Below are Question suggestions from the original "10 Most Common Questions" thread.
I have tried to categorize them, to enable me to concentrate all the similar or related ones, and will attempt to answer some of them.
Two Singers
Publishing: (1) How do I get a publishing deal?
Co-Writer: (2) How can I find a co-writer?
Demonstration Recording: (3) When should I do a demo of one of my songs?
Copyright (4) Should I copyright all of my songs?
Royalties: (5) How do I get paid royalties?
PRO's: (6) Do I need to join a PRO (Performance Rights Organization)?
Structure: (7) Where can I learn about proper lyric/song structure?
Demonstration Recording: (8) How much does a decent demo cost?
TAXI, SongU, NSAI: (9) Which organizations, such as TAXI, SongU, NSAI, etc. are most helpful for a newbie?
Contests: (10) Are songwriting contests really as good as they claim to be?
Ben Willis
Copyright: How do I get a copyright?
Copyright: Is it safe to post my song here?
Jill Sansores/JP Jill
Demonstration Recording: Is the quality of my demo good enough?
Song Length: How long of a song is too long?
Hobby vs. Commercial Endeavor: I just started writing songs, it is a hobbie right now but I may want to persue it as a possible career or professional avenue. Where should I go to learn as much as possible before I make any moves (go to the library and read EVERY book there is on songwriting and most importantly, read ALL of the archived JPNOTES!)?
Song Length: How long should my intro be? (obviously, cut to the chase!) but people really need to know this.
Demo Recording:
Publishing: How do I package my demo before sending to a publishing co and how should I follow up and with what tools (postcards included, follow up with phone call, etc)?
Pitching: Where can I find a good example of a good song pitch package?
Song Quality: IS MY SONG A G O O D SONG (have people review it!)? What makes a good quality song.. as far as for what category or genre or audience you are trying to reach.
Co-Writing/Publishing/Legal: I can't read music, do I need to pay alot of money to have someone help me?
Copyright: Where do I get my song copyrighted and can u teach me any tips on how to get my money's worth (Wash D.C.) to file? - meaning.. do as a collection per say.. rather than song by song.
niteshift
Song Quality: o I've just started writing songs, are they any good ?
Success: o How do I "Make it" in the music biz ?
Security/Copyright: o I'm paranoid about people stealing my songs, do I need an attorney ?
Publishing: o How do I submit my works to a publisher, and which one ?
Kevin Emmrich
Song Critique/Review: Where can I get my songs critiqued and reviewed for a reasonable price?
Everett Adams
Demo Rec: Where can I get demos made? How much should I spend? How good do they need to be?
Big Jim Merrilees
Recording: How do I record my songs properly?
Mike Dunbar
I just made a quick survey of the questions on the first five pages of this forum. Here's the way it looks.
Copyright: 1. Legal Questions. Mostly questions about copyrights, followed by specific contract questions.
Commercial Transition: 2. Specific Businesses. Folks want to know about specific publishers, record labels, and studios. Quite often, the questioner wants a publisher, but the publisher wants to record the questioner's demos (Joe got it there). Also some questions about specific pluggers.
Copyright: 3. How to copyright songs.
Pitching: 4 and 5. This is a tie. How to pitch songs. How to get recordings ready for a cd or mp3.
Performance:
Demonstraton Rec./Promotional material: 5 and 6. Another tie. Questions about performance and questions about creating promo material.
Song-Writing Quality: 7. Questions about improving writing (funny, if this were the number one question, most of the other questions would answer themselves.)
PRO's: 8. Questions about PROs, how they work, who are they, which is best.
Taxi: 9. Taxi.
NSAI:
Booking Agents: 10. A tie again, NSAI and how to find booking agents.
Hummingbird
Co-Writing: "how do I find someone to write music for my lyrics"
Song Splits: "I wrote 80 percent of the words & most of the melody but my co-writer wants 50 percent, is that fair"
Producer Points: "I took my words & melody to a producer who added drums & bass& stuff, now he says he owns 50 percent of the song, what do I do"
On-Line: "where's the best place to put my music on-line"
Work-For-Hire: "what's a work for hire"
Copyright: "someone told me I could mail my lyrics to myself and that would make them copyright, is that right"
Marketing: "how do I sell my songs"
Ray E. Strode
Copyright: If a demo company wants part of my copyright for doing the demo that I pay for?
Co-Writing: What should a co-writers agreement contain?
Song Structure: As to song structure. It has been noted that a popular song needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. It has been noted from time to time, that a song, popular type, should be about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes long.
Song Length: A song too short may not be a song at all and one too long may get too repetitious.
A song should not give away everything until it is ready in the song. In other words, a bit of mystery. But of course the song still has to have some continuity instead of a bunch of words just thrown together.
A song that is pretty long but works perfectly is EL PASO by Marty Robbins. Keep writing.
Monica E. Yasher
Avatar: How do I put my picture on this website?
Security: Is it safe to post my songs here?
Link to Listen: Is there an area to upload my songs so people can hear them?
Name vs. On-Line Anonymity: Why should I put my name here? Can't I be incognito?
Cher Klosner
Publishing: 1)How do I become "self-published" and what do I need to know as a "self-publisher" if someone wants to cut my song?
Matt Stoneham
Books: What books to buy, on Song Writing.
Song-Writing: Modern Rhyme, Meter, Rhythm, Phrasing. How to use repetition. The Vowel Triangle (Open and Closed vowels).to create singable lines.
Two Singers
Publishing: 1: How do I get a publisher, label/artist to listen to my original music?
Demo Rec: And, how do I prepare/package my demo?
Publishing: 2: I was contacted by email by someone �in the business� who heard my music and wants me to sign a publishing/promotion deal. I constantly hear about people being scammed like this. How do I know if it�s legitimate?
Copyright: 3: Should I copyright my songs? If so, how do I do that?
Taxi, NSAI: 4: Is there any real benefit to joining an organization such as Taxi or NSAI?
Nashville Formula: 5: I write mostly country music. Nashville insiders say that I have to stick to their guidelines and formulas if I expect to have a major publisher seriously consider my music. But, so much of what I hear on the radio frequently violates many of those rules. Can someone intelligently explain that to me? It seems so contradictory!
Demo Rec: 6: When I feel my song is good enough to invest money in a demo; should I do a full scale production? Or, is a vocal with just guitar or piano backing adequate?
Security: 7: Is it really safe to post my songs on the numerous Internet sites that offer that service? Can�t someone just steal it or make a similar derivative work from it?
Co-Writing: 8: I�m a great lyricist/musician. But, I do not play an instrument/write lyrics. How do I go about collaborating with someone on the Internet? And, is it difficult?
Feedback/Critique: 9: Mom and Aunt Betty think my songs are great! But, how can I get a real and honest critique of my songs?
Feedback/Critique: 10: How much should a good demo/critique cost me?
Song-Writing: 11: I am very serious about my music. I�m pretty darned good! But, I want to be even better�professional quality work. What resources are available to take my skills to the next level?
Publishing: 12: I can�t convince a publisher or label to listen to my music. It really is great, though! Are there any other avenues to get my music heard by someone in the business?
PRO's: 13: Should I join a Performance Rights Organization (PRO), such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC? And what, exactly, can they do for me?
Royalties: 14: I write some pretty darned good songs. But, I am not a performer. How do I get paid for my songs if a performing artist records them or plays them publicly?
Contests: 15: I see dozens of songwriting contests all over the place. Are they legitimate, for the most part? And, has anyone ever achieved professional success by winning one?
Recording: 16: I hear lots of really nice sounding songs on the Internet that people say they have recorded at home. Sounds complicated! How do I go about doing that?
Publishing: 17: Can I be my own publisher? If so, how do I do that?
Nashville: 18: I write/compose mostly country music. I�ve heard it said that you have to live in Nashville if you have any hope of succeeding in country music? Is that true?
MP3 Rec.: 19: How do I make an MP3 music file; and how do I upload it to the hosting site?
Money-Making: 20: Is there really much money to be made as a songwriter or composer, rather than a performer?
Bill Robinson
I think the most important question would be;
Copyright: How do you make that little copyright sign?..� year and name
Judy Hughes
Someone to step up on topics like these as an answer provider:
Song-Writing: Songwriting
Pitching: Song pitching
Marketing: Marketing
Demo Rec.: Recording
Copyright: Copyrights, legal basics,
PRO's: PROs
?????: Artist /Band perspectives
?????: Songwriter perspectives
Here's a random first question from the lists.
Structure: What is song structure? Where can I learn about proper lyric/song structure?
Song Length: Concept: I think information about concept and length is important and a good addition to the answer for this question.
Structure: I do believe beginning songwriters need some understanding of structure though, before they venture out of the box. Once you know what rules you're breaking it's easier to get away with it.
Structure: So if someone could answer the specific - what is structure. Maybe there's a post you could refer to regarding structures - ABABCB, or AAA or possibly the difference between Pop Verse-Chorus and Country Verse-Chorus. I don't think we can go into depth but I think a starting point is important.
Critique: I am reminded of our first song critique submission - a meandering 7 minute, ABABCAAABCDEFG.... I can't repeat the comments here. Ouch.
Books: Don't forget book suggestions on the subject.
Here's one - Songwriting - A Complete Guide to the Craft, Stephen Citron
Structure: Where can I learn about proper lyric/song structure?
A) What is song structure
There are several categories of song structures; lyric, rhyme, melody and chord structures. Here is one of the basic lyric structures used in many pop and country songs.
A - verse 1
B - chorus
A- Verse 2
B - Chorus
C - Bridge (or verse 3)
B - Chorus
Rhyme Structure: A basic rhyme structure in a verse containing 4 lines:
Rhyme the last word of lines 2 and 4
Verse 2 rhyme differs from verse 1.
The last line of the chorus is generally the hook, or punchline of the song.
Study song lyrics of hit songs and you will often see this structure.
Pre-Chorus/Lift: You may also see an additional line or two between the verse and chorus. This is the lift, meant to carry the power of the song upward into the chorus.
This is only one of many song forms. We highly recommend you study a good book on the subject.
Concept: Simplify: After understanding song form basics, conceptual form is the important consideration. Keep in mind - simplify, simplify.
Lyrical Story Completeness: Time: Simplify: A country music song tells a story, framed in concrete terms of real things happening to real people. The best ones are a single complete thought without loose ends. That complete thought needs to be expressed in 3-1/2 to 5 minutes.
A pop song does not always stick to a story line, but expresses an emotion, concept, or feeling. The best ones are about real things happening to real people. Pop songs generally run from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes, even less time to get your point across. That is why it is important to simplify. If verse one sets up a question, answer it in verse two, don't set up another question.
Song Screener: If you want to be noticed, you have to provide a reason to be noticed. Song screeners literally get hives over too many cliches in a song. This is where you pull out a rhyming dictionary, or read poetry or novels and get ideas about how to say things in a different way.
Song-Writing/Structure: B) Where can I learn about songwriting and song structure:
Learning: As far as where to learn, a lot depends on how you learn. Some folks learn best from books, others from organized classes; some like the �immersion therapy� of songwriting camps. You may learn best from watching other people. The lyric and song forums here on JPF are an excellent resource. Read lyrics and what other people say about them; try to get a handle on what people consider �good� in your chosen genre, and why.
Rules: Once you understand how to write a song by the rules, you can start to break them. Say something new, or say something old in a new way. Change the structure, use structures you are unfamiliar with. AAA, AABA, AAAC. Look them up. Try them on. Break them completely. See what happens.
Books: Book recommendations:
The Craft and Business of Songwriting, John Braheny
http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Business-Songwriting-3rd-Edition/dp/1582974667Writing Better Lyrics, Pat Pattison
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779/ref=pd_sim_b_4Songwriting, A complete Guide to the Craft, Stephen Citron
http://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-C...&keywords=Songwriting+Stephen+CitronJoe Wrabek
I�ll just be providing a starting point for others to talk from. What I say will reference country music, too, because that�s what I write. There are other genres, and some of the rules are different. You should also take what I say with a large amount of salt, because I am not famous by any means.
Structure: There are music-industry experts who will tell you a country music song should follow the pattern of verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus. I think that�s c**p. You�ll find most good songs ignore that format. I pay attention to it only when it�s convenient (which is not often).
Concept: Time: Contests: I am interested more in conceptual structure. A country music song tells a story, framed in concrete terms�real things happening to real people. I insist my songs be a complete thought, with no loose ends. I also impose time limits on myself. I want that complete thought expressed in 3-1/2 to 5 minutes, with and without a lead break; the numbers are mostly arbitrary (though there are a lot of song contests that will not accept material longer than 5 minutes), and simply force me to be economical with words.
Saying Something New: Beyond that, I also insist on being different: I want to either be saying something new, or saying something old in a new way. If you want to be noticed, you have to provide a reason to be noticed (which I suppose is another argument for staying away from that Official Nashville Song Structure thing).
Learning: As far as where to learn, a lot depends on how you learn. Some folks learn best from books, others from organized classes; some like the �immersion therapy� of songwriting camps. Myself, I learn best from watching other people. One of the best resources I�ve found is here at JPF. Read lyrics�lots of lyrics�and what other people say about them; try to get a handle on what people consider �good� and why. JPF is one of about half a dozen writers� groups I subscribe to. Lot of good writers here, who are real helpful with advice.
Studying Songs: I look for famous songwriters whose work I consider good, and try to puzzle out what they�re doing with words that makes it good, and apply those tricks to my own writing. And not just songwriters: anyone who works in the �oral tradition��words that are meant to be spoken, not just read�is fair game. People like Cicero, Churchill, Vergil, Homer, and Dr. Seuss.
Feedback: And on the rare occasion when I end up writing something audiences consider good, I try to find out why they think it�s good.
Brian Austin Whitney
Royalties: "How do I earn royalties"
Last edited by Gary E. Andrews; 10/18/22 09:23 PM.
