New Songwriting Articles from Blogging Muses

January 2012

Happy New Year songwriters! One of our premiere contributors to the site, Cliff Goldmacher has written a great article, "The Dos and Dont’s of Co-Writing"

I hope this year finds you finishing those songs and getting them out there. Thanks for a great 2011 and here's to a great 2012! (clink!)

All the best,

Don Makoviney

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New Article

Five Mistakes Songwriters Make Before Demoing Their Songs (and how to avoid them)
"Looking back over twenty years to my first songwriting efforts, I remember my creative process as so personal and fragile that I was dead certain I would never open it up to another songwriter. This would have seemed like co-painting or more like co-dating…just not going to happen. However, two things DID happen. One, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the co-writing capital of the world, and, two, I wrote a lot more songs which stopped me from thinking of each of my song children as untouchable and precious. Ultimately, I simply wanted to create more and better songs and co-writing became a big part of the process. Over the years, I’ve experienced (sometimes the hard way) a few of the big "dos" and "don’ts" of co-writing and thought I’d cover a few."
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Previous Featured Articles

Five Mistakes Songwriters Make Before Demoing Their Songs (and how to avoid them)
Despite the fact that hundreds of demos are recorded every week in places like Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, new songwriters often find themselves overwhelmed and a bit intimidated by the prospect of getting their songs demoed and ready for prime time. By highlighting some of the mistakes I’ve encountered in my years of recording songwriter demos, I can hopefully help new songwriters avoid some of the pitfalls that result in either overly expensive or ineffective recordings.
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Five Ways To Finish The Song You've Been Working On Forever
Sometimes songs come easy. You sit down and the whole thing pours out of you almost as if you’re simply transcribing it as it’s handed down to you from the heavens. Those are great but I’ve learned you can’t always count on it working that way. The other side of the coin is when songwriting more closely resembles the extraction of a particularly reluctant wisdom tooth…without an anesthetic. This article is about how to deal with those songs. I’m going to offer five different approaches to get you un-stuck and get your song finished one way or the other.
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The Pros and Cons of Signing A Publishing Deal
Keep in mind that wanting or entering into a relationship with a publisher in order to simply validate your talent is probably not the best approach. As with any business relationship, it’s essential that you, as the songwriter, understand what you’re giving up as well as what you stand to gain by signing over partial (or complete) ownership of your copyrights to a music publisher.
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Dealing With Self-Doubt As A Songwriter
Doubt, while scary, is normal. Realizing it is normal can be a freeing experience. Take comfort in the fact that – as long as you are attempting to create something (i.e. working hard) – self doubt will come, and the more you push yourself the more that doubt may creep to the surface. That means you are on the right track. You are following in the footsteps of the great ones.
[Read More]

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