Scott's Demo Shop

Handling criticism of your song

2010-04-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

If a pro-writer's criticism makes you angry, you probably need to rewrite it. Because down deep, you know they are right and there is a problem with the song. Let a little time pass before you dig in and rewrite so you're not "writing angry". Come back later and consider their suggestions seriously. See if you can incorporate their suggestions into your writing while keeping a positive attitude. The goal here is to come up with something you like even better, while also addressing these criticisms. When is it okay to disregard a suggestion from a pro-writer? When you've already thought about what they've suggested and you just made a decision to do exactly what you've done. ie: The girl leaves at the end. (and that's how I want it to stay). Even a pro-writer would tell you to stand up for what you really believe in regarding your song.

I see your verse, and I raise you another verse.

2010-04-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

On days where I don't just sit down to the piano and burst into a new song that I'm writing as fast as I can sing, I'll do some writing exercises. Here's one. Take a perfectly good song that has several verses and a chorus and write new verses to it. That's hard to do. But it gives you an idea of exactly what the original writer was facing. Or you can imagine you are co writing with the original writer and he's just suggested a verse and now you are going to suggest your own. You may even come up with a verse that is indeed better than what is on the record. At least you may think so. It doesn't work so well trying to write a new chorus though because all the verses point to the chorus. However, you can form a variation on the chorus and come up with your own hook idea. Heck, if you keep going you may have your very own completed song. I may be able to burst into song after all!

Who are your influences?

2010-04-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

That was the one question I am embarrassed to say I was not ready for during an interview for a staff writing position at a publisher here in Nashville. I managed to come up with a few names that got me through however it made me realize I didn't really know who my influences were as a writer. Sure, I've got songs I like and I've got a few singers I like, but what songwriters do I like? John Maxwell is a Christian-based author and he writes a lot about leadership. He spends quite a bit of time studying coaches and heads of companies and dissecting what they are doing so we can model that in our own lives. It works. If you do what successful people do long enough, you too will be successful. With that in mind you can see how important it is to find a few writers you just totally love and study the heck out of them. Right now I'm in a Rivers Rutherford phase and I'm really enjoying getting inside of his head and learning what chords, rhythms, and subject matters he likes to use. And I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm also studying him because he flat-out gets cuts. After a few weeks of Rivers (or maybe months) I'll move on. I did not get that staff writing position, but I did walk out of there knowing I needed to know who my influences were and without a doubt that has made me a better writer.

Erika Jo breaks things

2010-01-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

Erika Jo is a sensational young lady and a powerful singer I got to play with recently. We did 4 songs including her hit "I break things" and new ballad "Good place to turn around" for a buyers convention in Kentucky. She'll be touring more and more in 2010 and if you get a chance to see her, you should. I was analyzing "I break things" (as I often do) and what struck me most was the simplicity of the idea and the perfect fit of lyrics to music. It's an aggressive and rockin' little tune that is fun to play. The bridge is used to drive home the point from a few different angles and it does so beautifully. Talk about focus! Check out the lyrics below. For more of her songs go to her myspace (link above).

"I Break Things" by Wade Kirby and Monte Criswell

Verse:

I broke most of Mama’s dishes

She banned me from the kitchen when I was a kid

I tore Daddy’s truck to pieces

Left it in a heap that no mechanic could fix

You don’t believe me I can see you laughin’

But trust me I’m an accident waiting here to happen

Chorus:

Cause I break things

Anything I touch

I just get around and then I’m bound to tear ‘em up

Yeah, I make things

Snap and fall apart

So if you wanna hold me boy, you’d better watch your heart

Cause I break things

Verse:

You say I’m nothing you can’t handle

You’re tougher than enamel

Well baby we’ll see

I’m like a wrecking ball coming

You’re better off running

Bar away from me

Don’t get me wrong now baby I adore ya

It’s only right that I give you fair warning

Bridge:

Rain is wet

The desert is dry

That’s the way it’ll always be

Fire is hot

It’s dark at night

The sun comes up in the east

(Chorus)

Songwriters of Wisconsin Presentation

2009-09-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

Thank you Songwriters of Wisconsin for having me as a guest speaker last weekend. Hopefully you enjoyed some of my road stories and got some useful information regarding writing great songs. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I hope to keep in touch with all of you as we continue our life-long journeys to becoming better and better songwriters.

Deciding to be confident

2009-03-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Reader's Digest had an article recently that said most people tend to think they are better than they really are... except depressed people... they tend to be realists. I think it's the other way around and being a realist makes it easier to become depressed! Still, I think it's fair to make the following statements and really believe them:

1. Goals worth achieving take time.

2. Working a little bit every day on writing will make it get better over time.

3. Singers like to sing great songs and are always looking for them.

4. I may not get any cuts.

5. I may get lots of cuts.

6. There are song-writers that are better than me.

7. There are song-writers that I'm better than.

8. Sometimes my desire to be heard short-circuits my desire to say something worth saying.

9. Every successful song-writer has had to overcome obstacles.

There are probably more but these are the first that come to mind. Okay here is where I think it's time to make the switch. My favorite song-writers have a certain confidence about them, an ego really. I think if I adopt that mind-set I'll have more success too. Maybe we all will. We can be realists about bills or the fact we need to work out and a million other things in life that seem to require that. But I'm going to be confident about my writing. I'm going to have a bit more ego about my writing. Just typing this make me feel better. And besides, I am damn good. (say it with me..."I am damn good") At least that's what I'm telling myself for a few weeks here. If it doesn't yield better songs I'm sure the realist in me will point that out with great satisfaction.

2009-01-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Rick Beresford's 7 things that make a great song:

In order of importance:

1. Entertaining

2. Universal Emotion/Story

3. Told in unique way

4. Compelling, deep emotional impact

5. Singable

6. Memorable lyric/melody

7. Strikes you as honest

These are tough to get all in one song. I've found if I focus on one that I'm weakest at, the others tend to be better too. What are your strengths and weaknesses here? I welcome comments and suggestions.

Piano Sound Examples

2008-12-30T19:45:00.001-08:00

If you click on the title above you'll hear 5 piano sounds to choose from for your song. They play consecutively and they play the exact same thing. More examples are available upon request. Piano 1 is a Yamaha C-7 close miked. Piano 2 is a different Yamaha C-7 close miked. Piano 3 is a Steinway close miked. Piano 4 is a Steinway ambient miked. And piano 5 is a Yamaha Stage piano.

Bracketing

2008-12-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

Bracketing is a simple technique to help you get past a line that's troubling you so you can move on. You just put brackets around that empty line and move on. It's a way of telling yourself "I know I'm going to get a great line here later". I know it seems simple but it really does work. Not for everyone! But you may try it next time you get hung up on a line. Sometimes a dummy line works just as well. One you know isn't the right line but it'll do for now. Try it both ways and see which one feels better for you.

Headlining

2008-10-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

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.