by Jim Grubbs | Feb 28, 2023 | Songwriting
Greetings, fellow songwriters!
February was a short – but full – month, and as a result February’s post will be shorter than usual.
That said, I wanted to address a question that frequently arises: “Just how fancy does my song demo need to be?” I’ve learned that the answer is slightly more complex than I once believed.
So, how fancy does my song demo need to be?
I personally LOVE to hear my song demos done by a full band. It really thrills me to listen to them for the first time at a quality level equal to anything played on the radio.
I always think, “Man, that sounds like something (Artist X) would release! I can’t wait to pitch it to them!” When I pitch them, artists are very complimentary of them.
Then, I was privileged to witness Mark “Brink” Brinkman pitch a song demo to a publisher during a break at IBMA a few years ago. “Brink” pulled out his old guitar, walked up to the publisher, and said, “I’ve got a song to run by you if you have a minute?” and he just played and sang it.
It was masterfully simple – no polish – just clearly communicating a great song and an excellent example of demo music. I don’t recall if “Brink” got a cut from that song or not, but it impressed me how he just put It out there – just him and his guitar.
“Brink” is a fantastic songwriter and a consummate professional who knows his target audience and is certainly well-known in return. As I learned, that publisher prefers to hear stripped-down demos, especially from established songwriters.
It seems there are indeed some who prefer to hear new songs and demo music from the perspective of a blank canvas, open for their own interpretation. This topic came up in my recent interview with Stephen Mougin, where I learned that Stephen accepts full-band demos but sometimes remakes them with only his guitar before presenting them to his Dark Shadow artists.
Customize your song demo for your target market
In Stephen’s words, “If the demo is TOO complete, what can the artist do except simply learn to play the song exactly as the demo? Are you going to pay Sam Bush to learn somebody else’s mandolin break? Or get Sam’s original contribution?”
Face it – we’re not ALL household names in the world of songwriting, nor do we all own successful record labels.
For the rest of us, we need all the help we can get! That means we may benefit from more comprehensive demo music that grabs artists’ attention. For those artists who prefer the stripped version, I still need help; I don’t have the singing voice to communicate my songs effectively without the benefit of a professional demo.
Folks like me are tasked with developing close relations with our target artists, so we know how THEY like to hear song demos. We then have to ensure we supply demo music that matches those preferences.
Fortunately, the solutions offered at BDT can be customized to match my target audience. I can specify a full demo as well as a guitar/vocal stem on my order.
If I’m uploading to the song library, all versions of the song demo will be available for artists looking for material – I don’t even have to do the legwork to find out the individual preferences of every potential target artist!
I send them the link to my songs in the library and let the artists choose the version of the demo they want to consider. It simplifies the process and even gets my songs considered by artists I haven’t gotten to know yet.
Here are several tips to follow when preparing your song demo:
To recap, the answer to “How fancy does my demo need to be?” depends upon the following:
- Know (really know) your target audience for demos and supply them with demo music in a format that matches their preferences.
- Do you honestly have the technical skill (vocals, instrumentals, and recording setup) to make your own stripped-down song demo? If there’s any doubt, entrust the demo music to the professionals at BDT. As a single BDT project, request a full demo AND a guitar/vocal stem. Pitch them according to your target’s preferences.
- If you don’t have a personal relationship with target artists, direct them to the Song Library in BDT by supplying a link. Let them select the format for your song demo that they prefer. Additionally, they can access charts and other details they need to enable them to give your song demo a fair consideration – or even a “test drive”!
If you don’t know where to begin, check out the services offered at Buy Demo Tracks. We can help start your song demo and put you on the right track.
Until next time, keep writing!
Jim Grubbs
by Jim Grubbs | Feb 7, 2023 | Songwriting
In last month’s blog we explored some ways to overcome songwriter’s block, and I mentioned that co-writing songs is one of the most important suggestions I’ve received – so important, in fact, that I promised to devote my post this month to the topic of co-writing.
Let’s look at a few of the pros and cons of co-writing songs. I think you’ll see why many of the best writers in the business still choose to collaborate.
The pros and cons of collaborating with songs
Pros of co-writing:
1. Co-writing brings skills to bear that you may not possess.
If you’re one of those folks who have it all – great stories to tell, flowing lyrics, and captivating melodies – this won’t be a compelling argument for you; there are better reasons for you to co-write a song.
However, if you’re like me (and the other 98% of songwriters) you probably struggle with one or more of these elements. Stories and lyrics come easily for me, but I have to really work to write melodies that grab the listener. I’ve been blessed to co-write songs with some fantastically creative people to whom melodies/chord progressions seem to occur naturally.
Likewise, some of them have told me that our co-written lyrics are a far better way of telling the story than they envisioned alone. The important thing here is that everyone involved gets an opportunity to grow while turning out great songs that tell important stories. Seek writing collaborators who are stronger than you in some sense of the word.
2. Co-writing forces you to organize your thoughts.
As mentioned in my December blog, the “storyboard” must flow logically even for fictional or expressive songs.
When two or more songwriters approach a project, it’s even more important to have a clear and consistent understanding of the flow of the story and what message/emotion the song is intended to convey. Work this out before you begin to produce lyrics, unless you’re going for a “stream of consciousness” song (and if you are, co-writing makes less sense).
3. Co-writing presents you with “What if…” opportunities.
Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself, “That would’ve been better if only the plot had taken THIS direction.” The same happens when you co-write songs, except that YOU are writing the plot and can consider those twists and turns that create great songs with a more universal “hook”.
Having a partner to ask those questions (and to answer yours) makes for a better end product – but it does require objectivity and flexibility on the part of the song’s collaborators. Some stories that I thought I had all figured out evolved into better (more universally relatable) songs when they shifted slightly from their original plot with the inclusion of my writing partner’s perspective.
4. Co-writing is generally faster.
This sounds counterintuitive, but I have found it to be true! When you set a writing appointment with someone you respect, you don’t want to waste their time. The result is sharper focus on the task at hand with less multi-tasking and clearer direction – to use a navigational term, higher “velocity made good” (speed in the desired direction).
With a little advanced preparation like agreeing on the song idea and/or the story and any lines or hooks already developed, collaborators can count on a productive songwriting session.
5. Co-writing results in additional avenues for pitching the song.
Network beyond your own personal sphere of contacts. Does your song collaborator work with artists directly to whom you may be unknown? Perhaps you have your own set of artists who welcome your pitches. Work together to cast a wide net.
6. Co-writing leads to rich personal relationships.
We write because we feel something deeply. When we share this experience with a kindred spirit, the bonding that occurs is highly rewarding. It is not a stretch to say that I’ve grown to love the people with whom I’ve worked over the years; every time I hear one of our songs I’m taken back to the session(s) in which it was created, and I relive the joy we shared as our “baby” came to life. As they say, joys shared are doubled; burdens shared are halved.
Cons of co-writing
1. You get earlier criticism of your work.
This can be discouraging for some, but if you approach it with maturity, it can be a blessing in disguise. When I worked in the automotive electronics industry, we learned an important lesson when testing our designs: “FAIL EARLY.”
An early test failure of our product armed us with feedback we could incorporate into our design with minimal impact on our deadline, tooling production schedule (tooling changes during design, not fabrication), and test facility schedule.
By contrast, when a failure occurred near the end of the testing cycle, we’d be 3+ months into fabricating tools already – some of which would have to be scrapped and redesigned as the product was corrected. Although songwriters rarely have “deadlines” there is still a big advantage if any weakness in the song is detected and reworked earlier – before it’s “finished”.
There’s less to rework, and even a change in the storyboard itself results in less wasted effort.
2. Your original idea will probably get altered.
When you work with other songwriters, strong opinions may change the trajectory of the song. Sometimes you’ll need to stand firm – just be sure this is properly motivated.
If you’re co-writing a story song about a historical figure and accuracy is important in honoring that figure, that’s reason enough to stick with the original storyboard. Just make sure you aren’t resisting out of ego.
If there is “wiggle room” do your best to compromise; give and take in fair proportions, or you’ll gain the reputation of being too difficult for many collaborators. After all, you collaborated by choice! Why would you ignore the input of the very person with whom you chose to write?
3. You must share any proceeds with your co-writer.
This is a good time to mention an unwritten rule of collaborating: divide the credit for the results equally among all collaborators.
Sure, maybe you wrote 80% of the song – but would there even BE a song without that other 20%? And maybe on the next project, the roles will be reversed. It’s just a recipe for strained relationships to handle this any other way.
I’ve heard of folks who wanted to count the words in the final song and to allocate the credits (and royalties) based on that. I’m not standing in line to co-write with them!
Set the ground rules right up front – once you’ve decided to collaborate you’ve made the decision that all contributors in the co-writing effort are credited equally. Trust me, you won’t miss their share. If the song is highly successful, you’ll all do well!
Co-writing is a fun and rewarding experience
The benefits of co-writing songs far outweigh the downside.
What’s more, collaboration has never been easier than today. There are great tools available to enable writers to work face-to-face, in real time, from all corners of the globe. You may have already established contact with other writers through song circles and workshops (Louisa Branscomb and Donna Ulisse lead wonderful workshops from time to time, to name a few).
If you don’t know where to begin, check out the services offered at buydemotracks.com; these provide great opportunities to co-write songs with other subscribers. You can even co-write with a specific artist in their preferred style and almost certainly get that project cut by that artist! This is just one of the many advantages made available to subscribers.
Keep writing!
Jim
by Jim Grubbs | Dec 30, 2022 | Songwriting
Songwriting can seem like an exercise in two extremes. Sometimes the words flow so smoothly you can hardly write them down fast enough – almost as if you’re just transcribing for someone else.
And then there is most of the time…
We’ve all been there: Some subject has captured your fancy and you set out to write a song about it, and maybe you’ve gotten a line or two into it and suddenly – nothing. You know what you want to say but you just can’t put it into interesting words that work together. As a result, the story flounders and eventually dies out.
Don’t give up! Some of the best songwriters in history have shared this experience, and we’re fortunate to have a few of their tips to break through the linguistic logjam. Here are some of my favorites:
- Schedule your songwriting first thing in the morning. Rise early and skip your usual morning dose of radio/television; instead, let YOUR fledgling song be the first music to hit your mind that day. It’s well documented that Beethoven wrote immediately upon rising each morning. Perhaps more relatable are modern hitmakers like Rick Lang and Mark “Brink” Brinkman (Brink’s motto is “Drinking coffee and making things up!”). Once I made this change I saw immediate progress, even on song ideas I had wrestled for years. You may not be a morning person, but if you’re stuck you should give this a try anyway. It works!
- Visualize your song as a movie. No matter what story you’re trying to tell, you can (and should) outline it as if each verse is a scene in a play or movie. There’s a logical chain of events in movies (well, the good ones anyway!) that keeps us engaged while the plot unfolds. If you’re stuck, revisit the storyboard and see if it flows logically. If the story doesn’t flow, there’s no hope of getting the lyrics to flow; you may be unsure of what needs to be said next. Each scene (verse) should move the plot along at a pace that enables the complete story to be communicated in about 3 minutes! Often when I’m stuck it’s because I have included too much “character development” in the first couple of verses and haven’t really taken steps to advance the plot. Think of a trout stream: when the current is moving, it’s easy to see the lines where the trout would lie in wait for food carried by the stream; but when the stream widens into a pool, there’s no discernable flow and consequently nowhere to focus your attention. Such is the flow of your song. Keep it moving!
You may wonder how the chorus fits this plan. Think of it as the theme song of the movie (e.g., “Man of Constant Sorrow” in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?). The chorus is not usually advancing the story quite as actively as the verses. Instead, it communicates the “one takeaway” of the song – and if you’re lucky, it’s the part everyone will be singing for decades to come.
- Hammer out one verse and one chorus – any verse, any chorus. It doesn’t even have to be the FIRST verse and chorus, but at least you have the syllables roughed in so a vocal cadence can begin to emerge. Much of this article deals with writing lyrics, but this is a great tip for writing the melody and chord progression as well. I know it sounds like a boring oversimplification, but I keep a “circle of fifths” wheel handy when writing, and I experiment with all the likely progressions in multiple keys until I can “feel it” – with “it” being the emotional connection to the chorus, which tends to be my melodic starting point. The melody and progression for the first verse are intended to grab the listener, and I tend to labor over these much more as a result. Not so the chorus; it should be easy for fans to sing along.
- Flip the script. You’re off to a good start; you’re up early, have a coherent outline, a first verse and a chorus. You might think the remainder would fall into place, right? Well…not always. Most of us have a growing collection of incomplete songs that we’d love to finish but can’t seem to make the words work for us. One trick is to take an awkward line that contains the message you intend to convey, and simply shuffle the order of the words until you find a combination that feels natural. Here’s an example from my song “Winter’s Coming To My Mountain Home”:
Original line: “Right outside my cabin door the snow will start falling soon.”
Revised line: “Snow will soon be falling just outside my cabin door.”
See how this reordering completely revamps the cadence? The cool thing is that you can also use this technique to change the rhyming words without having to change the information delivered by the line. In my example above, I had failed to find a word rhyming with “soon” that advanced my story; the revision led me to rhymes with “door” and one of those fit perfectly.
- Reconsider your attachment to rhyming. I am a HUGE fan of an effective rhyming scheme; strong rhyming connections can make a good story sound great (i.e., memorable). It took me years to learn that perfect rhymes can sometimes weaken the story. I was guilty of forcing unnecessary ideas into lines for no greater purpose than to preserve my perfect rhyming scheme – sounding too much like Dr. Seuss and not enough like me! Once I began to accept “near-rhymes” and to sometimes abandon my rhyming scheme altogether I began to focus on making the story memorable on its own merit. I will admit that I still work hard to have it all – rhymes included – but I’m finding that my change in priorities results in easier, more natural flow.
- Collaborate! This is such an important topic that I’ll be covering it thoroughly in another article. For now, the main point is to exchange ideas with a fellow writer who thoroughly grasps your storyboard – even if the story changes direction slightly with additional input. You’ll almost always make better progress!
I hope you find these tips helpful in breaking through the obstacles that stall your songwriting. Do you have any other techniques you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them!
