For singer-songwriters who play originals and covers, here’s things to consider when venturing out:
1. Collaborate
Everyone teaches you something. Play with people better than you. When all else fails, be that person for someone else.
You can prepare for collaboration by working on musical skills you might not have needed–or even thought of–as a solo act. Here’s some vocabulary and things to know:
- BPM – The beats per minute, an exact tempo of each tune. Play along to your new friend the metronome. Do you follow it the whole time? (Extra credit for trying your tunes at various tempos to find the ones that suit the song best).
- Chord Charts or Lead Sheets – Making a basic chord chart for your songs is a must. A jazz fake book is a good place to see examples of these. Each measure has a chord name above it. (Chord charts and lead sheet are kind of like soda and soda pop and pop, it depends on where you are from for what to call them). You can make chord charts for your songs, and you can follow along to other songs using a chord chart = magic.
Example of a chord chart for a simple folk tune, notice that it is 16 bars or measures.
Almost everything is in 4, 8 or 16 bar sections.
Some collaborating musicians also like the lyrics to follow along to. You can write chords placed over the lyrics, such as:
Now that you know how to stay in tempo (BPM) and read and make your chord charts, you can play with the band!
- Pay the band members equally for live shows and/or rehearsals. If you are the bandleader paying out, pay everyone the same.
- Set List – Make this in advance. Time it to the minute. Venues and sound engineers love it when you stay within your set time! Write or print it out and hand it to fellow musician(s) before the show. A set list is also handy when rehearsing.
- Find Their Why: Collaborators are often looking to do at least one of these: playing shows, making money, achieving the zen of artistic satisfaction, a chance to simply do their art form, etc. What are the goals of your collaborators, and what are your goals?
2. Are You Happy with Writing Songs for Song’s Sake…or do you Crave a Hit?
When you write a song for an established artists, it must be in the running to be a hit. In this way, writing for others becomes a litmus test if your song is meant for the masses, or if it’s just your own artistic expression. Ideally it’s both of course, but when you’re ready to write for the masses, and not just yourself, get serious and get ready to spend years at your craft. We recommend SongTown.com. For the record, there’s everything in self expression, but it’s different than aiming to write a hit.
3. Co-Writing
Often when crafting a truly great song, you will want to have the power of more minds, and this is the wonder of co-writing with other musicians and/or producers. While the archetype of the magical songwriter who can craft the perfect song all by themselves, many songwriters especially hit songwriters, co-write with songwriters, producers and artists. This is it’s own animal and you need to be open-minded, professional and try a lot of co-writes to get your chops up. It’s the art of bouncing ideas around. And killing your darlings.
3. Establishing Yourself as an Artist
If you go the route of being the performer yourself, you’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s easy to get overwhelmed so keep it simple (yes this list is pared down!):
Have amazing music that makes people seek you out.
- Start Offline. Do not go anywhere near online. I repeat, stay away from the Internet. Set down your phone. Slowly, slowly…Get “Old School” and Hone Your Sound: There’s a lot out there about artist branding, from colors, to merch, logo and branding, almost all of which is online…but wait a minute before you post. It’s not your web graphics but your sound which is your biggest calling card. Work on it relentlessly until you love the way you sound. Then go from there. Many artists put the cart before the horse (myself included at times) focusing on websites, marketing, photos, and sweating over feeling the need to put in the proverbial 10,000 hours; while craft is important, one hour well-spent on honing your actual sound can save you years of repeating a watered-down version of your potent self. You must make your music something you are thrilled with (before you start to market it). It can’t be overstated to not fall for the hype of the Internet to be famous online and chase likes and follows, when working on your sound is what will draw people to you and keep you excited as well. Then, working on your craft for years is what will make things solid in the long-term.
- Your sound informs your look. Once you’ve got a sound you love, remember that music is a visual sport. Go crazy on Pinterest and make a vision board with different looks. Find photos you think are cool. See what you can borrow for your artist look. Remember genius steals.
- Once you’ve got your sound and look (shades are optional)…play live and make the videos, websites, social media posts, audio, releases, and all the content that you can present online. It can be overwhelming to try to check every box. When presenting yourself in photos, video or writing, remember:
People want to know what they are getting. The more clear you can be about what you do, and what you sound like, the better. You can’t be everything to everyone. Be direct, descriptive, and honest.
- Video: Accurate and Polished (i.e. not shaky video from a well-meaning friend) – Once you’ve got reference videos from live shows to watch as game tapes, consider going from good video to great video and what that means to you. One option f you can afford to go to a recording studio and make the video is to use the crystal clear studio audio, along with great, well-lit video footage to showcase you doing your magic. Taking video from home or a place with good acoustics works too, but the sound needs to be the best possible. Good luck! One thing to make sure you include:
One of your videos must show what you do at a live show. If you have more than one type of live show, make a sample video for each type of show you do. Booking people do not care about your studio sound, they want to know what you sound like on a stage.
- Web presence for booking: Yes, you need to have your website and/or social media, videos, and audio appear when someone searches you online (make sure the name is easy to spell and remember for your social media handles) for friends and fans to find you and keep up with you. There are many platforms to use, as well as your website, but you don’t need a ton of bells and whistles here, in terms of booking. Booking people (such as people booking venues and events) just want to know: is this person/act reliable, are they credible, will they show up, will they sound like how they present themselves online, can I count on them, etc. Reliability is the #1 attribute you want to get across in your web presence for booking (and collaborating).
- Stage presence. Record your shows (or practices) and watch the game tape. Do it until you never cringe and think, hey that person is pretty cool.
4. Playing Out
DETERMINE WHAT TO PLAY FOR LIVE SHOWS
- Originals: Original music can be played almost anywhere as there’s no license needed by the venue. There are songwriter showcases, or DIY booking options, like house concerts, or asking a coffeeshop if you can set up in a corner. To play large venues, you need to be doing something very special with your original music, have well-known popular songs, etc. There’s more likely to be venues that are not bars here in this category like cafes, farmer’s markets, small venues, etc. You are sharing your art.
- Covers: When performing covers at a venue, the venue needs to have an ASCAP License. This makes it legal for covers to be performed there. There’s venues that want cover bands or cover acts to play songs people recognize, mostly to keep them in the venue and drinking alcohol. You are providing a service.
- “A Program”: You can create a program, which is different than a live show, such as “A Tribute to Composer XYZ” or “Women’s Songs Throughout the 20th Century” sometimes you can include stories, spoken word, or historical facts in your presentation. This is for libraries, community centers, senior facilities, etc. which are truly booking a “program” and not just a show. You are sharing your knowledge.
How to Book Your Shows: Where are artists/act similar to you play in your area? Pretend you are a fan that loves the kind of music you play. Where would you go to see it? Whenever possible go to a venue you are thinking of performing at and watch a show. Tip the servers, get the vibe, and see what the club is like from an audience perspective. You can more accurately see if your act fits in, and how you might hone your act to suit the venue more. Talk to someone on site, and when you email the venue, say who you talked to. Venue booking people and owners love to hear that you were actually THERE, spending your hard earned money at their club. They will at least read the email.
- What do you offer to them? What is your draw? Does your music fit the venue? How many people can you bring? Is your act similar to the acts that play there already?
- Stage Plot / Input List – venues will often want this in advance. You can make these with graphics or it doesn’t have to be fancy. As long as you can say “2 vocal mics and 2 DIs” or “1 vocal mic, drums, bass amp and guitar amp” you are at least able to get the point across. Know what your tech needs are and be ready to tell the venue, and make sure they can accommodate your act (so you know if you need to bring anything additional or choose another venue).
- Audio varies greatly at clubs especially in the songwriter genre, but it is usually one of two scenarios: #1 You bring all of your sound gear and just need an outlet. When there is no PA, such as a cafe where you are setting up, you need to bring your own amps or mini-PA, mics, mic stand, etc. OR #2 it is a venue that regularly has bands and they have a full PA, including mics, DI boxes, mic stands, monitors, sound tech, etc. A songwriter often needs far less than a band, so a venue that normally has bands can easily accommodate your set-up.
- Working with Festivals: There’s often a theme to festivals and you either need a large draw or to fit the theme. You are sharing your work as part of a larger theme.
5. Copyrighting Music
Yes, please copyright your music. See copyright.gov for more info. Also, join either ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, which are all performing rights organizations. You can even start a Publishing Company (but don’t have to) when you sign up for one of these. This is how royalties from your music (which is streamed or played on the radio) finds its way back to you…through your registration with one of these organizations. If you don’t care strongly enough about the song to spend money copyrighting it, don’t put it out.
6. Actually, You Already Know What You’re Doing
The people that went to music school have jobs. But you, dear songwriter, you have songs! You can do this by intuition alone. Yes, you really can. Don’t fall for the fallacy that learning music theory or guitar licks or a mode is going to help your songwriting. While you may need music facts to communicate with other musicians, music theory is an ethereal Neverland that’s like the Wizard of Oz. After going around the circle of 5ths, and you realize that it’s just the same thing 12 times, you’re going to feel like Dorothy realizing it’s all in your backyard. Save your money.
7. Go Where the Acoustics Are Good
In this world of digital recording, where you can add reverb and effects, don’t forget that listening to yourself in an acoustic space is one of the rare wonders of the world. Find a stairwell, or a quiet place, and play.
More tips on the way…