Ralph Murphy’s, “Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting” approved this for the blog. Ralph is a legendary songwriter, producer, ASCAP rep and one of the most loved and respected professional in the music business.

From Ralph Murphy:

The “Murphys Laws of Songwriting” info every year is not a “how to write hits” column. It is a “what to pitch” article about what (1) what listeners seem to want at drive time, and (2) what artists care to sing about, the issues, and the structures that work for them.
It comes under the heading of “knowledge is power”! Take it and use it.

The Billboard Country #1s of 2011:Who Made It And How!

The one thing that you can count on in the Music Business as in life, is change. And change was certainly the theme for 2011! The number of songs reaching #1 was at an all time high of 34 and the number of writers matched that all time high in climbing to 80. Again this year, 50% of the singles that reached #1 (17) were written in whole or in part by the artist.

This is good news for the publishers who are investing their money and efforts in Artist/writers, not so good for “stand alone” writers and their publishers. In speaking to publishers about what they look for in a writer, the “artist” tag seems to carry a lot of weight in today’s Music Business climate apparently justifiably so.

The only down side to what happened last year (2011) is that although more writers had a song go to number one, more writers and publishers will have to share the yearly performance money, or “split the blanket”, to quote my old pal Harlan Howard. The financial reward may probably not be as great in some cases, but you had a number one record.

Among the songs that raced to the top, the pack leader was Blake Sheldon with “Honey Bee” which made it from zero to #1 in ten weeks. About 1/3 (11) records sprinted up the charts in 11 to 15 weeks. 50% (17) took the 16 to 25 week trip and with only five that lasted into the thirty plus week trip, “A Little Bit Stronger”, Sara Evans, 33 weeks,

“Country Must Be Country Wide” Brantley Gilbert 33 weeks, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”, Thompson Square, 36 weeks, and “Crazy Girl”‘ Eli Young band, 38 weeks, the 800 pound gorilla was Chris Young with “Voices” that took 51 weeks to get there and made it over a year (53 weeks) on the charts!

What is interesting to note is that back in 2009 Chris Young held the title for longest trip to the get to the “Ball” with “Getting You Home” (The Little Black Dress song) at only 35 weeks. As you would expect, because of the number of #1s, 21 of the 34, only had one week at number one. “Honey Bee”‘ Blake Shelton’ and “Keep Me In Mind” Zac Brown Band, both had 4 weeks at the top with “Felt Good On My Lips” Tim McGraw, “Somewhere With You”, Kenny Chesney, “Don’t You Wanna Stay”, Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, “God Gave Me You”, Blake Shelton, and “We Owned The Night” Lady Antebellum staying at number one for 3 weeks.

Residency on the charts after leaving #1 was in general confined to 0 to 3 weeks. The exceptions were Blake Shelton, (4 weeks), “Dirt Road Anthem”, Jason Aldean (6 weeks) and “Take A Back Road” Rodney Atkins (8 weeks).

Artist/Writers

At 50% (17) of the 34 records, it may seem that the artist/writer is the [business] way to go, but the balance that a “stand alone” writer brings to the equation cannot be overemphasized. The need of the artist to put forward a personal view is generally well tempered by the “stand alone writer”. The “stand alone writer” has a different perspective on songs because he/she is not the performer, and doesn’t necessarily shape the song in his/her image.

In looking at the gender of the writers you find that 7 of the 80 writers (about 11%) involved in creating the #1’s for 2011, were women. They wrote songs for the 9 records that had female artists involved.

Tempo

About 2/3 of the #1 records were under 100 B.P.M. (Beats Per Minute) The bulk were 70-90 B.P.M.’s (19) and only 3 were under 70 B.P.M (less than 10%). Although all of last years (2010) #1’s were 4/4, this year the waltz waltzed in! The Eli Young Band found favor at drive time and waltzed all the way to one of Billboard’s most played country songs.

Intros

Although Kenny Chesney’s “Live A Little” had a 56-second intro and “Old Alabama” (Brad Paisley) came in second with 33 seconds, if you average all the intros of all the #1’s together you get 17 seconds. However, if you take out Kenny’s 56-second intro the average falls to 15 seconds, the same as 2010. I guess country radio finds that intro length handy.

Pronouns

You can love them, hate them, be indifferent to them, but don’t ignore them. They define the situational perception of the listener.Me, you, us, etc. – the first person ruled at #1.

Twenty of the 34 were first person (me, you), which means they were conversations between the artist and their audience or an individual on a one-on-one basis. Illustrations of this are “so listen Romeo, when you’re feelin’ kinda lonely, let me tell you where to go” (Reba), “Who are you when I’m not around” (Blake Shelton) and Billy Currington saying he’s “right on the edge of giving into you” (Let Me Down Easy).

The third person (him/her/them) allowed Justin Moore to talk about his “long lost cousin John” and tell him about his daughter” and that “she’s a doctor and he’d be proud”. Toby Keith got to talk about his dad buying “nothin’ he can’t fix with WD-40 and a craftsman wrench” so those pronouns did their job!

Themes

Romantic Love

Was everywhere at drive time! From Thompson Square demanding “are you gonna kiss me or not?” to Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson trying to “wanna make love last” as they each try to make the other “stay here a little while”.

Love of Family

Chris Young’s “Voices” make sure mama, daddy, grandma, and grandpa were remembered for their “words of wisdom” and Justin Moore’s “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” told about his grandpa, kids, his “long lost cousin John”, and John’s daughter the “doctor” and even his “bird dog Bo”.

Love of Country

Toby Keith as usual set the standard for “Country” with “Made In America”. From the opening line “My old man’s that old man”, “dirty hands and a clean soul”, who’s “got the red, white, and blue flying high on the farm” we all know that “he’s just made in America”.

Love Lost

Luke Bryan looked around and there was “Someone Else Calling You Baby” and “a tear in your eye says I should have been listening”! Kenny Chesney pined for being “Somewhere With You” being “out by the pier”, or sitting “outside your house waiting for the lights to go out”.

Love Found

Taylor Swift found someone “like a full on rainstorm” who made “Sparks Fly” whenever he smiled. Billy Currington found his girl and begged her to “Let me Down Easy” when he found he was “on the edge of giving in to you” and making her promise, “if I leave my heart with you tonight” she’s gonna “treat it right”.

Good Time Party

The most obvious example of this is “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” (Jake Owen) where the “girls are always hot and the beer is always cold” and “we were comin’ alive, caught up in a Southern summer barefoot blue jean night”. Kenny Chesney got “a wake up call” to “live a little, love a lot” and “take some time and waste it on number one” in “Live A Little”. Dierks Bentley kicks pretty well in “Am I The Only One” as well.

Revenge/Satisfaction

Reba cuts to the chase about the man’s “no good, two timin’ lies coming outta your mouth” and tells him to “try to call, twitter me, text until your fingers bleed”. She really tells him where to go…. “Turn On The Radio”.

Life Lessons

Chris Young got “words of wisdom” from his whole family in “Voices”. Dad tells him to work hard but “don’t work your life away” and Mama, Grandma, and Grandpa are all handing out “life lessons”.

Morality

I could refer back to Chris Young “Voices” again but Brantley Gilbert also speaks to core values when he says, “we weren’t raised to take, we were raised to give” in “Country Must Be Countrywide”. Blake Shelton celebrates that “God Gave Me You” for those “days of doubt” when he “lost my way”.

Song Length

Bearing in mind that the “on-air personality” can use as much or as little of this year’s sometimes very long fades as he/she needs to stretch to the break, 23 records settled comfortably in the three minutes and [change] length. Eight were over four minutes, two were under three minutes, and only one broke the five-minute barrier.

Song Forms/Shapes/Structures

These are outlines of the way listeners seem to prefer to receive their information at “worst time of day possible”. If you want to find out more about them there is a chapter on them in “Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting” The Book.

Second Form

Verse (Verse Optional), Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Chorus.

In the spirit of “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” this structure was used effectively four times at #1. Billy Currington’s “Let Me Down Easy” and Jake Owen’s “Barefoot, Blue Jean Night” are good examples.

Third Form

Verse (Verse Optional), Chorus, Verse, Chorus, (Bridge Middle Chorus (with an instrumental before or after the chorus).

This old reliable took the trip to #1, 15 times! Chris Young’s “Tomorrow” and Lady A’s “We Owned The Night” showed this off well.

Fourth Form

I use the word ‘Lift’ in this section. It can also mean Pre-Chorus, Climb, Channel, Ramp, etc.).

Verse, Lift, Chorus, Verse, Lift, Chorus, (Bridge Optional) Lift, Chorus out.

This structure is used almost exclusively at #1 on the “Pop” Billboard Charts and did the job for Taylor Swift’s “Sparks Fly” and “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” (Thompson Square) for a total of 10 uses on the country charts.

Fifth Form

Verse, Verse, Bridge, Verse (It is also called the AABA).

Although it was only used three times, this is a good story telling vehicle. Tim McGraw showed that you could add an extra verse and bridge and it still works well in “Felt Good On My Lips”.

Sixth Form

Traditionally this would have been Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Instrumental, Bridge/Middle 8, Chorus Out and was called rondeau or rondo (to quote W.O. Smith in his book “Sideman”). There are only two records that featured songs that were close to this structure. I always refer to “Good Morning Beautiful” by Steve Holy as the perfect rondeau. Blake Shelton’s record of “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking” which was chorus, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus, almost did it. Jason Aldean’s record of “Dirt Road Anthem” starts with the chorus, raps out four small verses, goes back to the chorus, then raps three small verses and goes on to chorus after chorus. So many elements of this record are similar to Billboard #1 pop songs.

 

Repetition

One of the major differences between pop and country chart toppers is the number of repetitions of the title. Country has a lot less. Five #1’s had only three uses of title, setting the minimum standard for repetition.

The maximum number of repetition of title (19) was “Remind Me” (Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood). I guess they really needed reminding. All the rest fell between 3 and 13 repetitions.

Because the country listener “listens into” a song, multiple repetitions over a 3 to 6 month period would have a high “burn factor” and the listener at first attracted by repetition might find it tiresome after a few weeks, so less is more I guess.

 

Humor/Irony/Detail

If you’re looking for humor, check out Dierks Bentley’s “Am I The Only One” where he calls “wild, man Willy” “but Idol was on TV” and went to a “joint looking like a morgue”. Irony is such a large part of country. One of many examples is Luke Bryan’s “Somebody Else Calling You Baby” when he tells her “you wanted your time and you wanted your space” what every woman on the planet knows is code for “I’m really seeing someone else” and him not recognizing that “someone else is calling you baby”.

Details showed up everything and set up some great stories. From “blow the speakers out your Chevy truck”, “paint your toes cause you bite your nails”, “he reminded me of Chris LeDoux and that Copenhagen smile”, detail ruled.

Story/Conversation

The story songs like “Colder Weather” (Zac Brown Band), “Felt Good On My Lips” (Tim McGraw), “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” (Jake Owen), etc. were stories in content but most were very conversational. About 15 of the 34 #1’s were more story than conversational.

Advice/Best Bets

Writing this part of the yearly analysis is always the hardest part about doing these “perspectives” on the previous year.

Aside from the “write with the Artist” approach, it is worth noting that every year, two or three “Artist/writers” actually write #1′s for other “Artist/writers”. Does this mean that “Artist/writers” are better than “stand alone” or non-performing writers?

No, it means that they are really “Writer/artists”! This may come as a (pleasant) surprise to some of you whose publisher has mandated that you write with “the Artist”.

In the best scenario, the Writer/artist leaves the “artist” at the door and concentrates on making the song a living, breathing piece of work with a beginning, middle, and an end.

A Thing with at least any two of the “big three” (humor, irony, detail). Sometimes all three!

A Thing that invites the listener in by creating an expectation (opening lines) and then fulfills that expectation (title) in 60 seconds.

A Thing that tells a story about a situation or place we’re all familiar with, with a slightly different perspective or insight that we find engaging for months of constant repetition.

A Thing that when it does really well and everyone accepts it as a “Big Thing”, becomes

a #1 Hit Song.

This article would not be possible without the wonderful assistance of Anna Maki and her research team of Mercedes Davis, Blake Ferguson, Lincoln Faulkner, Gracie Leathers, Lauren Perry, Chelsey Reardon, Rusty Redden, Georgie Sillem, Cami Steger, Kristen Tribble, Renee Urbanc, Kristen Westerbeck and Tania Yegelwel.

 

http://binglishart.com/2012/02/16/music-starts-here/ Beth Inglish just posted on her site a nice article about our site Music Starts Here.org  We celebrate the 2 year anniversary of the site in March. The Nashville Chamber of Commerce (Ralph Schultz and Ron Samuels) asked Will Carter and myself to build the site and the pros are so kind to do the video interviews. THANKS Beth!

Check out the site as it contains 300 video segments of interviews with artists, songwriters,musicians, entertainment attorney, vocal coach, image coach, PROs, banker and other industry people giving advice to those visiting Nashville and also those of you that are new to Nashville for the music business.

Beth has a great blog for the Nashville Music and Arts Scene. Check out her other blogs and interviews in the Music Chatter section of her site. She did a nice story on someone that you know a week or two ago in that section.

Get involved in your music community and find a way to contribute as Beth and others do that shares information and events, get involved in events, benefits and charities that make a difference to your local music community!

 

Nashville Muse turned Nine Years old this month, February 2012 THANK YOU subscribers and marketing partners! www.nashvillemuse.com

How did Nashville Muse start you may ask – as I have been asked many times. January 2003 I spent a week in Del Mar, CA and taught a workshop for Liz Axford’s NSAI workshop on a Saturday. Monday evening we drove to Bev & Cliff Nelson’s in Irvine, Ca the home of the Orange County NSAI coordinators for dinner.

The LA workshop was represented by Craig Lackey and Rex Poindexter. As I was giving them ideas to build their NSAI workshops ( I started the successful Charlotte, NC NSAI workshop in 1996) Rex Poindexter gave me an idea when he said, “Why dont’ ya do what I do and send an e-mail to let your friends in Nashville know where everyone is playing in the songwriter rounds”?

I did not know how to copy/paste, knew nothing about email lists, servers at the time, however that did not stop me from starting the idea. In January I had invited about 30 songwriters that were new to Nashville to my house and announced, “We are the class of 2003 of songwriters and we have to work together, help each other out on our journey. That is what the successful songwriters told me – to work and write with your peers”.

I sent an e-mail to those 30 people and a couple others I knew to send me where they are playing in town. I would write their gigs down on a pad and type it on Monday mornings and send to those 30+ songwriters. I did not learn about a template or easier ways to do thing till later that summer.I remember telling my roommate at the time, Gary Talley – great guitar player (The Box Tops) and guitar teacher, “What if I build up this list and venues start sending me who is playing that week, I could make this a business and sell sponsorships”?

I can tell ya plenty of ways not to start and e-zine! Memories of dealing with Comcast and telling them, “I am NOT spamming – all these people requested to receive the e-mails”! Getting on the Comcast blacklist, then asking to get on the white list (approved e-mail senders) so I could send the e-mails, then learning how to put names in groups to send 50 at a time. If one e-mail changed or was wrong, had to go through and find the wrong one and delete it so the group of 50 names would send the Nashville Muse!

Dave McDonald moved to town I forget how many years ago and told me I could use his server to send out the Nashville Muse each week. Dave and Rob Wolfe worked to get the names into the server and WHAT A BLESSING! Today I use Mail Chimp as the server.

One week because I typed over and over my “rough template” each week – Danny Arena rushed over to the house and corrected it as the Nashville Muse (Did not have a name yet) was sent and came out about 3 inches wide and several pages long!  My friend, Leslie Benjamin from Maryland showed me how to do a template. Rusty Carr would help me in the beginning with challenges with Nashville Muse how to send these groups out and worked on my old computer.

The name Nashville Muse came to me one Saturday when I was visiting my family in West Virginia, I had the sunroof open and all of a sudden this name came to me “Nashville Muse” as I was getting off an exit on I-64 in South Charleston.

Rob Wolfe came along and helped tremendously with a new format and I would send a Word document to him Sunday night or Monday morning, he would convert it and send out to the list on Mondays – Thank You Rob for the help and great friendship!

The original Nashville Muse site was built by Steven McClintock’s company, Song Catalog and was launched in the spring of 2003. Suj and his people did a great job with the site and some of the original interviews from the early days are still on the site.

In 2010, Michael Lovette became my web person (Rob needed a well deserved break and is focusing on his songwriting) and has been a tremendous help. The present site is on the Word Press format and Michael taught me how to do the weekly Nashville Muse e-zine every week.THANK YOU Michael of Phat Magnet.

Today we are close to 4,000 subscribers and great Marketing Partnerships over the years. THANK YOU Marketing Partners!

The Nashville Muse is the Connector in the Music Community and I am thankful for everyone who has attended an event, benefit, workshop, songwriter round, networking party, for every friend and everyone I have met and those of you who became friends because you attended events listed on the Nashville Muse. This week would be about the 468th edition (9 years x 52 weeks) and THANK YOU for each person that sent a listing, became a marketing partner, showed up at events and supported the Nashville Muse!

Thanks and RIP to Rex for the idea, for Craig driving him to that dinner meeting, Bev and Cliff Nelson, Liz for the invite to Del Mar for the workshop and Each of YOU that keep me on the journey!

Please share a story or comment on how the Nashville Muse has helped you, your business, or an event you remember from the e-zine or site!

“Friends Do Not Let Friends…Play To An Empty Room” – Doak

I love our music community and one of the things I love is that we care about each other. I am on the committee for the Tom Roady Memorial concert Tuesday, January 31st and what a blessing to learn about the life of Tom Roady. I was just getting to know Tom as I kept running into the legend with the biggest smile I have ever seen, you could tell he loved playing music and most important, the man loved playing music and watching the audience while he played to see their faces light up with the music! The concert will be a memorial to Tom as well as a benefit to helping his wife Mel out with expenses from the funeral and other things in life.

Five of us went to his home yesterday to work on putting together items for the auction and sale of some of his percussion instruments – the man has so many percussion instruments – it was amazing! We will sell some of those on Tuesday and set up a website to open up the purchase of many other items from Tom’s collection. The press release is below and I hope you can be at the event on Tuesday ngiht, big on the guitar in the next month and the other items we will post on the site listed below. I usually do not use this blog to promote events – however this is such a unique opportunity for the readers to be part of a legendary musicians life!

“All My Roady Friends” Memorial Show set for Tuesday, January 31^st at Red Rooster on Demonbreun Street in Nashville, TN.

Tom Roady, legendary percussionist passed away in November 2011 and his Roady Friends will honor Tom with a concert and auction at Red Rooster on Tuesday, January 31^st, door at 6:00, auction and music at 7:00.

Tom Roady played on over 1,000 records and CDs including Kenny Chesney, Dixie Chicks, Brooks and Dunn, Mavis Staples, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Etta James, Michael McDonald, Bob Seger, Art Garfunkle and toured with legends such as James Taylor, John Denver, Ricky Skaggs, Paul Anka and Phil Driscoll.

The house band for the concert is a band Tom played with, “The Alternators”. Some of the special guests playing and singing many of the songs Tom played on and artists he toured with will include Phil Keaggy, Sam Bush, Rickie Skaggs, Suzy Ragsdale, Jonell Mosser, Marcus Hummon and surprise guests.

Some of the auction items include music lessons and consultations with professionals, Michael McDonald signed artwork and CDs, a tour of the Grand Ole Opry with 4 tickets, a custom “Tom Roady” cajon designed and crafted by Jonathan Wells, Tom’s personal Paiste Cymbals will be auctioned at the event. Pearl Percussion will have great selection of their products for the auction. Boxes of Tom’s percussion pieces will be sold for $50.00 each.

Two Old Hippies has donated a $2,000.00 Bedell Guitar that will be on display with several autographs including Sheryl Crow, Joe Nichols, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Keith Urban, Wynona, Nichole Kidman, Val Kilmer, Allison Krauss, Jerry Douglas and others.  The guitar will be auctioned off in February at www.tomroadyauction.com .

For more on Tom Roady, go to www.tomroady.com .

Business cards
When it is time to exchange business cards, you want to be prepared and don’t want to fumble through a pocket full of everyone else’s cards you’ve collected that day, or trying to find one of your cards that does not have scribbled notes on it. One networking tip is to have your business cards in your left pocket, and everyone else’s cards in your right pocket. Always have a pen available and take notes from your conversations. When you’ve said, “I will call you next week and set an appointment,” make a note of what you’ve said you’d do and follow through.

Speaking of business cards, yours should include your name, phone number, PO Box or address, website and/or MySpace address, and your e-mail address. And make sure it’s all easy to read. Avoid fancy icons such as music notes, unless it’s your company logo, and always have your business cards with you at all times. You never know when you will meet someone in the business.

A NEW technique with business cards is to get a QR (Quick Response) code and have on your card. I have one on the back of my business cards. With the i-nigma app on an iPhone, the phone quickly scans the QR Code, then directly connects with my website www.doakturner.com The QR code is a black and white square. Google QR codes and find the best site for you to generate your own QR code for YOUR site.

Your business card should have your website – YOUR DOMAIN on it and your email address should be your first name at your domain as an example doak@doakturner.com

Other tips at www.nashvillemuse.com/resources page.

Get out there and network – have your Music Business cards and build relationships in the music business!

This is the Second Part of the Resources for Songwriters in a blog a couple days ago. I recommend the following books to every songwriter and artist! Invest the time to read and learn. as my friend, Ralph Murphy says, “Knowledge Is Power” and great knowledge for the music industry is in these resources!

If you have favorite songwriting books, please leave comments and recommendations in the comment section!

To subscribe to the blog – go to the RSS in the right hand corner and click on the RSS!

http://tasteofcountry.com/keith-urban-songwriting-video/

Keith Urban shares advice to songwriters! The Taste Of Country e-zine is a great resource to keep up with country artists, learn about what is happening in the industry – subscribe to the e-zine Today!

Keith was in Nashville about ten years before his first artist deal. He is a study of persistence and never giving up on a dream. Keith played The Bluebird, Douglas Corner and other venues, networking and writing songs and developing his craft! The guy did not have it easy when he came to town – but kept his eyes on the prize – something we all must do on our journey!

Another site with interviews from songwriters, artists, PROs, publishers and other music business professionals is www.musicstartshere.org

What are your favorite sites to learn about the music industry? Add your comments!

I receive e-mails about every week from out of town songwriters asking for advice. I was just like you as I started writing lyrics in 1989, came to town for a CRS radio convention in 1995 and 1996. I found out about NSAI in 1996 and life changed – I had people to help me.

I always send suggestions to those out of town songwriters and will share it here: Please feel free to add your own suggestions. The next blog will include some of my favorite songwriting books that I suggest you read to learn about the craft and business of songwriting.

I got an e-mail today from someone in Nashville looking for a booking agency. Below are ideas for artists who are looking for someone to book them I invite your feedback and suggestions:

WHAT artists are doing what YOU want to do? WHO do they work with?? Who is their booking agency? HOW many shows has your band played? Can you travel 50 or 100 miles a weekend – find venues out of Nashville to play for money and develop fans.

Booking agents and managers work off percentages – how much money are you generating and why would someone want to work with you if they cannot make the money? Sometimes they believe and want to see you succeed, other times they only want someone that is already making the money!

HOW MANY FANS, How many CDs have you sold. If the answer is not many, why would someone want to spend time booking a band with no results as opposed to an artist that tours, has a fan base, selling CDs and merch?

Research IEBA, what about the Nashville Talent Directors? There are resources on Music Row! How many professional organizations are you involved in Nashville where the pros belong to so you can build relationships??

Are you a NSAI member, do you go to their meetings and involved in that organization? Have you had your 2 meetings in the past years with the pros to ask questions? Send in your songs for evaluations, attend the Thursday night meetings to learn and network?

Go sign up and tell Sheree and Tali at NSAI TODAY! If you ARE a member – the last time you used NSAI resources, had the meetings, attended workshops, pitched your songs, networked and asked the pros at NSAI about your goals for your music journey?

You can do whatever you want – starts with knowledge and taking steps! Use your time learning the craft and business of songwriting, having the songs so when you are out there – your songs get the attention! Get with the pros at NSAI – without the songs – what do ya have as an artist?

When is the last time you met with your PRO as in ASCAP, SESAC or BMI??

Are you a NARAS or CMA member??

The resources are on Music Row – WHAT will YOU do to get involved and use the resources?

Have you watched the videos on www.musicstartshere.org with the pros? Artists, musicians, songwriters, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC??

What are you doing to learn how the industry works??

ONLINE?? Face book will NOT get you very much – “friends” yes – but those who will buy your music, attend your shows?

ONLINE – attend Charles Alexander’s Rock Your Net workshops – one starts next week. Look him up! That would be a great investment for you!

Read Ariel Hyatt’s book – “Nine Weeks To Music Success” book! www.arielpublicity.com

That is what a booking agent is looking for to sign an act – results of a hard working artist already out there taking action! Are you REALLY prepared for that showcase that can have a booking agent want to book you, staking their reputation on the line?

Our journey is long as a songwriter or in the music business – a long way to our big goals and dreams – understatement, I know.

However an idea to keep us on the journey – Yeas Of The Day!

Idea – keep a journal of something positive that happened every day – perhaps a phone call, you met someone that was nice or may be a help in the biz or life, you started a song, You practiced guitar, piano, did a vocal exercise, attended an event that was cool, you read something of interest or it inspired you, you played a song out or played for someone in the industry.ANYTHING counts as long as it is positive! What happened good yesterday for you or write for the day in your Yeas Of The Day journal!

Everyday – something happens – look for the good and perhaps make it great! What happened today or yesterday that was a YEA Of THE DAY? Keep that journal, look back from time to time to say – YEA – I will stay on the journey and celebrate along the way to my big dreams and goals! YYEEAAAAA!!!

Let me know YOUR thoughts on Yeas Of The Day!