Colonel

WOW! Great responses. You all have pointed out what I have learned. That we all come to the dance from different places and with different ideas. Perhaps, there is not a cookie cutter plan for success in this biz. Where if you do these three things you will be successful. But again, how do you know what "they" want? I believe the answer is, you don't. When I was sending Little David Wilkins a cd of my tunes I asked him did he want male or female? Fast or slow? He gave to me what was the best answer I've ever received. "Send me your best three songs." Colonel Robert P.S. I have send "blown out" and simple demos. I am reminded of the "old" days in country music when you would lay a simple guitar/piano & vocal track. Put in on a cassette, wrap the lyric sheet around the tape without a tape case, then hold it all together with a rubberband! You could slip a couple of these in your pocket or purse. If you met someone you thought could help your career, shake hands with them while slipping them the cassette. We called that the "Nashville Handshake." CR

John, You are right about the UK thing. Now it's $40.00 but, you can do up to 10 songs in a series, (The Greatest Hits of...). CR

I was wondering how many of us here make a living songwriting, have collected any money for writing, want to go pro, or like it as a hobby. I have been writing full time for about five years. It can be rocky sometimes, but to do what you love as a profession is cool. I would love to see some posts on how to take that "next step" in songwriting. When I started checking out other writers on the internet, there was a lot of questions but few answers. Like, by golly, what is the very first step after writing that cotton picker? And how to really reach that "right" person with your song? And the biggest of all for me was, how blown out a demo is needed? If you folks would like to, I'd love to start a discussion about these and other questions on pro writing. Colonel Robert

Kate... With all due respect to the other post on this subject, there is one legal way to protect yourself and that is registering your works at the U.S. Copyright Office at U.S. Copyright Link Here again, I come at this from a working viewpoint. as a hobby, you may do with making sure you put the © on your work. (Hit the number key and press ALT while typing in 0169) Please don't believe that a "poor boy's copyright" (mailing it back to yourself) will give you legal protection. IT WON'T. Sorry. Even after all of that, if you have a song chart there are those cockroachs that crawl out of the woodwork and say that you stole a line or two from their song. This is why it's so hard to get a record company to listen to your tunes. Let's say they get a crappy song but that has a line that is kinda close to one they release. Even though the writer on the released song has a copyright thar dates back to befor the other song was thought of, much less copyrighted, that cockroach can still take you to court and jam up your royalities. I had this happed to a fellow songwriter. Of course, he won the case, but what a waste of time and money! But please don't let this discourage you from writing. I love this business, but I know there are certain things I have to do to protect my work. Colonel Robert

I often joke that after giving me the key, they changed all of the locks... Besides it is not that big. CR

Yes, Karen and I both received the key for Truckers. That was cool. Colonel Robert

I've played drums all of my life. I was blessed to have been around the world with my music. In 1995, my wife and I were sitting on the bed reading the paper when I saw a AP press about Doug Maten, a truck driver who was taken to the graveyard on the trailer of his big rig. It was like a movie was playing in my head. I back tracked to reach his widow, Karen, and the rest is history. We talked for sbout a hour and I called her back in less then 15 minutes with the song. Not a word has been changed since. We both received the key to the city of Memphis, and it started a new career for me.

Ok, here's where I'll get my first wacking. To me, the hook is the greatest marketing tool for songs ever. How many songs you hear on the radio or in the store, and though you can't remember one single line, when the hook comes up, you sing right along with it. Plus if one is smart, the hook and the title is the same. Hence when in the record shop, (do they still have these?) they may not even remember the artist name but if that hook and the title is the same, you just made another sale!

"At first I heard the boots, then smelled the whisky that he drank And though I couldn't see him, I knew that it was Hank He said I know that you're scared, but you're doing fine Just remember the songs you write son, are the ones we left behind." From Ghostwriter © 1998 Colonel Robert Morris

My songs come in the form of a complete story. This could come from an idea or something someone saids in passing that "hooks me." Then I write in three parts, prefix, suffix, and main part.

Since I write for a living, I try to write on a song everyday. It may be the only song I finish that week, or I migh have three in the demo can in a day.