How to Make It in the Music Industry

Learning to play new instrument or a very technical line on an instrument you know well can be fraught with frustration. Both complicated instruments and complicated parts have steep learning curves, otherwise they would not be complicated. Many people take up an instrument but give up too early: if they’d committed themselves enough just to learn the basics, they might very well have progressed further.

The reason I write this article is because I am learning to play piano.  I am already an accomplished guitarist, but this is entirely new to me. I am a poor reader of music, and can only read it very slowly. Nevertheless, I practice continuously and to a metronome. My progress so far has been quite astonishing considering my lack of experience, but ‘raw talent’ is something I am having to do without.

One finds frustration in learning many new things, but the difference between success and failure often comes in preventing the frustration from building a barrier. For an instrument, it is usually the feeling that your fingers do not do what you ask of them, or it seems impossible or just sounds terrible. One can tell if they are becoming frustrated if:

• They stop breathing, or breath becomes quite shallow.
• They repeat the bit they’re working on endlessly but while staring into space.
• They feel like they’re getting annoyed or not getting anywhere.

There is nothing wrong with a little frustration. Most new things can lead to a little resistance as we learn them. It’s only important to control it and this is done by not letting it build up. The answer is to stop, periodically, and check one’s breathing. If breathing is shallow, relax and let breathing become normal, and then resume. If it seems like too much effort, have a break of just a few minutes, and then get back to it. Don’t give up or try and put it off, doing so will only make the miserableness last longer!

But remember, practice makes perfect!

In this article we are going to discuss a very simple concept, that is question and response melodies. We are not, in this article, referring the questions and answers with respect to lyrics.

Usually melodies appear in couplets, or pairs, where the melody is different. So if a verse had four lines you might have (in a relatively simple song):
Line 1 Melody 1
Line 2 Melody 2
Line 3 Melody 1
Line 4 Melody 2

where Melody 1 is the question and Melody 2 in the response. This means that Melody 1 (question) will end on a high note (like when asking a question, and this leaves the melody ‘unresolved’), and Melody 2 (response) ends on a lower or root note (the ’solution’).

Question and Response is a very natural structure and is present in most melodic music, including classical, jazz and pop. It is worth mentioning that most composers will have formed melodies in this way naturally, without realising that they have done so. Therefore it is probably best to be aware of question & response when writing, but without directly forcing it upon any melody or song.

Saturday was the day of the festival. On entry I was frisked and had my guitar case searched. Apparently the bouncer wanted to know if I was ‘carrying a gun’. This was somewhat unsettling but I pretended it was OK.

The event was held at Renaissance Rooms in Vauxhall. This is large club consisting of two rooms, one which is effectively a nightclub, and a second which a stage/club. The event took place in the afternoon, on the same afternoon as the Notting Hill Carnival.

For the first time in a long time, London had a glorious day of sunshine, so this seriously affected the attendance at the festival, which was held indoors. The capacity of the place is rated at 2500, but I doubt there were more than 250 people at the height of the festival. Apparently Channel 4 were about, but I didn’t see them.

We were ushered into the VIP area, where we were given food and a (single) free drink. I went down to watch some acts play, most of which were of questionable quality. An act failed to come on stage when called, so suddenly I found myself being told ‘You’re on, now!’, and someone was rushing my guitar backstage for me.

On stage, there was nowhere to plugin the guitar, and made do with a mic plug on a dj mixer. Sound quality was rubbish, though our performance was OK. It was all over pretty quick, and we played again in the VIP lounge straight afterwards.  Once again performance was satisfactory but not astonishing.

All in all, it was a good experience, which was largely held up by large failings on the part of the organisers. I can’t berate them too much though, I suspect they will have lost lots of money that day.

On Thursday night I took to the microphone and played a little open mic in Ealing, West London. This was more for my benefit than that of the audience’s, but I wanted to get the practice. I felt quite relaxed and calm, which was good. There was some nice positive feedback from audience members, which is always nice, and helps build confidence. I played four songs in total, three originals and an Elvis cover (”But I can’t help falling in love with you…”). I was also fortunate enough to run into the brilliant photographer Ian Miller, who captured some great shots of the gig.

A friend captured the first song I played. I’d love to get some feedback so please let me know what you think.

Live at Finnegan’s Wake

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Egl5u7hT2Sg

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Egl5u7hT2Sg[/youtube]

Ok. From zero to hero in a fortnight? Well, not quite. If you read my article about the importance of socialising, you will have heard about my experience using Gumtree to meet musicians. In two weeks, this has resulted in:

• Meeting a fab soul singer.
• A new song being written inspired by my experiences.
• An open mic night performance.
• The playing of a festival, this weekend.
• Meeting attractive girls, and a music lawyer PA (never a bad thing).

“The playing of a festival?” you say. Like I said, not quite. We’re playing at the Black Gay Pride gig. It’s a large club with thousands of people in it, in Vauxhall. I’m neither gay nor black so I don’t know how I’ve ended up on this bill, but this will undoubtedly be the biggest gig I’ve played, so I’m not complaining. We’ve been given opening slot, and we’re also playing in the VIP lounge as well.

I will be taking photos and reporting back when possible!

If you’re interested, the soul singer I’m met and am playing with is Bonnie Freechyld.

This, ladies and gents, is more important than it seems. If your tunes are any good, you might find yourself the envy of less accomplished writers. This is a good thing, but it has it’s drawbacks. The main one is being ripped off. This is a bad thing because somebody else is benefiting from your work without you receiving your fair share of the credit. The ‘International Association of Songwriters’ cites a case in their guide where a budding songwriter sent a reputable music publishing company a demo, and some months later, a friend heard the entire first verse in a song on the radio. He had no proof of copyright, and needless to say the publisher had no recollection of the demo. Consequently, he had no case against them.

Getting Ripped Off By Your Mates

This happens more often that not. What can happen is that you play your song or idea to your friend, who is also a budding musician, and they think, “that idea is bloody fantastic”. Then, secretly, they use this idea, and heavily incorporate it into a song of their own. They play this song to lots of people, or record it, but never play it you, or are embarrassed or nervous to do so. This is darn right theft, but, there is a good reason behind it. Everybody is desperate in this game, and sometimes you just have better ideas than others. The feeling of desperation may overcome some people who really struggle with songwriting or creativity, and may lead to them leeching ideas out of frustration. So, the lesson is, be careful, and follow the instructions below.

Copyrighting Made Easy

When you write a song, it is copyrighted automatically as yours. But, from a legal perspective, you have to be able to prove that you wrote your song and when you wrote it.

The easiest, most common, oldest tried and tested way of doing this is super simple:

1. Write down your lyrics, and include your name on the same sheet.
2. Put in an envelope.
3. Include any recordings if you have any.
4. Seal the envelope.
5. Write your name and address on the front.
6. Put a stamp on it and post it to yourself.

The postmark, stamped by the post office, which includes the date, is proof enough in most legal eyes that you wrote the song on or before this date. If you have written a decent tune, this could mean the difference between making money of music, and being ‘oh-so-close’ and bitter for the rest of your days.

All artists need space in which to work. For writers, this is an office. For painters, a studio. It’s an environment where they can work undisturbed and uninhibited. This is true of musicians as well. The difference is that for musicians, the space is an audible space as well as a physical space. It’s pretty hard to write, play or sing in 100% practice mode if you know somebody else is listening. By definition, if somebody is listening, it is a performance, and you will be judged, either consciously or unconsciously.

When I’m really going for it, and practicing, I need my own space. I live in a double glazed, detached house on a quiet suburban road. That means that if nobody’s home, I can go for it as much as possible and not risk feeling stupid if I want to try something that didn’t work.

It’s pretty rare that nobody’s home, so consequently I have to work hard to try and practice around. I practice quietly when I know nobody’s nearby, or I lock myself in the conservatory which means the spill of sound into the house is pretty low.  We are currently renovating another house which stands empty most of the time, and so I can go and practice in there for the time being.

Sometimes I also practice in the earshot of people. I tend to practice pieces I’m already happy with, particularly ones that I have not performed out. I usually do this to fish for compliments and to gauge the reaction of people. It makes pretty good performance practice and can help to both highlight potential problems and improve confidence.

If somebody does catch you, and then mocks you or laughs at your expense, just ignore it. They aren’t any better than you; if they were, they wouldn’t laugh but would encourage you, so don’t be knocked down by it.

So in conclusion, if you find you can’t practice while others are around, do whatever you can in your power to find the time to practice while people are not around, and make the most of the time you do get.

All songs have a structure, whether intentional or not. Songs can have any kind of structure, although some are more common than others. Different kinds of music use different structures, be it jazz, classical, rock, hip hop or anything else. Songs can be completely different from each other but share a similar structure. Structure is particularly important because it gives the listener something to get their head around; music without some kind of structure is very unlikely to attract much attention.

The Bog Standard ‘Pop’ Song Structure

I want to discuss this song structure for two main reasons. One, because it is the most common. Two, because, in my experience, it works very well at maintaining listener interest, not matter what more pretentious artists might say.

It goes something like this:

Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus

Obviously there are no rules when it comes to songwriting, however this song structure has a knack of keeping the listener interested throughout, despite how often it is used. I have no idea why this is the case. It is worth pointing out that people never sat down and decided that this song structure would yield the most money making records, rather, it has evolved naturally over many years and seems to be the kind of structure that gives songs a good balance.

My own personal experience of it is that it works very well indeed. It has a knack of making songs sound professional. In my opinion, listeners often naturally expect songs to take this structure, and subconsciously prefer it when the song structure is familiar.

It also makes quite a good template for writing songs. Often, I might have a verse and a chorus, but not a bridge, and this forces me to write another section, which usually works out very positively.

The Pre-chorus Variation

A good (or may be even better) variation on this structure is to include a pre-chorus between verses and choruses. In some cases this can remove the need for a bridge, as it makes the song longer

A good example of this (apologies for stylistic choice but we all know the tune) is in Avril Lavigne’s Complicated.

Verse 1

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you’re acting like you’re somebody else gets me frustrated
Life’s like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
and promise me I’m never gonna find you fake it
no no no

And so on…

There are many reasons why this song was so successful, but strict adherence to an obvious structure was key.

Smarter Technique - Following Through Sections

You can improve the slickness of your melody and lyric if you can make it follow through from section to section, e.g. from Verse to Pre-chorus to Chorus. If you look closely at Complicated lyrics above, you will notice that the lyric flows between the sections without pausing (in other words you could not end a sentance at the of a section or it wouldn’t make sense). This kind of lyrics makes the song sound snappier, slicker, and keeps it moving. It also makes the whole thing sound effortless, rather than creating a more fragmented feel by focussing on each section seperately.

Conclusion

Structure is key. Make sure your songs have good structure. If you’ve only got a first verse and chorus, force yourself write a second verse. If you’ve got verses and chorus, force yourself to write a bridge. Keep going, and you find that you naturally start making your songs more interesting, and the whole standard of what you do improves.

It is very common to hear aspiring musicians say “I want to concentrate on my own music.” Usually this has one of two consequences, the person ends up practicing endlessly in their bedroom, with no audience, and no band, or the musician ends up spending hours dilly dallying in front of the computer trying to record their songs, or a combination of the two.

Neither of these are a bad thing, BUT, few people succeed on their own. There’s a lot to be said to for getting the vibe when playing a band that suddenly fills people with inspiration. For example, the drummer will play a beat and suddenly the guitarist joins in with a fantastic part that just naturally fits. This sort of thing happens all the time when playing with others. It’s rarely possible for one person to have all the ideas, and often good musicians can take mediocre tunes and turn them into masterpieces.

A second reason for working with other people is that its social. Getting signed is as much a matter of who you know as how good you are. If there are two of you, the number of contacts you have has suddenly doubled, 5 of you, 5x time the contacts & opportunity. For example, here is what happened to me last week:

I replied to an ad on www.gumtree.com looking for an acoustic guitarist to play along with a soul singer. I thought why not, in the worst case I’ll meet an attractive girl and in the best case she’ll be an amazing singer too. Turns out she was amazing (and attractive though attached). While rehearsing, I played one of my songs to her and her flatmate. Turns out her flatmate is a p/a for a leading music law firm in London. What are the odds? A music law firm has a big interest in getting artists signed as they can recruit them as clients. She said the tune I played was top 40 for sure, and she’d take my demo and play it round. I know better than to take compliments like that easily, but now there is an opportunity which occurred just because I followed a social path and made a connection.

Another good reason for playing with other people is that they can be better than you. For example, I can play the guitar quite well; I’ve been playing for years. But I’m unlikely to be able to kick out a solo like Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb solo anyday soon. But somebody else certainly will be able to, and if they did it on my tunes, all the better. I like to surround myself with really good musicians who are better than me, they can make my tunes sound amazing. Usually they’re all too happy to play if I lead them and write the material.

Performing as a band is far more interesting than a solo performer. There is only so long that an anonymous solo artist, performing orginal material, can hold the interest of the audience. A band can let you explore territory that just isn’t possible on your own.

Recording as a band is also brilliant. Records that have been to a click, with sampled drums (even very good sampled drums) sound lifeless, and nothing like a live record, which usually sounds ‘hot’.

My compadres and I have realised (and voiced it) that no one of us is good enough to make it alone. We realise that if we help each other, and bring our particular skills together, we stand a much better chance. I’m more than happy to play other people’s songs if they write them!

In truth though, the best reason to play with others, more than any other, is that it’s damn good fun, and you will have many adventures together that will be memorable in years to come. I fill my life with colour and music and I love it for that reason.

One of the things that seperates a pro from an amateur is to be able to do the easy stuff right. Often you will find a guitarist who appears technically fluent, can shred notes at light speed and can show you 46 different inversions of a jazz chord, cannot nail the basics. This means playing in time, to the click of a metronome.

Most people who can’t play to a click will argue that they don’t need to play to a click. They argue that bands don’t play to a click, that there isn’t a click when they perform, and so on.  Often they will say that it makes the music rigid, soul-less, empt or robotic. These people haven’t realised the benefits of learning to play to a click, and is a sign of an immature musician. All musical professionals can play to click, and if you can’t already, most players would be wise to learn.

Buy a metronome, or use the one on your computer/keyboard/guitar effects etc. It doesn’t need to be very advanced. If it has a light or something that moves, turn it over so you can’t see it. This is because we want to train our ears, not our eyes. Try to play a song in time with the click. Most tunes can be quite easily played at around about 120bpm.  If this is your first time, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll be able to play perfectly to a click.

Don’t get frustrated. This is extremely frustrating practice by nature, especially when starting out. The key aspect is practice, practice, practice. You should try and do a bit every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. You will find it becomes easier with time, and soon after you will start to find your playing naturally improving beyond your own expectations.

If you sing as well as play your instrument, progress onto singing and playing simultaneously. Likewise if you are a singer alone, still practice to a click. It’s amazing how much tighter this discipline will make you, even when you’re not playing to a click.

If you find it hard, don’t fret, it is hard. It doesn’t happen overnight but it doesn’t take years either. Keep trying. A little bit of practice every day and you will soon look back and laugh.

These days I find playing to a click almost second nature. It’s a pretty essential skill in the studio, and helps when playing with other musicians too, so do make sure you’ve got it down.