’ll be using these lyric sheets to mark spots that need fixing (or spots on certain takes that you like) and having “Repeat Chorus” written for the second and third choruses won’t allow you to take good notes. The better the notes you take on the lyric sheet while the vocalist is recording, the easier it will be to tell the vocalist what works and what needs to be fixed.

The session musicians do not need a work tape in advance. They will be learning the song from your work tape when they get to the session. You can save a little time by writing a chord chart of the song if it’s something you’re comfortable doing. If not, the session musicians should have no trouble doing it for you quickly using the work tape you bring to the session.

After that, it’s up to the singers and musicians to bring your song to the next level. There’s nothing more fun than listening to world-class musicians and vocalists record a song you’ve written. The more you prepare in advance, the more you’ll enjoy your studio experience.

Cliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, engineer and the owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City. Cliff is also a regular contributor to EQ Magazine and Pro Sound News.

Cliff Goldmacher
Website: www.cliffgoldmacher.com
Email: cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com
Phone: 615.320.7233
Biography

The art of producing songs in the studio involves a tremendous amount of patience and focus.  Songwriters should strive to achieve a recording that will be appreciated for many years to come.  Crafting and perfecting your production process is different for everyone.  It’s important to be aware of what works and what doesn’t.  Learn from past experience and always strive to make progress creatively, technically, and professionally.

Today, I want to discuss the importance of using scratch tracks.  Scratch tracks are recorded parts of a song that have not been perfected yet.  They are meant to be rough takes, not to be used in the final mix (although sometimes they turn out to be your best take!).

Scratch tracks are useful as temporary placeholders, while you build the rest of the song around them.  They’re also great for listening back and fine-tuning how you want to deliver the part when you record the final version.  By taking the time to lay down scratch tracks, you can get a better idea of where the recording is headed.  They help you envision a road map for arriving at your final product.

An example would be to record a vocal scratch track early in the tracking process.  The sooner you have the lead vocal in place, the better because it’s often the most important element of the song.  You want to structure the rest of your instrumental parts around the lead vocal.  Having a scratch version in place helps you write parts that don’t interfere with the vocal part, but compliment it nicely.  Once all the other parts have been recorded and finalized, you can go ahead and record the final vocal part.  It’s best to save the final vocal tracking for last so that the singer can draw on inspiration from the all of the instruments and really feel the fullness of the music.

The real advantage to crafting your songs with scratch tracks is for listening back and soaking in your creation in progress.  The process if recording a song often lasts several weeks. During that time, you should be listening to your rough mixes outside the studio- in your car, in your headphones, home stereo, etc. The more you familiarize yourself with every nuance of the performance, the more seasoned you will be when it comes time to lay down the final takes.

Many bands actually take months for pre-production. That is, recording and mixing entire songs as rough drafts before starting work on the actual record. Most independent songwriters don’t have the luxury of endless studio time for drawn out pre-production sessions. However, it’s always a smart idea to factor in extra time for producing your songs with at least some scratch tracking of parts.

Recording multiple takes in pro tools

When recording in Pro Tools, you can easily record multiple takes of a part using playlists.  The playlists feature in Pro Tools allows you to record an unlimited number of takes on a single track.  For each track in a multi-track mix, you activate one playlist – whichever take works best for that part.

To create a new playlist, click on the up/down arrow to the right of the track name.  In the options that popup, choose “New…”.

Give your new playlist a name. Pro Tools automatically names it by adding “.01″, “.02″, “.03″ to the end of the track name. Personally, this naming convention works fine for me, so I generally just keep the suggested name and click OK here.

Re-record the part on a new playlist, and repeat the process each time you want to do another take. When you playback the song, or prepare for bouncing to disk (mix down), select the playlist you want to use by clicking the same arrow you used to create the new playlist.

Playlists in Pro Tools provides an easy way to record scratch tracks before laying down the final take. Record the rough take first, then flip the track to a new playlist when you’re ready for the real thing. Later on, during editing or mixdown, you may decide there were parts of that rough take you liked. You can always flip back to the first playlist, cut the parts you liked, and paste them into the final playlist on that track.

Over to you…

What’s your process for doing scratch tracks, and your method of setting them up using your recording software of choice?

You’re midway through piecing together a new song and you hit a road block. The song needs… something. But what? Often times the best addition to a song is a subtraction.

What I mean by that is keep things simple and straightforward can often serve your song quite well. By stripping away the clutter you can focus your audience’s attention on the core concept of the song – this can be a riff, a rhythm, a lyric, a melody, or some combination of these. Whatever it is that’s meant to be front and center should remain clear and digestible.

Taking this idea a step further, you can actually use empty space as its own instrument. Try working with an interesting and obscure rhythm. Then slowly take away one note (or hit) at a time, leaving only the most essential backbone notes. The space that’s left in between these notes serves to add tension and anticipation for the primary components of the phrase – giving the overall sound more impact.

A few songs that come to mind which utilize this technique are:

If You Believe – Nino Moschella
Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder
Right Where It Belongs – Nine Inch Nails