Songwriting- a musical career! It’s a powerful profession that requires creativity, dedication, enthusiasm and a clear understanding of human emotions. Songwriting allows the writer to capture the essence of life in lyrics. Just like life, it generally deals with one situation and emotion.
Skills Required
Some people are born skilled writers and rhythmic words come to them like breathing; however, this might not be the case with others. The skills of songwriting can be discussed, understood and implemented with the help of craftsmanship. Tangible skills are manipulated in order to take the listeners into whatever emotion songwriters want them to feel. Songwriters need to work hard almost all the time to get the proper words and melody. There is a certain kind of mystery to songwriting that gradually unfolds with tremendous satisfaction, after completion of a song.
A song is basically an abstract musical entity that serves as an umbrella to several renditions. It’s an extension to one’s mind and soul that leads to the fine blend of simplicity in creativity. The sole purpose of writing beautiful songs is to keep them alive forever. A good song conveys human sentiments or narrates a good story in an interesting and involving way.
Songwriting is a lucrative career, full of opportunities and immense job satisfaction. Songwriters develop their own material that includes writing a material, developing the concept, hiring musicians and engineers as well as recording and producing the material. So, they have the final say on the development of their material.
Career Options
Careers in songwriting would include composer, jingle writer- radio and television, lyricist, performing songwriter and song or music producer. Songwriters can work both, as staff and freelance.
COMPOSERS: A composer generally creates instrumental pieces that can stand alone or combined with lyrics. They may also work as film composers that score music to enhance videos or films.
JINGLE WRITER: A jingle writer can be a songwriter, composer or lyricist who specializes in writing music for radio as well as television commercials. They are responsible for portraying their client’s product, musically. They must be strong arrangers, able to compose well and skilled in all techniques.
LYRICISTS: Lyricists are the individuals who can express themselves with words and can develop careers writing words to songs. A talented lyricist would only create the words and work as a team with a music composer.
PERFORMING SONGWRITERS: Performing songwriters create and perform their own music. They write both lyrics and music and are the masters as the performer of their material. They may work as a solo as well as leader of a group featuring their material.
MUSIC PRODUCERS: Music producer makes songwriting, does arrangement adjustments and is also in charge of the creative mix. They keep an eye on the overall project marketability.
Songwriting is certainly a fascinating career as it helps the writer grow both personally and professionally. One can reach the zenith of success by creating songs that appear larger than life, yet being relevant to everyone. A good songwriter often succeeds to move listeners by ideas, emotions, and honest situations, and thereby captures hearts and affect people’s life in a meaningful way.
Networking Is Critical To Your Songwriting Career
Networking- meeting new people for the express purpose of creating a relationship beneficial to your career or business- is likely to be of great importance in building your songwriting career. And that’s a huge problem for some artistic types, many of whom tend to be shy and/or reclusive by nature. If you’re one of them, relax, you’re about to see things in a different light. In this article we’ll look at how networking works in the Nashville songwriting community, how it can be accomplished painlessly, and how you can perform this necessary task if you live far from Music City, U.S.A.
First, let’s take the fear out of it for those of you who are not naturally gregarious: Attending parties to “see and be seen” is optional and running around Nashville trying to meet celebrities is downright silly. In my opinion, equally as silly is some of the advice on the subject such as “try to go out every night and meet five new people” as one article I read recently admonished fledgling Nashville songwriters to do. Will any of the 35 people you meet a certain week even remember your name? And if they do keep that business card you handed them it will likely go in a pile of hundreds of others and be forgotten. Quality, not quantity rules.
My advice, and what has worked for me, is to be cognizant of the networking factor as you go about your daily life, doing what comes naturally. Be yourself. Get to know people in general and treat them all with respect. In Nashville it seems every fourth person is into music and that’s probably an underestimate. The pest control guy might play guitar, the waiter at the restaurant may own a Pro Tools recording setup and might be studying to become a recording engineer. Instead of wasting time trying to meet “the big time” guys, get to know the seemingly average people first. They will inevitably introduce you to their contacts and may possibly move up a few rungs on the music ladder in time, taking you along.
Many times I’ve met someone here who turned out to be a much bigger deal than I realized initially. The lady working in her garden just three homes down the road I live on turned out to be Loretta Lynn’s daughter. A health care worker who offhandedly told me she “sings too” turned out to sing for one of the biggest house bands in Nashville, once had her own label deal and has been Vince Gill’s primary backup singer for years. I’ve met song publishers, most of the top session musicians in Nashville and other industry contacts just doing my natural thing, not by intentionally trying to meet people. In time some of these contacts you make will become acquaintances and good friends. If they like you they’ll give you a shot at working with them; take every opportunity seriously and be prepared for a successful outcome in advance by honing you skills daily. Definitely followup on such offers rather than waiting for a call back.
So what if you live in Iowa or Alaska and can’t move? How can you work your way up the Nashville song biz ladder if you don’t live here? I believe that once you get a few songs signed by publishers or even serious interest from one, it’s time to make short trips of two or three days in length focusing on meeting with your publishing contacts, recording demos using pro session players (attend the sessions!) and doing co-writing, even if it’s with songwriters lacking credits. Continue to nurture those relationships long-distance. The Internet will go a long way toward making that happen.
And that’s pretty much how songs get cut here, people get hired for music-related jobs here, and the entire industry works here. Step-by-step you worm your way in, proving yourself as you go (hopefully!). Yes, be prepared and do your best but don’t worry too much over the mistakes you’re bound to make or any blown opportunities. If you spend your time looking in the rear view mirror the only place you can go successfully is backwards. Focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been.
I saw a posting on the Internet by a musician recently that said: “Nashville is the big leagues, everyone has their butt handed to them on a platter sooner or later.” You will almost surely have a misstep or two, a time when you have been completely embarrassed by your (temporary!) incompetency. Just keep working, improving and (painlessly!) networking. In my experience if you keep your nose to the grindstone and your eye on the prize any goal you set will be achieved.