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Are You Still Recovering from Childhood Music Lessons?
On Songwriters and Strums
Tour Merchandise and Promotional Products
OnLineGigs.com: Making Touring A Reality For Indie Bands, Booking Agents And Labels!
For top songwriters, making hits all in a day's work
Book Review: If You've Got A Dream, I've Got A Plan
Resource Review: The Songwriters Survival Kit-First Aid That No Songwriter Should Live Without!
Getting the local radio station involved in your Songwriting Workshop
One Thing a Day for My Songwriting Journey
Networking and the Songwriting Business
Tax and accounting seminar with Cathy McCormack
The Path to Artist Empowerment by gilli moon

Are You Still Recovering From Childhood Music Lessons?
by Dave Isaacs

I often meet songwriters and players who tell me they took music lessons as a kid and hated it. That little old lady down the street who gave piano lessons, or the guy with all that hair from the local band who taught guitar at the neighborhood music store, may have done more harm than good. I’ve heard stories of people who were told they “had no musical aptitude” or “just didn’t have the talent” as if to play music you needed to be touched from above. Or the teacher had an ironclad method that they insisted upon, whether it involved mastering “Fur Elise” or “Smoke On The Water” before you could move on to something more in line with what you wanted to learn.

First of all, let me be clear: methods are useful tools, and I’m not suggesting that some people aren’t given great gifts or that learning an instrument doesn’t require a set of concrete skills. But in my twenty years of teaching music, I’ve come to believe that the gift is in how quickly you understand, absorb, and learn to master those skills, and the method needs to reflect and be based upon the learning style and goals of the student. In other words, my job as a teacher is not just to show you how to do things but to figure out how you learn and deliver the information accordingly. And if that little old lady or the shaggy guy from the music store didn’t see it that way, you would be unlikely to learn much from them, and you probably don’t have the most positive memory of "music lessons".

But music is probably pretty important to you if you’re reading this right now. And because lessons are not the only way we learn to make music, you may have been writing, singing, or playing (or all three) for years now and are good enough at it to be seriously pursuing a career as a performing artist and/or songwriter. But because there’s always something new to learn, you may have come to feel that some sort of lessons might be a good idea, IF you could find a teacher that wasn’t going to make you repeat that childhood experience.

All my best teachers were the ones who could show me not just where to put my fingers but also how to think about and hear what I was doing. Their teaching transcended the nuts and bolts of playing the instrument..... and realistically if you practice regularly, as I was, that part takes care of itself. If you go to the gym every day and work out, you will get stronger, it can’t NOT work. They were not just teachers but coaches, in the sense that they helped me identify and bring out my strengths while recognizing and addressing my weaknesses. So I’m suggesting that if you’re looking to grow as an instrumentalist, writer, or artist, what you need is not “music lessons” but performance coaching.

We all have a process for developing and refining new material. If you're formally trained or just very organized it might be a very clear conscious series of steps, or it might just be a matter of exploring and changing things until they feel right. Then once we feel like we’ve got it where we want it, we start looking for feedback.....from other writers and performers, from friends and family, from teachers, and of course from pros in the industry we're all trying to break into. Some of it carries a whole lot of weight and some of it doesn't, depending on the source; then most of us file that information away in our heads and decide later on whether it rings true. I think that's the right approach, because a lot of the feedback we get is almost purely subjective....what we're being told is whether someone likes what we do or not. There might be concrete information we're being given, and it's up to us to decide how much value it has, but ultimately the feedback is the answer to a yes or no question: do you (the listener) like this song/performance/artist or not?

All of that's important.....if NO one likes what you're doing, you should probably go back to the drawing board, so to speak....and if the feedback is almost entirely positive that's obviously proof that you're on to something. But most of us live in the middle ground between those two extremes: we get positives AND negatives, which makes it a little more difficult to decide what’s valuable and what isn’t. And if we’re in agreement that much of what we do get is primarily subjective opinion, it's hard to know whether we can really use it to hone and refine what we do.

I’m suggesting that a great teacher is able to help you sort that out by accomplishing three things.

1. Identifying realistically and clearly who you are and want to be as a person and artist.

2. Defining as specifically as possible where your strengths and weaknesses are.

3. Devising ways to brings out your strengths and develop your weaknesses in a way that works for you and the way you learn.

I believe that all three of these points can be discussed in a way that focuses more on concrete things and less on subjective likes and dislikes. Speaking for myself, when a student brings in a song I don’t offer any commentary on whether I like it or not, because I don’t feel that’s important to our interaction. What IS important is whether the song is communicating what its writer intended, and whether the performance is helping to put that message across.

So f you are looking to study with someone, think about this article and the three points I just outlined when you evaluate whether that teacher is right for you. And if you’ve found the right person you’ll walk away from the experience a better writer, player, and performer, and hopefully with a better feeling about music lessons than you had as a child.

Dave Isaacs
April 28, 2008

www.daveisaacs.com
www.myspace.com/daveisaacs
(615) 483-8170

Dave Isaacs is a busy professional musician, teacher, and performing songwriter. He offers regular performance workshops in Nashville and on the road under the auspices of NSAI and other organizations, and performs constantly as a solo artist, with his improvisational jazz trio Chupacabra, and co-fronting rising Americana band Good Souls.

On Songwriters and Strums

By Dave Isaacs
artist - songwriter - teacher
"...a musician's musician..." - Bliss Magazine
www.daveisaacs.com
www.myspace.com/daveisaacs

A lot of songwriters learning to play the guitar have it backwards, and in all fairness it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the paradox. You want to play the guitar to accompany your songs, but your songs end up getting limited by your ability of the guitar. So you might call a teacher and ask if you can learn some new strums to spice up your vocabulary. But a strum pattern is exactly that, just a series of motions....what you really want are new ideas and new sounds. So the idea is to get PAST the strumming to the sound....in other words, to be guided by your ears and not your hands. Your ideas can lead your fingers, rather than your fingers limiting your ideas.

Yes, this requires practice, but it doesn’t require as much skill as you might think. What we want is to allow the lyric or even the idea of the song to suggest the rhythmic feel, and then figure out how to produce that sound on the guitar. For example, you can find the natural rhythm of a lyric by just speaking it, and see where you feel the stresses. Then try to tap out the beats where you feel them. Don’t be afraid to be simple! And if you can tap or sing a rhythm, you can play it by asking the hands to follow the beat you’ve just established. The following exercise will help start you along the way.

Remember that your strumming hand is your rhythm generator. Hold a chord, hit the strings and feel a single beat. Hit the strings four times in succession and feel a measure. Then hit the strings repeatedly, counting to four each time and accenting the first count of each group. Now you felt a meter, four-four time (or just 4). Do it faster, and the song is uptempo. Do it slower, and now it’s a ballad.

Subdivide the beat by swinging the right arm back and forth. We’re still counting, one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and as we alternate down and up strums. Notice that strumming down accentuates the bass strings, while strumming up brings out the trebles.....so don’t try to hit all the strings on every stroke. Let your arm swing like a pendulum from the elbow, steadily back and forth, two parts of the same cycle. The down strums are downbeats, the up strums upbeats.

So now we have eight different beats, some of which could be accented (or played more strongly) and some might be skipped (counted, but not played....the hand just misses the strings on that pass). Experimenting with different combinations of accented, less strongly accented, and skipped beats will reveal MANY different rhythmic feels, and as long as the back-and-forth of the right hand is consistent your hand will always be moving in the right direction at the right time.

This might all seem very mechanical right now, and really it is....but through mechanics we develop control and possibility, which together add up to freedom. Great musicians know how to make music FEEL good because they have mastered the mechanics and therefore are free to conceive and execute ideas. And if you let your exploration of mechanics be guided by the pursuit of sounds you hear in your head, then your practicing is never abstract but just another aspect of your songwriting process. Above all, remember to be patient with yourself....mastery of large tasks takes a long time, but mastery of a single, small idea doesn’t seem so daunting.

Tour Merchandise and Promotional Products

The following contribution is from Gigi Swanson of M.G. Incentives, Inc., a company that specializes in promotional products. The company has worked with advertising firms and corporations for nearly 15 years. She started an entertainment division 2 years ago when she left her teaching and administrative duties as director of the music business program at McNally Smith College of Music located in the Twin Cities. She commutes between the company’s Minneapolis and St. Petersburg offices and is about to open a satellite office in Nashville early 2005. For more information go to www.logomall.com/mginc

The “T” in Tour Merchandise Stands For T-shirt

When you think of tour merchandise you might conjure images of major label artists playing large arenas and selling everything from tie- dye T -shirts, bumper stickers, embroidered baseball caps and in the case of the Rolling Stone’s famed Voodoo Lounge tour—a custom motorcycle.

But even if you are an independent artist you can run your business like the big acts by utilizing an added revenue stream source—custom merchandise. As an artist/ performer you are selling an experience and fans will buy a souvenir of that experience in the form of a CD , a T- shirt, button, poster, etc. As music fans we have all come home

with something more tangible than a ticket stub and it’s usually something we can wear.

The custom wearables market has a lot to choose from but let’s focus on the long held wardrobe staple---the T-shirt.

What better promotion is there than a walking billboard to advertise who you are and what you do. It is a fairly inexpensive item and if made with good-quality materials it can last a very long time. But better than that, there is a healthy margin of profit in the sales of wearables that can at least offset or even cover your travel expenses. You can package CD’s with a T –shirt for an “added value” sales incentive such as offering them “half off” with a CD purchase. You can use them as door prizes or as a thank you for the sound guy or the waitress at the clubs you play. A small gesture of goodwill goes a long way in building relationships and fans in your career. The same applies for coffeehouse, church and house concert gigs. Even when you play for free you can earn money.

Don’t think selling T- shirts is for more visible and established acts. If you are playing out and selling CDs you can sell shirts. But before you jump in, here are a few pointers to make your promotional dollars work for you.

The most popular T- shirt is the basic crew neck. Not only is it low in cost it’s a style that people are familiar with . As far as color options- the sky is the limit with the least expensive being the standard white, then the heathers/naturals, then the darker colors. Besides the basic tee, you can branch out with different styles such as 70’s retro ringer tees, baseball raglan tees and new styles made for women such as scoop necks and baby-doll tees.

I prefer 100% cotton heavyweight Tees in the 6.0 oz range for long term durability. Brands such as Gildan, Hanes, and Jerzees have been common favorites for years. Heavier fabric is knitted tighter which enables a better screen print especially when using detail and 4 color process. Plus they are typically cut larger and hold up better with multiple washings. But you must think of the tastes of the end user and the image you are trying to promote . That’s where fashion often comes in. Knowing your audience is key.

For example, one of my Rap group clients goes for the large size heavier weight tees whereas a rock group client sells mostly light weight, smaller tight fitting “alternative”

tees. They cost more but the look they achieve supports their “brand image”.

What makes your T-shirt sell isn’t the style, it’s size or color but it’s logo design. Logo art needs to be readable and convey the image you want to promote but keep in mind that it should be something a person will want to wear.

When it comes to printing logos, you can opt for gel, sugar-glitter, suede, reflective, metallic, glow in the dark, and ink in 1 color or up to 12 colors.

Scree printing using one color ink in one position on the shirt is the most economical. You have to pay for an art screen with each color you use as well as for any extra handling of the shirt. That includes flipping it over to print on a different side. Some artwork may require added film screens to replicate more complicated designs. So keep it simple if you can. If you have to go with a certain “look” make sure you get a thorough quote before you proceed.

You should make sure your logo art is in a graphic format saved as an eps file. Imprinters charge an hourly rate to prepare art that isn’t standard. Most printers carry standard Pantone Colors but also offer color- matching inks for an added charge.

How many T-shirts should you buy? The real breakpoints in the industry occur at 144 units but that amount isn’t practical for everyone. You can find reasonable shirts at the 72 unit range or even less if you plan it right. Funds still short? I know of some bands that purchased co-op shirts with another band or with a sponsor such as a local nightclub. They basically sold space on the shirt to share or subsidize the cost and helped promote their partners at the same time.

If you can get your shirts for under $5 and sell them in the $10-15 range you will see a quick return on your investment. When I taught music business classes I use to illustrate the power of selling tour merchandise to my students in this way: A typical major label recording artist might make a little over $1 off the sale of a CD . He would have to sell 5 CD’s or more to make the same margin off the sale of one basic T- shirt. That’s why the majors own their own merchandise companies.

Tour merchandise can be incorporated in your overall marketing plan. It fits right in with preparing press kits, driving traffic to your website, getting people in the door and selling CDs.

OnLineGigs.com: Making Touring A Reality For Indie Bands, Booking Agents And Labels!

For top songwriters, making hits all in a day's work

By JEANNE A. NAUJECK
Staff Writer

Your boss is a corporate conglomerate obsessed with sales figures and profit margins.

You report for work every day, spend hours in meetings and often stay up until dawn trying to put a new spin on an old cliche.

Your product has to grab the attention of consumers who are often too busy juggling kids, jobs and rush-hour traffic to listen to your three-minute spiel.

Who are you? A professional songwriter.

Amid the business chatter about ''unleashing creativity'' and ''finding the tipping point,'' The Tennessean decided to ask some of today's top creative people in the city's signature business ¡X music ¡X about how they have achieved success.

All of these working songwriters have produced songs that have climbed to the top of the charts.

Their main themes: Go out and take in new life experiences, listen more than you talk, use criticism to improve your skills and most of all, pursue passion over money.

TOM SHAPIRO - Decades of Hits

Songs recorded: 350

Top 10: 47

No. 1's: 21

With every major songwriting award to his credit, Tom Shapiro was a shoo-in for Nashville Songwriters Association International's Songwriter of the 1990s.

The Kansas City native grew up listening to Motown, The Eagles, Simon & Garfunkel and Burt Bacharach. So it's natural that he started out writing pop and R&B in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Never Give Up On A Good Thing appeared on jazz vocalist George Benson's 1976 album and opened doors for Shapiro when he moved to Nashville in 1980.

''At the time I came here Urban Cowboy was big and country was trying to cross over,'' Shapiro said. ''Anyone from L.A. who could write pop music was considered interesting. I was embraced right away.''

His first country cut was George Strait 's Every Time You Throw Dirt On Her (You Lose A Little Ground. ) And he's spanned the decades with hits like Joe Diffie's In Another World , Holly Dunn's Only When I Love , Rhett Akins' That Ain't My Truck and Sara Evans' No Place That Far .

''I go for the emotion ¡X I want to make you laugh or cry,'' he said. ''Lyrically, you've got to know your audience, and I'm writing for radio.''

Shapiro credits his consistency to ''an ability to feel the trends and winds of change.''

''In the 1990s, anyone who had a record deal was capable of going platinum,'' he said. ''Getting a cut was important. Getting a single wasn't totally necessary. It's not that way now. Every writer is aiming for that single.''

But while the pressure is new, finding a hit formula is not.

''Radio has always been formulaic. Name me one genre that isn't,'' Shapiro said.

''You're trying to write in a small box but the confinement can be freeing. The challenge is, how creative can you be within that box?''

For instance, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote songs in the 2?-minute, 32-bar mold that fit the 1960s.

''They were trying to write hit songs in a certain form and they mastered it better than probably anybody else,'' Shapiro said. ''Those songs are still around today.

''I would love to write songs that live forever, but at this point I just try to do the best I can.

''I don't think the Beatles were thinking that way either.''

JEFFREY STEELE - The Frontman

Songs recorded: 175 in last 3 years

No. 1s: 5

Top 10s: 11

Jeffrey Steele has the looks, energy and charisma of a lead singer, and that's what he was when he moved to Nashville in 1994 after an earthquake hit his native Southern California and his band Boy Howdy broke up.

''I kept giving myself a deadline to have some sort of activity going on with my songs, and of course I kept pushing it back,'' Steele said.

Around 1998, things changed. LeAnn Rimes cut his song Big Deal , Kevin Sharp had a hit with If You Love Somebody , and Diamond Rio struck gold with Unbelievable .

''All hell broke loose. I can't explain it and I don't want to,'' Steele said. ''I just kept doing the same thing and working harder at it ¡K next thing I know I'm getting cuts.''

These days, producers and song scouts come looking for him.

Steele writes with an edge. Tim McGraw's The Cowboy in Me portrays a man who is restless and ungrateful ¡X ''my own worst enemy.'' It echoes the gritty scenes Steele's observed over the 20-some years since he quit high school to play in bands.

''I got my education in the redneck honky-tonk bars around Riverside ( Calif. ),'' he said. ''I got so many stories out of those places that are now on the radio 20 years later.''

''I think it's really all a culmination of finding what worked for me and never forgetting stories from people I met, gigs I've played.''

Steele said his experiences as an artist helped him survive before songwriting started to pay off ¡X and still motivate him.

''You get put on a pedestal just to be put down again,'' he said. ''I really get turned on by being put off. That musician's fear never goes away.''

He performs frequently and just released his second CD, Gold Platinum Chrome and Steele . The real reward, he said, is hearing an audience sing ''a lyric about my life.''

While in his 20s, Steele met Kris Kristofferson and asked his idol for advice.

''He said, 'Don't ever do it for the money,' Steele said. ''At the time I was like, 'That's all you're going to tell me? The greatest songwriter ever?'

''Twenty years later, he was so right.''

TROY VERGES - 'I have no secret desire to be a star'

Songs recorded: 61

Top 10s: 5

No. 1's: 2

Growing up in Shreveport , La. , Troy Verges never imagined he would write songs for a living. The musician didn't know songwriting was a career, but a lucky break during college got him an internship at Patrick Joseph Music, a small but influential publishing company led by veteran Pat Higdon.

Working in the tape room, ''I got an inside view of the town at a company that was really happening,'' Verges said. ''You meet people in a completely natural way that's not forced. I got an education there.''

Verges also found his writing voice. A month before graduation, Higdon offered Verges a modest publishing deal and stuck with him for the nearly four years it took to get his first big cut, Love is a Sweet Thing on Faith Hill's smash album Breathe .

''When you write song after song that doesn't work, it takes a toll on your confidence,'' Verges said. ''But after that was out, I started to get more of a favorable ear. They wanted to listen.''

At age 30, Verges has had 61 charting singles, including Trisha Yearwood's I Would've Loved You Anyway , Martina McBride's Blessed and Sara Evans' Backseat of a Greyhound Bus .

''I write almost every day,'' Verges said. ''You have to have a work ethic. You control your own fate and if you don't work you're not going to get cuts.''

Verges tries for a sound that's ''familiar, yet offers something new. I loved Strawberry Wine ,'' he said, referring to Deana Carter's 1996 breakout hit.

''It was a waltz, four and a half minutes long. It was a huge hit because it was different.''

When creativity wanes, Verges heads for a change of scenery or escapes in a movie or book. Recent favorites include White Teeth and The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith.

Brainstorming with co-writers such as Brett James, Hilary Lindsey, Angelo and Aimee Mayo also helps break a funk, he said.

''I have those times when I think I have nothing more to say but it always goes away,'' Verges said.

''Being in Nashville is so inspirational.''

CRAIG WISEMAN - ''Joe Regular Guy''

Songs recorded: 180

Charting singles: 60

No. 1s: 11

Craig Wiseman is like the Jerry Seinfeld of country music - a guy riffing on the smallest observations of daily life, only in song.

''I'm just Joe Regular Guy,'' he said. ''I assume if I felt it everybody else did too.''

Joe Regular Guy doesn't have four singles on the country charts right now. But Wiseman's songs are snapshots of America , like the sports fanatics in the Mark Wills anthem And the Crowd Goes Wild , or the check-your-troubles-at-the-bar crowd portrayed in Montgomery Gentry's Hell Yeah . Both were written with frequent collaborator Jeffrey Steele.

''We used to go to bars and there'd be these guys going up to the stage and going, 'Hell, yeah!' Wiseman said. ''We breathe life into these people.''

Young , a Kenny Chesney hit, was inspired by his high school reunion, Wiseman said.

''I'm not a songwriter. I'm just a writer. You observe the stuff everybody observes ¡K what makes people point at the radio and go, 'Exactly!' 'Man, that's just how it was.'''

The Hattiesburg , Miss. , native discovered his talent as an adolescent, rewriting lyrics and learning how to transpose songs into three chords so everyone at church camp could sing along.

''It all happened in a month. I'd stay up all night writing seven or eight songs, just hooking up words with music, play them for Mom at breakfast and then go to bed,'' he said.

A chance visit to Nashville showed him that he could earn a living at it. He arrived in May 1985 not worrying about whether he could ''write country.''

''You write whatever you listen to,'' Wiseman said. ''I grew up listening to everything ¡X Bob Seger, The Eagles ¡K I'm fortunate that a lot of country today is what pop rock was in the '70s and '80s.''

Wiseman said he could never make up stories like the one that inspired Faith Hill's When the Lights Go Down .

At a casino one night, he asked a card dealer what to play. The dealer replied that not only was he a recovering gambler, but also a recovering alcoholic who worked in a package store.

''Who would ever believe that?'' Wiseman said, marveling at the true stories he's heard and turned into song.

''Constantly, life will outstrip fiction.''

RIVERS RUTHERFORD - Saved from the law

Songs recorded: 58

Charting singles: 12

Top 10s: 5

Rivers Rutherford committed to songwriting during a 6 a.m. epiphany.

During college, the Memphis native met legendary soul producer Chips Moman, who was working with country supergroup The Highwaymen.

Rutherford got to know the members ¡X Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson ¡X ''basically hanging out. Once I got into their catalog, I said, 'If this is country, I want to be part of it,' '' he said.

After dabbling in the music industry and even getting a cut on the Highwaymen 2 album, Rutherford left to attend law school. But on the first day he couldn't follow through.

''I got down on my knees in my chinos and button-down shirt and prayed, 'God, give me anything to do but this,' '' he said.

Rutherford never made it to class. Eighteen months later, in 1993, he moved to Nashville . He broke big about five years ago with a string of country hits including Chely Wright's Shut Up and Drive , Gary Allan's Smoke Rings in the Dark , Clay Davidson's Unconditional and Brooks & Dunn's Ain't Nothing About You , which spent six weeks at No. 1.

''I follow my gut in terms of pacing,'' Rutherford said. ''My instincts lead me toward things that are more commercial. I like the radio.''

The financial rewards aren't bad either. A No. 1 hit can pay royalties for a lifetime ¡X what songwriters call ''mailbox money.''

''You just never know when you're going to wake up and put your kids through school,'' Rutherford said.

Rutherford, who teaches a songwriting class, said he tells aspiring writers not to give up too quickly ¡X and to take criticism well.

''You have to learn to present what you have to say in a way that's palatable to the public. It's like being a professional athlete. It takes years of throwing that baseball to throw a 98 mph strike,'' he said, emphasizing that even great talent needs seasoning.

It took Rutherford eight years to reach this level. But he still puts in the time ¡X five days a week, when he's not producing or cutting demos.

''It's blissful. It doesn't matter how many cuts or hits I've written or what I've got on the chart.

''It's, 'Am I happy with what I've written today?' The joy is in the writing.''

Jeanne A. Naujeck writes about the music business and can be reached at 259-8076 or jnaujeck@tennessean.com .

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Book Review: If You've Got A Dream, I've Got A Plan
Kelley Lovelace, Rutledge Hill Press

By: Doak Turner (Associate Writer)
2003-03-18

Title: If You've Got A Dream, I've Got A Plan
How to get your song heard by music industry professionals
Author: Kelley Lovelace, forward by Brad Paisley
Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press pages
Pages: 134 pages

The book is written by one of Country Music's most successful new songwriters. "If You've Got A Dream, I've Got A Plan" is very accurate and easy to read for songwriters - from the beginner to those that have been writing for a while - who do not really understand the business. Every new songwriter that is moving, or recently moved to Nashville , should be required to read this book before getting off the bus, moving in with a friend, or leaving their hometown to pursue their dream.

Kelley's experience of writing hit songs extends to such hits as "He Didn't have to Be," "Two People Fell in Love." "The Impossible" and "I Just Want To Be Mad" are two very recent hit songs on the radio, so this songwriter, and now book author, certainly has an understanding of how it really works.

The great thing about Kelley is he was like any aspiring writer who really had the "Want To" factor to be a hit songwriter: sitting in on NSAI seminars, learning, and networking on his journey of songwriting. In one of the chapters, Kelley talks about the importance of relationships, how he became friends with someone who eventually became a country star, Brad Paisley, and started co-writing with him.

The information in the book will save you many years and mistakes in the craft and business, the to do and not to do's on your journey of songwriting. The knowledge shared regarding co-writing, goals, priorities, making demos, open mics and locations & rules of these events are very helpful.

Kelley offers helpful tips in every chapter, such as, "write down every idea that pops into your head even if you think it is mediocre. What may seem to be an average idea today may be a prize tomorrow or even a few months down the road." Getting song cuts, even small independent cuts, are important according to the author.

Kelley covers what to do when you arrive in Nashville and the important steps to take, as well as things not to do upon arriving in town. This particular chapter covers what do music publishers look for and the two ways that a songwriter can be plugged into - having contacts or knowing people in influencing positions. He even covered major points in contracts for songwriters such as royalties, how they work and how much a number one song is worth.

One of the last statements from a story in the book is very important to all songwriters, "It's all right to dream about what you want to do, but there comes a time when you've got to do what you were meant to do."

If you feel that it is time to follow your dream for songwriting, it is now time to invest and read this book - a couple of times. Going to Nashville ? Then Kelley Lovelace's advice to songwriters is a must read.

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Resource Review: The Songwriters Survival Kit-First Aid That No Songwriter Should Live Without!
Authors: Danny Arena, Sara Light, Nancy Moran and Fett

By: Doak Turner (Associate Writer)
2003-09-01

Title: The Songwriters Survival Kit
Authors: Danny Arena, Sara Light, Nancy Moran and Fett
What it is: Two instructional CDs plus support materials
Published by: the Azalea Music Group and the Songwriting Education Resource
Price: $40

This set of instructional CDs is one of the best resources I've found for songwriters at any level. ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ is divided into four sections: Top Ten Musical Tips, Writing a Winning Lyric, Making the Most of Your Demo Dollar, and Tips for the Performing Songwriter. It offers over two hours of tips and practical, easy-to-follow suggestions that songwriters can use to write stronger songs, make better demos, and raise your level of song performance.

Danny Arena , who is a columnist for American Songwriter magazine and co-founder of www.SongU.com , (which offers songwriting courses online), begins the CD set. Danny offers his ¡§Top Ten Musical Tips,¡¨ including insights about: not taking too long to get to the hook or title; knowing how long your song is and why it matters; using different song forms; and using good prosody (tying melody and lyric together) in your songs.

Sara Light , a Nashville hit songwriter and co-founder of SongU.com, offers tips in the ¡§Writing a Winning Lyric¡¨ section, including topics such as: being sincere and writing what's real; finding an original angle: including visual statements and specific details; and, the tough one for songwriters: being willing to re-write.

As an aside, Danny Arena and Sara Light were recently nominated for a Tony Award, as several of their songs were included the Broadway play, ¡§Urban Cowboy.¡¨

The section about ¡§Making The Most of Your Demo Dollar¡¨ is authored by Fett , an independent producer and owner of Azalea Studios in Nashville . Fett is also the technology editor for Performing Songwriter magazine. Fett's top ten tips offer great advice such as: not spending a fortune to get a great demo; communicating with the studio staff and engineer; the importance of deciding your purpose in advance of going to the studio; and participating in the demo process.

Nancy Moran , the final author of "the Songwriter's Survival Kit,¡¨ is a professional singer, songwriter and recording artist, and is a contributing writer for American Songwriter magazine. Nancy offers ¡§Tips for the Performing Songwriter,¡¨ including: knowing your purpose, your goals and your market; finding your own authentic voice; knowing the rules before you break them; and tips on recording your own CD.

Each of the writers of ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ offers excellent examples to support their tips and suggestions. Another feature of ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ that is very well thought out is that each tip is recorded on a separate track. And, they include a summary of each tip at the end of the track. This is great because you can select which tips you want to study without having to start at the beginning of the CD each time you want to listen to the CDs again!

"The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ also includes printed materials to support each section's tips. This thoughtful feature may prevent auto wrecks for songwriters who like to take notes while listening and learning in their car!

I recommend ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ as an excellent investment to all aspiring songwriters, and it is a great resource for songwriting workshops and organizations. You can use ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit¡¨ to teach your songwriting organization members how to take your craft, your presentation and performance to a new level of success.

To order ¡§The Songwriter's Survival Kit,¡¨ visit www.azaleamusic.com , call 615-834-8613, or visit www.craftofsongwriting.com , e-mail songU@songu.com , call 615-352-9934

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Getting the local radio station involved in your Songwriting Workshop

As a coordinator for the local NSAI workshop in Charlotte , NC for six years, we were fortunate to have the local country radio station very involved in our workshop.

Our workshop had WKKT 96.9 Kat Country as a sponsor of "Music Row To Charlotte" in 2001 and 2002, with a total of over 250 :60 second radio commercials for the events, 400 :15 second live promotional commercials, 10 on-air interviews, web site presence, sponsorship to have the stations client provide lunch at No Charge for 125 seminar attendees at MR2C 2002, and host for the event.

The radio station has also helped promote local NSAI songwriting seminars over the past (6) years with live interviews with the hit songwriters in town for songwriting seminars. They also supplied tickets and backstage passes for myself and hit songwriters from Nashville at concerts in Charlotte .

WKKT 96.9 Kat Country worked to promote a local open mic in event that was part of a national NSAI open mic night this past fall, supplying judges, prizes, and having the contest winner play his song on the radio a couple days later on the morning show.

Local songwriters have performed original songs at several of the stations events in the past couple of years.

The station is currently running a (5) month open mic contest with the local NSAI workshop, promoting, judging and hosting the events at the station's client, The Alabama Grill in the Concord Mills Mall, located in Concord , NC . WKKT 96.9 is also supplying several prizes for the winners and attendees of the monthly events.

All of the above is at NO CHARGE to the local workshop.

How did this happen?

It starts with building a relationship with the station program director and music director. Invite the program director and/or the music director to speak to your songwriting workshop. Once the date is confirmed, call everyone that has ever attended your meetings and their friends. Send information to the local newspapers and entertainment newspapers, with the announcement that _____ _____ from Wxxx or Kxxx radio station is your guest speaker of the next workshop meeting - this is VERY important!!! Have the largest meeting turnout possible for the workshop event.

You need to build relationships with local media, in advance of your events when you need them. That article is coming in the near future!

Ask them to talk about "How Songs Get On The Radio".

Ask questions such as,

How many songs do you listen to on an average week,
How many songs do you usually add to your playlist every week,
What determines if that song is added or not,
What can a local artist do to make it in the business,
How can a songwriter or artist from our market hope to have airplay in the future.
Ask the speaker to talk about themselves, how they got involved in radio and the challenges of their job.

Do a question and answer session with the workshop.

Ask the program director how the local workshop (you may want to do this in private) can be involved with the radio station events, or how can the radio station be involved in the workshop on future events.

Follow-up is very important. After the guest speaker leaves, have a "Thank You" card signed by everyone attending the event. Send this the very next day to the program director. Enclose YOUR songwriting business card. THIS IS A MUST!!

If the program director speaks, ask if they can have the music director at a future workshop. DO NOT - hand the radio station guest ANY CD's from your workshop. STRESS to your workshop members in advance: Do NOT hand out CD's to the radio station (This is worth repeating).

Stay in touch with the radio station. Attend their live events, supporting the station, meet other people at the station. Do not ask them for anything, other that maybe, "Do you need help with anything" at the events. Casually mention that a couple of your workshop members are available to play at station events in the future. If that happens, send your best 3 or 4 members to perform original songs.

If you send newsletters from your workshop, include the program and music director on your list. Let them know what your workshop is doing in the community.

If your station has a website, ask, then include the radio station as a link from your site. Ask them to do the same. If your songwriting workshop has merchandise, send it to your friend at the radio station. If you are an NSAI workshop, as the NSAI office to send you a nice NSAI T-Shirt to give to your friends at the station.

Send your radio friends holiday cards signed by workshop members. If you find out their birthday, do the same! Advise them of upcoming songwriting seminars and ask if they would like to attend, or if they have a friend that would like to be your guest at the seminar.

Your local songwriting workshop will benefit tremendously by making friends with your local radio station. Please e-mail me your questions at doak@nashvillemuse.com

Doak Turner is a songwriter in Nashville , TN.

He currently works with BEAMS - Breckenridge Education And Music Seminars www.beamsonline.com to provide songwriting seminars in a unique environment featuring (4) day seminars with hit songwriters in beautiful Breckenridge, Co.

He can be reached at 615-354-6400.

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One Thing a Day for My Songwriting Journey

By: Doak Turner (Associate Writer)
2004-01-06  Revised December 2007.

If I told you that you could do 300+ things between now and this day next year – you would think that I am crazy! However you can do 300+ things – just “One Thing A Day” over the year is how many? That’s right – 300+ things on your journey in the next year!

As a songwriter who lived outside of Nashville until 2002, I would follow a plan that really helped me stay focused and stay on my songwriting journey. I called it simply, "Do one thing a day for my songwriting." Those "things" have enabled me to develop a great network in Nashville of friends and industry professionals, to be prepared when I moved to Nashville with the craft and business of songwriting, to write better songs on my songwriting journey, and to really keep my songwriting goals focused over the years prior to moving to Nashville. Whether you are planning on moving to Nashville or another music community – these tips can help you stay on your journey and learn something every day!

One thing a day includes making a phone call or e-mail to a songwriter to set up a co-write session, or an industry professional to ask a songwriting business question, or someone in the workshop to discuss an upcoming event. Or, I might make plans for my next trip to Nashville , plans for an upcoming workshop meeting and guest speakers for the local events, or contact the media for those local songwriting events. Sometimes I would talk to a couple of out-of-town or out-of-state friends who are on the songwriting journey to share ideas, goals, challenges and successes. Sometimes a call would be needed to say hello to someone whom I haven't spoken to for a while, who always encouraged me in life, and to share what was going on in my life, even thought that friend was not a songwriter. They are (and still continue to be) great, positive friends who believe in me.

Other kinds of one thing a day include opening my hook-book to write a hook that I had just found reading a book, a conversation overheard during the day. Or, I might find a hook from watching a movie or TV, from the preacher's sermon, a newspaper, or magazine. Sometimes, the hook "came to me from the sky," or wherever those hooks come from, and seem to find our songwriter's antenna, move into our head, and then down our arm onto the paper. I also open the hook book to review ideas I've written in it, to see if I could write another verse or chorus to something I had started previously, and maybe even complete a song in my hook book.

I might play the guitar or keyboard - even for a couple minutes a day - which is another excellent thing to do that may inspire an idea. I learn another melody that can lead to a song, learn a new chord or strumming pattern, or work to improve a song that I've written. If I have more than a couple minutes, then I play the instrument and visualize myself playing my songs to an audience, a concert hall, one of our local venues, or playing live in the venue of that is my ultimate goal.

One thing a day also includes reading just a chapter - or even one or two pages - of a songwriting book a day to increase my songwriting skills. Hey, folks - we all know what our favorite room to read is - so go ahead and have a songwriting book in there at all times! If I read a little before going to bed, I often make it a songwriting or industry publication for my bedtime stories. I read the "how to" songwriting books, biographies about people in the songwriting or music industry, or any book or industry magazine that enables me to learn one thing per day. It's is a great investment for my songwriting journey. One of my favorite books to read for my songwriting journey is “The Craft and Business of Songwriting Third Edition” by John Braheny and available at any book store or www.johnbraheny.com .

Plan on attending songwriting seminars to learn and network in the business. There are several seminars in Nashville each year. Subscribe to the Nashville Muse at www.nashvillemuse.com to find out about hit songwriting seminars.

There are several websites – check out one a day – maybe google songwriting and see what comes up and read the articles –just one a day! www.musicdish.com is an excellent resource,  www.americansongwriter.com . www.performingsongwriter.com and go to the hit songwriters that you love their songs – several have songwriting tips and read how the hit songwriters persisted on their journey. www.patpattison.com contains songwriting tips, many guitar players have sites with songwriting tips – www.garytalley.com has tips of the week.  www.acousticguitar.com  and www.about.com and click guitar has a weekly on-line newsletter that is beneficial to songwriters. Another great site is http://songwritersconnection.com/ as they have songwriting tips and you can sign up for a weekly newsletter The Songwriters Connection that is full of songwriting tips and ideas!

Some other things that I did while still in Charlotte , and you can to, is to attend and get involved in the local songwriting community. I was the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) coordinator in Charlotte , North Carolina , from 1996 - 2002. I was fortunate to have two great co-coordinators for the last year in Charlotte , as I had my condo on the market and was making plans to move to Nashville . I know from personal experience that it's great when songwriters ask what they can do to get involved with the local songwriter workshop.  

I highly recommend networking in your local community by attending the music events and singer/songwriter nights. This is an excellent place to meet new co-writers and friends that have the same interests as you and inspire new songs. Help build your songwriting community – get involved or start a group of songwriters and musicians organization to bring music people together. Start a newsletter in your community that lets everyone know who is playing where and other music happenings! An example is the Nashville Muse that is sent to 10,000 readers every Monday. You can go to www.nashvillemuse.com and see “This Week’s Edition” and  do the same type of e-mail newsletter for your community and be a resource to that community!

One thing a day should include time to review your goals. I wrote my goals down and placed them where I could see them every day. I still do this. That way, I can pause for a minute, look and make sure I have done one thing that day for my songwriting journey. Visualize your goals happening with your songwriting. But, the most important thing for you to do each day is - Have Fun on Your Songwriting Journey!

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Networking and the Songwriting Business

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Tax and accounting seminar with Cathy McCormack

Tax and accounting seminar with Cathy McCormack, CPA and co - author of the book, Financial Management for Musicians.

Cathy McCormack is a Certified Public Accountants in Nashville, TN that works with several songwriters, artists and entertainment industry professionals with their financial and tax business. Cathy can be reached at cathy@cpacg.com or phone 615-322-1225.

Songwriters Guild of America hosted a seminar in the Nashville, TN office. Below are the highlights of the tax and financial management seminar.

A publisher came to Cathy and her partner at that time and asked if they would write a book for her clients, many of which are musicians and songwriters. Financial Management For Musicians is the title of the book, but she says it is really more about organizing your financial life for what she calls, this business of music. Going around the room, the attendees mentioned a couple of the topics they would like for Cathy to discuss. Here are excerpts taken during the Q&A.

Question: What are Myths vs facts about money management and audits?

Cathy: Let’s talk about the myths. The definition of a hobby has several factors and includes, but is not limited to, a test to determine whether there has been a loss in three of the proceeding five years. But loss determination is just one of the criteria in determining whether or not you have a hobby. There is a lot more criteria to consider, and one important and very significant issue is whether you have profit motive. Most people who launch into something that takes eighty percent of their time obviously has a profit motive. Your job is to prove that you have one by keeping good records and substantiating how much time that you spend on the business. Keep your calendar in outlook or a manual calendar or in a journal, whatever is convenient for you, to document your schedule and time spent doing research, etc.

Question: Do you keep records after your first two years of losses?

Cathy: This is something that you should have for every year you are in business. Often times, when writers first get started, they may have a different career or "day job" and tend not to keep good records . Then, hear the myth about taking losses for do not even bother with keeping good records. I encourage you to keep track of your expenses from inception. Keep a good calendar and track of everything that would help your accountant to support what you are doing for your song writing career. You can show losses your entire life. Many people fear of getting audited and will not deduct their expenses . Don't lose opportunities for fear of the audit myth.

I have had a few clients get audited because they have taken losses over a period of years . Fortunately, they had kept good records and the audit was closed without any modifications to the return. In addition, we referred to a court case of the IRS against a painter. The painter won, as the judge ruled it was a proven fact that many artists did not become famous until after they died.

Question : So you are saying that you need a calendar to prove a profit motive?

Cathy : You need a calendar to prove the amount of time that you spent on your craft.

Question : Is there a minimum amount of time to prove you had a profit motive?

Cathy: No. It’s more important to reflect your activities, such as memberships of organizations that support your efforts, keeping brochures and pamphlets of seminars that you have attended, keeping records of your co_writing appointments or interviewing people to get ideas. Your calendar is support for the other things that you do with your song writing career.

Question : The point of the profit motive is for your taxes?

Cathy : No, the profit motive is to prove your song writing is not just a hobby. It shows you are very serious about it and you want to make money at it.

Question : What happens if you have many years of no income in the songwriting business?

Cathy : That happens and that is OK. You deduct it on schedule C of tax return and show your losses against other income that you make during the year.

Question : Is there any rule about how much money that you can make and still have a loss on your taxes?

Question : What about forming your own publishing company for business and tax issues?

Cathy : The type of entity is very important and heavily debated. When you incorporate or form another entity, you are complicating your financial life but adding a layer of protection for your personal assets. If you are in a risky business or have accumulated substantial wealth, you will be a good candidate to consider a corporation or LLC. Also, joint relationships may require a separate entity. Whenever possible, it is best to keep the business simple by not incorporating or forming other types of entities. There is this myth that it will save you taxes if you incorporate and it is absolutely false in most cases. In fact, it will cost you more money! In addition, you would have to prepare more tax returns to prepare. It’s nice for the accountants, but it is not always in the best interest of the clients.

Question : Years ago I started getting royalties in about 1990, was doing my own taxes, filed my royalties under schedule E. I even called the IRS and the agent said what I was doing was OK. Later when I hired an accountant, they said that was wrong. Could you explain a Schedule E?

Cathy : Schedule C is where you report self-employment income, an activity that you are involved in such as a business like your publishing company. Schedule E is for passive activities such as activities that you are not actively involved in such as rental properties or passive ownership of an oil well. Items reported on Schedule E are not subject to self_employment tax (Social Security and Medicare.) If you are a songwriter, you are actively involved with the production of royalty income, and as a result, is taxable on Schedule C and subject to self-employment tax. You will not win in an audit if you put your royalties on Schedule E. However, if you inherit a song catalog from someone and you were not the one who generated that money , then it is correct to report royalties on Schedule E.

Question: Can I use my credit card record as proof that I purchased this equipment or do I need the original receipt?

Cathy: You have to have a receipt. A charge to Circuit City does not prove the purchase of equipment. It could have been a refrigerator. Therefore, the government needs more proof than a credit card statement.

Question: What about using your computer to keep track of your records for the year?

Cathy : Quicken is a wonderful program for keeping up with your personal or home business. It is a wonderful tool to track your checkbook and credit card activity. Quickbooks is a great program for tracking more complicated business arrangements such as partnerships, LLC’s and Corporations. Many people prefer spreadsheets which is fine as well. However, these programs do not replace the need to keep receipts. The programs are a tool to organize the data but the receipts are still needed to substantiate information on the computer generated reports.

Question: What kind of receipts does a songwriter need to keep?

Cathy: If you deduct something on your taxes, you need the receipt. However, there are certain cases where a receipt is not possible. Parking meter and tolls are deduction, but you rarely get receipts for them. Therefore, you need to write it down somewhere in a log to document cash expenses. Your calendar will show proof that you went somewhere that caused the expense. Also, some mileage logs have a space to write parking and tolls if you keep a pocket log in your car.

Question: What does it cost someone to get audited fees for an accountant?

Cathy: The better your records are, the less the cost because it is less time for us to prepare. However, sometimes we have to find court cases or other information to defend a position we’ve taken on a return. We don’t have much control over that. So, the cost will vary depending on the complexity of the return. But remember, CPA fees are tax deductible! You will also get what you pay for. I don’t recommend ever representing yourself in an audit because you will not have the knowledge you need to negotiate or know what to look for when dealing with the IRS. I had a client recently whose agent required that royalties be moved from Schedule E to Schedule C. The agent proposed an increase in tax of $25,000. However, the agent missed important carryforwards that the taxpayer had not been able to use when the income was reported the other way. Therefore, when I calculated it accurately, the taxpayer owed $1,000 instead. My fee was nominal in comparison to how much I saved him in the audit.

Question: Auto expenses, what should we know about them and the records that we keep for them?

Cathy: That is probably one area that most people are the weakest in keeping records. Everyone

hates to keep mileage logs. Unfortunately, mileage logs are the only perfect way to support automobile deductions in an audit. You do not have to write down your odometer reading every time you are in and out of the car __just the business miles for the trip. You do need to write your odometer reading on January first and December 31st to determine total miles driven for the year. For your business miles, use your trip count to track the daily miles. If you are going to 10 places in one day, just write the list and your total business miles for the day. Write down where you went and the business purpose of the trip. I keep my business purpose written in my calendar and where I went in my mileage log. There are two ways to expense your car. You can use the standard mileage rate in effect for that year or your actual expenses times your business percentage usage. The problem is you still have to keep a log either way, because you have to calculate how much you are using your car for business.

Question: Working out of your home office, what should we look for in writing down expenses?

Cathy: You can deduct a percentage of your home expenses calculated by determining the percentage of square feet for your office/studio to the total square feet of the home. You must have a room that is designated 100% business, cannot be multi_use, and cannot have a bed in the room. You may write off the business percentage of your utilities, insurance, homeowner’s association fees, repairs, security system, and rent. Those items are what we call operating expenses and are limited to the profits shown on Schedule C. A percentage of mortgage interest an property taxes are also deductible as home office and are not limited by profits. Expenses limited by profits are they are carried forward to be deducted in future years. With respect to your telephone expenses, they go right on your schedule C for business deduction. The first phone line in your home is considered personal and is not deductible regardless of whether it is used for business. Any features that you add to the phone for business purposes are tax deductible 100%. Your cell phone may be considered a second phone obtained for business and written off entirely. If you do not have a land line phone, just your cell phone, you will need to allocate it, based on business and personal calls.

Question: I you have a DSL line or cable internet, can you write those off?

Cathy: Yes, the amount representing business percentage usage is deductible. In addition, many people in the music and entertainment business write off a percentage of cable TV as research.

Question: Are CD purchases of other artists deductible and if so, where do you list them as expenses?

Cathy: Yes, as research expense. A musician’s CD collection is ten times that of an average consumer and is most definitely used for research. Write CD purchases off on the second page of Schedule C under other deductions.

Question: Demo costs are astronomical and I list them as professional services. What do you recommend that I list demo cost in what category?

Cathy: If they are not much money, I write them off as demo costs, under other expenses. However, there is a rule that demo costs are supposed to be capitalized and amortized over the revenue stream. In many cases, there is no revenue stream or no determinable revenue stream. Therefore, it makes sense to use a Safe Harbor election to amortize demo costs over a three_year period. You get 50% of the demo costs in the first year, then 25% and 25% the following years.

Question: What is the category “Professional Services” used for in the tax forms?

Cathy: They are used for a lawyer, accountant, song plugger or consultant that you hire for your business. If that number becomes substantial, you should split some of the expenses into other categories.

Question: Do you 1099 the song plugger and your accountant?

Cathy: You are actually supposed to 1099 your accountant, lawyer, song plugger and any other professional that you hire for business purposes and pay $600 or more in a given year.

Question: If I go to lunch with a co_writer, can I deduct our lunch off my taxes?

Cathy: Yes, you deduct half of it, but keep the receipt and document the person you had the meal with and the business purpose. The only time you do not have to have the receipt is when you use the per diem rate for meals during overnight travel. Travel days are included; if it takes you overnight to get to your destination. The IRS website has downloadable per diem amounts for you to use. Some city’s have a higher per diem amount than others. Hotels are fully deductible and meals are only 50% deductible.

Question: I have events for songwriters at my house. What do I need to show that this is not ordinary household expense for the extra food, paper supplies and beverages?

Cathy: Keep a record of your guest list, print out of the invitations and take notes on how many you are planning on having for the events. Get a receipt for all the expenses of the event as they are fully deductible as marketing, not as entertainment.

Question: What are the most common mistakes songwriters make for their taxes?

Cathy: Not keeping good records and asking me to pull deductions out of the air. The most effective way to get clients to receipts is to deliver bad news of a large tax due. By then, it’s too late. You need to develop good habits and keep records of you expenses. Seek qualified advice to make your decisions. Peers are good to help conjure up questions, but make decisions from advice of a professional.

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