This is a story about what I learned from my 60 year old aunt, who has been an unsuccessful song writer for 40 years. The point of this article is not to put her down(I love her), but to bring the light some of the pitfalls to avoid as a beginning song writer.
Shortly after I opened my studio doors, my relative began to indoctrinate me with lyrics and request for me to record them. The problem was that the lyrics were not formatted like songs, they were formatted like poems.
Then, I was barely making hip hop that anyone would listen to. However, I still wanted to help record her songs...so I needed to know how the lyrics were supposed to go? When I asked her, she didn't know. Since she didn't really sing, she had never thought of any melodies. I couldn't sing either and couldn't think of any melodies myself at the time, so the lyrics just sat on the shelf.
As a side note: When you are trying to sell your songs, remember that most potential buyers want to buy actual songs, not just the lyrics...so you need to make complete songs as present those.
After some time passed, my aunt started formatting her lyrics a little better, and she began to come up with some melodies.
Speaking of formats, there are many to choose from (google "song formats"), or you could not abide by any format...as long as it sounds good to you.
Ok...so we have melodies and lyrics, but we still had a problem. She had melodies but she really couldn't sing them well, and they all were similar to country western melodies. In addition, they eventually began to sound out-dated lyrically.
Fast forward, we were both frustrated, her songs were not getting made, and that was because I couldn't do country western and I couldn't convert it to R&B or Hip Hop successfully. So she started to bring random people who somebody said could sing, who had never recorded in a studio before in their life. Some of them, she even paid. Of course, the results were horrible. All of these events, left her mad at me and frustrated with music in general....so how do you avoid this happening to you?
Tip: To be a writer, you do not have to be a singer, but you do need to find or have access to someone who can perform you lyrics.
There are different types of writing styles. Some write without music and some hear music while they write. Writers who have some type of idea what they want their music to sound like should find beat makers who can duplicate what that writer hears. Writers who don't have an idea of what they want their music to sound like should just choose an instrumental that suits their lyrics.
I usually go with picking the music and letting the music inspire my lyrics. (You can find inspiring music at www.freshoffabreakup.com) Sometimes I attempt to sing melodies, just for timing guidelines for whoever is going to end up demo-ing the song. I also don't literally write my words down, I record them onto a little tape recorder so that I can make sure that I remember my lyrical pockets.
Once you have that, then you have to find someone to demo your song. You want to find a professional demo singer that does the type of music that you want your song to be (They vary in cost, but they generally are not that expensive). Make sure that you listen to a demo of them, or better yet, in your first meeting with them have them sing the song for you to determine if they are the right match for you and whether or not they can perform what you need to be performed, how you want it performed. Remember, in addition to paying them, you're going to have to find a studio, and they are going to charge hourly, so the longer this demo singer takes the more money it's going to cost you.
What do you do after the recording session is done and you actually like your song? Mixing time..thats what. Most likely, whoever engineered the original session will also be able to mix your record...it will just take a little more time and a little more money. You also need to be able to express to the mixing engineer what you want the end result to sound like. If not, you are taking the risk that the sound engineer may not do what you want him to do, the way you want him to do it.
The final stage is mastering. Nowadays, most engineers that mix can also do a presentable mastering job. All mastering really is, is a process of different effects that make your song sound clear, loud, and the same on pretty much any system that anyone plays it on (basically good industry standard sonic quality).
Ok, we are now ready to submit. Well, not quite yet....you will want to copyright the song with the library of congress, and the register it with your writing society...and then we are ready to submit!
If you follow the simple steps above, you'll be ahead of the game!
Shortly after I opened my studio doors, my relative began to indoctrinate me with lyrics and request for me to record them. The problem was that the lyrics were not formatted like songs, they were formatted like poems.
Then, I was barely making hip hop that anyone would listen to. However, I still wanted to help record her songs...so I needed to know how the lyrics were supposed to go? When I asked her, she didn't know. Since she didn't really sing, she had never thought of any melodies. I couldn't sing either and couldn't think of any melodies myself at the time, so the lyrics just sat on the shelf.
As a side note: When you are trying to sell your songs, remember that most potential buyers want to buy actual songs, not just the lyrics...so you need to make complete songs as present those.
After some time passed, my aunt started formatting her lyrics a little better, and she began to come up with some melodies.
Speaking of formats, there are many to choose from (google "song formats"), or you could not abide by any format...as long as it sounds good to you.
Ok...so we have melodies and lyrics, but we still had a problem. She had melodies but she really couldn't sing them well, and they all were similar to country western melodies. In addition, they eventually began to sound out-dated lyrically.
Fast forward, we were both frustrated, her songs were not getting made, and that was because I couldn't do country western and I couldn't convert it to R&B or Hip Hop successfully. So she started to bring random people who somebody said could sing, who had never recorded in a studio before in their life. Some of them, she even paid. Of course, the results were horrible. All of these events, left her mad at me and frustrated with music in general....so how do you avoid this happening to you?
Tip: To be a writer, you do not have to be a singer, but you do need to find or have access to someone who can perform you lyrics.
There are different types of writing styles. Some write without music and some hear music while they write. Writers who have some type of idea what they want their music to sound like should find beat makers who can duplicate what that writer hears. Writers who don't have an idea of what they want their music to sound like should just choose an instrumental that suits their lyrics.
I usually go with picking the music and letting the music inspire my lyrics. (You can find inspiring music at www.freshoffabreakup.com) Sometimes I attempt to sing melodies, just for timing guidelines for whoever is going to end up demo-ing the song. I also don't literally write my words down, I record them onto a little tape recorder so that I can make sure that I remember my lyrical pockets.
Once you have that, then you have to find someone to demo your song. You want to find a professional demo singer that does the type of music that you want your song to be (They vary in cost, but they generally are not that expensive). Make sure that you listen to a demo of them, or better yet, in your first meeting with them have them sing the song for you to determine if they are the right match for you and whether or not they can perform what you need to be performed, how you want it performed. Remember, in addition to paying them, you're going to have to find a studio, and they are going to charge hourly, so the longer this demo singer takes the more money it's going to cost you.
What do you do after the recording session is done and you actually like your song? Mixing time..thats what. Most likely, whoever engineered the original session will also be able to mix your record...it will just take a little more time and a little more money. You also need to be able to express to the mixing engineer what you want the end result to sound like. If not, you are taking the risk that the sound engineer may not do what you want him to do, the way you want him to do it.
The final stage is mastering. Nowadays, most engineers that mix can also do a presentable mastering job. All mastering really is, is a process of different effects that make your song sound clear, loud, and the same on pretty much any system that anyone plays it on (basically good industry standard sonic quality).
Ok, we are now ready to submit. Well, not quite yet....you will want to copyright the song with the library of congress, and the register it with your writing society...and then we are ready to submit!
If you follow the simple steps above, you'll be ahead of the game!
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