This is a story about what I learned from my 60 year old aunt, who has been an unsuccessful song writer for 40 years. The point of this article is not to put her down(I love her), but to bring the light some of the pitfalls to avoid as a beginning song writer.
At the beginning of my production career, my aunt would bring song lyrics to me and request that I record songs with them. The lyrics were not formatted in any particular way, and they really seemed more like poems.
At that time I really only was producing hip hop and trying to learn how to do R&B. I was actually willing to make her songs, so I would ask her, "ok, how does it go?" Initially, she would say "I don't know...I didn't have a melody in mind yet" since I didn't know how to sing and she couldn't sing, those songs had to basically sit, until me or her found a singer to come up with some good melodies.
Tip: Most parties who are interested in buying songs, are interested in just that, buying songs, not just lyrics.
Before long, this relative began to format her lyrics better, and even began to come to me with melodies in mind.
In terms of formats, there are multiple song formats you can choose from (google "song formats"), or you don't have to use any format at all, as long as it sounds good.
Lyrics......check! Format....check!.......Melodies.....check!...wait a minute..uncheck! My relative pretty much had the same melody for every song, and it was a country western melody....Problem, because I definitely didn't know how to make country western music.
So, we tried and tried to turn these lyrics into good songs, but they were trash. I told her to find a singer, and find a singer she did.....she found multiple singers but most of them had never recorded and were just very inexperienced in general. So the songs still didn't come out well. I'm sure this process frustrated my aunt and caused her to almost give up on music......So how do you stop this from happening to you?
Note: You do not have to be able to sing to be a successful writer, but you do need to have some idea regarding the sound you are attempting to achieve, or find someone who can help you realize your sound.
Some people write their lyrics without music, or they hear the music in their head while they are writing. In those cases, these writers need to find producers who can do custom tracks (you hum what you want and they play it). For the people who write without music, they just have to listen to a variety of instrumentals afterwards and pick the one that matches the feel of their lyrics the best.
Personally, I like to pick the instrumental first. (There are millions of instrumentals online, but I use www.freshoffabreakup.com), then write to the instrumental. I can't sing, but what I do is make sure the timing is how I want it, and I just try to get in the general ballpark, melody wise. I also like to record my lyrics (on a little personal recorder) instead of writing them down, because when I write them down, I find that I often forget the timing of the lyrics, or the way I said certain words.
Next in order, is finding someone to record your song. You need a good or professional singer that is familiar with the genre of music you are seeking to make. What I like to do is ask potential demo singers to sing my song over the instrumental that I have chosen. That way I can determine how well they are at writing melodies. This is important to me because without a good, fast melody writer, the session will be long and there will be a good possibility that it won't turn out the way I want.
After the song is recorded and it sounds like you want it to, you have to have it mixed. Sometimes, the engineer that recorded it can mix it, and sometimes you may have to go to another studio for mixing. An important thing know is that need to know what you want mixing wise. If you do not know the correct terminology to describe to a producer or engineer what you want, then you can just bring different songs that have aspects of what you want your song to sound like, so that whoever is mixing your song can hear what you want. If you don't do this, most mixing engineers will just do a bland generic mix of your song (they don't care, they're getting paid either way, and I'm an engineer telling you this).
The final stage is mastering. Nowadays, most engineers that mix can also do a presentable mastering job. All mastering really is, is a process of different effects that make your song sound clear, loud, and the same on pretty much any system that anyone plays it on (basically good industry standard sonic quality).
After your hit song is mastered, copyrighted, and registered with ascap, bmi, or sesac, then you are ready to submit!
That's it for now, stay tuned for more helpful advice!
At the beginning of my production career, my aunt would bring song lyrics to me and request that I record songs with them. The lyrics were not formatted in any particular way, and they really seemed more like poems.
At that time I really only was producing hip hop and trying to learn how to do R&B. I was actually willing to make her songs, so I would ask her, "ok, how does it go?" Initially, she would say "I don't know...I didn't have a melody in mind yet" since I didn't know how to sing and she couldn't sing, those songs had to basically sit, until me or her found a singer to come up with some good melodies.
Tip: Most parties who are interested in buying songs, are interested in just that, buying songs, not just lyrics.
Before long, this relative began to format her lyrics better, and even began to come to me with melodies in mind.
In terms of formats, there are multiple song formats you can choose from (google "song formats"), or you don't have to use any format at all, as long as it sounds good.
Lyrics......check! Format....check!.......Melodies.....check!...wait a minute..uncheck! My relative pretty much had the same melody for every song, and it was a country western melody....Problem, because I definitely didn't know how to make country western music.
So, we tried and tried to turn these lyrics into good songs, but they were trash. I told her to find a singer, and find a singer she did.....she found multiple singers but most of them had never recorded and were just very inexperienced in general. So the songs still didn't come out well. I'm sure this process frustrated my aunt and caused her to almost give up on music......So how do you stop this from happening to you?
Note: You do not have to be able to sing to be a successful writer, but you do need to have some idea regarding the sound you are attempting to achieve, or find someone who can help you realize your sound.
Some people write their lyrics without music, or they hear the music in their head while they are writing. In those cases, these writers need to find producers who can do custom tracks (you hum what you want and they play it). For the people who write without music, they just have to listen to a variety of instrumentals afterwards and pick the one that matches the feel of their lyrics the best.
Personally, I like to pick the instrumental first. (There are millions of instrumentals online, but I use www.freshoffabreakup.com), then write to the instrumental. I can't sing, but what I do is make sure the timing is how I want it, and I just try to get in the general ballpark, melody wise. I also like to record my lyrics (on a little personal recorder) instead of writing them down, because when I write them down, I find that I often forget the timing of the lyrics, or the way I said certain words.
Next in order, is finding someone to record your song. You need a good or professional singer that is familiar with the genre of music you are seeking to make. What I like to do is ask potential demo singers to sing my song over the instrumental that I have chosen. That way I can determine how well they are at writing melodies. This is important to me because without a good, fast melody writer, the session will be long and there will be a good possibility that it won't turn out the way I want.
After the song is recorded and it sounds like you want it to, you have to have it mixed. Sometimes, the engineer that recorded it can mix it, and sometimes you may have to go to another studio for mixing. An important thing know is that need to know what you want mixing wise. If you do not know the correct terminology to describe to a producer or engineer what you want, then you can just bring different songs that have aspects of what you want your song to sound like, so that whoever is mixing your song can hear what you want. If you don't do this, most mixing engineers will just do a bland generic mix of your song (they don't care, they're getting paid either way, and I'm an engineer telling you this).
The final stage is mastering. Nowadays, most engineers that mix can also do a presentable mastering job. All mastering really is, is a process of different effects that make your song sound clear, loud, and the same on pretty much any system that anyone plays it on (basically good industry standard sonic quality).
After your hit song is mastered, copyrighted, and registered with ascap, bmi, or sesac, then you are ready to submit!
That's it for now, stay tuned for more helpful advice!
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