Co-Writing and the First Fall…

(Be sure to click the play button above and listen to some samples of my production work as you read through the blog below. Enjoy!!!)

During my time working at the indie label/pub company (sometime around 1999/2000) I was able to gain a great deal of knowledge not only as a songwriter but also as a producer and an administrator.  This knowledge of the inner workings of the business has been of great benefit over the years.  Throughout my first year working at the label/pub co, my passion was directed almost exclusively toward songwriting.  As my knowledge grew of the craft, I was able to obtain better co-writing partners at other publishing companies.  The result was a solid catalogue of commercially viable songs that needed demo-ing.  Every publishing company is different concerning when and how frequently they demo their writer’s songs.  My publisher was on a strict budget due to having a promotional staff, 3 other writers, a label that had to foot promotional expenses, etc and all the other practical day to day office expenses.  For those reasons we typically demo-ed our 10-12 absolute best songs once a quarter.  This meant that each of the 4 writers were turning in a total of 50+ songs in addition to the 5-10 from outside writers that our publisher had heard and was considering demoing.  Add to that a huge back catalogue of  songs from the past 10 years of the company’s history.  So 12 spots, 200+ songs competing just to be demoed per quarter…At least that better odds than trying to get a cut on a 10 song label project with hundreds of publishers pulling their best songs from their catalogues to pitch.  The competition factor taught you to constantly be on your game.

Building a catalogue isn’t about quantity.  It’s about quality.

(Below is a picture of me, Michael McDonald and co-writer, James Clay at a party James’ label was hosting.)

I also began to realize that great melody writers were a dime a dozen but truly great lyricist were few and far between.  That observation prompted me to dig down deep and develop and refine my lyrical skills.  I’ve always had a  love for language and poetry, so the idea of diving in and focusing my attention on mining the fertile ground of words thrilled me.  Pretty soon I was dubbed ‘The Southern Poet’ by my publisher.  My attention to detail, the conveying of emotion and use of visual imagery lyrically was what gave my early songs an edge.  Melodically, they were crafted well but I do not feel that I was breaking any new ground. It wasn’t until a few years later that I developed my own unique sound melodically and chordally.

One of my favorite things that I did as a staff songwriter during those early years was to make sure that every night I had another writer over to the house.  It was a great time of both exploring ideas and getting to know people.  My wife Claire, ever the wonderful hostess, would prepare  meals in the small kitchen that connected to the dining room where I would be situated with my co-writer tossing ideas around.  Back during those days it was more common to see notepads and pencils instead of Mac laptops and ipads.  I’d generally have a couple stacks of torn paper and notebooks full of scribbled ideas resting on the corner of the table.  We work until dinner was served, putting together a framework or outline for the song, eat and then hit the grindstone again.  Oftentimes, I’d work with the other writers well into the wee small hours of the morning laboring over lyrics and melodies.  During those  years we lived in a cheap two bedroom apartment, near the airport in the industrial section of Nashville.  I was sometimes embarrassed when we had the more established writers over, as we’d frequently be in the middle of a crucial line and hear a couple cop cars zoom by outside, sirens blaring.

About two years into my time working at the publishing company I began to head up the publishing department.  I was responsible for handling pub contracts, single song contracts, work registrations, reviewing all music that came through the door and putting together pitches for other record labels.  We’d just had a song that reached number 2 on the inspo radio charts and another that was climbing.  Things seemed to be going well but then the bottom fell out on the entire industry.  A couple issues had converged to create this collapse.

In 2000, an article titled ‘Flat Notes’ by Beverly Keel, noted that 2000’s sales dropped 2% from 1999’s sales in overall market share.  The industry had experienced a boom in the 90s thanks to Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black and more than 30 other acts who earned gold and platinum records.  During that time period, when pop was losing listeners, country was gaining and had nearly 19% market share.  Country music had never before experienced the success it had in the 90s.  With the success came increased revenue and expansion.  Chances were taken.  New labels opened and countless new acts were signed.  Of course, living high on the hog didn’t last, as it never does.  Those who did not keep a watchful eye open for anticipated trends and store up a little extra for that proverbial rainy day, began to suffer.  What goes up must come down! A couple major issues surfaced on the initial roll back down the mountain that began to hit heavy on the pocketbooks of the decision makers.

Due to a rise in the popularity of pop/rock music, consolidation on radio and the quality of new country music being questioned, sales dropped, labels began folding and mid level artists began to suffer.  In the 2000 Flat Notes article, Barry Coburn, then president of Atlantic Records stated, “The real problem has been the development of new artists who haven’t been successful enough to recover the investment made.  The cost of launching new artists is at an all-time high.  The business model doesn’t really work in this kind of environment, so we need to re-evaluate all of the costs of breaking new artists.”

Another major issue that came to play was digital downloading, especially Napster (In it’s original free, non-pay form).  Napster, in it’s original form, operated between June 1999 and July 2001.  Its technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with other Napster users.  SIDE NOTE: This form of sharing bypassed the established market songs and lead to massive copyright violations of music, film media and other intellectual property.  Although the original service was shut down by court order, the damage had been done and the way was paved for decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution programs, which are harder to control.

The industry seemed to reach one of  it’s lowest points in 2000.

The artists who were recording songs that I had written were not selling well.  Against my own better judgment I had also begun contemplating an artists career…

Modern Pop Melodies and Accompanying Chords

(Be sure to click the play button above and listen to some samples of my production work as you read through the blog below. Enjoy!!!)

In the last post I elaborated a bit on the ‘tools’ that aided me in writing a commercially viable song during the early years of my songwriting career.  The focus of these tips concerned the lyric.  In this post I plan to discuss melody and chord usage but it may be a little hard to do without the ability to physically and aurally demonstrate examples, as we are currently confined to the written word in this particular blog post.

Pre-Nashville my melodies were fairly meandering and my chord progressions were obvious attempts to be cutting edge on the contemporary symphonic front.  As I mentioned, in my first Songwriting and Production blog, my focus was not on writing music commercially but rather writing for a more elitist symphonic audience.  I wrote music for musicians.  My goal was to break new ground as a composer, not derive an income from writing songs for the masses.

There is nothing wrong with following the ‘classical’ course of the musical spectrum…just as there is nothing to be frowned upon if you decide to follow the route of popular music.  Sometimes the two worlds collide and this overlapping can be a marvelous thing.  (Think: Gershwin, Bernstein, John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Sting) For our purposes in this blog we will discuss the composition of commercially viable melodies and chord progressions.  We will draw a box around this particular subgroup of the musical spectrum and we will focus on the genres of pop, rock and country music.

Concerning Melody, there are a few standard rules you’ll want to follow:

1.)  Keep your melodies singable.  Can he average Joe on the street easily repeat your melody back to you?  If you whistled a simple motif to the average listener could they whistle it back with at least a 90% accuracy?  This doesn’t mean the melodies can’t be inventive.  ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’…Think of the tune that goes to that one. The first interval is one of a sixth. The melody descends and quickly ascends before dropping just before a repeat of the melodic motif.

2.) Repetition.  Repetition.  Repetition.  Again, think ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’…Think of the melody that accompanies those words…What are the next words?…”My Bonnie Lies Over The Sea”?…What’s the melody that accompanies that second line?  …Did you say that the melody in the second line is almost the exact same as the melody in the first?  If so you’d be correct.  Think of the countless other songs that follow this example. Think  5-10 notes in an interesting rhythm with interesting intervals repeated with perhaps a different chord underneath the repeated notes.

3.) Keep commercial melodies short.  Too many notes and the listener will not be able to grasp the melody.  The listener will then forget the melody and the song will be forgotten. Typically: 4-8 bars for the verse, 2 bars for the channel, 4-8 Bars for the Chorus, 4 bars for the Bridge.

4.)  Write most of your songs in 4/4 time, a few in 3/4 or 6/8 time but for the most part avoid writing in 7/8 or some weird time signature (try it out occasionally but realize that unless you are the singer of the song, it probably won’t get cut).

Concerning chord progressions, you’ll want to analyze  current pop/rock, country and Top 40 songs.  Certain chords progressions get popular for a few years and then they’ll take a back seat for a time while others come to the forefront.  Remember the popular progression from the 50s:  1  6-  4  5 (Earth Angel, In The Still of the Night, etc.)  Then in the sixties we saw 1  5  -6  4 70s was a curious time when allot more exploration was done with progressions starting on minor chords.  The 80s, 90s, and 2000s had their popular progressions just as we do today…I encourage you to grab a Taylor Swift CD chart out her chord progressions then sit down with a Kelly Clarkson Album…Chart hers out.  Guess what?  Most of the progressions will be the same.  Trust me, I’ve done it.  One of my favorite progressions is (6- 4) (1  1).

You may want to take a couple minutes and visit my website: http://www.shaywatson.com  Pretty much every page contains a Jukebox of songs that I’ve written not only for myself but other artists such as Dove Award Winners: Sidewalk Prophets, Grammy Nominated Group: Sonic Flood, Country Artists: Calico Trail and others.  Listen to those songs.  Chart out the progressions that you find in those songs.  Listen to my usage of melodies and individual motifs within the melodic line.

The 8 Components of Successful Songwriting

(Be sure to click the play button above and listen to some samples of my production work as you read through the blog below. Enjoy!!!)

It was the late 90s and I’d been working part time for a small music publishing/indie record label for about a year when I was offered a staff writing deal. The deal was not that great financially but did contain a draw (a salary that would be recouped out of future assumed royalties) and a budget for demos. I learned a few things from my 1st pub deal. First, having a deal in no way insured that you’d get your songs cut. Second, if the contract stated that you turn in a minimum of 12 songs a year, that was 12 aggregate total songs…meaning, if another writer and myself had written a song, that song only counted as 1/2 a song. If there were 3 writers on a song, the song was deemed 1/3 of a song. I also learned that the songs turned in were only counted upon publisher approval. I could write 100 songs but if each were a 3 way co-write that would only count as 33 songs, 7 of which were likely to be accepted.

One of my earlier cuts (I Fall)  was featured on a CD released by Word Records…

I also learned that there was a structure to songwriting and there were certain rules that could be applied to each song to make it more ‘commercial’. I must specify here that these rules…or shall I say tools are only to be applied to songs that a songwriter hopes to get cut or to that he expect to appeal to the masses. Below are the components that my first publisher drilled into my head…I still use many of these as they pertain to lyrics (I’ve over simplified and given a brief explanation of each):

1. A GREAT HOOK (TITLE)

This is the phrase or word that every other word and phrase in the song points to. It should be unique, cool & catchy but at the same time conversational. It most often appears in the chorus at least 2 or 3 times. If the hook is going to be in the chorus only once, it should be the last line of the chorus. If you are writing a story song the hook can fall at the last line of each verse.

2. STANDARD STRUCTURE

The most common song structures are (Intros, outros and bridges can be omitted):

a.) intro-verse-channel-CHORUS-verse-channel-CHORUS-Bridge-CHORUS-CHORUS-Outro

b.) intro-verse-CHORUS-verse-CHORUS-Bridge-CHORUS-Outro

c.) verse-verse-REFRAIN (Bridge which contains Hook)-verse

3. RHYME SCHEME

Each section of the song will include a particular rhyme scheme. Think back to when you studied poetry in high school.
A section could contain the following rhyme scheme:
AABA (Meaning Lines 1, 2 & 4 rhyme)
Other Rhyme schemes include but are not limited to:
AABB
AAAB
ABAB
ABCB
ABBB
Each section of the song should contain a different rhyme scheme. For instance the verses have the same rhyme scheme but are different from the choruses which is most often the same lyric each time. The rhyme schemes of the Verses and choruses which are different from each other are different from the channels and also different from the bridge.

Think variation of rhyme scheme between different sections but consistency of rhyme scheme within the individual sections.

3. ALLITERATION

Alliteration is the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases.

For instance: Weeks wheeled by like sandy shadows
Note the ‘W’ and ‘S’ sounds.

4. METAPHOR/SIMILE

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to two unlike thing in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “She is a flower.”

A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared, as in “she is like a flower.”

5. PERSONIFICATION

Personification is giving human attributes to an inanimate or non-human form.

For instance, “The sun crept across the sky reaching it’s blazing fingers down on golden fields”.

6. USE COLOR AND OTHER VISUAL IMAGERY

“Standing in the crimson stained light of an overcast dawn.”

7. WORD ASSOCIATION

If you are writing a song where the you open up the song with a line like:

“He thought he was gonna strike out on love again”

Consider spicing the rest of the lyric up with terms that could be associated with baseball. Example:

“So he ran back home before he let love in”….”Rounding first, ‘catching’ a break. …etc.

8. EMOTIONAL IMPACT

This is the most important component. You must connect emotionally with your listener. If you don’t your song is self serving and no one will want to hear it. You can connect emotionally in a variety of ways. A lyric can be heart wrenching, funny, sarcastic, sad, etc. but it most connect on some level with the listener.

I used the tools so much in my first years of my professional songwriting that they became second nature. I hardly ever think about these components anymore although I’m incorporating them all the time.

A few other things that I learned during this time was to be concise and conversational. I learned to get to my point quickly and conserve words…(I also have found that I often carry these principles over into my everyday conversations.) Use less words but allow the words that you do use to have a memorable impact. I also learned that I should try to keep my songs around 3 minutes and 50 secs. Now I typically try to make it from intro to outro in 2:50. I learned that if your melody isn’t greater than great, no one will take the time to listen to your lyric no matter how great it is.

So far I’ve been discussing the lyric…In the next post I hope to hit on melody and chord usage.

To hear a few of my past and present song cuts and solo albums visit: http://www.shaywatson.com

Solo album I released after my days on the road with Ten Mile Drive…

Songwriting and Production Survival Tactics

(Be sure to click the play button above and listen to some samples of my production work as you read through the blog below. Enjoy!!!)

For over a decade I’ve somehow survived the ups and downs of the ever changing music industry. I’ve had the great fortune to wear a number of hats from Recording Artist to Producer.  I’ve worked in both the Indie world and in the Major Label world.  In this blog I’ll offer insights that I’ve gained as both an indie and signed artist/songwriter and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both.  Hopefully you’ll be able to pick up some of my music industry ‘survival tactics’.

I first came on the scene around 1998.  I’d moved to Nashville from South Alabama in hopes of making a name for myself as a songwriter.  I didn’t care anything at all about performing at the time and I’d never set foot in a professional recording studio.  My background was Music Education.  I’d received a BME and taught school for a couple of years.  In my spare time I wrote symphonic compositions and songs.  I did it as a hobby with the hopes of one day being published.  I knew nothing about the publishing world or the recording world.

So why am I telling you this?  Well, I know that some of you who stumble upon my little blog are in the same shoes that I was in 14 years ago.  I want to offer you a little encouragement and let you know that the answers you are looking for, as you navigate through this odd music industry maze, will make themselves known to you if you stick around long enough and listen for them.

A picture taken during my early days in Nashville (that’s me with my hand to my chin)…

I was one of the few fortunate ones who networked a little and landed an internship and small pub deal about 5 months after moving to Nashville.  I didn’t get paid much.  As a matter of fact, even after I became a paid staff songwriter after working for the company for a year, I still had to moonlight as a waiter at a restaurant a little South of Nashville.  I remember getting up at 7 a.m. to be dressed and across town at a co-writing session by 9,   then hoping in my car to be at the Pub Company by 1 to help out with admin work (I’d somehow convinced the President of the company to pay me a little extra and let me also handle any paperwork, registering of songs and burning disc for pitches).  After spending a few hours doing admin work at the Publishing Company, I’d rush over to the studio where I’d watch the other more established writers work with  producers, engineers and musicians to demo their songs.  After observing them for an hour or two, I’d hop in my car and speed south in order to make my later shift at the restaurant where I was working.  While waiting tables, I’d have mega recording artists and well known songwriters come in and sit in my section.  At first I’d secretly get a little star struck and inside my head try to concoct a line or two to let them know that I too was a musician and they should take a listen to my songs.  Of course, I was never that brave or bold in those situations.  Looking back, I’m glad I wasn’t.  I can tell you, that although I had a publisher who was taking me under his wings and teaching me, my songs were still…crap:)

I believed in myself and knew that if I hung in there long enough and had a teachable spirit that I would also have songs on the radio and one day have major credits to my name.  I’m glad that I did stick it out because I’ve learned a great deal and the sacrifices of those early years have paid off.

I’m going to be talking about the craft of songwriting in my next post and after that talk to you a little bit about how I made the transition from songwriter to a signed artist and then to a producer.  I’m just getting this blog started up so hang in there with me.  Be sure to ad this to your favs, as I’m certain that you’ll want to glean some knowledge from my stories and advice.

http://www.shaywatson.com

On tour in 2011:

On television discussing his song ‘Bring It On’ which was licensed by both Fox Sports and ESPN: