Songwriting: Learn Pro Standard Writing Techniques Plus Publishing & Marketing Songs

1. Skillshare songwriting intro: Hello. I like you so much for joining the art business of a songwriter. I hope you're gonna have some good fun on this course. My name is Eve Williams, and I'm a commercial songwriter. In other words, I make my living through song writing on also through teaching songwriting and music. And I've been lucky enough to work with some multi platinum selling artists. And also, I've had my music used in an adverse mints. So I'm hoping that I'm gonna be able to help you with your songwriting. We're gonna be licking its, um, really exciting topics of this course. We're gonna be looking at the craft of some reading the artistic side, and that's things like writing a melody, writing lyrics, creating a hook on. There's going to be exercises in each section. There are quite a lot of tasks that you could do this course you can kind of take it or leave it. You can do the ones that you think you're going to be most helpful to you on. When you complete a task, you can post it on the question section of this course for feedback from me and other students or you consented to meet privately as a message. If you would like some feedback. Of course you don't have to do that. So I hope you're excited to get started on. I'm looking forward to working with you. 2. Songwriting Methods: So before we get into the nitty-gritty of the course and learn some new ways of working. Let's just take a while to reflect on what methods of songwriting you're using at the moment. And there's obviously a lot of different ways to write a song. Let's just look at a few of them. Top lining. Now that's at the moment quite common practice in the music industry. It's when a producer comes up with an instrumental track and sends it to a top liner, who is the person who writes the chain on the words over the instrumental track. Kylie Minogue, one on the velo Award for top lining. Jessie J songwriting team also use top lining chords first. Now you're likely to write this way if you're primarily a guitarist or a case player, if you're primarily an instrumentalist, you to write like this, the bound jobs, a chord sequence on Bono sings over the top of it. Great way to write. Just be careful if you're just starting out. But when you're writing your melody over the chords, you don't stick too close to the root note of the chord all the time. Melody first. Now you're likely to write this way if you're primarily a singer. And being a singer, I'm not so much an instrumentalist, is no reason not to write songs. And flack singers quite often write quite interesting chains because they use bold intervals in their melodies. So it's quite a legitimate way to write, to start with the chain to the harmonics, the chords afterwards. Lyrics first. If you've got a lyric that scans really well, this is a great way to write. Intertextual writing. In other words, taking inspiration from other art forms. And I don't mean ripping them off. But as my own song writing tutor used to say, tolerant, borrows, genius steals. So great example of this. Leonard Cohen's on a lawyer. If you think of Handel's Hallelujah chorus, It's an expression of joy and it's very exuberant. Whereas here, Leonard Cohen uses the same word, Hallelujah, which we would associates with that big, joyful songs. And uses it to describe quite a dark state of mind, sort of sorrowful place to be. And so he, he is subverting the Hallelujah chorus, which is really great writing using loops or technology. A lot of people know I write a program such as Ableton on co-writing, but we'll look at that in more depth later. Okay, So this is your first task this week, choose a method of writing that you don't usually work with. It doesn't mean one that you've never used, but just one that isn't your standard practice. So if you're a guitarist and usually start with chord sequence this week, try starting with a melody. If you're a singer or you're a producer writer using Ableton this week, try and write on an instrument. So I'm not asking you to finish an entire song, but if you could try to complete a verse and chorus, and you can post what you come up with in the question section of this course for feedback. Or if you want, you can send it to me as a private message from my feedback, or you can choose not to share it. It's entirely up to you. But I hope you have some fun with it. 3. Wireframing: Okay, Now we're going to look at the concept of wireframing. And wireframing is a little way of working that's going to help you avoid some of the rookie mistakes that lyric editors can make. So some of those rookie errors include writing songs that have no story. I work in an R for a music licensing company and I'm sent songs all the time that basically just repeat the same concept and every verse with the character stays in the same circumstances throughout the song. In essence, a song is a story. Now, if you were making a movie, you'd have to ours tell a story. A songwriter's, we only have about 3.5 minutes, but there's still should be a clear beginning, middle and end. Writing words that don't scan. For example, when DO instead of window. Really famous example of this buyin, a really all inspiring lyric writer, Oscar Hammerstein the second he wrote in the song, something wonderful. You'll always go along DE phantom when he's wrong instead of defense, because we don't say defend. We say defend. So then the singer has to try and write. Using too many words. Too many words will clutter your chin. Be distracting to the listener. Not using clear enough images, the imagery gets confused and descending into cliche, which we never want to date. So let's look at wireframing and how it can help us avoid these errors. Okay, I've come up with a title for a song and it's called gate goddess Nia haven't actually written this song, but it's been something that I've been mulling over in my mind. So I've written a little flow chart here of the progression of my song and what's going to happen in each burst at the beginning of the song and verse 1, I'm going to set up the story. So there's a garlic This boy is quite into, but she's an all white gouache. He's not. And so he can't get her attention. That's the main theme of the song, but in the first, first 1, I'm setting it up. I'm going to describe this girl and I'm going to let the guy who's singing it tell us what it is that he likes about her. Maybe it's because she's a very passionate person. Geeks tend to be, maybe she's got red hair and he really likes that. So setting up the story and the first verse, the chorus, if you're writing a song form whether areas as a chorus, because of course not all songs have a chorus, but usually they do. The course gives the man thrust of the song the real point. So in my song that hops to be that the singer of the song is really into this girl. But because he's not a gate can sell if he can't get her to notice him. So that's what we're saying in the course. Inverse t, we want to move somewhere else. You want to carry things on a bit. So the singer starts to think of all the things he could do to make the scar like him. Really geeky things because that's the theme of the song. So he could travel to tattooing. He could learn to speak Elvish, either quantifiers and Darren, either with Dave, just some really geeky things he could do. So then I could either finish that verse with the idea that he could do all this and she's still might not notice him. Or I could stick the idea into a bridge. Or if you're British and middle it, a bridge and incidentally on a song should both musically and lyrically take us somewhere different for a little while. And then we come back to the chorus, which repeats the man theme of the song. Okay, so adding on the course, which is the main point and say Your can't get the gate goddess to notice him because he isn't a geek himself. Why? This gives me a plan of a clear progression of my song where it's going to go. After that, I have to find the actual words. So a little exercise that I like to do, and everybody works differently as say, I took the words gate goddess OR gate and typed into Google Images and just look at all the pictures that come up if I picked one that I really liked. And in the notebook I just jotted down all the words and phrases that came to me when I looked at that picture. Then after doing that, I pick the ones that really stand like the ones I think are really going to work. And I go to want to fit them into this framework somewhere. But also they're going to have to be contained in a way that actually tells a story. So if you would like to, if you've got an idea that your mulling over in your head, it would be great if you could put together your own wireframe and just see what comes out of that and where your song goes. Of course, a wireframe can always be changed. At any point. It's not setting something in stone, but it gives you something to work too. 4. Lyrical Economy: In this section, we're going to look at the concept of lyrical economy. In other words, not using too many words. If you use too many words, it can make your song side cluttered. And it can also take your chain off course. Really great example of lyrical economy. And that's Joni Mitchell's big yellow taxi. I'm sure you all know this song, but there's a link to it in the resources for this section. So if you take the lyrics to big yellow taxi and you copy and paste them into where to undo a word count. There's only 228 words and the song, in fact, in a standard size 12 font size, it really doesn't take up much space on the page. If you've got a song which in a standard type size as going onto 23 pages, that could be an indication that something's gone a little bit wrong. Their commercial songs generally fit on one page. Okay, Let's look at the first verse. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hotspot. They paved paradise. Very first line. Absolutely amazing. The end. So few words we've already got this really complex idea of niche are being destroyed and concrete it over. Also, there's the great alliteration there, pave paradise put up a parking lot. Notice there isn't even an AMD put up a parking lot. There is no wired here. That isn't essential. The pink hotel, again, that's the P alliteration, but also it sounds really gaudy. A boutique and a swinging hot spots. So, you know, if you think of paradises as nature, something really disastrous has happened here. So the first verse and hardly any words sets up a really, really great complex thing. Don't always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. They pave paradise, put up a parking lot. So notice he doesn't say doesn't it always seems to be the case that you don't appreciate the things you have until they've disappeared. Because that would be crazy within a song. It wouldn't scan at all. We want to keep the syllable client, don know I second verse. I know we talked earlier about high. We don't want to just repeat the same idea, verse after verse. And it may at first glance look like this is repeating the same idea, but actually it's taking it even further because in the first verse, they've paved paradise. They've destroyed nature. In the second verse is even worse. They're not charging people to go and see the trees that used to be there. So we're at eight and worse situation, a tray museum, just grit, grit use of phrasing because that is actually completely horrifying. And then of course we repeats the main theme of the song. Doted always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone. They pave paradise, put up a parking lot. Now she's getting personally angry at the situation. Hay farmer, farmer put away that DDT die, Give me spot. So my apples and leave me the birds and the bass plays. So spots and the apples, the birds in the base, that's really in stark contrast to they paved paradise. The idea of concrete in the parking lot. That makes quite a powerful contrast. Again, so few words to convey this complex idea. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. They pave paradise, put up a parking lot. Nye, get ready for the curve ball. This is the entire point of the song. This is the true story. This is what she's really upset abide. That last night I heard the screen door slam and a big yellow taxi took away my old man. It's not even a filovirus, it's just two lines. And this is what she's really upset about. This is the thing that she had that she didn't appreciate until it was gone. So curveball right at the end. Hardly any words. Big impact. Don't it always seemed to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. And I understand that a little bit better. Why she feels that they pave paradise, put up a parking lot, grit, grit, lyric writing. 5. Show, Don't Tell: In this section, we're going to look at the lyrical concept of show. Don't tell. In other words, using imagery. We don't want to write things like then you died. Oh hi, I cried. I have actually heard that Sung. We want to tell a story and a subtle way so that it has more emotional impact. A great example of show don't tell is She's Leaving Home by The Beatles. And there's a little link here to somewhere where you can find the song. And also there's a link in the resources section of the lyric section of this course. Let's look at the larynx and what gives them the huge emotional impact that they have. Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins. So really early in the morning, silently closing her bedroom door, leaving the note that she hoped would say more. So we're not being told. Here's a girl who's running away from home. Her running away from home. Her escape is being described. It's really early in the morning. She's closing her doors quietly. She can so it was not so quick anyone up, she's leaving a note. She goes downstairs to the kitchen, the clutching her handkerchief, grit image there. She's probably really nervous and that's why she's clutching her handkerchief. But it doesn't actually say that it shows us turning the back door key, stepping outside, she is free. So basically what the song is doing is describing the actions of the girl rather than just telling us how she fails in a sort of unsubtle way. Then the chorus gives us the point of view of the parents that she is leaving home on that we have the we gave her most of our lives, sacrificed most of our lives. So instead of coming out and saying her parents are controlling, her parents are difficult. Whatever object of you want to use, we're actually being shown. We've got a demonstration of why she has problems at home. Second verse, the wife gets up, their mother gets up and finds out that she's got stuck. So we have her mother getting into addressing, going with a father snoring, picking up the ladder and then this beautiful, beautiful line standing alone at the top of the stairs. Just a really lovely image of a shock and loneliness. So really continuing with the method that's been set up in the first verse of describing the action. And that she breaks down and cries, Daddy, our baby's gone. Why would she trade us so thoughtless Lee, Hi, could she do this to me? So, you know, we're seeing the story from the other side. Then repeat of the chorus. Interesting beginning to the final verse, Friday morning at nine o'clock. So we compare that to Wednesday morning at five o'clock. She's far away, so she's made or escape would indicate the appointment she made, mating a band from the motor trend. And we think what's going on there. And then the chorus, but the words a slightly different. What did we do that was wrong. We didn't know it was wrong. That's probably the issue. And she's having fun fun as the one thing that money can't buy. Something inside that was always denied for so many years. Bye-bye. And only at that point does it give us an actual emotional description of their emotional world? So really what this song is doing is describing a complex emotional same through a series of images. Leaving the ladder, closing the door, turning the key, stepping outside. All those things have much more impact than just writing a song that sad, she felt stifled, she felt suffocated. This is actually really moving songs. So if you want to take a few minutes to listen to it, I'm sure you'll love it. 6. Metaphor: Now we're going to look at one of the oldest literary devices there is, and that is metaphor and silicate metaphor. The song that I chosen as Hotel California, which is on a surface level about a guy who gets really tired during a long drive and stops at this creepy hotel, which is a bit like the shining. But what the song is really abide as drug-taking and getting trapped in a sort of celebrity culture that's quite unhealthy and a little bit scary. Now this is quite a long song and I'm not going to read all whether X, but, you know, famous first lines on a dark desert highway, Qu window, my hair warm smell it can latus rising up through the air. So the first sparse gives this idea of arriving at this kinda slightly creepy hotel, this slightly creepy place which still has some kind of atmosphere that sort of draws the guy in. So there's words in this first sparse as shimmering light. It's an almost spiritual image. And I heard the mission bow, and I was thinking to myself, this could be haven't or this could be how? So? That whole idea of celebrity culture living the drain has this veneer of being something that everybody wants, but it can also be how welcome to the Hotel California. Such a lovely place, such a lovely face, plenty of room at the Hotel California anytime of year. You can find it here. Find Walt, what is it that they singer as seeking? Her mind? Is Tiffany twisted? She got the Mercedes Benz, just grit turn a phrase that I use of electroporation. She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys. She calls France. So we're starting to see they, the kind of thickness of these people heights. There's this sort of unreal list. I'll buy it living in the atmosphere. Some dots to remember, some dance to forget. That really ties in with the whole drugs. They not interesting line in the song. So I called up the captain. Please bring me my wine. He said, We haven't had that spirit to here since 1969. So the character of the captain, That's something much debated. If you look that up on the internet, that be all kinds of ideas. Some people think that the Eagles were followers of Antoine Lavoisier, who was a famous sit list. I'm not too sure whether that's the case or not. But there's clearly someone who's like almost a liter of a cult, who's very controlling amongst this group of people. So we repeat the chorus. Welcome to the Hotel California. Such a lovely plays, such a lovely face, Lebanon up at the Hotel California. But by this stage, the idea of Lebanon doesn't sound as good as it might have done at the very start of the song. What a nice surprise. And there's a nice little sort of a service line here. Bring your alibis. So there's a lot of dodgy stuff going on amongst this group of people. Mirrors on the sailing, pink champagne on ice. Sort of celebrity lifestyle. She said, We are all just prisoners here of our own device. So we have actually made a decision to be trapped in this lifestyle. And we're prisoners. That's actually something really horrible. We can't get ICT where n to this lifestyle. We're into this group of people and there is no escape. There's a hopelessness of Vitae. Not this next line is probably where the Satanism idea comes from, but it's not actually a bite. Sit and as already kind of Blackmagic a toll. And then the masters chambers they gathered for the face. They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the based faced stabs, stele based, great use of alliteration. What dots actually describing is the needles used in drug-taking. If you're taking heroin, you know, you're stabbing yourself with syringes. And that's really what's being described here. Last verse of the song, obviously incredibly famous. Last thing I remember, I was running for the door and had to find the passage back to the place I was before. So he's gone down this road, this lifestyle and desperately wants to go back to the person that he used to be relaxed, said the night man, we are programmed to receive. And then the really, really famous line, which is why I've put it in italics. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. So you have lost all freedom. You can check out another way. You could commit suicide or just dots the only way you're going to get light of the situation, you can never leave, you're trapped. Very, very haunting song, very powerful use of metaphor. The metaphor is consistent through the whole of the song. Most songs that use metaphor, I'm, I'm thinking of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues where you have the metaphor of the trend running down the tracks and the guys stuck in presence of the trend can move. It has constant movement, whereas he's stuck in one place. That's a very strong metaphor. And allies the guy to be a bit conversational two, which is more the chaos and songs that use metaphor. This song quite unusually, is completely a metaphor for beginning to end. But it works because the metaphor as consistent, you know what they say, don't mix your metaphors. That's good advice because you don't want to confuse the audience. You want to stick with one idea, which this song does amazingly well. 7. Intertextual Writing: Now we're going to look at intertextual writing. We've mentioned this before in relation to Leonard coenzyme, a lawyer. And also in the exercise where you take an image from Google images and describe that image in order to craft some lyrics. So in this section, I'm going to play you a track, but I co-wrote and explain to you why that track was originally based on Tennyson's and memoriam. So here is a little bit of the track. They say it's better to just last two weeks is to reshow pads for perhaps you notice Spain, Spanish to you. This way. The current is low, the business to really Gamow phone and then we'll see you then. Emergency surgery. Can you promise me that I still stay in that business leads to a big They say it's better to have loved and lost the very, very famous words from Ed memoriam. So we knew that we wanted to start a song with those words, basically because my co-writer very strongly disagreed with the sentiment and wanted to argue with it. So when you, those words came from time in memoriam. So we went onto poetry.org to find the poem. So there's some great databases online. All poems nice thing about a memoriam is, but being a Victorian poem, it's well out of copyright. If you use a poem that was written in the last 70 years, you might get into a bit of trouble for lifting lines, aren't of it verbatim, but you can of course, write your own response to it. The opposite of memoriam is Oblivion. So memoriam as in something that you purposefully hold in memory and a blip in a state of being totally forgotten. So our first verse became, they say it's better to have loved and lost. I don't believe that to be true. Is it fair to which our past had never crossed? I'd not be crying over you. And compare that to the original words of the poem. I hold it true. What Arabic will I feel it when I sorrow, boast to his better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. So an interesting exercise for you today would be to think of a poem that really inspires J or some very famous words. Try and find the entirety of the poem online. Really taken the things about on write your own response. And I'd be very interested to hear what you come up with. 8. The Right Language: In the last section on lyrics, we're going to look at using the right language for your target audience. You're going to use very different words and phrases. If you're right in commercial pop for 16, 20 year-olds than you are if you're writing, say, americana or country music for people who are 30 plus. Let's look at the lyrics of Garden Valley by Kara Dylan. This is really not my home or wherever you, my lovely Johnny, I'm afraid and all alone. There's no paste for me. So before we listen to the song, I just want you to think through reading these words. What kind of music do you expect to hear when you read these lyrics? And what kind of demographic do you think would like this kind of music? So that's something to think about. It. Maybe pause the video and have a little think about that. And then we'll listen to the track. Really. Yes. I'm sitting. Exchange this strange shape to this. If p is a cool. They saying the names. As you add point share. One opportunity. Sees everything you have. And one moment, please. We are the heavy There's vomit on his sweater already masked again, he's nervous, but on a star as you explore. Moving on to a very, very different lyric, M and M lose yourself. So when you look at the start of the song on this slide, there's an awful lot of words. So let's look at some of those words. And if you have one shot or wound opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted and one moment would you capture or would just let it slip. Okay, then we have some brilliant imagery. Palms are sweaty, knees, weak, arms are heavy. There's vomit on his sweater already, Mom's spaghetti. So who is the target audience here? Who has it that he wants to hear this track? What kind of age are they? What part of the worlds to the 11? Are they male or female? Let's just have a little think about that. So when you are crafting your own lyric, bear in mind that there will be certain words and phrases that will be familiar to your audience that will make sense to them. And some that maybe won't so much. So just check your lyric that it really is heading home that you're targeting at well, at who your audience is going to be. Thank you so much for completing the section on larynx. And if you want to send me any lyrics that you've written during this part of the course, I'd be more than happy to read them. 9. Melody Tension and Release: So a strong melody relies very much on the concept of tension and release. And that's not just in pop music thoughts also in folk music, jazz music. I've got some great examples of tension and release for you to listen to you after this short video. So high we build that tension and then have a release into the chorus is quite often by having a really short pre-chorus that lets the air know something exciting is about to happen. And then we want a kind of lift in the chorus. We want it to rise and pitch. Are we really want it to go somewhere? So just going from say, a four-line verse where you repeat the melody and then straight into your chorus can work in some instances. But often building that contention is really important to setting up your core as well. So listen to the following examples of that. Hi, Now, they want us to work because when you use this man today and maximize the chances that Kanban yes. 10. Repetition: Repetition as really important in melody writing. It makes sure melody memorable and slightly predictable in a good way because listeners like to know where a chain is going and they want to be able to sing along with that. So I'm going to play for you in a second some songs that use repetition really well, mine. Some people claim that pop music in particular is repetitive, but let's remember, classical music uses repetition as well. If you think of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah or having Yara for besides carbon, they rely on repetition, but changing a note here and there. So it's not exactly, this is the M line being repeated over and over again. And let's do a flash of insight. Hi, the very first one. Now there's an exercise that I would like you to day arrived repetition, write a line of music and repeat it four times. Then go through the four lines and change one note and each line. Now your allied to change the notes back if you think they don't work. But try and molds a chorus melody, like repeating a line, unchanging notes here and there. And I'd be interested to hear how it goes. 11. Prosody: Let's look at the important musical concept of pro city Porosity is defined on Wikipedia as the way music is set, with regards to the ambiance off the lyrics. So, in other words, are the words and the music jail together to give one coherent message. We're going to listen in a second, Teoh, a clip from Something Wonderful by Rodgers and Hammerstein. So something wonderful is about a man who drives the singer nuts, but she loves him anyway on the harmonics of the song. The cords are following this same on the words he will not always say what you would have him say, which basically summarizes the character off the man being sung a bite. The chord sequence underneath those words is a G sharp over a day. So that's going from a nice, safe, comfortable court t a slightly discordant court, which is uncomfortable to nice, comfortable court on. That really mirrors the emotional journey off the singer and way. - Suppose city is not just in the tonality, a major minor on the harmonics of the courts. It's also finding elements of the melody. We heard Rihanna's We find love in a hopeless place earlier on the notes on her players place are extended because those are the most important emotional words in that part of the song. Jesse James Price Tag does something similar with the notes on price tag on World Turn being extended in primal screams. Moving on up. The word up is on the highest note of the line because, after all, that's the whole sense of the song about moving higher. You know, unlike getting better. So when you're listening to music this week, look for little things like that happening like up for high being on a higher note and sort of more Don Bates. More sorrowful emotional sentiments being on Lower notes, way money, money, Money way Don't need your money way t ain't about No, no, no. I wanna meet. Forget about it. Okay, now there's another wonderful concept called negative press today. A quite famous example of that in the Classical World is in Bel Day, from Madame Butterfly by Puccini, where the words of the song are actually upbeat and positive, but the chain is very sorrowful, so we know that in reality, things aren't going well for the character in pop music. Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is perhaps a really great example of this. So before Leonard Cohen released Hallelujah, the piece of music that we would most of associated with that word would have seen this. But in Cohen Song, he makes the notes on the word hallelujah. Rather than being upbeat on high, he mixed them lower than the notes in the verse that goes before them. So it's a dine beat, sorrowful sentiment. He moves between g any minor, or at least when I played those of the cords I use. So the major and the relative minor on adding the relative minor as that little element of darkness. Although most off the cords and the song are major, there are a lot of different recordings of the song, but most of them use sparse instrumentation, so they arrangement is reinforcing the emotional sentiment of the song kind, sense of, of loneliness. So if you think of the whole orchestra, inquire that are needed to produce the hallelujah chorus with a big exuberant signed, This is one singer usually want instrumental mean I've played Rufus Wainwright's version of the song, which is just voicing piano. Jeff Buckley also did on a wonderful a wonderful, sparse recording off this song. It goes like this. The fourth, the fifth, the minor phone booth. Okay, so something I'd like you to do. Ni is listen to the last song that you recorded or a song that you've been working on recently. In what ways does the music reinforce the words? And does the music work against the words and any part of the song? So we're trying to make sure that your lyric and your music to gather give a coherent message. 12. Creating a Melody Checklist: We're nearly coming to the end of our section on melody. So I've put together a little checklist for you to use when you're putting together a melody. Night. Bear in mind that as we saw in the lyric section, most of the story of the song will be contained and the verses and then the chorus will describe the main theme of the song. So, bearing in mind the old adage, don't Boris get to the chorus? Does your verse melody ally, for lyrical developments, can you fit the story into the chain that you've written for the verse well enough? And do you need to add a pre-chorus to expand on the story and set the course up. Prosody, do your words and music gel together to achieve the same effect. And we looked at that in some detail earlier on. Tension and release. Is your chorus melody sufficiently different from the verse because it's very monotonous for listener. If the verse, chorus are too similar. And is there a nutshell, the left and to the chorus melody? Basically, when we get to the chorus, we should definitely know that we're ops the chorus noise. So as that tree for your king, Where's the pay-off line? In other words, does your chorus have a line at the end that ties everything together, both musically and lyrically. And can you identify the hooks and your melody? Now we're going to be looking at the concept of the hook and a bit more detail later on. But in other words, can you identify the parts of your song that are particularly going to draw the listener and on are maybe going to be the bet. But they most remember when they finished listening to the song. Realistically, if you've used daring intervals high, well can you sing the vocal melody? And if you're pitching the song at another artist high, well, are they going to be able to sing it? Because sometimes songs are turned on, on the basis that the chain is just too difficult for the singer to sing. Is there potential for a vocal harmony or a conjunct melody and the instrumental parts. Copyright. Have I inadvertently ripped off anything? Not it could be that there's just been a chain going round your head all week. And when you've been writing a new chin yourself, part of that chain is crapped in. It's rare, but it does happen. So I'm hoping that as you write changes this week that you can refer to this little checklist just to monitor your melody writing against. 13. Creating Hooks: So now we're going to talk about something very important, crucially important. That is Hooke's law the heck is the part of the song that real staple and the really memorable part of the song. So think of say, the guitar riff from Leila, that's going to stick in your mind for weeks. Or the lines, New Woman, No Cry from Bob Marley. No Woman, No Cry. Psalms are the kinds of songs that are going to get a publisher's attention and it tends to be Hook best songs that are the songs that SAP. So we're going to listen to some examples of famous hex and with a little bit, and it's the craft of writing a hook. So let's look at a few different types of hooks. First of all, we're going to look at instrumental Hicks. I'm are going to listen to the song Leyla here played live by Eric Clapton. So it uses an instantly recognizable catchy riffs as the introduction between VS and in the instrumental line of the song so that Sam ref, is repeated over and over and over again. Not a riff on a hook are not necessarily the same thing. A riff should be a hook, but a hook isn't always necessarily a href, as we shall see as we go along. So let's listen a little bit to the instrumental hook and Leyla. Okay, so now let's look at melodic and lyrical hooks and the salt we're going to listen to as No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley. This is the bony am recording. This. So I'll repeats a catchy two lines quite often in there. The man hook of the song, no woman, no cry. And the words No Woman, No Cry are giving us a lyrical hook as well. But that's the main point of the song, expressed very succinctly. It's easy to remember it out. It's easy to sing along to you. So let's have a listen to this track. Rhythmic and secondary hicks on the solver going to listen to is back to life. By soul to soul. Now this song has a lot of different hooks going at, has lyrical hooks, it has melodic hits, hooks. It's got a titular heck. We'll look at that in the next section. And it's got secondary hooks. So basically it has a man hook that's prominently placed. And then a secondary hook which also repeats, which is also very memorable and alerts the listener ends the song. So I would say in the case of this song, The Man Who is the bit that goes back to life, back to reality. And the secondary hook is high ever do you want me? However, do you need me? There's also a hook and the rhythm part of the song and the drum part of the song, there's a rhythmic hook. So let's listen to the tracks and see if you can pick all these hoops to reality to relieve the wants and needs. Hi, my name's to the last but not least, a titular hook and the song elimination. So basically, a titular hook is the title of the song and it gives the audience no doubt as to what the title of the song is. You should be able to hear the song and know instantly what it's called. So repetition is used to hammer home the man theme of the song using the hook. And so the main theme of the song here is moving from darkness to light. So the repetition of the word elimination on the heavy chain of elimination is giving us that effect. So let's have a little listen. I show the step. So here's a little task for you to do involving hooks. Try coming up with a catchy riffs. So you can do that on Piazza, you can do that on guitar, you can do that on your computer, or maybe just with your voice. Adler x to see if you can create a lyrical hook to your melodic hook. Now that may or may not work, so that doesn't just leave it instrumental and build a course around the heck you have created. And as always, I'm happy to hear the results of this exercise, just PM them to me for my feedback. 14. Songforms: Now we're going to look at the absolutely essential topic of song forums. In other words, the kinds of structures of songs that fit within certain genre of music. Now, if you want to be a published songwriter or if you want to study songwriting and Annie depth and knowledge of song forums is essential. 15. ABAB Form: not a song form you're probably most familiar with is A B A B form. So that is verse chorus, verse, chorus, Oren's aid verse, chorus, first course, Bridge or middle. It's chorus. I'm otherwise known as the national formula, sir. It's pretty familiar because it's used in much chart on pop writing. When you begin writing, it's likely that your earliest songs will be in this form. Examples include Abba's Gimme, Gimme Gimme, Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball, Let It Go from Frozen on Many, Many Others. The example I'm Going to play for You is wrong song from the show Nashville. Because, of course, it's the Nashville formula. No way you I hope you have. - I don't Yeah, - I don't 16. AAA Form: The next form we're going to look out is a form. In other words, verse first verse with no chorus on that's most common in folk music. In this form, the same block of music is repeated, and examples include the Irish folk song The Black Fell but banned, whether is a chorus. But it's basically the same tunas averse. Same with Wild Mountain Thyme, which is a Scottish folk song on I'm Going to Play for You as an example, The Irish folk song She moved through The Fair Way, Way, way, way, way, Theo way, way wait a 17. AABA Form: so a a b a form. This is a great song form most commonly associated with jazz and swing verse. Verse Bridge first. So normally that takes us up to 32 bars and length on usually about two minutes long, so it's quite common to repeat the song from the bridge to make it a little bit longer. So repeat the bridge on the last verse. Twice. This form is associated with jazz and swing songs such as Dean Martin Sway Dream, A Little Dream of May, Carole King's Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? The Bait, ALS Yesterday, also a a B A. For now, I was once at a song writing event where one of the songwriters presence annoyance to that . She was about to sing a song that was, in her words, a jazzy number on. She then played something in a B A B form, which, as we know, is the national formula most often associated with pop. If you want to write something jazzy, this is the song form to go with and also jazz hands to follow the Of course, there are exceptions, but it tends to follow a 251 chord progression. So the example of this song for him that I'm going to play for you is Elvis's. I can't help falling in love with you. There's a song we didn't blue Hawaii that we did hear about 10 years ago, and I like to sing, especially for you. Why, sure what it would be. Show something. 18. Postform: Okay, The last song form that we're going to look at is called Post Form, which is actually quite rare. It's associated with prog rock. You'll hear it on the Beatles White album. You'll hear it on albums by Pink Floyd on Radiohead. Basically, it's where there is no set structure. It's like different blocks of music put together, so it's not following sort of verse, chorus, verse, chorus pattern. But there's there's different blocks of music creating the peace. It's a less accessible form, so it's not maybe wise to submit a post form song to a publisher. If you haven't yet, Bean published, you have to have a little bit of a career behind you before you can get away with with writing in post form. So I'm gonna play Unite, a famous example off post form on that is Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Is this the real? Is this just bad to see escape from reality? Your rice? This is the easy gun again, my trigger, - but bodies everybody way, - way , way, one. Not really. There's really 19. Cowriting: So let's talk a little bit NIO byte co-writing and co-writing a very standard practice in the music industry. One of the alley Golden's latest album, It's actually had 13 writers all much. Like, there's a lot of reasons why you should consider co-writing. And to me, the most important one is that co-writing as the best way to keep developing your skills. Because you see how other writers go about things and you learn tricks of the trade or by a high other people go about things. And also it helps you to find people who have complimentary skills to your own. So if you're primarily a singer, Angie Wright, really bold intervals, grit memorable chains. If you find someone who is maybe a guitarist who knows an awful lot by harmonics, that's going to be a good mix. And also when you go right, you can come up with a sign that you wouldn't necessarily come up with on your own. There's also a concept what the colon Nashville writing up. So if you find someone who's doing quite well in their career, he's published on your right with them. And their publisher likes the song, that's going to be really good for your career. And you might ask yourself, if I among signed, why is it going to be good for me? What's it going to be good for a sign writer to write with me? And if I'm signed, why should I write with someone unsigned? Well, I should say that I've written with some quite top-notch, so register shared, they've all been brilliant. But the song that's done best for me, the share was actually co-written with the students. So, and you can learn something new from everybody that you write West no matter what point they're out. So don't be shy to ask people if you're interested in co-writing with them. Now there are several different routes to find and co writers. In the UK, there's a great service called Music Gateway online. You can write find correct is through that. And also in London on the last Thursday of every month, not inhale here an amazing publisher have a networking event, Italian Art in London on it. So the bite 6.5 and the last Thursday of every month, and that's a great place to find corridors. If you're not based in the UK or London, there's probably a songwriter circle or similar, similar events happening near years. So that's something to research. You could also find corridors on the Nashville Songwriters Association International and SII. And they are a great organization to be part of. Um, everybody on there has a profile so you can go through people's profiles, listen to their tracks, and see if you would like to co right with them. And easy to find people online. There's a lot of songwriters groups on Facebook. You might find someone local to you. Or I've written remotely with people that I've mountainside Cloud, which is another great thing to do. And of course you can pm people on YouTube if you like their work. So that will be a challenge to see if you can find a co-writer, say within the next month and get started on a track, you wouldn't normally have written. 20. Understanding Copyright: Okay, so now I seems like a good time to have a little word on the topic off copy right now, when people start to write for quite often worried. What if somebody else rips off my music? Or what if I accidentally ripped off something that somebody else is written? Sort of. I'm thinking like now I copy Right Laws will depend on the country that your best. And so what? I'm going to say. It's very much best in UK law because that's where I'm signed to a publisher in the UK you would have to rip off by eight bars of something either the lyrics of the melody. You can't copyright chord sequence because basically back has used the mall before. It's considered copyright infringement on. Actually, are the others being some high profile cases in the news of races years? Copyright infringement is actually very rare. Not if you have written a tune on a month or so later, you hear somebody else's with platoon on its signs, but like yours on you decide. You think copyrights being in French, you would actually have to prove that that person had hard your song in order to make a kiss against them, and that's actually very difficult to do on very rare. So a sensible thing to do to prove your own copy, right? I don't think it's something you need to overly worry about is to sign up with a P r o performance right or organization before his rights organization. So the PR oh in the UK is called PRS prs for music dot com in the Republic of Ireland, there's an organization called Amro on in America. The Sea Sack, ASCAP MBM. I know that's not sort of illegal thing. Just protect your copyright, but it's a sensible thing to do because then you will be paid. Royalties on royalties come from copyright basically right. So what make us money and music? So you selling up with P. R. O. Every time you play your own music life, you could make a claim for some payment on PRS. If you play a small venue, it's about six times per game. No matter how many of your own songs you do on, if you play, it's a festival or a large value. You get a certain proportion off the ticket sales, so it's very much worth doing that. And also you'll have the debts that you registered with song. If you put your music online on Sign Client or you shaper Spotify, you'll have the debt that you registered your music on there. But I would generally say, Don't worry too much about your songs being ripped off the other kind of element of worrying that maybe you ripped off something that belongs to somebody else. Perhaps you have used the odds chord progression there that you've heard somewhere else or or a series of notes. It's going to be quite obvious a few weeks later when you play it back. If it signs very like something else, and at that point you would have to tweak it. But it is actually exceptionally rare, so I hope that's maybe put to rest some of your fares on the point of copyright. 21. Cowriting Etiquette: Now we're gonna look a little bit at the professional advocate for co writing. So one of the most important things you need to do is create a co writers agreement and put something in writing. So even if you don't think that you're going to make millions of dollars out of the song, if it's going to end up on YouTube or it's gonna end up on Sign Cloud Spotify if it's going to be played life, if it's gonna be monetized at all, it's best to have a co writers agreement. Not usually that involves an equal split between all writers, but you might want to discuss that with your co writer. The musicians union and the U. K provides template correcting agreements, and you can find template correcting agreements online. But it is a good idea to put something into writing. There's also standards of behaviour involved in co writing, so you want to try and avoid working with people like this or being a person like this. Don't be a prima donna. It's about sharing ideas and everybody having a contribution. You don't want to be the person who doesn't listen to other people's ideas. Otherwise you might as well just write a song on your own. Neither do you want to be a person who sits in the corner and just goes along with everything. You're there for a reason. You have talent, so don't be afraid to make your ideas heard. Don't be someone with no sense professionalism who's always lit on doesn't put in their share of the work. There is no way, even if you get a publishing deal that you're going to keep it. If you are always late on, you don't behave professionally. I've heard of songwriters have actually had charting hits who've made a lot of money from the for their publishers but have still being fired because they turned up, let regularly and were rude to the session musicians. Okay, don't be too emotionally attached to your song, and you know you can't let go over and you get upset if your ideas were criticized because in the end, that's not going to serve the song best. And you are, in a sense, creating a product not meaning to signed too cynical abide it. So you know, sometimes we have to let go a little bit. Don't throw schtrops. Don't be the person with no plan. It's good when you come into a room to write together. If someone has a ref or a lyrical fame or a bit of an idea, don't just come in blank without having thought about it at all. Don't be the person in the group who just doesn't care as much like the song as everybody else. You know, Try and Mika's much input as everybody else. 22. Cowriting Methods: So let's look at some methods of co writing. You need to play to the strengths and weaknesses off the particular people in your song writing group. So one thing you could do is that one person could provide lyrics on the other right of melody based on them. That's hi, Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers work. You could do it the other way Rind, where somebody writes a melody on the other person, writes the lyric, such as Elton John and Bernie Tobin's Way of Working. You could have one person come in with a chord sequence or a riff on the other person writes the melody and you to work like that, where the band play a chord sequences and Bono comes up with a tune on lyrics over the top top lining. Another form of co writing is called The Critical Eye, where the writers of a song would bring in another writer of producer to comment on a change. What they've written with a fresh pair of ears night, as we mentioned earlier when you co right, you don't just made up with a blank page is good to come in with a tune or a referee title or leased to know what kind of song you're planning to write. If you're writing in a professional commercial song camp, you would be writing to a brief. So I have attached a PD after this section, which has some sample briefs that you might want to work to on. As always, I'm happy to hear the results of what you come up with. 23. Evaluating You Music's Potential: So we're going to talk a little bit NIH a, about evaluating your work and high to know that your work is up to industry standards. My I run a song feedback service and in the past I've had people send their songs to me for evaluation and I've given them some pointers. And they've written a big old route sublimate, Hi, I'm wrong and their song is ready to go, right nod. But who has told you that? Because to be realistic, you're already going to know if your song is commercially viable, if you run it past a professional in the music industry. And that could be a teacher within the music industry. It can be a publisher, it can be a manager. But really it's not the AZ to assess yourself whether your songs are good to go. But there are some questions that you should be asking about your music if you're trying to work out whether or not you're in a good place to approach publishers or to get your music right there. One is, well, sort of looking at technical things. Does the lyric have progression? Doesn't have hooks and hit songs that are going to get you published are most likely going to be hooked best songs. And it's much easier to get a publishing deal with an up-tempo positive song than it is with a slow depressing balance just when you're starting light. Does your song have a memorable melody? If you go away and leave it for wake, you remember the chin clearly when you come back to all these things are quite important. Technically. A really important aspect is actually production. Not, I know you might be saying, if it's a good song and it's just a damn, I won't say piano and voice. Isn't that good enough? I'm for some publishers, that might be, but it really depends what you're aiming your music app. If you want sync placements, if you want your music to be used in film and TV, or if you want to cut from a manager artists, it's going to have to be produced very well. And if you produce it on your own computer, It's a very wise thing to send it away to be mastered. And before you spend the money on doing that, you really need to get some feedback on high likelihood is that it's going to do well. So another question to ask yourself. Hi, original is your music, is it fresh? Is it something that a publisher's going to go? Yes, I like to assign to that that's not good. Assigned like a dozen other people that they already have and their roster says there's something that's just a little bit individual and quirky. Avoid it. And although this may seem like a contradiction, Contradiction. You've got, also got to ask yourself, high on trend as it is it the sign that's commercial NIH because, you know, the music business is a business on things do you have to sell? Although if you're aiming to have a capped with a well-known artist, you don't want to write a song with songs like their last hit. You want to write a song with signs like their next hit. So you're going to have to know both their back catalogue on where they're going. So in order to pitch songs and to get Psalms aren't there? There's actually a fair bit of work involved. You have to do some research. And other great thing you can do is if you've written a song, say it's an R&B song, put together a playlist on iTunes of your favorite R&B songs that includes your own song so that it can hear Hyatt stocks up realistically in terms of the craft of the song itself and in terms of the production. And if you would like some advice on how to make your music industry ready, if you've got attract that you'd like some feedback on, feel free to PM. It's me, I'm totally happy to listen to your trucks. 24. Commercial Viability Checklist: here is a commercial viability checklist. It's also attached to this video as a PdF, and it was compiled with help from Carl Henric Val at on track music who are a grip publisher Beest in Norway. So, basically, for your music to be commercially viable, you must meet all off these. Your songs are always written in the appropriate song form to the genre, so that would be a B A B C V form verse chorus, verse, chorus, bridge chorus for Paul per country pop A A for folk, a B A for jazz. In other words, you've got to know about song forms and you've got to know about your craft. You've got to know, for example, that in a pop song you right to the chorus on In Any Electrons in Front and in an Elektronik dance song. Sorry, you right to the drop, that kind of thing. So your songs must contain really strong hooks on that's melodic hooks, lyrical hooks on secondary hicks. So I've written here. This is the biggie. This is really important. If your songs don't have strong hooks, they're not likely to be signed, so lyrics the phrasing has to be there. It has to scan properly. No cliche. You want to avoid cliche. There needs to be a progression in the story of your song. Usually the use of wire framing will help with us. You need to have strong use of image, metaphor or a conversational style. Some publishers don't like an a baby rhyme scheme. I've used it myself and songs that I have had published, but just that something to be aware off. So both the lyrical on the musical content should be aimed at the target audience. You are writing to an audience, not just to yourself, so that a song that it's personal to you but nobody else can understand it isn't really likely to sell. I want her that said that good writing. Let's an audience feel the songwriter story. But great writing makes an audience feel that the songwriter is telling their story something to think about it. If you want to write for specific artists, are you familiar with their style? And as we said earlier, the soul should sign like their next album, not their last one. So you should have a catalog to pitch of at least 20 well produced songs, including a high proportion of up tempo, upbeat songs. It's much easier to get a publishing deal with an upbeat song, and it's much, much easier to get a sink with an upbeat song. I know we can all think of quite dime beat songs that were used in films. A tset, but a lot off sink is work in advertising on Brown's Don't want their brown associated with people feeling miserable, so happy High energy is more likely to get you there. Your song should obviously have some originality. Some spark about them, which is uniquely you. But on the other hand, they should be on trend on ahead of the trends. And we talked a little bit earlier about high. You can start trying to achieve that. You should have, as we mentioned earlier, positive feedback from credible industry figures. If your friends and your family love your songs, that's grit, but you need to know that someone in the industry will back them in order to be sure that your song is commercially viable. And as I said earlier, you confined this commercial viability checklist attached to this lecture as a Pdf. If you want to print it off 25. Types of Publisher and Copyright: no, I we're going to look at the really important area off different types of publisher on of copyright. So this is basically all about how you make money from your song. Writing money and music comes from rights or from copyright on their two different types of rights in regard to each song. One is the performance rights, which in America is known as the publishing rights on that has to do with the song itself, the melody and the lyrics. So if somebody wants to come along on perform or record your song, they're going to major permission to do that. Then there's the mechanical writes known as the master rights in the US, and they're to do with the recording of the song. So if someone wants to license your song and use it in a movie, they're going to need your permission for that. Or when your song is streamed online or when it's bought on I Janes through the mechanical writes, you should be being paid royal tastes. So when a song you own the rights to is used in any way, you should be paid royalties, and I sometimes this is known as the back end could say you signed a licensing deal. Toe. Have your song in a car advert. Well, you're going to be paid a faith, which is the front end, and then you're also going to be paid royalties for every time that song is played her heart on. That's going to pay the back end. Okay, royalties, air collected by performing rights organizations. PR owes. And there's quite a few of those. And they include PRS in the UK, M Row and Ireland B. M. I as cap and see sack in America. So it's worth doing some research into which performing rights organization is going to suit you best. But if you're right gigging a lot or you have songs up on YouTube that people are listening to you on Sign Clyde on Spotify, then you're really doing yourself. I'd of money if you don't sign up with a P r o. Okay, so Ni, let's look at the types of publisher will start with a traditional publisher. They aim to make money from your music on return. They will ask for a share of your copyright so you will be signing over a proportion of the rights of your songs to them. You'll often sign those rights over for five years after the contract is over. So you have to be sure that this is a company that you want to work with who is going to do the best for your music that they can. They'll try to monetize your music in various ways, including seeking licensing placements or sinks on placements with artists, which were referred to as cuts. They collect royalties from your P R O for you on pay them to you. So production libraries. That's an area where some people are doing very well the moment you can place your music in a production library, which is usually on a nonexclusive basis. So in other words, they don't own the right to your songs. But they make money by taking a cut of the faith. Companies who are looking for music rise through the production libraries, and hopefully they find yours and they want to pay the licence it Different companies offer different terms in relation to royalties, but as with any other kind off agreement or contract with a publisher, it's best to run it past A music lawyer before you sign anything. And in the UK, the musician Jinyan offers a contract advisory service, music licensing agency. My. They differ from a production library. They offer exclusive or nonexclusive contract, but they proactively go white to try and find placements for your work. So your work isn't just like lying around a library for someone to sort of stumble across there going like they're trying to find us. They'll often ask for 50% of the fee on 50% of the royalties. But this does differ. On is better to own 50% of something that makes some money than 100% of something that just lies around your computer collection services. These air agencies who were collecting royalties from your P R O for you on your behalf that could be useful if you're touring and gigging quite a lot extensively. I don't personally recommend these services. I think if you're willing to do the work on register all your performances, that is something that you can do yourself. Not online pitching services. If you haven't yet got a publishing deal, but you'd like to be able to pitch for sinks and cuts. There are some services who can help you do that. So for an annual or monthly fate on some occasions for free, you can pitch for publishing. Opportunities on some of the more popular services include Taxi. It has about a $300 joining fee, and there is no way Ryan that music get way. It has different levels. Eso you can join as a free member. And then there's different paid levels, depending on what you want to get out of it on song Trader, which again has a free service on to pay service. 26. Types of Publishing Deals: So we've looked at the different types of publishers. Now, let's look at the different types of publishing deals that you might be offered. The most common is non-exclusive, which you're most likely to be offered in the early days. It's mostly used by production libraries and licensing agencies. And with a non-exclusive, you retain the rights to your music so you still own it. So you can sign your music up with several non-exclusive deals at the same time. And how several people working on your behalf to get you some money and then there are exclusive publishing deals. So that would mean that the publisher had the sole right to represent the music named on the contract. So you could sign an exclusive deal on a single song or on your whole catalog. There's usually a specified time periods named to the contract, perhaps for a year or five years. And the publisher may retain the right to monetize the works for a nims number of years after the contract. And so usually for a five years after the contract ends, they would still have a right to make money from the songs that she wrote while you were assigned to them. So single song or fixed term contracts, they're a bit like a trial to see if your work can make money. It's unlikely that you're going to be signed as a staff writer if you don't have a track record of making money. So the next is the holy grail of songwriting agreements. It's called an ESA and the UK exclusive songwriting agreements. And America, that would make you what's called a staff writer. And that means that you're formally accepted as a rostered songwriter with a publishing company. Everything you write for the duration of the contract will belong at least in part to the publisher. You'll be paid in advance. And it depends on the size of the publisher, but you could be paid anything up to about a 150 thousand pounds. But you can't just bank that money and spend it because you have to earn that money back. And if you don't, you must pay it back to the publisher. 27. Music Licensing: Now we're gonna talk about about a subject I find very exciting on. That is music licensing, and I find it exciting because I have worked in and are at a music licensing company. So I've offered these License and Dales to artists and also because I've had my own music licensed My what does it mean to have your music licensed? It means that Accompanied buys a license to use your music in San commercial or a computer game or a movie on. They don't buy the copyright to your song. They don't own us. But their licensing it for use night is a great way to make money in music at the moment, because dine loads and CD sales are obviously going way dime. There's been a lot written and spoken by on that topic, so this is still a way that you can make music. It's very competitive. An awful lot of people are trying to do it, but it is possible. So an interesting thing to do this week is just when you happen to be watching TV. Listen for snippets of songs and the shows that you're watching so great thing to do on money wise it can pay anything from a couple of $1000 usually songs or licensed in U. S. Dollars right away through $200,000 if you happen to get your song in the right commercial or in the trailer for a Hollywood. Maybe so. Obviously a lot of competition for those kind of placements. Music licensing is also referred to synchronization or sick, so especially in the UK, will be referred to sick. So how do you go bite pitching your music for music licensing? No, there's a lot of services online that will help you to do that. There's what's called library services. Were you upload your music to a production library at a company can just come along and Brize Library on. They might happen to find yours and like it a better bet as companies that actually pitch your music to opportunities and right there, try and get places for. You know, thou charge 50% of the feet, perhaps 50% of the royalties, but it's better to have 50% to something that sounds 100% of something that lives on your computer. Resident music license A. A great company for doing that. There's also services online where you can pitch your music, such as music get when UK taxi is another one. But people have gotten good results with that has about two or $300 joining fee, which has to be paid in one Go on. There is no way right that there's also a service called Salt Trader, which is quite good on saltier allies. You to hear tracks that have recently Bain license so you can listen to the production values of those tracks and see if your song stack up. No us mentioned before. If you're pitching songs for broadcast, they have to be recorded to broadcast standard. They have to be professionally mastered. Under is no way right this because if when I was working for the music licensing company I heard a song, I thought, You know what? This is a great track, but the production just isn't there. I'd have to use a lesser chain which had better production, because, you know, you have to imagine something coming out of I'm Mark speakers, you know, realistically, it has to be very good on their certain frequencies, which will interfere with dialogue and if a song is pissed and said TV shows, So these kind of things, you know it's best to leave to mastering, engineer to sort unless you happen to be mastering engineer yourself, then by all means go for it. So if you've got any questions on the topic of licensing, but you would like to ask me about it, do you feel afraid to send me a PM? 28. Finding a Publisher: So we've talked a bit about the different kinds of publishers. So another important aspect to cover is high. You actually find a publisher on no. All publishers air reputable. So not only how you find a publisher, but how you find one that's really going to help you. I work on your behalf. So s I. I on organization mentioned before great organization. They have a pitch to publisher a couple of times a year, So if you remember, you can have your genes play to Publisher. Another great thing to do is to go to music industry conferences armed with C Days or business cards and see if you can meet a publisher. There are some all lying services where you can pitch yourselves to publishers such as music. Great get Way, which is a great service. There are several publishers on their actively seeking writers to represent. Another thing you could do is find a so writer whose work you admire and asked them a like their publisher. But I have to say that emailing publishers cools just finding them online, standing and eat any man three quite often doesn't produce results. It's all about building relationships so here it's good to actually make songwriters in person where you can go to conferences in the UK There's an organization called the Music Publishers Association. So the MP A online has a database of publishers in the UK, and you can search fire genre and it tells you which publishers are currently accepting submissions. So that's a very, very useful service. So se through doing all of this, you happen to find a publisher? Well, how do you know if that publishers any good? Because you know you want to sign with someone reputable. There's a couple of kinds of organized issues to avoid, like the plague. One is a company that calls itself a music publisher. But instead of pet finger work toe artists or pitching your work for sink, all they do is collect. The royalties for the performance is your day. I pay them to you. But take a cut because that's absolutely pointless. You can claim your own royalties from your PR. Oh, you don't need another service to do that, so I wouldn't recommend signing up to that kind of service. Another thing that you would need to dio if you're in talks with publisher is to email some actor already on the roster and ask, Are they happy with their services? Because that's just your due diligence of making sure they're a good company. You also want to sign up with the service who are actually having some success. So you want to see what place that's they have, what sinks they've had basically high. Well, they're doing before you sign up because you often be asked to sign up the rights to your songs for a whole five years. It's not something you can get out of quickly. So if they aren't doing a good job for you and they aren't making you money, they're going toe own, you know, part of the copyright to your songs, so you know you will be tied in with them. You will be able to go on sort of pictures where you can pitch yourselves yourself while here while you're signed to a publisher, but they take percent of any money that you make, so you really need to be sure that that right there working on your behalf 29. Branding: Now we're going to look at the topic of marketing your music, and especially at the whole idea of branding, which in essence means getting your message out there and letting people know that you exist. Now, there are some amazing courses on Udemy, on marketing and in particular on social media marketing. So if you'd like to look at any of those, that would be great. But here it's just a short introduction to the topic and its related specifically to music. Okay, your unique selling point. What is special about your music? What can you offer the others who are writing or performing and the same genre count. Maybe you have a very unique skill. Maybe you can sing about five octaves. Maybe you play a very obscure instrument. Maybe you've played a really major festival or, or you have something really exciting on your bio. That's something really to pause this video and think about what is unique. A bite you. Then your ideal customer avatar. Who is your ideal listener? Because you won't reach people if you don't know who it is that you're trying to reach. So what is their gender? Hi old, are they, where do they live? What are their needs? Now that's an important question to ask yourself and how you can help fulfill those needs? What are their wants on high? Can you help them towards achieving their wants? And where do they spend time on and offline? In other words, if you want to reach these people, where are you going to have to go? Is it on Facebook? Is there somewhere in the community that they mate other certain groups online that they might be members of. So if you want to pause this video and maybe try and address some of these points and draw up a little list of things that make up your ideal listener. Your message. Because your brand is all about your message. It's a bite. The person that you are personally and professionally and how you're conveying that to the world. So here's a little exercise to help you do that. I want you to list three words that describe you as an artist. For example, I might pick elegant, spiritual, and contemporary thoughts while I'm kind of going with choose an image that conveys this. And that also means deciding what's not and keeping because if I want to be elegant and going to avoid like cute little kittens and things which are going to give a totally different impression. I would perhaps choose traditional thoughts such as Times New Roman, and avoid things like comic song sounds or anything sort of comical or childish. So you don't actually have to draw this image. You might find something online or you might just jot down what it would look like. So as you carry out this exercise, it's very important to bear in mind who is my audience on? Where do they hang ICT? So you're actually aiming this out a specific audience. This isn't something just to keep yourself happy. And you need to remember to keep your branding consistent. So to use the same key images and messages across social media, e-mail marketing, printed materials, prospects anyway that you're trying to reach people. So just by way of an example, I'm going to show you the logos that I use for my business at the moment. So I have two things that I do. I'm a singer and songwriter, and I'm also a teacher and an educator. So I have two different websites and I have two different logos for both those things. So this is the logo that I use as a singer and songwriter. I don't know if you can tell by looking at this logo, what kind of music that I play. As you can see, I've gone for something very traditional. I've got an apple tree in the middle because, you know, my name is AVE. So this silver is meant to lick a 30 and spiritual, whereas the latter is meant to look our Auth0. And so the sign is very acoustic, somewhat sort of Americana singer songwriter. And that is what this is meant to convey. But the font is also meant to be slightly contemporary as well, because I'm not doing a sort of Anya style foci thing. So this logo, you've probably seen quite a lot during the course of this course. Like I teach both children and adults. So I didn't want something that was cartoonish that would only appeal to kids when I started teaching. And orange there, there is a little bit of research on what different colors mean to the viewer. And orange is meant to be the color of professionalism. Saw implied is orange, so you know, it's a color associated with music. So I have the microphone there. And the orange is meant to look professional, quite a striking color when I use on stickers and envelopes and things. It's a simple image. I've used a very traditional font because I'm aiming to look professional. I could also him to like sort of fun and right and up baits. But i'm, I'm actually aiming for professional because I teach a lot of people who would like a career in the music industry, not just kids. My tagline is find your unique voice. And that sums up the values of my company because I'm not here to have anyone signed like me as a singer, as a songwriter, I want to help you find your unique signs. So I've summed up in only four words. So that's just a little example of my brands. I only to try and help you figure out your own. It is a good idea to have an actual logo that sums up your business values. And if you don't have the money to pay a graphic designer, although it's great to be able to go to a graphic designer and sit down and discuss what you would like. There is a great site called Fiverr.com. There's a lot of graphic designers out there who will listen to what you want and design new something for very reasonable prices. So that's just a little suggestion. 30. Social Media: Something you need to think about before you post anything online is who is your ideal listener? In the business world, there's this concept of the ideal customer avatar. The person who's going to most want to connect with your business. So, how old is this person? What gender is this person? Where do they live? What are their interests? Very importantly, what are their needs and their wants? So it's good to take out a piece of paper and jot died all this to get an idea of who you're really targeting. When you're using social media, you're using any other form of marketing. And everything that you write online, all the pictures and videos that you post should all be targeted to Gan the interest of that person. The do's and don'ts of social media. Okay, let's start off with the things you should have a specified musicians pro bought Hou separate from private accounts. We all want to keep our business lives on our private lives separate as much as we can. Create content which drives people to the music and don't just post tracks every day. So if you have blogs that you've written or had been written about, yay, interviews, pictures, any kind of media. You want to get those out there. Use media because basically large blocks of texts are very off-putting. If you go off onto a rant on your Facebook and write, you know, a couple of a 100 words. You can't expect an awful lot of people to pay attention to it. Reply to comments. People will stop following you, are stopped taking an interest in your work if they feel they've made the effort to contact J or to give you some feedback and you simply haven't responded. Ignore trolls, know if no one has ever posted anything nasty about your music. That just means you haven't gotten very far yet. Everyone will pick up the odd detractor here and there, but don't get into runtime arguments with these people because it only upset shoot at wastes time and it doesn't look particularly professional. So you can join grapes, especially on Facebook. I'm a member of grapes in Northern Ireland's such as Northern Ireland musicians. And so I'll rudders. And as discussed earlier, don't just post your trucks and run. You really use it as a networking opportunity. Link to your website and update it regularly. You can't control the sort of online atmosphere of Facebook or Twitter, but you can control your own website. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. So you want to ultimately encouraged people to visit your website where you're sort of guiding the experience that they'll have, have consistent branding across all platforms. And that is important. So you've got a consistent message everywhere you are online, you're signed to the images should give the same messages. I only post high-quality profile pic. So yes, your profile pic should be something that's really representative of your business. It shouldn't be drunken selfie or something very blurry, or something which really no thought has gone into. Now let's look at the don'ts. So don't insult individuals are whole grapes. So you've got your ideal customer avatar and you've got a very specific group that you're targeting. You still don't need to be offensive to other grapes. So we avoid to try to be offensive to people of specific ethnicities, religions, or sexual orientations, that kind of thing. I once was added by someone who worked for a record label to his private Facebook. And all there he had little prejudice against a specific religious grape which he decided that Facebook was the place to vent. But ultimately, you know, those of us who are running a business, who are business people don't want our businesses to be associated with any kind of prejudice. I'm not saying you can't have your personal opinions, but just be a bit sensible in the way that you express them. And try not to be bigoted. And anyway, don't ignore interactions because founds will be pleased if you thank them for commenting. That I like to think that they've got a beautiful relationship going with you. An interaction creates more interaction. So the more comments that you get, the more people will actually save the post. And after all, music is all about forming relationships. Don't post material too frequently so that people go, Oh my goodness, That's the tenth post from that person today are too infrequently survey forget by ever like Japan in the first place. Don't people to groups without permission. It's genuinely, really annoying. Don't go into streams of consciousness and start sharing your life at inappropriate detail. I think we all have friends that do that when they're a bit drunk on what we usually do as wrestle their phone away from them, so really don't do it. And the business context of your music Facebook page. Don't post only songs and nothing else whatsoever. People want to connect with a human being and not a marketing machine. Because as I say, it's all about building relationships. Don't post and public what should be emailed. And I told it to put this and the Twitter section that a fade that rates. Please listen to my track over and over again. Just doesn't cast you in the best light. Don't use low quality profile pics. And we talked about that before. 31. Facebook: So let's look at some of the more popular platforms that you're definitely going to want to get yourself as a writer or an artist I'd on. So we'll start with Facebook, because nearly everyone who uses the Internet uses Facebook. So you want to open an artist page and not just use your personal profile for promoting your music. So keep texts short on these images as often as possible. There more, more eye-catching. And what do you think about it when you open up your Facebook app on your phone, you've got hundreds and hundreds of messages that you can scroll down. What should the ones that really draw your attention? Usually it will be the ones with a strong image. So don't post videos and trucks too often, but do post them. The thing is if you're asking someone to listen to a song, you're asking them for between 34 minutes of their time, but a dozen other people are also asking them for that. So you don't want to overburden people by posting tracks every other day. So, you know, maybe sort of once a week would be often enough to post a video or a Soundcloud link. Post regularly. You need to make sure that you're keeping up to date with your Facebook page. Otherwise, people will give up on it and stop following it. Use targeted ads. Facebook allows you to target people based on their geographic location, their age, their interests. So it's a way of targeting the people you actually want to reach. And when you're online, on Facebook or on any other social media platform, you still want to keep this idea of an ICA on ideal customer avatar at the forefront of your mind. So every post that you write, you're trying to engage with that person, that ideal listener. Join grapes because it's a great way to meet other musicians and be in the know about what's going on in your local musical community and the wider music industry. But don't just post your own stuff and run, which is genuinely rate. If you just stick up a track every couple of months into a grape and that's your involvement in the grape, not Brad's comment on other people's tracks as well, be a community member. And I realized there is a time commitment on that, but it does pay off. Now I want to look at a really good example of Facebook fanpage. This is go vadose fanpage. You can see they have this grit background artwork that they use across your social media. So scrolling down, we can see that there are videos that they've posted, happy, well edited, and are of high-quality. Their photos similarly are of high-quality. They allowed people to review them, script to encourage interaction. You can see I've reviewed them there. And here we see them actually interacting with people, thanking people for coming to hear them. Make them themselves accessible. Again, well edited photo and you can see they have a lot of comments and likes. 32. YouTube: Youtube Night. Youtube is actually the second biggest search engine online after Google. So at somewhere where people go to find information and it's somewhere where people go to find music quite lot. You probably do yourself. This is where agents, if you're looking for live gigs and fans will come to look for you. They'll expect your music to be on YouTube, but only post high-quality videos. And I'm not saying you have to go out and spend a lot of money on professional video production. But don't post, you know, really shaky videos taken on a mobile phone on your official YouTube page because that doesn't let grant. You can have a separate playlist for fun recorded videos. So if people have film G on their phone out a gag, you can have a little playlist for that. And if anything, that says that people are paying attention to you. But I wouldn't have that as the man focus of your YouTube channel. Going live on YouTube night. This is a quite recent thing. You can of course go live on Facebook, but going live on YouTube is a good idea because it can help you build your YouTube following and get some more subscribers in. So having a brief look at my YouTube channel, I'm not setting YouTube, Ally. I've just recently come to it. But you can see here I've selected a video to use as a channel video. And I've divided my channel page up into different playlist so people can see official music videos. They can see my music education videos. I've just tried to make it as easy to navigate as it can. They gonna talk a little bit later about thumbnails and that kind of, I've said YouTube to automatically play another video of mine. And the left hand top corner of the screen. Just as a video ads for a viewer. I'm going to let you know how you do this. We are in the Creator Studio. We go into edit the video. We go into endnotes and annotations that may go to Add Element. And I'm going to add a video or playlist. And I'm going to select best for viewer. So YouTube will calculate which video the person may be most interested in. And then of course, remember to save the changes. Something vitally important on YouTube is tags. And it's important to tag your videos so that people can find them in searches. Perhaps use artists who signed similar for you to, to you to help describe what the song is, is that a piano ballad? Is it an up-tempo country song? You'll be quite specific. And other great thing to do is to create a tag like I use the tag IV Williams music. You could use your artist's name because YouTube doesn't realize that's not a thing. So there aren't very many videos tagged this and automatically play one of my videos at the end of the video that somebody is watching. So it's a good way of making sure that one of your videos as what comes up next for the viewer, The title you use for your video on the thumbnail are actually really important because the title is going to make it easy or difficult for somebody to find. So you want to use the most important words in the title, first law. You might just want to tie the video the title of a song, but it might be a good and the start, while people are still getting to know you to write something like piano ballad, nobody wins. That's one of my songs. Just get the important words aren't there. And you want to use really eye-catching images. And it's good to use really bright lettering with background and order to get people to actually click on the video. Because YouTube has Bryce features that bring up suggested videos, as well as the search features on it's, it's really ones that are very eye-catching that are most likely to get attention. So here's an example of my thumbnails. I still haven't perfected my thumbnail style yet, but you can see I'm using red lettering and trying to keep a consistent style. Very importantly, remember to add a subscribe button. And YouTube actually gives you an option of adding a little subscribe icon to all of your videos on your channel. So that's a very wise thing to do. And actually ask people to subscribe, ask them to subscribe somewhere in the video itself. And also very importantly in the text and the description of the video night. You want to link in the description of the video back to your artist's website, to your fifth spec, to somewhere where people can buy your music, you know, give people as much information as possible there so that if they're enjoying what they hear, they know where they can find more. 33. Make a Free Music Video: Welcome to this video on high to make a really cool YouTube music video, because lyric videos can be a little dull for the audience. Going to start off with showing you one I made earlier. So you get the idea. It's by finding some really cool footage that goes with the theme of your song, creating a story. I'm putting it all together. So I'm going to show you hi, I did that. I went on to have fantastic site called Pixabay. And on Pixabay you can get both images and video by searching by keyword. So my songs, who needs a night. So I searched for the keyguard horses, and quite a lot of stuff came up. I used this little video in my video, although I muted it, and I made it black and white, so it looked very different from the original. So you can see that says free download on that. Some of the footage on this site you have to pay for, such as this video. It depends whether or not you think that it's worth paying for the film. So it's good to have a story that you're whacking to, but also add your own footage. It's good to have your own face somewhere in the video if you're the artist, just to get it right there. And add up the footage to go with the lyrics here we want it to make sense. That can't be really time-consuming like the little clip I'm about to show you it took up by an R to pull this off. You can also add it, the video dine and have 30-second versions for Instagram, on for Fest spec, where people maybe don't want to invest a whole three or four minutes into watching your video. So have fun with S and I hope it works out well for you. If you found this useful, please do subscribe. I've got lots of videos out there, all music careers and music education, especially on singing and song writing. And I've got quite a few courses up on Udemy and music as well. So you'll find links in the description. 34. Going Live on Facebook and YouTube: In this video, we're going to talk about an amazing tool for musicians. So two amazing tools. One is going live on Facebook and the other is going live on YouTube. So the obvious question to be asked there is, should I go live on Facebook or on YouTube? And the answer is, go live where you most walked grow your audience because going live on either of those platforms as likely to drive some more attention to your channel or to your Facebook page. You see here that I've chosen to go with my Facebook page because I tend to go live on Facebook rather than on YouTube. I have a lot more followers and his book. And so I'm going to start perhaps using YouTube Live. But it's a great way to draw people into your world. If people see that you're live, they have the fear of missing out. I think something's happening and they'll chin right n and it used to be back in the day. There were sites like Periscope where you could go out and live and perform to people. And they actually, well, in my case, they attracted a lot less attention than going live on Facebook does. So I think the trick of hosting a successful live with that to start with is first of all, publicize it. Don't just go live and let people be surprised, you know, for about a week before. Let people know it's going to be happening, keep repeating that it's going to be happening. Perhaps create an event and invite people, contact your mailing list and let them know you're going to be going live. Give them a little teaser of what you're gonna do. Um, and then for the performance itself, I would advocate playing live for people. And while your life interact with people, reply to their comments. You know, they want to feel that you're all kinda having a party together during this live event. That creates a kinda nice atmosphere. And you can talk a little bit Applewhite the influences behind your songs, why you wrote the song. Just don't buying on and on because people like to hear the songs, do the talking. Obviously, I would him to keep it at a bite. 20 minutes, that's manageable. And if you make a mistake while you're playing live, it is my experience that nobody will notice. If you want me to be added to your mailing lists, I'm always happy to attend live events on Facebook. By the way, just drop me a private message and give me the link where I can sign up to your mailing list. And I'm happy to do so. 35. Twitter: Okay, so now we're looking at Twitter, obviously also a hugely popular social media platform. So a good way of writing a tweet as you use short text. And obviously you can't write too much. And Twitter then post a link and then post two hashtags. Anymore than two hashtags on the tweet will look incredibly cluttered and a little bit unprofessional. So tweets with pictures look better on people's fades. So I've given you an example here. Basically the image is saying exactly the same thing that they tweet itself does. Bot, the image is more eye-catching. So if you can imagine this in my Twitter page where I've got dozens and dozens of tweets to rate. The bright yellow of this image really stood out to me, which is why I chose it to share with you. And as you can see, it's got 2.5 thousand likes. So, you know, people are paying attention to it. Hashtags can help you reach a much wider audience. So you need to choose them carefully, because as I say, it doesn't look great to post about six of them at once. If you're only going to use two, they have to be the right to choose your time between carefully as well. Otherwise, your tweets just sink, they get lost. And there's a certain amount of research that says the best time to tweet is around dinner time when people have just finished work. And you can schedule tweets so you can opt for it to be posted at a time of your choosing during the day. Don't post tweets where it would be more appropriate to send an e-mail. I looked at one artist's Twitter profile and it basically said, Hey mister so and so please pay my Track. Hey miss, so and so please play my track a bite 15 times. And that doesn't look, grant. 36. Instagram: Instagram, not this is they form social media that I failed does best for my music, but of course everybody's different. Only use high-quality pictures. So editing really blurry, not best image, you sort of falling out of the pub drunk with your minutes. Maybe an Instagram that's there to promote your music isn't the place for those particular photos. So choose a filter which represents your browns. And there's something to be sad for consistently using the same filter. The video facility is actually really good. Now you can only really post about a minute of video so you can't fit and then a whole song. But you can't fit and enough of a song to get peoples and trust and you can get some of your live performances. I bear. And if you use the right hashtags on Instagram, you can get quite a lot of attention that it's not like Twitter where you'd really only want to be using two hashtags. You can use quite a lot of hashtags on Instagram and on get people noticing you and finding you that way. Post plenty of music-related pictures. Now that might sound silly if you're running a channel dedicated to promoting your music, but you might end up posting your cat or a particularly interesting debtor that you had last week on Instagram. Everybody does it. Just make sure there's plenty of music. Almere? No. 37. Paying for Traffic: Okay, So in this video, I'm going to talk about a slightly medulla, a bit of an achy subject, and that is paying for strains on views online night. Back in the day, if you had wanted to release, subtract for the radio, it was perfectly acceptable to go pay a plugger to help you get onto radio channels. So surely paying for streams and Spotify views and U-shape is not exactly the same thing. Well, not quite. So on a search page here, as you can see, there are umpteen results for increasing your place on YouTube. Lots of companies that will offer to do this for a fee. The thing is, what are you really getting ICT of doing that you're most likely just getting bots to play your videos. And I know recently I was on a UK profile where there was 20000 views on a video, but the person only had about 200 subscribers. And it's pretty obvious to anybody actually looking at that, but a lot of those views have been paid for. So It's better really to try and grow organic traffic with real people. Not Google does have its own facility for advertising on YouTube. And actually this first result here, and they basically use Google's AdSense. And so what you do is you find some artists who you think you signed quite like some good keywords. And you start running a campaign and then your video will be, you know, one of those videos that's featured before the man attraction, almost like a trailer and, uh, maybe the one that we always click Skip, that's what will happen. No, I thought may get you some more views, but quite often it will damage your channels. Astounding and that the YouTube algorithm places a lot of importance on viewer retention. It regards to successful video as a video that people are watching for more than 50 percent. So if you're one of those annoying videos that people click skip on, you're probably only going to get into like maybe 30 seconds viewing time. And you could create a really, really short, like 30-second promotional video for one of your songs. That might be a good thing today. But in the long run, just getting views is maybe not going to help you towards your objectives. That much. Marketing is obviously something that we all have today. You can't go on to Facebook and pay to promote a video there. You can look into using Google AdSense, which again will drive traffic to your videos. But it's just, you know, weighing the cost against the results isn't really going to achieve your ends. So I'm going to do another search here. And this is quite scary phenomenon going on at the moment. And that is people paying. Just going to move my face so I can type, sorry. People paying for streams on Spotify. Not there's a great article that you'll find several places in the NAT. I might post a link to it. And the resources for this video where the guys from noisy Denmark basically made assault than he was awful. They made us all my new sock. And then they paid for it to get 10 thousand streams on Spotify. And that way it got out into play lists, it showed up in algorithms. But they made the point that all Spotify you're actually paid per straight line. It's a very, very low in line to pay about 0.002 to ¢0.007. But still, when people pay for streams, they are in fact scamming the system and they're taking money away from legitimate content creators. So Spotify has really tightened its algorithm and they're looking for like irregularities. Like if you're only getting four or five streams day and all the sudden you've got several 1001 day that's gonna get you into trouble. And that's what an awful lot of these services you'll find if you do a search like this are offering. They're basically just offering to ratchet up your strings. And that could get you into trouble and font. In some cases, people have had their Spotify, it's completely closed, dying. Because of this, their music has become unavailable, but also just bots playing your music. What do you really getting I did that you're not reaching genuine fans. You're not having people follow you. You're not building any kind of engagement. And I it's perfectly fine to use a legitimate logger on spot. What kids, you know, Spotify is the equivalent of trying to get on radio stations in the past. Thought, I would say a legitimate service is one that doesn't just accept anybody. It's not a case of OL pay some money and I can get onto play lists. A legitimate plugger should be having some kind of quality assurance and not accepting everybody who applies. That would be one thing that I would say. The way to get a high number of streams legitimately on Spotify is to get added to play lists. But quite often it's difficult to find the contact details for playlists, curators like you can't apply for Spotify's editorial playlist from your Spotify for Artists app, you need to do that more than a week before your song has to be released. You can also contact the curators of bigger private playlist. And as I say, it can't be difficult to find their contact details, but if you basically click on their profile, check them, follow their playlist, Google them. And you can find them on Twitter, you can find them on Instagram, you know, do follow them. Appreciate the fact that a lot of people contact them during the week. So, you know, be respectful of their time. Listen to the playlist carefully and don't submit inappropriate material. It goes without saying. But just to conclude that there's an awful lot of services on line that look like a quick fix. Just look like Hell. Yeah, I can just wraps it up my subscriber numbers on YouTube. I can just wraps it up my place and Spotify. There isn't really a quick fix. Building a YouTube channel or building Spotify following just basically takes time. There's no way around that. 38. Email Lists: Now let's talk a little about email marketing. So there are some very good reasons to have an email mailing list according to CD Baby, e-mail remains the most effective way of reaching people online. And when you think about it, when you go onto your Facebook account or you're on Twitter, you have post after post after post raid containing videos and articles and tracks. And you're kind of overwhelmed with messages. Whereas if you send an email to someone, it's just a bit more of a direct personal way of contacting someone. The most popular HTML e-mail service is MailChimp, and that enables you to do some quite cool things. You can send emails that contain tracks and images. You can keep lists, a monitor who's opening your emails and who's clicking on the links they contain. So you can say who is really engaged with your work and there's a whole host of other useful stuff. Importantly, it gives subscribers and unsubscribe option of every e-mail, which keeps you in line with data protection legislation. You can choose music related tablets for CD launches, for tours, and for calendar diets. So, you know, you can pick a template that suits the news that you're sending it via e-mail. You can, of course on should use your own logo, on your own branding. Within MailChimp, emails, you can post sign-up forms on your website and social media are asked fonts to sign up at gags. One thing you must never do though, is add someone to your mailing list who hasn't given you permission. Because that as against data protection legislation, it's nice to offer an incentive such as a free track or an exclusive video to people who sign up to your mailing list. Because your mailing list should be a little bit like your fan club and there should be a reward for being part of it. Try not to a male too frequently. Or people might report you for spam on unsubscribe, but not so infrequently as people forget about your music once a month, as good an or when you have really big news that you want to share with people. 39. Journos & Bloggers: So you're thinking of approaching journalists and bloggers? Well, the first thing I would say on this topic is be sure to approach the right journalists and bloggers. There's no point in approaching a country music brought Blawg. If you happen to perform metal, that really would be silly. So you need to do a little bit of research on the journalists and bloggers that you're targeting and the kind of acts that they like, I never said nor generic emails right by Tan Blog's sad. An email that shows you know something about the publication that you're aiming at. No journalists and bloggers get dozens and dozens and dozens of emails a day, so you don't want to include a sort of 20 line bio that they're just gonna look at it and go. I don't have time to read this. Three sentences hit the high notes. That's the way to go on. Send links no, and pay threes or even worse waves. Because of you touch files to your email. It's obviously going to take up more memory and the other person's inbox on. They're not gonna thank you if you happen to crash their inbox. So if you don't want to make a track public. You can sand private links Firesign Clyde, and that's what you want to do. But it's probably better to send links to music that's right there that people can listen to you, which can be in battered into a block on either you chip or sign Clyde. So you know that such the kind of professional courtesy also interact with the block Post comments on the book you know, don't just want to promote your own stuff on rum. You know, take a bit of an interest in the work that they're doing, if you possibly can. Another important thing to bear in mind is you need to have a decent standard, high res photographs for a journalist to use, whether that's the album, cover off your latest release. But you know, you do need to have a decent ham Children shot off herself. That's really quite high Raz as part of your press pack, because you never want to have low standards photographs right there. You don't want sort of badly taken selfies. Are you falling out of the pub with your mitts? You need to have a professional photograph there because image is very important in blocking, As you know. So I'm hoping that you'll think give approaching journalists and bloggers this week or at least start Raid a some of the music blog's. But all right, there I had some good success with being promoted and Celtic Music thumb online, but they, of course, cover my kind of music. So I can't possibly give a list of all the major blog's and all the different genres that something you're gonna have to Teoh a little bit over start job. There's also books online that will relate to your own local area, maybe for nd artists in your own local area. And they can be great for establishing a relationship with not just for getting a bit of PR quotes for your website, but also for making connections, meeting other songwriters, meeting movers and shakers in the music industry where you live. So it's something really wafting bloggers. No, a lot of people 40. Musician Websites: Now let's look at something very important, and that is musician websites night. Some of you might be thinking, Can't I just have a Facebook page or a Twitter account? But on Facebook or on Twitter, you don't control the experience of the visitor, whereas you do on your own musician website, on your own website allows you to put your music, your images, your calendar dates, everything that people would want to know about you in one place. So I thought the best way to start looking musician websites was to have a liquid. A few famous examples. So here's a screen cap of Miley Cyrus's website. You see that really bright colors, which says something about her as an artist. You'll also notice here that she's only got home events, news, video shop. She's only got five little tabs. We don't want to have too many. You can always use sub menus. Otherwise, you'll just confuse people. But if you want to pause this for a second and look at the browns in here, the pink stars and that kind of thing. And just ask yourself, what kind of messages is this website sending? I-t, What age ranges she aiming knots? January. She aiming not. Where might the people she's aiming at live, that kind of thing. So Jennifer nops website, new album, Love comes back, arrived at NIH. And very importantly, a little button where we can buy it. Because sometimes if people have to go off and look for a place to buy it, they'll say to themselves, Oh, I'll do that later. And then they will. Did you want to make things easy for people? And you can see that you can actually play music quite easily. At the bottom of the page, lie, don't sap tracks to autoplay because it's genuinely, really annoying when you log onto a website and it just sort of plays music without your having asked it to you. That does annoy some people. Again, not too many tabs and clear image. Swear she's really at the forefront. So again, if you want to pause this video and think a little bit about the different messages that are coming actually from the homepage of Jennifer nops website. One of my favorite bands, The Divine Comedy. So note the Divine Comedy, the font that's used very elegant and of course they have that very elegant, witty style and were left under no dodge that they at the moment hover released. That's, it's NADH. And again, the button that says purchased so you can buy it as soon as you hit their website. If you're looking for their new album, you don't have to hunt around for it. You just google Divine Comedy, go onto the website, there it is, and click forever land. And the art work clearly conveying the kind of message, that kind of side that you expect to go with the Divine Comedy if you haven't heard from them. And it's very sort of sharp, witty lyrics with an almost neoclassical side. All the social media icons very easy to find so that you can follow them online and various places. And then we see the little menu icon at the top left-hand corner. So it's all easy to navigate. It's very clear. Notice the lack of text. There's not a huge amount of text on any of these artists websites when you first hit their website, everything is very clear, easy to navigate, and the messages are mostly coming across via image. So if you're going to start your own websites, set up your own website, there are certain things you're going to want to include. But before we move on to that, I just mentioned that host baby here related to CDBaby offer a service for $20 a month where they have great templates that you can put on your own images and your own black branding to set up your website or WordPress. For free websites is one of the bigger services on the web. There's also a site called Canva, where you can buy images to use in your website. And that means you own the copyright and it's fine to use as images. So what to include in your website? You want to have a simple menu with only a byte, four options, so you can't use sub menus. So for example, all my website, I have a menu option that says news. And underneath I have pressed for all my press left sides on calendar. And I also have a widget for the calendar elsewhere. So we want to make it simple so people can navigate it easily. You want to have your bio. We'll talk a little bit later about how to construct bio and high not to construct a bio calendar of gigs and interviews or any kind of events you're going to be involved. And if you know your track is being played on a certain radio show, if you're doing a live gig, put it all into your calendar because your website should be somewhere that people can go to find out where you're going to be in when it's put some tracks up, but not Who albums just to enough music for people's get a flavor of your music. Youtube videos live are also good embedded into your website because Record Labels and industry professionals, we want to know what you saw like live as well as on recordings. Use. So having a news page and keeping up dead again is a great way to improve your SEO, your search engine optimization when people are looking for you online and you know, if your news page isn't regularly updated, if it looks, but I did it. People will wonder if you're still in the music business. I sign up form to your email list, completely essential. And of course, widgets to all your social media and a store. So I love it when people buy my albums via my website rather than when they buy them on say, Amazon. Because I don't owe anybody any condition, I just make the money. So That's a nice facility to have your artist bio. Now I have to be honest, over the course of my career when I've done a little bit of work for music blogs. So when I've been working in an r, I have rabbits on truly shocking bios that have more put me off an artist, an interested may add them. So let's have a look at how to write an effective bio. It should be a byte ten lines. People don't want to read a war and pace sized bio. They just want you to hit the high notes. I'm tell them what's different about your your USP, your unique selling point. It's not supposed to be a work of art. So you are writing a CV. If you were applying for a job, you wouldn't write it in the form of an epic poem, say, because there are some people that view their bio as a work of art. So that's almost like they're writing an autobiography. But professionals like mate, just don't have time to wade through that. I'm not saying it should be bullet-pointed, but it should be to the point. Include your man achievements. Have you worked with anyone kill? Have you played any major gags? Do you have any special talents such as playing a really obscure instrument? Or can you sing five October? So, you know, tell us that the man core of your skills and achievements, quote, should be by other people on not by you. Even if the quote survives someone who had been to gag rather than by a really famous music magazine. But I've read things in people's bios such as their music has been compared to the battles. Well, who compared their music to the battles? Because if you don't tell me who said that, it comes across like you said it yourself. And that's quite frankly a little bit of noxious. Give contact details for press and bookings. As ever, if you'd like any feedback or you've got any questions, feel free to post them in the Q&A section or just sent me a PM. And if you'd like me to give you some feedback on your website, I'd be more than happy to do that. 41. Song Gates: So just a very, very short video for you and this week's email, I split this really cool website, but I find call hyped it. You can see the website here. And then you can make these things which are called darn low gets. So what this basically is is a pretty little link that you can share on your Facebook or an email where someone can stream your soul. Them. If they want to download it, they need to follow you. And to save the song on Spotify and that way they get an MP3. So this is actually a great way to build your followers. You can actually use it with Soundcloud as well and build a following on SoundCloud. Or you can collect people's emails with it. So it's a fantastic idea, hoping you're going to have some fun with it. Yeah, see really, it's asking me to connect on Spotify and it's not going to work for me because obviously I'll be linking it to my own account. But I can't recommend this highly enough. It's being free, it. 42. Offline Marketing: Nat, marketing is not just an online thing. Wherever you are, if you're there to represent your business, you must have a professional attitude. Now there are several places that you can market your business offline. And the most obvious is live gigs when you're outperforming life, when you're chatting to people after the GAG, GAG goers come up and start a chat with you. Remember you're representing your business when you're talking to them. And so you want to be letting them know what you're doing. But you don't want to be, you know, sags them in person by my CD, by my CD, by my seat aid. You know, you want to build a good relationship that because marketing is actually all about relationships. Another place you might be marketing your business as music conferences, and hopefully there are some good ones near you. Sort of major international ones would be side-by-side West and Oxford and Austin, Texas. And meet em, which takes place in cans and fronts. But there's a lot going on locally and regionally as well. So if you happen to be at a full day conference, remember that you're there to represent your brown. So you're going to want to do certain things. You're going to want to have copies of your music with you because there's no point if you made like say, a really cool publisher saying, Oh, right, yes, don't have any songs with me because by the time they get home, they might have forgotten who you are. They could have spoken to ten people that day. So you want to have music with you and you want it to be labeled with all your contact details on your web presence. You also want to have business cards. Someone said to me once and I think it's a really great idea. Have your photograph, all your business cards. Because then if the person finds the card and their pocket a couple of weeks, David, they go, oh, yeah, that was that person. Whereas if it's just your name, they might not actually remember who gave it to them. There's a certain logic was said people aren't using. This is cars quite as much. I still think they're useful to have, but quite often people are swapping. Instagram's instead just, you know, in person on the spot. So good to have your Instagram up-to-date just in case that happens. Just remembering as well about your brown dying on your CD cover on your business card, you want to keep that kind of branding consistent, be giving out a consistent message and when you're in conversation as well. And it goes without saying, you know, even if you're tired and grumpy and you've had a bad day, you are representing your business when you're chatting to people in person, whether that's gig Gore's, whether that's publishers, whoever that might be. So you always want to maintain a professional tone. Another great thing to do to market your business offline is to form good relationships with record stores and venues in your own time and other local businesses. So it's worth just going until local record store taking in some C days on having a chat. This will January generally work a bit better than emailing. And if there's things that you can do in person or by phone, it's better to do that than emailing because it's just a more personal mode of communication. So maybe a little challenge for this week, convey, find one person who can help you out and speak to them in person. 43. Spotify: So the most popular site for browsing music online as Spotify. And you can see here that it suggests playlist to the listener. Here's one of my Discover Weekly. And your real goal is to get your tracks into these platelets. For that, you need more than 250 followers on Spotify. So once you have a Spotify account, you're going to have to get out there and really promote it. So the Billboard Top 100, if you want to be working in the music industry, very important playlist to follow, as it will tell you a bite, commercial trends at the moment. So we're going to look at it, see what the big tracks are the moment, we'll talk in the next video about how to get your music on Spotify. 44. CDBaby: A really useful service online is CDBaby. And CDBaby can help you get your music onto Spotify, on to Amazon iTunes days, or they also put your music on YouTube, just basically anywhere where people can reach it and where you can be paid for it. You can select an option that says anything that pays, or you can basically put it anywhere online with CD Baby. They also provide a widget for you to have a store on your website or Facebook. And they sell your physical CDs. Plus they'll give you barcodes on ISRC codes for your C days, which are pretty much essential. If you want to sell music end stores. 45. Bandcamp: Another popular service online where you can sell music as Bandcamp. And as you can see on the right-hand side here, it's showing you what's popular in certain genres. It suggesting artists. So it's a great place for music fans to find j. So let's go in and search for an artist. Just so as you can see what an artist's profile looks like, I won't O'Day VA, so archie ortho. So if we click on him, it will bring up all these releases, as you can see, hair. So you can set your own price on bomb hat for what you want to sell your music for. So let's click on One Wiltshire winter. And you can see that he has that up for tampons. Found count will also give you a little store that you can use on your website or on your social media as well. 46. Lifestyle of a pro songwriter: So in this video, I'm going to talk about by the lifestyle off a songwriter what it's like to actually be a professional songwriter. And obviously it's an amazing job to have, because you're in essence, doing the thing you love your working with music on. You're also working with some amazing people. I would have to say one of the best things about being a songwriter is that I've met people who we'll just be friends for life, you know, because so writers half JB empathetic and they have to understand something about the human condition so they can obey, you know, fun to highlight with. Also, there's a lot of travel involved, which can be a plus or a minus, depending on your personal circumstances. But, you know, within the past few months, I've being to Nashville. I've been to Norway. I'm a bite to have despaired on a couple of days. Then I'll be in London. You know, I get to see quite a lot of the world on experience, new cultures, other. Sometimes I'm going to really exciting places and only saying the inside a recording studio , which I have to say is a bit of a sham, So those are the definite places off it. The dine sites would be. It's a form of self employment. Even if you have a publishing deal, you are in essence, self employed. Unlike any form of self employment. You know, income can walk somewhere and it can be unstable. It can be very good, but it's unstable. So you really do need to work a portfolio on the other things to keep yourself going financially. I teach. I sell digital content. I have picks on Kendall. I have online courses. Obviously I saw Stop music my upon five and all that kind of thing. You know, you really do. You have to have your backups for times of year, where your royalties might go down a bit. Um, the other dawn side would be the traveling. It's very, very exhausting at if you have caring responsibilities. If you've got young Children, older parents look after you really need to ask yourself whether inal it's realistic. Um, because, well, it depends really where you happen to be best. If you live in London or in Nashville, you might actually be able to build a career with, like traveling that much. I come from Northern Ireland, so they just wouldn't be a big pool of people here for me to write with artists for me to write for. So I do need to dio a certain amount of traveling. If you're a singer songwriter and your artistas well, you know you are going to have Toso. It's whether or not that's gonna fit in with your lifestyle. Like any other industry, it has its problems. Like I saying, I've met some lovely people, but there are definitely scammers right there. You know, people who will basically just take advantage of people's desire to work in music. So your best protection against scammers is actually to be as informed by the industry as you possibly can be. I know back in my early days, I got charged a huge amount of money by these people. He said, Oh, your songs are good, but they don't have enough energy. Let us record them and produce them for you and then we'll manage. It was so obviously a scam like I can't believe I fell for it. They charged me about thighs and ponds and recorded me to tracks that were just really pearly produced. I was totally ripped off when they were quite aggressive to May. You know, this kind of thing does happen. Also in the UK, only 14% of songwriters professional songwriters anyway are women. I'm actually part of the musicians union. She grows project trying. Look at why that is. You know, what are the barriers to women entering the profession on high coming overcome them? I also have rheumatoid arthritis, so I find the lifestyle of being a songwriter. You know, for people with certain health conditions, it can be very, very exhausting. Like I have Teoh work out. I'm gonna manage all the travel and even just the carrying of heavy kit. I'm also I put in a very, very long ours. Professional writers really write a song a week, and those have to be recorded to broadcast standard who played as well. So you know you can put in a more than 50 are weak doing that. It's very labor intensive. I'm not gonna pretend it's not glamorous. It's a really exciting field of work. But there are long ours involved in the work and also in the learning. You have to be constantly learning you have to keep on top of industry trends. You have to keep your skills and your instruments and then music production going. And of course, you know the craft of still writing itself. You need to be constantly studying that, which is actually something that I really love about song writing the constant learning. Um, but travel long ours. Those are the two things I really want to get across. So if you really want to be a professional songwriter, you know, just thinking about high that might fit into your personal circumstances. 47. 7 Day Challenge: Hello. And here we are a Belfast Titanic Quarter to talk about what to do this week. If your music career is giving you that sinking feeling, we're going to talk about some practical ways that you can raise yourself up. Okay, so the plan for day one and this is just really simple. Why don't you just finish something? You know, that great idea for a song you've had in your head or those lyrics that have been lying rind in your notebook for a couple of months? Or that chorus that you've never find a verse to go with? Well, this week, why don't you sit don and finish that today, too? And this is something that's going to be really important for the whole rest of your music career, that is, seek ites some feedback. Think of someone whose opinion you really trust might be a music teacher. Might be a producer. Might be a fellow artist, might be a publisher. Someone whose opinion is going to be really informed on is gonna be given in a constructive way. So why not take what you finished earlier this week and send it to that person for their feedback. Hope it goes well, Day three. And this is a really good thing to do. If you're stuck in a rut, why not collaborate with someone on on artist that you respect? You could collaborate with a friend. Or you could reach out to someone that you've heard on YouTube on Sign Clyde on Spotify that you just think is really cool and see if they're interested in writing with you on. You just never know what kind of new signs you might come up with That way day for at a great thing to do is to find, like, what? Music conferences, a music business. Events are going on in your area. You could do a certain amount by email and on via YouTube and Facebook and reaching people . But there's nothing like actually making personal connections of people them knowing who you are. Because then the next time you send them an email, they might go, Oh, yeah, that was that person and, you know, they're more likely to read it. So that's my challenge to you today is to try and find really cool music industry events to book yourself intake. So Day five Challenge is to use the tool that's just really useful to musicians, and that is Facebook life. Something I like to do on Facebook is to do one cover, one original every week because people will listen to the cover and then hopefully stay for the original. So that's my challenge for you today. So day six. Hopefully, you're starting to get out of your music, right? Nine. You've got a few stories to tell. A few ideas kicking right? Why not contact your meal? Inglis. The people that support your music on tell them about what you been up to. And if you don't have a milling list, it's a really good idea to get one, because that's greater. Social media is. All the research suggests that the best way to reach people is still by a veil, a nice personal note into their inbox Day seven Challenge. And this is probably the scariest one contact. Somebody knew somebody that you would really, really like to hear your music. Maybe it's an artist that you'd like to write for. Maybe it's a publisher that you've always wanted to work with. Maybe it's just to reach out to someone. You're a big found off and tell them that you think they're co. But today that is the challenge. Contact somebody you that you really want to be in contact with about your music that you've never contacted before. So hopefully there's some ideas there to keep you afloat musically for a while. Do post in the comments and let me know what project she came up with after watching this video. 48. Song from Scratch Challenge: I've added this section to the course because one of the students of the course, Garry Gordon, Hi Gary, challenged ME after I said like an educational noise, but to do a song from scratch section. And I thought that just sounded like amazing x1. So the first thing I thought of doing was taking some briefs because songwriters usually write briefs. And I looked up a few breaks. That was quite little top line item which is writing to an existing electronic track. And I didn't want to do that in this video because I didn't think that maybe you'd get an awful lot out of just hearing me hump over the top over the electronic tracks, I'm going to do the whole song from scratch. There was also some k pulp and the brain's like K-pop, Korean pop is close to what we might think gulf as music theater. It's not bake piano Balad side. But in the end I decided I'm not going to go with a brief. I'm going to write something that I would want to write just for the sheer joy of it. Because I know this course is about pro songwriting. Pop. Songwriting is something that we should love today and sometimes just do for the joy of it. So that's what I'm gonna do not. So I'm going to introduce you to my songwriting setup. Some of you might choose to be a lot more technological, the May and be writing on a Mac. But I'm old school and unloved and I Jimmy love notebooks. And we'll ideas. Whenever any idea randomly hits me, I'm right, Dima, I did. And come back to it later. So I have a list of ideas in this notebook in front of me. And the one that I would work on is I've got my mountain mover stroke walk on water. Written here. I like the idea of walking on water, you know, kind of achieving the impulse ball rising above at all. That sounds quite nice. And I do have guitars and here various other instruments I could write my computer, but I'm going to go with the old keys because that's just happens to be my favorite instrument. I could also Just hum something with my voice and then find the cohorts. But I'm not going to do that this time. So I'm going to go with welcome water as a title. So I think from that Tai Chung going to write Dawn here and I go right on my fault. So from the title, walk on water, that could be a very upbeat song because it's kind of a positive idea. Or it could be something a little bit more melancholy because it has that element of hardship. And I think I'm kinda going to go with, I'm going to go with a sort of piano ballads sign. So I'm writing this Dawn. Now the ballot signed. And I think it needs to move from the minor to the major because you're moving from a sort of difficult part of your life into overcoming this difficulties and maybe having a more positive experience like, like the hormone x should reflect Matson. I'm writing to align these ideas. So my y I want to do is find some chords. I may be a risk that suggest what I've just said. Some might have to do some. So I'm here because that would be a bad fall off, messing wrong, going on. So let's start with a reminder. Okay. Like the US Court sequence I can recollect died. So that was a minor E minor, G it a couple times and then I just went from D to a minor, which actually I wasn't very sure like so I'm going to try doing the scans. You can find better court that day. As they're leaving. A bit strange because I could be a Q of J, I could actually be in the key of F, or a minor or a minor, the relative minors, those are not sorted by all over the place. But that's okay. So let me see if I can lie. Find a big major chords together less so. Actually that last day minor, I'll make a C. So we've moved into the relative major site of the RNA minor. So yeah, so it has to be asked that support we're not supposed to in the chorus relevant manager. Okay? Okay, so now I'm going to play these chords, familiarize myself with them. What I normally do at this point as two went by myself, which I don't mean to do because I'm recording it in the video because, well, I don't record, I will forget. And this is the joy of modern technology that you can do this on your phone, on your tablet. And back in the day when I was young, you have to use a tape recorder or you can record, think straight onto the computer and have a record. It is good to have a record, but hopefully eventually you'll come up with a melody so strong, but you can't forget it. So now I'm going to put my glasses on people. These are an essential part of mice already kit. And I'm going to play these chords again. I've already got playing with the way I did the first time, so we haven't got the timing right butt. Okay, so now I finally sussed the harmonics. What I'm good, well, maybe what I'm gonna do is hm, a chain over the top of that, so I'm supply them and Hmm. And as you can see that shown that I created, I didn't always match the harmonic, so I'm going to have to knock the chords and ship block chain or S naught the chin and ship over the courts. So I've sorted the harmonics and the chain. Well, I wouldn't say completely sorted because writing is all about rewriting and that would definitely be some rewriting going on. But now I have to look at the lyrics and what was songs bytes so widely to do is I'm going to do what's called round like. So if my title is walking on water, It's all the things that I can think of that are associated with that. So while I've scribbled dime so far, this is where I have to take my glasses off. You know, you're ultimately have to take your glasses off to rage, okay? Adversity and overcoming. That's like the central thematic contact. And then the kind of images that come to mind, storms, sea, wind, dark. I have affiliate least part the songs at night with maybe the DOM come back. I think the character is a main character. There might be a huge character that I'm not going either be someone who brought on first the date into the person's life some way, or a friend or a lover, or gotten someone who helps to bring them byte of the address state. So these are my initial thoughts. Scribbled died or try to come up with a story at this song. I think what the story of my song is going to be is that somebody, when this person was young because this is something I've been thinking about a lot. Sad, something to them, told them they could do something, brought them die. And they got to the point of realizing the BAP wasn't trade. And so they were then able to overcome that. And sort of metaphorically speaking, walk on the water and do the thing that they were told that they would never do. It was meant to be impossible. That's going to be the main story of myself. So I need to set this up in the first verse, party scrolling. So verse 1, the backstory. So the main thing is sad to the parser. So they encountered some negativity. And then once we get some little pre-chorus, he bet that sets up the course, then we won't say, but things are different. Noise but not describe too much hotter, different because we need that for the rest of the songs. But things are different. Not so far it might affect looks like this messy scroll. And you have to have a notebook that as a messy scroll. And then I have another one that is very neat for songs that I've actually finished that I might want to play quizzes. So, okay, so then the chorus is going to be the man theme. So that's the walking of water rising above it. At this point, I'm not putting in the actual words on just pitting in ideas while I bolt to save each section on the AP, create an actual lyric based on this. So that's the chorus. So inverse to it's really going to be about high things changed. And in my story, that is going to be because they encounter to a person who showed them that they were actually capable of more than they'd been told that they wear, that they were actually worth more than people had led them to IV or that the parcel of the first reselect the debate. Believe so. Then convert a friend. So then we would beat the chorus. Niger, I wanna middle it were bred to be happened to be American. Yes, but I would hope like a 2D line thing. Something about walking on water every day. Or because really what you want to do with a middle ear it is take the story elsewhere, suddenly look at it from a new vantage point. So something about it. Maybe this person was beneath the water and they couldn't say about the web. So they couldn't imagine anyone else being there. So it's really the idea I want to convey is that the person who brought the other person dawn. So I'm writing down here, you can see above the water. So you thought other people couldn't rise. I think that's true. And life of someone brings you died. It's generally today was something that I feel about themselves, not made into wax philosophical, but again, we are so writers and waxing philosophical is what we do. And then I will repeat the course twice. So this is what my wireframes looks like. Pretty much as you can see to cull mask. But that doesn't matter because all I need is a rough guideline. So now I have to write some words to the tree. And I've got to lie space for them to be editor to, because we always rewrite things, were writing lyrics. Generally what I did is if I have a lyric, but I think I'm going to need to change. It. Just clicks about it doesn't work that well or I'm not sure about the Rhine. Put it in brackets and I do use a rhyming dictionary all my phone on all occasions when our right. Okay. So I've scribbled on a lyric and when I actually started to fill in the words, I changed the story completely, became something quite different. So I'll read you the words first before I segment. So I've had to make sure that they stand to the chain, that there's similar syllable count at each bars. I'm, I've avoided using an a AABB rhyming scheme just because certain publishers that I work with don't like that particular rhyme scheme. Well, thanks that it comes across as Omniture otherwise have used in the past. And, you know, I don't have much of a problem with it, but it's some of the people you've worked with through them, just avoid that. So these are my lyrics at the moment. You told me not to look up. No good ever came of aiming for the sky. You said, I have no wings to rise, just stay where you are. Let time pass you by. I believed you forever, so long. I thought you knew best and you couldn't be wrong. But now I'm walking on water day after day, worked my way up to the surface after years of delay. And I like the sunshine making the waves were urban blue. I love walking on water and I wish it for you. So they're actually sorry for this person who held them died in which things would change for the app. So that's the big change my story that came about once I actually started to. All right. You don't need wings to fly. If someone takes your hand and raises you up, you didn't want to let me go. I couldn't stay in your dark and not look at the sun. I still believe in you though you're completely submerged. I wish I could get through to you the lessons I've learned and then repeating the course. And so my middle at all and just a couple of lines of just let go with maybe just let go and walk with my purchase the band point about the song really. So as you can see from the total mass, that is my notebook, I've changed quite a few things, felt some things didn't work, needed rewritten and changed the rhyme scheme. Find better works for certain places. That's kinda what halves. So not at me. Scroll by my final core size sounds off this thing for you. So when I played the courts, sign the lyrics that I have, I changed everything. I changed the chain, I changed the chords. I change this lyric, especially taking my unnecessary words like and or, but I'm making everything a bit shorter, which we talked about in the lyrical economy section. So I'm going to play you what I have now. This is not a final saw because a song isn't vital until it's been fully produced and mixed and mastered because in the recording process you always change things, but this is what I have. Okay. You tell the logs. And as he says, to stay at a time and then continue to produce minced energy. And they are now day after day to day two, the same as in the state to us, I love Taylor then making small volume and issue for you. I found you tell a student. And so she prays, see what she wants. And then staying too, when you do your job is to wish I could get through them. Now. And after day and age. If that cell to use. In this chapter make plays well to land and should follow you to say ball and new sled into S. And then a standalone is the end of today. Into these sales incentive to use. That. Again, raise 10 to the n. And now we issued fool, you should improve. And then this blue and full. Okay, so I might want to think about things like, is this really account song? Because I knew in the star I said I wanted to counter-balance, but this might actually more safe guitar, that guy has a countering fail. So as you can see, I've written something completely different than I am to write. By half. Great fun doing it. And thank you so much Gary garden for Ishay, me this challenge. So well, I just play G was clearly not a finished piece of final product and you've probably heard a whole lot of things that needed fixed, but I kind of wanted to play the role form rather than a final produced track. The words at the start of the Vs don't scan properly, they're conquering. I really need to fix that. There are some of the harmonics that aren't working that well. I need to get a more structured bridge. Died. I can't do but vocalise, go Babiuk globalization there, but I still think there needs to be more form to it. So those are the kind of things that I'm going to thank you, buy it before I come to record the song. And I'll possibly run it past some people whose opinion I trust to see where they think that I can approve it. So rewriting is a big part of the process of writing. 49. The Final Cut: Studio Recording the Song: hi songwriters. Well, about a year ago, Gary Gordon, a student on this course, challenged me to write a song from scratch. So you've probably seen the video of me doing that. This is the final cut, which was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, in Quality Recordings, which belongs to Steve Goody, who's the host off the Bluebird Cafe. And I also performed this song live at the Bluebird Cafe. So thank you, Gary, for inspiring the song. You can probably tell when you hear the final recording that there's been quite a few admits the lyrics had to change because once you hear them recorded back, you know that certain lyrics don't fit. It's also gone way up tempo from the piano ballad and originally Waas. The arrangement is completely different has turned into sort of update country gospel song , which is because it was recorded in Nashville and I was kind of inspired by the surroundings there. So this is the final recording off the track, and I hope that it shows you something about the process off writing, rewriting a man recording you told me never to. No good ever came of reaching, You said I had the wings to just stay where you are that I believe your best way way Andi, I wish it do. Dog brings to someone, takes your hand raises You watch this service burger I stayed with you far away from I believe in you completely trying to get through all those things that go with Just go with just let go with We'll be waiting and I wish it for 50. Bonus: How to Become a Pro Songwriter by People Who Have Done It: hi students and anybody else who happens to be watching this video. Here I am in one of the nicest recording studios are ever worked. Um, I've been writing in here for the past two days, so I'm just gonna spend rights. You can see it. Really? Comfy air conditioned all the kit. So this is the words Norway. And I'm here on a songwriting camp to write songs for your vision. 2020. There are professional songwriters here from all over the world. All signed two different publishers. So I thought that it would be useful for you while I was here. If I interviewed them on high, they became professional songwriters What they did to get there. So hope this video is going to be useful for you. Hi, students. Here I am with the lovely kid. The Sky was actually signed to Universal as a songwriter, which is pretty cool where at the moment of out of the woods in Norway, writing for Eurovision 2020 which is really exciting. And can you and I have been doing track today, So gonna ask you about a parcel writing. So what made you decide to become a songwriter? for many years old I did was like singing when I was a kid. I was not simply school productions stuff, you know, the usual stuff. And for May, the turning point was when I wanted to be able to put my message in my own songs. And you can take the eyes and ice unless you write Arizona's right. You're in some things. You need to get good at something. I think that's what really pushed. Yeah, because I felt like I had a message. Is an artist and you want to get that message out in the form of a song? Excellent. So, like, what are some of the things that you did that got you to the point where you could be signed? Teoh your major labels publishing division? I had a lot of learning to dio lots of songs that we were in a song sets with for me Teoh. Hone my skill in my craft land What I was going up. I was personally even that I'm much better melodies the lyrics. So I'm getting better. But and yeah, some of the things were collaboration. Writing with other writers who are back to the new as well, making yourself feel a little bit uncomfortable and challenge is really good. It's really positive is actually the only way to grow. Visit somewhere, to be challenged, them to be pushed out of your comfort zone, to write with different people who are you have different perspectives than you on melody and lyrics. So collaboration was a big one. I would save May on them. New experiences I was traveling brings a lot of inspiration. T be able to write some. She need lots of good subject matters looked subjects to write about. And if you were going places and experiencing new things, then you will feel inspired. As one short question, I would ask, Was it really cool writing that brought you to the attention of Universal Because you being writing with writers that they were familiar with is that kind of is this wise business once it makes no sense because you could only ever send it to the people in your little contact pool. Yeah, whereas if you write with writers, then they will have a little contact, and then that song that you've read in that one day could go full of different contact on bay sent to eventually to the right person who would then either your voice or listen to how you right. And they then she's got from And so it goes further than you could get yourself. When you collaborate, you have other pools of contacts. Is it once again? Absolutely so, Yeah. She definitely does have something, by the way, so check kidding. Hi, students. I'm here with that Louise. Do you want a personal interest? Are now? Because my German is Oh, yeah. And the reason is you could be releasing your first single suit on she signed as a songwriter just to go get yet Napa sounds going to get a second. So she writes a writ stuff. We're here at the moment of out of the woods in Norway, writing for Eurovision 2020 which is being really fun. So that asked Louisa Louisa, what made you decide to become a musician? Well, for me, I was always a singer, and I felt like kind of a relief on the ferry to write songs into single day. And I have a feeling I have to tell my own stories, and this is why that's okay. So you wrote stories and get your message. Are that something that I love? A songwriter? Say, what would you say it was that you did that got signed basically like I did you get where you are? Well, basically, I would say I just did everything I could to be recognized in some way as a singer, as a whatever. I met so many people. I went everywhere like I went through two billion from Cologne, which is not so close in Germany and just met Brenda. People done one day I met a guy cool to be asses and he's on me to my first published networking and getting yourself there. Yeah, important message. That's it. Just like work work, right? Do what you love and let people know what you do. Like especially like through social media through. So everything ended you to I did life stuff I did writing. I did everything I could to be I'm gonna put some links, raises social media with this video. So people, can I follow your example of what you did. Thank you. Thank you so much. Lees. That's really helpful. We're we're just having lunch with my studio. Thank you. I'm here with the lovely in new Connor, who is an hour so writer like myself. He's have all my 30 songs associated with your general Richard. Quite amazing. So I'm not asking what made you decide to get hold of music. I think what made you decide to get involved in music is speaking my truth. Speaking what I want to get across to be. It's very unusual, very rare for some letters to have that opportunity, like all that must want to tell our story. But to be involved in songs on to just say this is what I feel with good or bad Just get out there and say it. Don't be afraid. It made me think this is the avenue that I want to go down. Don't listen to other people. Don't Teoh other influences, I think. What is your view? What do you want to tell? How do you want to expect story? That's just don't be afraid. Also, you know it takes a dark side, but it takes a every song has a bit of a gang of light and shade. Yeah, but also don't be afraid to kind of go. I'm going to tell that story. Also tell that lights tell everything their happiness because they have been cheating on that. But 10 start, very pressing solves. Nobody wants to sign. Some of the only has very pressing, so I have to mix it. Otherwise you're going to be stuck in this type of song. And I've seen people who are somewhere anything one genre, and that is really bad for your career. You'll be typecast and not do. Every life has different dimensions of it, like you know us from sin mood every day, or even, like all the way through today. So what is it you think you know? It has gotten to the point about your act, where artists are like messages asking, What do you think that I think I love people was working for me? A lot of it is you don't have a joint. If you don't have personality, you can connect with people. And if you can't mix with a group of you you've never met before, he's kind of cancer. That's where that's a drawback. You have to try yourself. You might be scared, but you have to just choice. I go, I'm gonna do my best. You might be full of anxiety going in there. Kind of. I don't know what's gonna happen, but the best thing is just face this fear down. Anyway, That's a great message. Don't be afraid. I'll be able to get on with people Syndrome has turned up funding for my songwriting students on I'm asking working music. Walt Manju won't work in music. What is it that you did that brought you to this point in your career? Me personally, I am down mixing and using program W called life because I waas I wanted to convince my friend that this was an easy thing to do. It's not, but I thought so. That point in time. There is a whole lot making a good song. What you would first think challenge is really what made you what made me really snakes go for this day for us And I really want to really want to make this life rather than just a stupid bet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It started by not serious. Your Hello are here. Yes, yes. So that's quite Mr what got you to the point they would like I say, let's get Senator has a dedication to excellence. He doesn't have anything which I think is a big part of thanks. That's thanks. Um, no, I actually had actually had a lot of luck. Nothing. Cryptocurrencies is embarrassing. I feel like I kind of had too much left my way through time. I decided I would use that to to invest in something that I wanted to do. And that is that. That's music, because music is really hard and I actually need to do that more lucky. Ask who made some money. You make a good point there that people do need to have a day job until I think it's important to be financially sensible, like investing in other things on making music and a wise it's not stable in this gown like Like you could come here and you could write so and it might be picked up. Might make one things from it Or you can actually spam gonna get here Panic, actually thinking good advice. Thanks so much Teoh way. Are you in your dreams? Thank you so much. Way are going head into the party 51. Now You've Finished the Course...: So now I have come to the end of the course. I'm hoping that you find that useful. Remember, Saul, writing is something that takes practice. So just keep writing and writing and writing and co writing and writing, and you will refine your skills. No, I've included in this that land section a list of useful organizations that are all hyperlinks. So you just have to click on them to help take you forward from here. If you have any questions or any feedback by any element of the course, just feel free to send me a message on Thank you so much, once again for subscribing.