How To Write Hit Melodies Prt 2

In writing a melody, it's critical to keep your audience surprised. Sincewe speak English in iambic pentameter, it's natural to assume we can writein the same meter. Unfortunately, it's deadly boring. So I suggest youdeliberately vary the lengths of your lines, and the number of notes ineach, along with the number of lines or bars per section, to avoid yoursong sounding predictable. After all, it's your job as an artist to tellyour audience something they aren't expecting. The range of most contemporary singers is an octave and three - theinterval from middle C, for example, to the E an octave above it. If youwrite a tune with a range greater than that, you'll be hard-pressed tofind a singer with the chops to handle it. My song, "An American Hymn",which I wrote with Lee Holdridge, was only recorded once in twenty yearsuntil Lee figured out how to revise the bridge melody, reducing our octaveand five to an octave and three. Now the song is recorded at least once amonth. Most hit "power" ballads, such as Daughtry's "Home," end their verses onnotes lower than the ones on which the choruses start. To create tensionand drama in their melodies, I urge my clients, and you, to go up into thechorus, not sideways or down. Doing the latter is like letting air out ofa tire. So go up and stay up. And although some contemporary songs breakthe rising-into-the chorus rule, you can bet their rhythmic hooks at thebeginning of and throughout the choruses are strong enough to overcome themelody's drop, and keep us listening. ~Molly-Ann Leikin (rhymes with bacon) is a song marketing consultant inCalifornia, who, for a modest professional fee, works one-on-one to helpyou find the right writing partner and then helps you market your finishedwork to all the right people. A Eurovision finalist (American Idol inEurope), Molly is the author of "How to Write A Hit Song, Fifth edition",(June, 2008) from which this article is excerpted, and "How to Be a HitSongwriter", both published by Hal Leonard. She has a house full of goldand platinum records plus an Emmy nomination, has written themes and songsfor over four dozen TV shows and movies, including "Eight is Enough" and"Violet" that won an Oscar. From the USA and Canada, you can reach Molly,toll-free, at 800-851-6588, or from anywhere in the world, atwww.songmd.com. Please note: Molly does not accept unsolicited material.© 2008 Songwriting Consultants, Ltd.

written Molly-Ann Leikin

Song writing Software

If you're not using songwriting software right now, I would urge you to try it out. It will certainly stimulate your creativity. At least I know that it has helped me personally. I now have less problems with "Mr. Mental Block". Quality song writing software should take you from start to finish when you are writing songs. From ideas to even promoting your songs.
Lyricist software.
The piece of software which has really made me appreciate the value of songwriting software is none other than the Lyricist. I know now that I don't need to have a hundred and one gadgets to do what I want to do.
The Lyricist provides me with features like a built-in rhyming dictionary, thesaurus and spell checker, to name a few of the basic stuff I like using. I bang my head on the wall a bit less now, because of that.
Apart from features like being able to organise all my songs into albums, being able to copyright my songs online and being able to swap songs with my friends via email, I particularly like the Chord Charting feature. There's so much I like about this feature, but I won't include all of them here.
check out the site
www.ultimatesongwriting.com

peace coolwater

Emotional Connection

R&B songs seem to always seem to have an emotional connection to people. Writing songs should appeal to people sense of emotions, because what you need to carry over into your personal life which brings about things like love, crying, pain, and happyness. If you are a song writer and you can't get the emotional connection across to people then your songs will never make into the hearts,minds, and souls of people.

thank you

cool water

www.coolwater101.com

Writing is a Crazy element

Writing is an element that is strange. When you are writing something you really have to look at all facts that come into play about what it is you are writing about. The whole concept to writing something involves your ability to capture the visual images and put the to paper. Whether you are writing a book, movie, poems or whatever it is the you must bring the element of vision to the writing area. You have to be a storyteller in a sense. Writing is something that should be practiced everyday...

Until next time

cool water

Classic Writing

Jayz's American Gangsta is a classic why to write an album. Jay made sure he looked at the movie and gave you a story line that was parallel with the album. In songwriting you have to get your theme together in order for the reader listener to follow you. Jay Z took you on a journey from start to finish and put himself in the songs view so the listen could see where he came from and where he was going.

When you write a song you got to get your climate,setting, and climax together inoder for you story to be the best. Just remember this if we can't see what you wrote then you didn't do a good enough job getting your point across.

Song Writers News letter

1. WE'VE MOVED!We've moved! We're now in Canyon Country CA. (Still in Los Angeles.) You may have seen the fires in our neighborhood on the news. They came within a mile of us and it was chaotic around here for a few days -- we were spared everything but the smoke. We moved on Sept 1&2, which turned out to be the hottest of the year at 110 degrees both days. Anyway, we have a new phone number: 661-424-1525. The e-mail is still john@johnbraheny.com and if you want to send a CD, etc. for critiques, e-mail us first and we'll send the address. I've been getting mostly MP3s lately though and had to set up a new g-mail address so it would handle bigger files. That address is … songconsult@gmail.com.2. TAXI ROAD RALLYFor you Taxi members (plus one guest) attending the annual Taxi Road Rally songwriters convention -- 3,000 songwriters from 21 countries -- this Thursday-Sunday, November 8-11 at the Westin Hotel near the LA airport. It's looking to be another blockbuster event with a lot more focus this year on marketing. Here's the full schedule .
I'll be on a discussion panel Friday from 10:15-11:15 called Secret Sauce: The Inside Scoop on How TAXI's Screeners & the Industry Really Work. I'll also be doing a "Drivers Ed" class on Sunday from 9-10:30AM called "Songcraft Basics — Control What You Know."
Here's a short description. "If you started writing by instinct before you learned the principles of manipulating song structure and dynamics for maximum impact; if you keep getting TAXI critiques that say you need better structure or more contrast; if you need to brush up on what you missed and get more control over what you instinctively know, then this is the class for you."
I'll also be scheduling one-on-one consults throughout the Road Rally so please take advantage of these while you're here, come visit our booth at the "Booksellers Room" next to the ballroom on the main floor. I'll be participating in the free 10 minute Mentor Sessions on Friday afternoon 2:45 to 5:30. These slots fill up fast so sign up early on Thursday at check-in.
Speaking of Taxi, a couple months ago Taxi CEO Michael Laskow summoned me into his office from my screener shift, set up a video camera and started asking me questions. The result is on YouTube but I also have it on the front page of my website, johnbraheny.com.Check it out.
The Road Rally got me thinking about what a great networking opportunity it is. Not only the Taxi event but South By Southwest , The ASCAP Expo, Nashville Songwriters Assn. events, The West Coast Songwriters Conference (Sept. in Palo Alto CA) The Arizona Songwriters Assn. Gathering, (free every Jan.) and any other event that brings songwriters and industry people together, I thought this would be a good time to post an excerpt from a longer section in my book, The Craft and Business of Songwriting with some tips about making the most of these opportunities.

3. TIPS FOR NETWORKING AT EVENTS
Research the guests before the event; search their names online and read their bios, or an article about them or interview with them. Listen to a song they placed or the records they produced. Once you’ve absorbed that info (take notes for later) you’re in a good position to start an intelligent conversation and you never know where it can lead you. “Behind the scenes” people always love it when you can talk about and ask questions about something they’ve done that you’re familiar with or a fan of. “Hey I loved the guitar sound on that record (you produced). How did you get that?” Don’t b.s. them though. Be genuine. If you’re not, they’ll know it right away.
Exchange cards. Often they won’t have them (sometimes on purpose!) and will say, “Just call my office” or tell you to ask the organization host to give it to you. Don’t assume that they don’t want to be bothered, though. It may be true but you don’t want your shyness to stop you if you have confidence in your music. When you get a card from anyone, write some notes on back of the card to help you remember who they are: “We talked about____” – “ Call after first of year.” “ Short blonde with great song about____ .” Note the date and occasion. You may find the card later and have to wrack your brain to remember why you have their card and where you met. Hopefully you’ve got a database with a notes field where you can transfer those notes. I use Filemaker Pro and have thousands of those entries. I not only can search by name but I often search by the notes. Who was that attorney I met at the DIY (Do It Yourself) conference? I put “DIY” in the notes field and several will pop up, narrowing the search. Or I could put both “DIY” and “attorney” and narrow it even further. Your card should contain your e-mail address, website, contact phone and preferably a photo.
Demo pitching etiquette at the event. You should always be prepared to give them a demo with lyric sheets or your finished CD. However, it doesn’t mean you should. It really depends on the event, the person, and frankly, the moment. The people who create the event can tell you if there’s a special etiquette for their event. If industry people are there specifically to look for new songs or artists it may be perfectly okay. If they’re there specifically to speak on a panel, it may not be. In that case it’s better etiquette to wait for them to ask you for it. That may not happen until after you’ve had enough conversation to get comfortable. If it seems okay you may want to ask, “Would you like a copy of my CD to take with you or can I contact you later." It gives them an opportunity to gracefully decline. I’ve come back from places deluged with CDs I haven’t had time to listen to because my business is to consult and critique songs and my priority is to listen to what my clients have paid me to critique. Occasionally I’ll get around to listening to others. However it is part of the job of publishers, record companies, etc., to listen to them.
Meet and talk with as many other writers and artists as possible. Networking with music biz people is very important but I feel it’s equally important to make contact with your fellow writers and musicians. Beyond the obvious focus of finding collaborators and artist/bands to record your songs, it’s very important to your life to make friends. You’ll find that it’s your friends who you can talk to when you’re feeling rejected and dejected, people who have been there and understand. It’s your friends you’re going to call when you want to celebrate that somebody just recorded your song or you just finished writing one you’re proud of. And you’ll be there for them, business or no business. Those aren’t the calls you make to the VP of A&R at a major label. It’ll be your friends who will turn you on to that great new website where you can market your songs, to that great deal on CD duplication, demo producer or that killer bass player.
The elevator speech. Whether you’re meeting industry people or other musicians and writers you need to arm yourself with “elevator speech.” It’s called that because when you get into an elevator you need to maximize your time so you can give someone your pertinent information in about 15 seconds and hopefully have time to get theirs. Someone with a new record label says he’s looking for a producer or website designer. Someone else is or knows one, etc. The point is that you need to work out and rehearse two or three short speeches without making them sound rehearsed. Think about what you want it to accomplish. “I’m Jim Adams, I’m a singer-songwriter from Chicago and I’m into rock (folk, blues, R&B pop, Hip-Hop) and I’m here to find a good lyric writer (producer, etc.) to work with. What do you do?” In no time at all you’re finding somebody you can get together with later and get a little deeper. So it’s a combination of what you do and what you want to accomplish. Always have something ready so you don’t waste an opportunity with “Hey, do you think we're gonna get some rain?”
Make the most of those events by meeting as many people as possible. They’re there to meet you too.
Tip: Support the organizations that produce these events with your membership and volunteer time and you’ll often find yourselves surrounded by opportunities. Organization newsletters also provide valuable information about industry events of interest to songwriters.

4. WINERY MUSIC AWARDS
One of the highlights of the Summer and Fall for JoAnn and me was being invited (thanks to old friend Jim Hilton and new friend, Roy Braverman) to be on a panel of distinguished judges for the 2nd Winery Music Awards in Paso Robles CA -- halfway between L.A. and San Francisco -- graced by about 150 wineries.
Unfortunately, by the time we found out about this 5-month competition, the deadline for entries had already passed. I know that many of you reading this could have been serious contenders here and I'll be sure to notify you when entries are open next time.
We were hosted at some wonderful wineries and B&Bs – they treated us royally – Kathy Kelly did a fabulous job of producing and publicizing the series, which ended with exceptional LA singer/songwriter Shannon Curtis taking top prizes. JoAnn's got more impressions and photos on her Goosing Your Muse blog but for the full picture, go to their web site.

Why I think Shannon Curtis won. Not only did she have well-crafted songs with a unique style and point of view but she was entertaining. As an audience, we felt like she was letting us into her living room and was talking with us like we were old friends. She created an intimate rapport with us. And it's not just that, but she knew when to stop talking and start singing. It's a special gift as a performer to be able to sense when you've gone on too long, even when you know your audience loves you and you could probably get away with it. There were time restraints on her set so for all I know she may not possess that sense all the time, but it seemed just right when I was there. I've seen many, many artists who write good-to-great songs and have total command as a musician, but I may as well just be enjoying their CDs because I got little beyond that by taking the trouble to be at a live show. I think that, particularly in intimate settings (we expect more spectacle at an arena show) we expect a more unique way to experience an unique artist. Shannon gave us that performance.

STAY TUNED!
In the next few weeks, we'll be sending an announcement about my new blog and podcasts of guest lectures on songwriting that I presented recently.
Write on,
John Braheny
Songwriting Consultant, Author of the Craft and Business of Songwriting

Steps to Songwriting

When writing a song you must first identify the audience you want to address. For example, if you want to write song to the president then you would have a political audience. The most important thing about songwriting is make sure that you convey message to the proper audience.You must paint a picture thats so vivid that you can see things with your eye closed. Songwriting is the spirit of the soul that one shares with the world.