Save the Songwriter: Journal

Yes, that's what I'm doing right now...I'm afraid I've neglected this site a bit, but I have to crank out the finishing touches on a score for a musical and am devoting myself to it entirely.
I'll be back with more blah blah once I have the show finished.

I must confess I really love my gear.
I recently had to replace my little red cue box - a box that gives you individual headphone sends for the singers - and I was sad because the old one couldn't be repaired. Not that it broke on it's own, mind you...it had been crunched by outside forces and a couple of the pots needed to be replaced.
Of course, they don't make that kind any more, so now I have a new little red cue box.
My love for my gear is quite rational, although I've never verbalized it before.
To explain, let me tell you an anecdote about my old double-bass teacher, Georges Edmond Moleux.
He once explained to me that a bass was better than a husband (or wife or lover), because when you finished practicing you could stand the bass up in a corner and when you came back another time it would still be there - in short - you can count on your equipment to do what it was meant to do, as long as you take care of it.
What does this mean?
Well, simplistically, one wouldn't rest a beverage on a Bechstein.
I remember getting really angry when breaking guitars onstage was fashionable.
I mean, there are guys trashing instruments I can't even afford to buy - I felt like writing them a letter and asking them to send me a nice guitar if they were through with it!
Seriously, take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.
If this means talking to an engineer and finding out how to clean your patch bays and your mixer and so forth, then get with the program.
Try to establish a routine, so you do a lot of the tasks automatically and quickly.
Then you can spend the main part of your time producing music.
P.S. if you can hire somebody to do the work, so much the better!

I had to step back a minute from the creative process because the paperwork was getting out of hand - when you can measure unfiled papers in increments of feet, you know there's a problem...so, here I am, playing clerk, sorting and filing and trying to throw out as much as possible.
This job is so boring even the dog has deserted me, and instead of keeping me company in my hours of stress she's retreated to a warm and cozy spot on the bed under the covers.
So much for woman's best friend.
But we all know that being a creative doesn't excuse one from the drudge work, and when you need a copy of that old lyric or correspondence or contract it's nice to be able to find it immediately - II don't know why I find doing this so difficult - I can write a pretty decent fugue in pen but it takes me forever to decide which folder should house a piece of paper!
Still, it makes me wonder, what happened to the "paperless society" concept?

Well, it's been quite a couple of days. My artist, Danny Grae, had flown to LA recently to finish his vocal tracks; I had put some BGs on one of the songs, and he asked if I could (somehow) put a gospel chorus behind him on another tune - you know, sometimes you just luck out. I found a singer who (with layering, of course) came up with the appropriate BGs - we put the last touches on today and I finally can relax a bit - still have to add a few parts, mix, and so forth, but from here on it's clear sailing.
It's never easy, but most of the time it's fun and sometimes it's sublime - I couldn't be happier!

In the midst of projects I find myself buried in gear.
First, the old PC, which ain't what it used to be - the second Geek Squadder (commando version) was able to save my files and so forth, but not the programs, and I had to get my Opcode midi connection working again, on my own, which I did...these computer guys are terrific at standard suff but are at a bit of a loss with specialized music gear. Now I just need to finish the current CD opus and I can move to the new iMac.
Of course, I had to buy an interface, and just picked up a couple of mikes, but for now will run the mikes through my console (an old analogue Topaz) which has phantom power and sweep EQ - I really lucked out when I bought the Topaz, as it does it all and it's a real workhorse!
So in the midst of all this I've been talking to my engineer pals to get info before digging into my pockets - of course there's a lot of info on the net, but who knows who these self-styled gurus are anyway? If I go to an expert for advice, I want to make sure they're an expert and not just another Yahoo with a home studio...
I'm just tired. I have a vox session tomorrow A.M. but it's a super singer so I'm sure it will go quick and terrific - I love those one or two take artists - my feeling is, if you have to practice, please do it at home and in private and come back when you can deliver!
Do I sound crusty or what? Well, I'm tired, need to take a nap or a swim or perhaps a Guinness?
Welcome to the underside of composing!

I was basking in the glow of my new iMac, but life is never simple...my old PC, which contains almost all the music and text I've ever written, went south, and of course I'm in the middle of 3-4 jobs on that computer..so the past few weeks have, to reiterate a phrase, been a real trip.
Somewhere in the mix I contacted Geek Squad - I usually do it all myself but I was really tired of looking at the box, so, I thought, let some other grunion do it!
But the results were mixed. I found I had to explain myself over and over again to the sales personnel, and I didn't become happy until the second tech showed up - he was super and I got to relax and play video games whilst he did the heavy lifting.
Rome, however, was not built in a day. Now I have to go in, reinstall a bunch of junk, furbish up and add BGs to some country tracks for an artist who's showing up later this month, finish a musical I'm writing which starts rehearsals in September, and back up the files for my other projects.
C'est fromage...I've decided not to transfer any of the PC projects to the iMac- will start new projects with the iMac, keep old ones where they are, it's easier.
Once I do all the custodial stuff it will be fun again - won't it? (ho ho)

What was I thinking? It was time to replace my computer, so I got an iMac. That's ok, but since I was previously a PC girl, my familiar music program is no longer viable- have to learn a new one that works with Mac. My gear guy, Sir James, is coming over Wednesday to help me hook up.
In the meantime I have a couple of jobs I have to finish up on my old PC, then I have to transfer the new jobs to the new iMac. It all gives me a headache, even though I know I'll be better off once I switch over.
Back in college a professor of mine, Henry Brant, once said "intelligence is the ability to adapt". Guess I'll find out which end of the gene pool I'm in.

Submitting for a project has its share of suspense. You get an opportunity. You write the song. You hire a singer. You produce the song. You submit the song. You wait...and wait...it looks like their gonna take your song? Oops, not this time.
I have lost a submission to Run DMC, Diane Warren (well, anyone who's anyone has lost out to Diane Warren), a Celine Dion cut - the list goes on. Once I made it to the good chair back when Bette Midler was recording; was down to the final choice on a Pat Benatar record but she went with the other song; then, of course, there are the deals that went South because the deal agreed upon didn't turn out to be the deal on paper - I don't like to talk about those!
Bottom line is, submit as much as you can, but as a more experienced composer once told me, "It's like throwing depth charges off your PT boat. You don't look around unless you hear an explosion."
That's why you need to do the best demo you can - because your real competition is name composers and heavy-hitters.

I've never made much money but I've always sunk every spare scrap of $$ I can come up with in my gear. Well, I also insist on parmeggiano reggiano, Philadelphia cream cheese and a nice Motobecane bicycle, but those are my only luxuries.
Back when midi was first rearing its ugly head, I ran into a terrific/pianist music director and I asked her if she was gonna get into the midi scene...she was an older woman, and said no, she was happy with her life as it was...she probably retired a few years later.
The rest of us had to hop on the wagon and "run fast just to stay in place". Gone were the days when my crowning achievement was writing a fugue in pen - now I was crawling around on the floor trying to figure out wiring, emulating the latest "flavor of the month" sound, sampling pie pans...those were the days...
But I love my gear and my gear loves me.
My bass teacher, Georges Edmond Moleux, once told me why I should always be faithful to my doublebass.
"If you stand it up in the corner and walk away, when you come back, it will still be there. You will never find a person like that."
In a world where often the only guaranteed thing you can count on is your fingers, it's nice to know that your gear will never let you down.

Ah, those New York City years...
One day I woke up and a song came to me like a bolt of lightening...I quickly wrote it down and called my friend Bruce.
"Hey, do I have a song? I think I finally wrote a hit!" He asked me what it was called. "It's called Take Me Home", I replied enthusiastically. "It's a hit, all right," he replied, "You were listening to it all last night at the club - Cher was singing it!"
Well, at least my unconscious had good taste!

Back in the day: my first big mistake. A major publisher wanted to send a song of mine to Frank Sinatra. Unfortunately, he didn't like my using the word "weep" in the lyric. He said "Frank won't sing that. Change it."
What can I say, I was a newbie. In my lyric, "weep" rhymed with "sleep". If I changed one I'd have to change the other, and I couldn't think of a thing, besides which, the singer was supposed to be sleeping and weeping, sadly enough.
I went home and tried but failed to make the change. So the song was never shopped.
If I had been more of a pro at the time I might have been able to handle the situation, but I was truly at a loss, besides which, I couldn't understand why Frank Sinatra wouldn't sing the word weep. Was it too feminine? I still don't get it!

Perhaps I've been a bit too ambitious? There's so much material to disseminate, and of course, organization is key. I'm more of a broad brush kinda girl - it seems like building this site will take forever.
But I'm persistent, so I'll just do a bit at a time and publish as I go.
I'm hoping to have some good interviews and words of wisdom from other industry people - let's see what I can come up with (or should I say with what I can come up?).

After a disagreement between myself and SSI with regard to how my royalties would be categorized, I researched the applicable law on the
SSI website.
Once I realized the available laws supported my thesis, it occurred to me that other writers might run into the same problem, and I wanted a way to make this information available to others...
Then I remembered how hard it was to come up as a writer with no mentor or guidance, and I decided to make what resources I had available to other writers: hence, my offering for the general good of songwriters and composers everywhere: savethesongwriter.com.