MABBO

Hello everyone. Since I am primarily a teacher of songwriting and the practical application of the music industry as it relates to the Nashville songwriting community, I thought I would open a discussion as to the methods I use in my classes and workshops. Today, I go to teach as a part of NASI (Nashville Songwriter's Association International's) SONGPOSIUM week, which is a sort of "Shopping Mall" for songwriters, with around 45 teachers doing 120 classes in everything from songwriting, recording, publishing, live performance, networking and business. I am kind of like the "beginning guidance councilor" and work to help people be oriented to the town. I break everything down into four essential areas. This is what I have learned in 35 years in the music industry and 24 in Nashville. It seems to make it as concise as I can. I will put it here so as to stimulate some conversation or hopefully provide you with some information you can use in your own journey's. Feel free to comment as you feel driven. #1. CREATION OF THE SONG. We are in a world of over one billion songs a month up loaded on the Internet. There are around 30 million writers on the Net, ASCAP, BMI, You Tube, My Space, Facebook, Reverb Nation, in clubs, recording studios, writer's nights, open mics, world wide. If you don't believe that, tell someone in a resturant or on an airplane that you are a songwriter and then sit back and hear stories of their nephews, son's, high school friends, office workers, etc. that "Are really good songwriters or singers and they should be going to Nashville, LA and New York, because they are as good as that "crap on the radio.:" Never fails. So creation of the song is what makes us stand apart, or at least that is the idea. There is only so much unexplored musial subject matter, only a variation on 12 notes, and only so many emotions we can mine. The idea is to "show someone something they have seen before but not quite in THAT particular way before." Kind of a "DUH!" They saw it sitting right in front of them but never looked at that way before. Nashville, in particularly is a very lyrical oriented style of songwriting that usually has three essential characteristics: #1. Reality based. Usually from real life senarios, and if there are poetic language, cliche's, metaphors or similies,they are usually grounded in some form of reality. #2. Conversational in tone. Most often if you remove the music and read the lyrics alone, it sounds very much like two people having a conversation. The idea is to talk directly, but never down on your listener. Again, in this day and age with billions of songs and millions of writers, and most of all shorter attention spans from our listeners, the more cryptic the song, the quicker they tend to tune out. #3. Easily definable melodic hook that repeats about every 30 seconds, leaving the listener with the impression they "HAVE to HEAR that AGAIN!" The ability to drive someone crazy with a melody that goes on over and over in your head. Think the "Jeapordy" or Andy Griffith show" themes. Taking these basic formats, you can decypher most country songs. Musically, the direction can go in many areas, from the "teen age angst of Taylor Swift" the rock elements of Montgomery Gentry, or Jason Aldeen, the Urban contemporary of Keith Urban, the traditional of Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley or George Straight. From the classics to the modern, if you like some form of music, you generally can find it in country. And since a majority of all music is 100% self contained, country is just about the last vestige of music that can listen to outside songs. Although that is a dying phenomenon as well. #2. PRESENTATION OF THE SONG. LIFE AND DEMO. Now there is one chance to make a bad first impression and many people have their material up on the internet or are working in writer's nights, and other live venues. Making sure anything that leaves your mind, is first rate, recorded well or performed to the top of your ability is essential. People listen to a LOT of music. It is in the background of our lives. So making it sound great is also essential in this day and age. #3. NETWORKING. It is one of the most social businesses that exists, with the RELATIONSHIP taking precedence over anything. How would you like someone you don't know to come bashing into your living room, grab some food from your refrigerator, and sit on your couch, feet up on the coffee table and proceed to tell you what you need to do to make them feel more comfortable? Yet in many cases, a lot of songwriter wanna be's want to do just that. They want everyone to hear them, to embrace them. They want to sit from the comfort of their living rooms, put somethings on the Net and allow the checks to roll in. It is not done by "remote control." Got to have skin in the game. So while I don't believe it is nessassary to move to Nashville, LA or New York, you do have to have some connections to get to the inside. While you might not always have to be "present to win" you certainly have to have a "Presence to win." That can be done most directly by the co-writing process, which Nashville is founded on. Basically everyone is trying to team up with others that might be ahead of them in line. Thereby achieveing access through the "back doors." But there are no shortcuts and you have to have "skin in the game." Much of it is simply "pledging the fraternities." "NETWORKING is just another word for "MAKING AND BEING FRIENDS." #4. BUSINESS If the first three are achieved, the final one might fall into place. But much of the business has changed forever. It is difficult to collect on "FREE" which is what most recorded music is, an advertisement for the live shows of artists, (Thank you NAPSTER and KAZAA) the majority of music will never earn dollar one. But there are always going to be people who "find a way." There are new people coming on the scene all the time. Five years ago, no one outside of a small few circles of people, knew of a 15 year old girl wondering the streets of Nashville named Taylor Swift. The idea is to get in on the "ground floor" with as many artists and professional writers and entities as you can. Parlay that into the next step and the next step, etc. If you do all that, hopefully commerce can take place. This would be my "MAB four points" of the music industry. I hope it makes sense and hope some of you might commment or ask questions. Good luck to you and your journey. Hope I hear of you. MAB

In listeners of music, you are dealing with VERY short attention spans. If you confuse them with character and point of view changes, without explaining how they are being changed, the listener can be confused and tune you out. Again, being clear helps keep your listener with you till the end of the song. MAB

It is mostly for identification purposes. There are approximately one billion songs uploaded a month on the Internet. A large chorus that identifies your song tells people who might be a customer of your music what it is, what it is about, and where to get it. If you have a song that does not feature the title in the hook of the song, you make it harder to find you. And in the day of Google searches, you pretty much eliminate your chances of being heard at all. People do not have time to go searching for a song they heard if there is not an identifiable part to it. It is totally up to you, and how fast you want to be ignored and forgotten. MAB

Hello, My name is Marc-Alan Barnette or "MAB." I live and work in Nashville, Tn. as a full time singer/songwriter and music consultant. I work with writers and artists from around the world who come to Nashville and also seminars around the country and Canada. I am glad to be here and hope I can provide a little perspective. Feel free to ask questions if you need to. The question of "Genre" is one we deal with a lot. There is a lot of cross generations as have been spoken above but I can give you an idea of how Nashville publishers view it. Most country songs have three main characteristics: #1. Reality Based. #2. Conversational in tone. #3. Memorable musical hook that repeats throughout the song. Most of the music is kept fairly simple and around a three-four chord pattern (with some passing chords or inversions) and allowing the story to take precidence over the song. The language is usually as if two people are having a conversation and written around a reality based situation. When there are cliche's or metaphors involved (which often there are too many, I do agree) the majority are "grounded in reality." For instance, " I went Sky Diving, Rocky Mountain Climbing, did two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu" in Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" give "elbow moments" or reality based lyrics that most people can see immediately in their mind's eye. Most often there is a "twist on the tale" to the story, or in more somber subjects a "rope of hope" which gives the listener some encouragement. Most of the songs on the charts are mid or up tempo ,with power ballads, such as Rascal Flatts, or Keith Urban having about one out of every 12-13 songs. While again there are always exceptions, these are the most normal characteristics on country. Instrumentation is usually kept with more acoustic instruments driving the song. But with today's current styles there is a lot of cross generation and "country" can actually embody everything from the country pop of Rascal Flatts, the traditional of Brad Paisly and Alison Kraus, teen pop of Taylor Swift, Country Rock of Jason Aldeen, Buffet style of Zac Brown and Kenny Chesney, sweeping vocals of Martina McBride, or about any derivation you can imagine. What was "country years ago" has changed radically as it has in all genres. The ultimate determiner of "country" would be the artists that do it, the publishers that work it, the record labels that promote it, the press that review it and in the final step, the public who hopefully purchases it. This is my opinion based upon my 24 years in the town. Hope it helps in your journey. MAB