INDIE Weekly

February 22, 2016

The INDIE Weekly is your source for news and creative ideas for independent artists and songwriters. This week we are providing you with tips on songwriting:

What Every Songwriter Should Know Before Playing a Note in Public
BY NICHOLAS TOZIER: Most songwriters get their start by playing for friends and family. If you’ve got supportive listeners in your life, you’re very lucky! Listeners like that will cheer you on even if you forget lyrics mid-song and miss chord changes. My experience is that community open mic audiences will applaud imperfect songs and performances – because half of the audience is made up of fellow performers, and they’ll treat you the way they hope to be treated. Over time I learned how to bring the house down at occasional shows in Maine, but my first-ever performance was a disaster at an open mic…Outside of open mics, audiences might not be that forgiving. READ MORE

How a Bridge Can Be Your Song’s Most Creative Part
BY GARY EWER: One of the most important principles of songwriting (and in fact, the most important part of musical composition whether writing songs or symphonies) is the notion that all elements of a song partner well together. In other words, the melodies, lyrics and chords all support each other, and all work together to reveal and enhance the meaning of the song. That sense of partnership also extends to the various sections within a song. The verse and chorus should operate as partners in the sense that a chorus should sound like the obvious result of whatever the verse is. How to do that may be tricky, but that is what songwriting is all about. READ MORE

The Co-Writing Leap of Faith
BY SHARON GOLDMAN: As I sat across the table from my talented singer-songwriter friend Amy Soucy, I controlled my low-level panic. We had agreed to co-write a song over the next two days as part of a class run by Sloan Wainwright at WinterSongs, a songwriting camp/retreat, and she knew I had never co-written a song with someone else before. That’s right, never. No way. No how. I was always comfortable writing songs in solitude behind closed doors, where even my husband couldn’t hear me strumming chord progressions, working through melodies, mulling over lyrical themes and struggling to find just the right rhyme. On the other hand, the concept of sitting down with someone else and working on a song together filled me with anxiety. What if I hated what the other person came up with? What if they hated what I came up with? What if they were controlling? What if I was controlling? How could I possibly be creative — and therefore vulnerable — with someone else watching? READ MORE

We hope these articles are helpful and informative! Please submit suggestions or contributions for this column at [email protected]. If you need help with registration and administration of copyrights visit INDIEadmin for assistance. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!

About Christian Copyright Solutions: CCS’s quest is to help churches and Christian ministries “do music right.” CCS is an expert on church music copyrights and our primary focus is providing licensing and clear educational resources to churches, as well as representation, administration and advocacy for copyright owners. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only, and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel.

Categorized in: , ,