Saturday, August 28, 2010

Songwriting Guideline Number One

By Kevin Thomas

For many years I have questioned rules and standards for musical creations. And as a creative songwriter, many questions arise when it comes to going by the books. However, the following rule is one that I have found to be very useful.

Rule Number One of Great Songwriting: Your New Song is Only a Rough Draft.

I have had so many students, and seen so many songwriters spend a couple hours writing a song, start performing it with their band, and never change a word or note.

It could take up quite a bit of recording time, and additional money, to have your producer help edit the song after you are already inside the recording studio. Often, before a song can be recorded, they will require a lot of polishing to take them to a professional level. Another thing is that low quality songs could put off producers, and you might find it difficult to get someone to work with you and your material.

Sometimes a big hit will emerge in one sitting, but sometimes people also win big at the slot machines with their first dollar. Most of the time they don't.

One should always consider that a good amount of editing would be needed to make a song into the best one it could be. Before any songwriter can build a list of hit songs, he has to put a lot of work into editing his masterpieces. It is never a good idea to scrap editing for the sake of sentimentality about that initial creative spark which inspired the song. Build that spark into a burning blaze of beautiful music.

Professional Songwriters will sometimes spend the same amount of time as amateurs with the initial writing phase, but they will think of it as a Rough Draft. Then, over the next few weeks or months, they will continually come back to the ones that had potential and build them into masterpieces, using the TRICKS AND TECHNIQUES that have been TRADE SECRETS.

Many beginning and average songwriters out there know very little when it comes to actual techniques they could use to write and edit their songs more effectively. But all the top songwriters know that crafting their songs, sometimes for months before playing them for fans or recording them, is the key to great writing. These days because the music industry has turned into such a money machine, the secrets of editing and crafting songs into hits have become SECRETS OF THE TRADE.

This is the reason I have created Songwriting Planet. It is a resource for original bands and independent songwriters to find out about the song crafting process that had up until now only been known by the insiders in the business.

So start using the biggest SECRET TO WRITING HIT SONGS. Consider every song that you write as a ROUGH DRAFT that you can improve over time. Experimenting with changes can only help to ensure a song's best quality. After making this process a habit, you will be most likely surprised at the new beauty of your songs that a little crafting and editing can provide. - 40726

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