Headlining

Headlining is a good way to stay on track when you are writing a song.  You should be able to put the concept of your song in one or two sentences.  Write that at the top of the page and refer to it often.  That's your main focus.  Everything else in the song should point to the headline.  To find out what a good headline is, take a song that has already been a hit and write the headline for it.  For example, "Wind Beneath My Wings" is about what?  My success in life is largely due to your quiet support.  At least that's one way to put it.  Pick a few more songs and see what the headlines are.  You'll start to recognize the ones that have "legs".  

Songwriting discoveries

Great demos are secondary to great songs.  I'll be talking about things I've discovered as a songwriter because this is really where it's all at.  I've got one cut with Blake Shelton and I've taken several courses through NSAI.  I've talked to great songwriters about my songs and listened to them talk about other's songs.  One thing they all say is it's a good idea to study other great songs and figure out what makes them work.  I always try to include something new I've learned in my next song.  Don Henry's "Where've You Been" is one I recently studied.  Kathy Mattea cut it a long time ago.  It's still played today.  This is a sweet story about the evolution of a couple, Claire and Edwin.  Until I studied it I never even knew the characters had names.  There's a lot to learn about this song but I want to look at the chorus right now.  "Where've you been?  I've looked for you forever and a day.  Where've you been?  I'm just not myself when you're away."   It's a short chorus and it says the title of the song twice... but doesn't end with the title.  The only rhyme it has is perfect.  This chorus works well in part because you can come at it from several angles.  It works coming out of the first verse where they've been dating for awhile and realize how much they love each other.  It works after they've been married and he's late coming home from work one night and she worries.  It works when they are old and in a hospital and Claire regains her memory for a moment when she sees Edwin again.  So, my tip of the week is to make sure your chorus can work in several ways... not just one.  Then you can build a better song.  Each time you hear the chorus, it should mean more.  

New Blogger Location

This is a new location for the blog for "Scott's Demo Shop". To return to the original site click on "Scott's Demo Shop" at the very bottom of this page.

What is a Wave file?

A wave file is a file with un-compressed music information in it.  It's a very big file and you can't email them unless it's a very short piece of a song.  Most people use some kind of compression to email music.  The most popular one seems to be an mp3 file.  

To send a wave file you need to sign up for a free account at yousendit.com.  Get the "Lite" package.  you can also recieve the files with yousendit.com.  Another option is to buy an ftp (file transfer protocol) site.  It's basically a huge warehouse of storage space you can upload a big file to... and download a big file from.

I use an ftp site for the most part so to download your wave file I've just sent you, click on the link I included in the email I sent you, then if you have a mac, control-click on the file name and download.  If you a  pc, rith-click and choose "save target file as..."  If I send you your wave file using yousendit.com, you'll get an email with a link... click on it... then just click on "download"

Great songs? Or great singers?

I’m doing a Conway Twitty Musical called “It’s Only Make Believe” and it has been an eye opening experience to say the least. He had more than 50 number one songs and wrote many of them himself. I noticed that a lot of the songs got to be unique to him as time went on. By that I mean only he could really sing it and make it work that well. They expressed his personality. One song I’m thinking of is “Don’t Take it Åway”. There’s a line in there that says, “I hope I don’t embarrass you here in front of your friends” as he’s trying to win her back. The girls love this line. I don’t care if George Straight sang it... it wouldn’t work as well as it does with our spot-on Conway impersonator. So maybe writing a great song is more about expressing a certain personality or character just right...how would HE tell this story? WOULD he tell this story? What story WOULD he tell and how? Then maybe some artist will hear that come out in your song and decide if it expresses some part of himself too. Enough to put on his record? Maybe.