The SongWriter's Studio
P.O.Box 210902
Nashville, Tennessee 37221
Phone:(615) 952-2138
Welcome to the Songwriter's Studio
We hope this will be an enlightening experience into the world of songwriting. We’ve included samples of our demo productions, information on many topics of interest, pictures and more. We plan to continually update and expand the site, so come back often.
Songwriting is fun !
Very few other endeavors offer the joys that songwriting can. Compare it to fishing. You go on your fishing trip and return home with your catch. You might also have a fish story that grows as you tell it. But the experience is completely personal. Now with songwriting, you create your own adventure ! You think up an idea. Then the writing experience takes hold of you ! You may ask others for opinions and feedback. You may attend seminars and workshops that help you craft the song. All along you’re having interaction with other human beings ( unlike fishing where your only interaction is with the fish ). Once the song is finished you can entertain your friends by having them listen to it ( no fish tales here ). If you have a professional demo, you can even start to find an artist or producer for it. The song might then make you money ( in fishing only the bass pro’s make the big bucks ! ). A big hit can create a brand new career - songwriter. If you think this can’t happen, it can and has many times.
The Demo makes the Difference
In 1989 when we started the studio, we wrote an article for the “Nashville Informer” on this topic. Everything written then applies today. The producer, artist and/or publisher listens ONCE to your submission. They may be listening for several hours to many songs. They don’t spend time trying to hear beyond the demo. They assume you’ve sent them your best production of the song. Most demos today are cut to sound like song heard on a CD or the radio. Those productions feature a full sounding, well arranged song with a great vocal. If your song is recorded at home with your best friend singing, the production might not measure up. Why miss that ONE listen your song receives by presenting it at an amateur level. The music business is a big money business. Serious publishers do serious demos. If you want your songs to stand a chance do the demo right. The demo is your “ad” for your song. You wouldn’t buy a car with a hand written brochure, and you can’t expect the publisher, producer or artist to get excited about a mediocre demo. Sure, some songs have become hits even with a bad production - but it was just a very lucky day !
Our Productions
Our goal is to provide you with a cost effective high quality production. Our years of experience producing allows us to create an arrangement and hire the right musicians and vocalists to make your song the best it can be. We believe that the demo shouldn’t have to cost a fortune - so you’ll never spend $1600 on one song here. Every song doesn’t need our best production, but sometimes the best production will make the difference in the song getting attention. I always recommend producing your songs at a financial level you are comfortable with. Don’t be cheap, but don’t second mortgage your house either. Our samples section includes examples of contemporary country, traditional country, gospel, bluegrass and other styles. Many of the writers we work with are so proud of the productions we produce for them, they’ve built their own web sites to expose their music. Check out www.genewamble.com for a sampling of demos we have cut for him.
If you are just a lyricist
If you look at the song charts, you’ll see many songs are written by two writers. Many times, one is better at music and the other is better at lyrics. If you have no musical abilities, we can help create music for your lyrics. A lyric cannot be shopped to producers, publishers and artists. They are looking for songs - not just a part of a song. A song is the connected combination of music and lyric. Only then can it be pitched. We will evaluate the musical possibilities of your lyrics and help select the ones best suited to be turned into songs. We will then create ORIGINAL music from scratch for the lyric and produce a demo. With this process, your lyric becomes a finished song ready to pitch and promote. Inside our web site you’ll find several audio examples of songs created from just lyrics.
If you aren’t sure of your lyric and need a critique , or need assistance in creating better lyrics, we highly recommend Mary Dawson ( www.iwritethesongs.com ) as a source for help. She holds seminars around the country and will also advise you on a one to one basis.
ARTIST PRODUCTIONS
A finished Nashville label artist album today costs around $225,000. If you’re spending your own money, that’s enough to out most people in the poor house. We offer an alternative. For about price of a demo you can take the premixed music tracks into your local studio and produce a cost effective great sounding CD. It can also be arranged for you to come here and add your vocals to the master. Imagine producing a 10 song CD with 1000 CD’s ready to sell for around $5000. If you sell them all at just $10/each, you’ve not only paid for your music, you’ve also made money. Just imagine how many you’d need to sell if you spent $225,000 (you’d have to sell 22,500 copies - no easy feat ! ). We’ve produced many CD releases this way. You might go to www.debbieskeen.com and order the CD we produced for her to hear how great our affordable artist productions sound. Or go to http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bipednoiz to listen to and perhaps purchase a fun CD titled LET’S EAT THE ALIENS we produced recently for songwriter Richard Murrey.
Web site of interest
Ralph Murphy has written hits for Ronnie Milsap ,Kathy Mattea and others . He teaches workshops through the N.S.A.I. and writes an occasional advice column “Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting”. He recently had an article in the Nashville Tennessean that outlined the 21 Number One COUNTRY songs of 2002. In a nutshell, he related that
1. Two-thirds of these songs were NOT written by the artist
2. The average intro was 14.2 seconds
3. Nineteen of the songs used the title of the song within the first 60 seconds
4. All were 4/4 time signatures - not one was a waltz
5. Sixteen of the 21 used the first or second person pronouns “me, you, us and we” .
6. Most were written about “love” - found or lost. Patriotism, fishing and drinking had their moments at the top, but they were in the minority.
7. Irony, humor and detailed imagery all played a part in the writing.
8. The average length was about 3 ½ minutes
For more on this and lots of other tips and information go to:
www.ascap.com/nashville/murphy.html
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Special Thanks to songwriter Jim Learn for the wonderful logo graphic