How Good A Songwriter Are You?

[john]

Hi gang

An interesting set of questions for you.... 4 questions only. High subjective. Please take part!

Cheers

John

[Zed McJack]

Good poll idea John, though a bit short.

Every songwriter needs to asks himself where he is as songwriter, where he wants to be, what he has to improve, how, where are the resources etc.

You got me thinking and thats good.

[john]

Thanks Zed

I kept this deliberately short. Longer polls tend to get far fewer responses. My logic being that the many other questions I would ask, I can split across further polls. The percentage for each response is the important factor, not whether exactly the same people respond, although it is better if many of the same people respond. I still think it makes for interesting reading!

[louielouwhy]

John

The results of the polling on other songwriters is taken from what?  The stars next to rate this topic?

 

Thanks

Paul

[john]

Hey Paul

 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say the "results of the polling on other songwriters" - what polling? Where? I am trying to work out why you posted this here... I just can't see the connection to this topic / poll... but if it relates to polling on other songwriters... I am assuming I am missing a connection... the stars on profiles? topics? ratings?

 

What I am asking about in this poll is what you think, not a rating system or an actual set of ratings.

 

I hope that helps

 

Cheers

 

John

[louielouwhy]

Thanks John

     It is clear now.  I thought that Songstuff participants were rating each other besides themselves inconspicuously after I noticed after finishing a poll on myself.  Then, a rating became displayed on the screen.  I thought that was my rating based on participants polls.  Assuming that, I wondered if some participants have been rating me, then I suspected the ratings were executed by the said participants over the months by the star rating over each of our topics.  I doubted it, but wasn't sure none the less, cause I had always noticed that not one star was ever colored yellow.

 

Paul

 

Sorry to distract you.

[john]

No problem Paul, I am happy to clear it up and explain. It helps both yourself and other members become aware of some of the community features and clears up any misunderstanding.

[arteg]

Interesting questions! I think the main criterion for whether a song is good or bad is whether you yourself are satisfied with it.

[EJB]

What I find quite surprising is the low number of Peeps who pitch their Music.

I thought it would be much higher.

 

EJB

[Zed McJack]

What I find quite surprising is the low number of Peeps who pitch their Music.

I thought it would be much higher.

 

EJB

Id been more then happy to pitch any of my tunes to other musicians, but I know nothing about it. I know that if you are established composer/songwriter pitching music is pretty easy, but how we nobodies pitch music?

[Bernd]

I've come across people who call themselves "songwriter" although all they do is write poetry. And I once was asked "so, you are their (MotorPlanet's) songwriter?", to which I had to answer, "sorry, but no, I only write their lyrics". Normally, the composer would be the "songwriter". More often than not there is a team (I write lyrics for more than 20 people). In the end my answer could only be counted half.

 

I'm a very good lyricists (I think so myself and my partners think so, too).

I'm NOT successful (of 400 lyrics only 40 are being performed more or less regularly in small places - which means I'm only making 500 Euro per year).

I'm a lousy or mediocre songwriter - yes, I 'write' music as well: none of my songs was ever covered, let alone produced.

 

I love what I'm doing - and that is what actually counts!

Happy New Year to all my companions and fellow 'songwriters'!
Bernd
 

[DonnaMarilyn]

Zed, have you considered posting your demos (they need to be of a high standard) to music licensing libraries? They have plenty of listings. It might be worth checking out this site for the most comprehensive information.

http://www.musiclibraryreport.com

 

HitLicense.com is a good site for listings. Free to join, though with a $5 fee per submission. In my opinion, not a bank-breaker.

And they always show which songs were selected for the pitch, so you get an idea of what was being looked for. (The pitch listings also state what they're looking for, and give at least two examples.)

I'm familiar with a couple of the people who've done well with HitLicense.

 

I had a nice little success with MusicDealers a couple of years ago (song placement in a TV episode). I think they've changed their format/interface in the meantime, though, so I'm not sure what's going on there. I should check them out again.

Id been more then happy to pitch any of my tunes to other musicians, but I know nothing about it. I know that if you are established composer/songwriter pitching music is pretty easy, but how we nobodies pitch music?

 

John, I'd like to have done that poll, but certain questions don't apply, as I'm a lyricist who plays no instrument. (Though I do create melodies.) Would it be useful at some stage to contstruct a similar poll but geared mainly towards lyricists?

 

Donna

[EJB]

The main reason I joined this site (believe me I searched for months) was to get feedback on my songwriting and production/recording.

All to help me get better so I could realize my ultimate Goal....which is being successful (make money) as a songwriter/performer.

 

There is so much great areas here to explore ideas and techniques, the resources are unbelievable.

 

Pitching your Music is time consuming and does cost. But in the scheme of the Investment I have in Time, Money and Education in Songwriting and Recording, it is fairly cheap.

 

The Days of submitting a Guitar/Piano Vocal Demo are almost gone but they still exist.

 

I just think that with all of the Great songs and Music I have heard on this site I was amazed to find that so few of those actively try to Pitch it. 

 

Everyone has their own reason to write songs or Music. So whatever those reasons are I would be the first to say I wish you the best and hope you get all you want from your experience.

 

I am here to Improve and I thank all of you for helping me achieve that Goal.

 

EJB       

[Danidog]

Looking at the people who participated and then posted remarks REALLY make me feel like the new kid on the block (but that would be the new, old kid on  the block).

 

I took the pole to learn more about the community than anything else because I know where I stand just starting out here.

 

Of interest to me would be a pole asking how many play in public settings, whether it be for pay or whatever? I'd also find it interesting to know how much support there is in your geographic area for what we used to call "coffee houses" (not the designer kind of coffee of the day things we all  frequent on the way to work in the a.m.), but the places where we could go and show off our stuff during an open mic session? Modern technology is wonderfully to help us be seen, but I'm still trying to figure out how to post/load/create some kinda music listening thingie for my lyrics, cause they are all songs by the time I post them for critique. Hope I'm not getting off topic and 'jacking the thread here. My apologies if I have. 

 

Dog

[john]

Good suggestions Dog, thanks for that... duly noted

[Helmut]

Hi,

 

I do not know why I should rate myself, and even less how others rate me.  

 

I like what my guitarist plays, he likes my vocals and lyrics. I am more critical with myself (vocals *and* lyrics). I could sing better and I am no native speaker.

 

But it makes a lot of fun.

 

Cheers Helmut

[McnaughtonPark]

I took the survey, but I think the most interesting part of it were the questions at the end.  Seeing the results of those who pitched their songs would be interesting.  Seeing which members posted which of their songs to which artist/company, and what the response was seems like a history of the song somehow. 

 

One question, unasked in the survey, I'll answere here tho': 

 

Do you feel your song improved after posting it for critique?  Yes

 

 

 

Fun!

[tonyb300]

Interesting thread, and it makes me look at my own view of how I'm going about things. Some of the other replies mention having other questions as opposed to keeping your survey short, which is a good argument, but I can already think of other questions also. (Mainly because it pertains to me)

 

-How marketable is your music?

-Is there even a market for that type of music?

-How large and how open is that market?

 

I've given reviews, received some, got a lot of compliments on my tunes, and hey.... we all do this for the love of it, but along with working on developing my songcraft, I also have been researching the market. What I've found is the business of music, how it's distributed, how it's produced, and music itself has changed drastically over the past 5-6 years when I started writing vocal music. Prior to that I was a jaded rock & R&B *lead* guitarist that gave up the rock star dreams in the 90's to teach myself jazz & write jazz, fusion & R&B as a hobby/passion and settle down, have kids, work a day job. 

 

Well, now it's decades later, I'm in a much different situation in life, and sure wish I could have some success or get some gains from from the art form I've loved so long.

 

With all that improvisation and musicianship in my musical DNA, fitting into todays market of techno drum machine pop, rock that sounds like disco, and rappers using auto tune to pretend they're making R&B, has left me humbled to say the least. My songwriting is decent, but is rooted in old school concepts of people playing instruments and I have to admit that I just don't connect mentally to 95% of what I hear being produced today. The kiss of death for someone that spent most of my musical life playing guitar solos and don't know where to fit in.

 

Yes, we do it for the love of it, and a good song *should* be able to be produced with todays production values, but even though I've received several compliments here on songstuff I know I'm far from having a tune that could have some success in todays market.

 

*I hope I didn't go too far off topic on this reply.

[tonyb300]

3 hours ago, tunesmithth said:

Thinking out loud is encouraged around here, but I am curious....did you take the survey?

Of course.

[fullcirclemusic]

One good word of wisdom a fellow industry friend of mine gave me:

 

"There is a big difference between saying a song is "BAD", and a song is "Not For Me"

 

We are in an industry of opinions. Don't get bogged down if someone tells you you aren't a good songwriter. Your songs probably just aren't for them in that moment.

 

www.fullcirclemusic.org