Career Songwriter

Songwriting Conference and Workshop Highlights

During the summer months I usually take time away from writing to teach at various conferences and workshops around the country and abroad. Conferences such as those offered by Berklee College, NSAI, and other such opportunities are great ways to immerse yourself in the industry when you haven’t the time or resources to do so throughout the rest of the year. Many enlist music industry professionals to talk candidly about a certain side of the industry, or invite artists or songwriters to shed some light on how to break in. Others are focused on songwriting or vocalizing, concentrated 5-14 day experiences to step up your game in those areas. I’d like to tell you about a few of the conferences I taught recently, should you be interested in finding more about them. There are many opportunities out there, so I suggest pinpointing what you’re looking for and how much time and money you can commit before making any reservations.
For two weeks in July, the Grammy Foundation holds a camp for high school students, aptly named “Grammy Camp.” The camp is open to any student exhibiting exceptional skill in music and interested in pursuing a career in the industry. Held at the University of Southern California, students enroll in a specific stream: singer/songwriter, music production, music engineering, concert promotion, music journalism, or the study of their principal instrument: bass, drums, electric guitar, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet, or trombone in the scope of private study and ensembles. The camp culminates in a performance at the beautiful El Rey theater in Los Angeles by each singer/songwriter of an original song worked up with an ensemble. Select students also have the opportunity to record at the legendary Capitol Records.

Another camp I’d like to mention is Seth Rigg’s Speech Level Singing conference in Los Angeles. Prior to the conference I was only vaguely aware of Seth and his techniques. Over the last several decades Mr. Riggs has worked with some of the biggest names in contemporary music, and so naturally I was curious what makes his techniques so popular, revolutionary and even controversial to the world of singing. During our hands-on judging sessions (of which I was on staff to critique the original songs) I witnessed vocalist improve their pitch dramatically by applying simple feedback from certified instructors. I heard breaks diminish and ranges improve in literally 30 seconds of instruction. I realize I’m making it sound ridiculously simple, but I am ridiculously impressed by the simplicity of the techniques and how easily students are able to apply them from certified instructors. Should you be a singer/songwriter looking to improve your voice, you might check out more information on SLS and see if it’s right for you.

This past week I taught at Berklee College of Music’s Summer Songwriting Workshops. Held in mid-August each year, the workshops attract between 100 and 200 songwriters of all ages looking to improve their craft, play their songs for faculty and staff, and connect with other musicians. Leading the workshops are Chair of the Songwriting Department, Jack Perricone, Professor of Lyric Writing Pat Pattison, other faculty members Jon Aldrich, Henry Gaffney, Mark Simos, Susan Cattaneo, Sarah Brindell, songwriter Dana Calitri, and myself. The workshops are held on Berklee’s Back Bay Campus, from Wednesday through Saturday with a short closing ceremony Saturday afternoon. For anyone interested in boosting their creativity and songwriting chops while expanding your understanding of the industry, this is a great opportunity. Information is available on Berklee College’s website.

If conferences or workshops seem like a luxury to you, you might consider giving yourself a songwriting vacation – a holiday to write, that is. These conferences and many more (see NSAI.com) operate for the purpose of regenerating the creative fire within, connecting songwriters with experts in their craft, and facilitating professional relationships. Some workshops last for a day, some for 2 weeks, and can be a rejuvenating step in advancing our hobby or career. Teaching at them is a rare and special opportunity that I consider a privilege and a pleasure. I am glad to be able to learn from my students, and spread what I know to grow my own career and of those around me.

Happy writing,
Andrea Stolpe

I recently received an email from a songwriter bringing up a very important idea in the world of songwriting called ‘write what you know.’ It sounds so obvious, but in fact it’s one of the most difficult ideas when trying to make a living writing songs.

I’d like to describe this idea of ‘writing what you know’ in terms of my own experiences. As an unsigned writer in a new town trying to establish a career as a songwriter, my ears were keenly perked to the styles of music and lyric that rode the radio waves in my industry. Back then it was Nashville, and so I my plan was to dive right into the types of songs that were making it as singles and basically write my version of them. This was always a frustrating endeavor. Just when I’d think I’d get the groove down, acceptable lyric material, and some good melodic ideas, I’d realize I’d be writing too close to the original. Even if I managed to draw a clear line between my tune and the one that inspired it, I was left with something that was an excellent caricature rather than an innovative trend-setter. Another problem was that the songs I’d be attempting to write like were old by the time they were released. I was always 9 months to a year behind the trends. The final blow was realizing that while an artist may have had a hit single with a song, they wouldn’t necessarily want to release another a year later with the same message and sound. It was a good exercise in capturing the essence of a song, but a poor direction for writing truly believable and innovative tunes.

As is often the case with new writers, it took me awhile to figure out that the key to my success as a songwriter would be in writing music and lyric that moved me. When I wrote what was important or significant to me, I ended up with a product I was happy with and an experience that moved my listeners. Understanding how my songs could fit within the commercial market took time and intense listening and study. Sometimes my writing would sway on the side of art songs, expressing my own artist’s voice but falling short of any commercial potential. Sometimes I’d flip-flop the other way, hitting the commercial elements but losing a bit of my own artistry. The process of hitting both the commercial market and expressing my own voice as an artist took many songs to grasp, and I’m still faced with the challenge each time I sit down to write. My most successful songs are those where I become the character, I step into the emotions of the singer. The topics though not always a frame from my own life, are deeply personal. I project how I would feel, move, think, and be in the situation I present in the song. That’s quite a vulnerable expression and takes some level of guts. More than that, it takes a level of honesty, revealing some intimate emotions I might only share with close friends. But that’s the power of music, isn’t it? It connects us at our deepest fibers where we may be uncomfortable connecting any other way.

This is where the idea of ‘write what you know’ comes into play. I may not know much about tractors, ex-husbands, or dive bars, and if I attempt to write country music from any of those perspectives, I may wind up with a fairly watered down idea. It’s not the theme that makes a song settle into a particular genre. It’s the artist/writer who draws from his/her own experiences giving that theme believability. At least that’s how I see it.

When I write, lyrics are a very important part of my songs. Relationships are a common theme in my tunes. That’s not to say that I often write love songs or break-up songs, but to say that the themes I tend to know about revolve around personal connection. It is an extension of what I value in life. In this sense, every song I write is deeply personal whether it’s an expression of an actual event or something imagined.

Think about your own life and what you hold close to you. What do you know a lot about? If you work a day-job, immerse yourself in a hobby, give your time, money, your resources to campaigns you care about, how do those feed into the perspective with which you see the world? What if you write from that perspective, creating connection from where you are now? Recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary has sent thousands of songs to the tops of the charts – and the bottoms of people’s hearts.

I hope you find the courage to write what you know. I truly believe that as writers we share the most valuable part of ourselves when we write from a place of true experience. The audience can feel our honesty - just as they can feel us withholding the truth. Begin to believe that you don’t need to become someone else to the audience than who you are now. Write what you know, because no one knows it better than you.

When I began writing songs, I remember the fear of sitting down in front of a blank page. There was a certain amount of trembling expectation, a sense of humility as I’d attempt to express myself through lyric and music. Nowadays, I still feel those same jitters, but with a great deal more foresight and confidence as I move through the writing process. Looking back, I realize it was not one moment of realization, one tool of the craft, or even one song that single-handedly sparked a growth spurt. It was the culmination of many beginnings, many first tries, failed bridges, stumped second verses, and flopped choruses that allowed me to emerge an experienced writer (who still sometimes writes failed bridges, stalled second verses, and flopped choruses).

I’ll be the first to admit there is a lot left to learn. I hope there are songs I have not yet written that will blow my other songs out of the water. I know there are ideas I have no yet had because I lack the experiences and the breadth of mind to conceive of them. But, that’s the beauty of an art that evolves as I evolve.

That said, I am sometimes asked what some of the most common pitfalls of new writers are. I’m sure the question is of particular interest so that those asking can evade the pitfalls and skip that step in the process of honing the craft. However, the most common pitfall is not writing frequently enough to understand where the other pitfalls lie, and so it’s a bit of a catch-22.

If you are writing a song a week, or at least a few songs a month, you’ll find yourself moving along a path to becoming better. Some of the scenery you might encounter along the way is generalized lyrics, strings of songs that are beginning to all sound the same, a lack of ideas, complex or difficult melodies that fall short of being memorable, disconnected harmonic progressions, etc. Which combinations of these depend on our musicality, training, our influences, our listening habits, and so on. With practice, we can improve no matter what our foundation.

But one particular pitfall I remember so clearly from my own experience (or lack thereof), had to do with the lyric content of the songs. I wrote the typical themes, love lost, love found, being the angry dump-ee, and being the self-righteous dump-er. As a whole, I suppose the lyrics weren’t particularly bad, but just not particularly memorable. The themes were universal enough, but what was missing was heart. My heart wasn’t in them. As years went by and I started writing for life events and experiences closer to me such as death in the family, or a celebratory song for a wedding, an interesting shift happened. Instead of the songs becoming less accessible because they were so much more specific to my situation, they were becoming more universal because they were specific and purposeful. It didn’t matter that my description of canning peaches as a little girl with my Grandma wasn’t a universal idea. What did matter was that by revealing personal and vulnerable details with the listener I connected us for a moment in time. I was singing about real situations, believable situations.

Now, one could argue that songs about canning peaches with my Grandma aren’t commercial. Indeed, it may not fit the mold. However, while I was writing detailed songs about my own life experiences, I was becoming fluent with a tool. I was involving words and situations I didn’t normally use in love songs, and taking risks with content beyond the ‘we met, we got married, we had a child’ formula. Eventually, that tool became a part of my process without my having to consciously think about its use. That’s the whole point with studying a songwriting process and gaining new tools. The tools themselves are merely vehicles for getting where we want to go. We’ll employ different tools in different songs, depending on what we need to accomplish.

Whatever pitfalls that keep us all from writing what we feel are our greatest songs, all can be conquered or at least minimized by exercising our writing muscle. Write often, and write without hesitation.

There are few better ways to enhance your skills and connect with other writers than joining a writing group. A past student of my Berkleemusic.com online classes has informed me that an online group is forming at www.objectwriting.com, and interested writers can join. If you’re not familiar with object writing, pick up a copy of Pat Pattison’s Writing Better Lyrics, or my book, Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling. Or, don’t delay and just introduce yourself as a new writer interested in giving object writing a try. It’s simple, really, using the senses of touch, taste, sound, sight, smell and movement to direct our stream-of-consciousness writing. Groups like these are so powerful because they inspire us when we’re dry of ideas, create connection among artists, and greatly improve our skills in ways we’d never experience alone. If you’ve been doing much of your writing in a closet at home, try breaking out of it and joining this group.

A question I get asked a lot as a working songwriter is “What else can I be doing to grow my music career while I’m writing songs?” It’s true, the most important thing you can be doing as a songwriter is writing songs. But as you’re writing, there are activities you’ll want to adopt that will help open doors for those songs to be heard. After all, feverishly writing songs without an outlet to play them for other people can eventually thwart our creativity altogether.
For the next several weeks, I’d like to post a weekly blog with an activity you can add into your schedule that I hope will help you grow as an artist and musician. Even if you perform the activity for 10 minutes a day, such as picking up a guitar or sitting down at the piano, you are building connections between your life and your creativity. I’ll also separate the activities into business and craft, so you can identify what activities might benefit the work you do in the writing room, and what benefits you outside that circle. Eventually, these activities will all run together as you knit a lifestyle that fosters creativity and connection in the music world. I encourage you to tailor the ideas to your own environment and run with any extra ideas you might have. Let’s get started!

Business:
Check your local paper for who’s playing at a nearby music venue. Try to attend one show this week of an act that is similar to your writing style or the style you aspire to. If you aren’t familiar with any of the artists or venues in your area, pick one at random. If you have a musical friend or co-writer you haven’t connected with in awhile, ask him/her to come along. If you have family or work related responsibilities, consider how you can take your family along, or schedule your meeting to include the show.

After the performance: If you enjoyed the show, introduce yourself to the band or artist afterwards. Mention that you are a songwriter and that you enjoyed their music. Be sure to ask when they’ll be playing again…..and plan to attend.

Craft:
Pick up any newspaper, magazine, or book, and choose an article or page at random. Begin reading, and as you do, consider each phrase - no matter how insignificant - as the title of a song. What might you write sparked from the ideas of those titles?