Amazon.com Widgets Songwriformation, a Division of Musformation | Daily Musician's News, Tips, Gear, Business & Gossip

Leading With the Chorus

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)


There's a story about the Beatles and their producer George Martin from early in their career, at the start of their long line of hit songs and before they had totally mastered their craft. They were getting ready to record what would become "She Loves You," and as usual, Lennon and McCartney brought the song in and played it for Martin to see if he had any changes. And he suggested a simple one - instead of starting with the verse, start with the chorus.

 

Take a listen to the track above and it's easy to hear why Martin thought this - the chorus grabs you right away, it's super catchy, and the song is short enough that it doesn't get tiresome. By contrast, try starting the track at the 0:10 mark with the verse. Not bad, but it doesn't smack you across the face in the same way.

The Insanity Of Licensing

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Record All Your Ideas Right Away

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
hilarious_is_this_thing_on_tshirt-p235514716799430444t5hl_400.jpgEver find yourself walking down the street when you suddenly realize that a song idea is forming in your head? Maybe it's a chorus hook or a verse melody, even a keyboard line for a song you've already started to record. Once it's become solidified enough in your head, do the smart thing and record it immediately. It's easy to say to yourself that you'll remember it later, or even that you'll record it once you get home, but the truth is, you probably won't. Or more irritatingly, you'll kind of remember it, but know that something just isn't quite right.
PublicRecord.png
The Public Record is an awesome site where you can do remix collaborations with groups like Filter, DeadMau5, Methods of Mayhem and many more. You download the stems from their site and then do your remix thing. Once you are done you upload it back to their site. This gives you not only an amazing opportunity to see how some of your idols produce their tracks, but also have a chance to get exposure for your awesome remix skills alongside artists people pay attention to! This looks to be a great opportunity for anyone who wants to show off their remix skills.

So You Wanna Be A Musician

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)


If you keep up with this blog you know that ASCAP regularly makes some of the stupidest business moves we have ever seen. To accompany their stupid business moves they have now made what are probably some of the stupidest videos we have ever seen, in order to explain what they do. Recently, ASCAP's Paul Williams launched an attack on Creative Commons and claimed that he would not debate Lawrence Lessig on the merits of his attack saying he had to focus his time on helping to promote ASCAP. Looks like he is kicking serious ass in the promotion department since he is the director of these videos. For a more serious discussion of ASCAP's pathetic ways check out TechDirt or read some of their old rap sheet from us, then get to burning your membership card and moving to another organization.

Making The Beat: Lady Gaga - Poker Face

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)


What goes into creating a pop song? A lot more than most people think. Even if pop isn't your style, understanding the subtle layers that great pop (yes, like Lady Gaga) achieve can be useful for most anyone. Here a YouTube user takes a basic DAW (Reason) and does a very fine job of recreating the song "Poker Face".  Don't laugh, we know you sing this when no one is looking. 
orchestra2.jpgIn these days of endless plugins and synthetic sounds, sometimes having the real thing can mean all the difference in the world.  If orchestral is the sound you're going for on your recording it can often seem ridiculously impossible to organize people, record the parts and absorb all the costs.  Christian Howes String Productions attempts to offer remote recording of strings and orchestral arrangements at a very affordable price.  The company offers everything from violin solos to 60-piece orchestras, and same day service is often available.  Whether experimenting with different arrangements or tackling that indulgent Sgt. Pepper-like album you've always wanted to try, Christian Howes String Productions is an awesome service that is worth checking out.  For samples of their work and more information, check out their site.

Announcement - We Now Have a Forum!

| | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Musformation.gif
Finally! We now have a forum where you can discuss the new music business, gear, websites and promotion tactics for your music. Todd and I often talk about our disgust with many of the forums today in the music biz. Unfortunately, mods let trolls and negativity run rampant in fear of alienating their users instead of trying to create a positive and productive environment. Our goal with the Musformation Forum is to curate discussions that are positive and intelligent in the music community. Feel free to go there and discuss anything about music. Enjoy.
Thounds looks to be an interesting way to collaborate with other musicians online. With interesting social features the site looks like it can open up some fun opportunities.

Dropping the Bass In and Out

| | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)


Sometimes the right approach for the bass part of a song is to not have any bass at all. As the following examples demonstrate, delaying the entry of the bass or dropping it out for one section of a song can make the instrument's impact much more pronounced than maintaining a constant bass presence. Let's look at some variations of this approach.

First up is the Rolling Stones 1973 classic "Star Star" (AKA Starfucker). The band makes it through a full-verse before the bass comes in (33 seconds into the song), and it adds a nice subtle lift to the song as well as keeping the verse from getting repetitive. Note that this late entry differs from an introductory passage with just one or two instruments. In SF, the full band, including drums, is playing for the first verse except for the bass. The Stones use this approach in "Honky Tonk Women" as well, except that the bass enters in the chorus.



While some people may throw up in their mouth with the idea of their fans being able to have a say in the songwriting process, no one can deny it is an interesting idea which could lead to some interesting results. Merge.FM is software that can facilitate this relationship and can be an interesting opportunity to bond with fans.

Jermaine Dupri Making A Beat With Maschine

| | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
FredatConsole.jpgAfter beginning his career in France, Fred Kevorkian has been working in New York for over 20 years.  Initially an audio engineer at the internationally renown Sear Sound, he also has a thorough background in electronics as well as studio design.  Since branching off and working as a mastering engineer, Fred has worked with some incredibly impressive clientele including Ryan Adams, Iggy Pop, The White Stripes and The Walkmen.  Currently working out of Avatar Studios, we got together with Fred recently and dove deep into what mastering really is and how you can improve your recordings. 
<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Contact  |  Advertise  |   Follow Us On Facebook   Follow Us On Twitter   Follow Us On Myspace   Follow Us with RSS Feeds   Follow Us On YouTube









It is no secret that online radio is one of the best ways to promote your music. With services like Pandora, Last.FM, Jango, Blip.FM and other services not only can you get your music before the ears of listeners who like the type of music you make, but you can also get paid for your plays as you begin to dominate the online radio airwaves.






It all comes down to this. As you come down to entering the studio and then recording your songs you are now tasked with one of the most difficult balancing acts ever known to man (ok... well maybe to musicians). We have written countless articles on how to avoid many of the pitfalls many musicians fall into when they go to capture their material. Read on and make something great for us all to hear.









With everyday, as the gatekeepers die and the major labels lose power it becomes more and more about just having a great song. This being the case you better start brushing up on your skills! We have assembled a lot of advice and tools for you to use to write better songs on the other side of this link.






When trying to break your music out of your circle of friends and out to the whole world, you are inevitably going to have to take on the hat of doing some publicity for your own music. As you begin to take on this large task there is numerous bits of advice that you may have overlooked on how to do this effectively. We have assembled numerous articles on how to take over the world of music and get it out there.






Now that you actually have songs recorded you need to get them out to the world to be heard. With every day that passes more and more amazing tools become available for artists to do this without the help of a label. We keep an up to date guide of everything you could ever want to know about what you should do in order to make the right choice on how to get your music out to the world.






Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, YouTube all become more and more important everyday (well maybe not Myspace, but contrary to much chatter it is still important to know the most up to date ways to make Myspace feed your other pages). We keep musicians up to date with the most current ways to use all of these social networks to promote your music. If you are not reading our guides to social networks you are missing out on the crucial knowledge of how to promote your music with the most up to date techniques.






What separates the winners and losers is how well you handle playing live and then getting your show on the road. Playing live and touring may seem easy but there are countless pitfalls that one can encounted over time. We show you all the new tricks of the trade as well as wise advice that has been passed down over the years.






Managing a group of people and keeping everyone on the same page and motivated is one of the biggest make or break factors of any sucessful group. There are many emerging tools that can make this easier and we sort through them, all the while dispensing valuable advice on how to deal with your members with minimal chaos.






Getting covered by blogs is fast becoming one of the things that everyone wants to figure out. Sadly, there is not a lot of information out there on how to do just this. We have quite a few articles with the techniques we use to get the bands we work with on to some of the top blogs out there.