Stage Two: Song Writing
When I began writing lyrics, I wanted to connect more with the music community in which I live. I searched for organizations and groups to be a part of and one group, Women in Music (WIM), is where I found a place. This organization was about encouraging women who are singers, songwriters, both, or just love music, to press forward in their goals, offering advice from others who have found success or had careers in music, and offering resources to promote and showcase their music. When I first joined this group, I had already entered a few songwriting competitions, and though I received recognition for some of my work entered (i.e. honorable mentions, small prizes), I felt my work would be stronger with the music component.
So thus I began my attempt to be a songwriter. I was learning to play the piano (though school), as well as understanding musical notation, so with a songwriter computer program and diligent efforts, I soon began writing music for some of my work. With the advice of WIM, I sought to get a “professional” demo done of select songs to one day pitch to publishing companies. Paying $500, which may or may not be a lot, I learned that sometimes it is better to do things on your own or wait to find someone who actually will take you, and your work, seriously, as the place I went to did not care about my work, nor the quality of it. They force 6 songs to be sung and recorded in about 1 hour, often making mistakes in alignment, which I realized later when I listened to it on my own.
The disappointment of that experience pushed me to buy music software and make my own demos from home, which were much better, but being that singing is not my strongest suit, as I realized through the demo process, I thought about letting go of the singer/songwriter path, and focused on words alone. I still wrote music, but I knew I had to think of another way of getting my work out there to the world.
When I began writing lyrics, I wanted to connect more with the music community in which I live. I searched for organizations and groups to be a part of and one group, Women in Music (WIM), is where I found a place. This organization was about encouraging women who are singers, songwriters, both, or just love music, to press forward in their goals, offering advice from others who have found success or had careers in music, and offering resources to promote and showcase their music. When I first joined this group, I had already entered a few songwriting competitions, and though I received recognition for some of my work entered (i.e. honorable mentions, small prizes), I felt my work would be stronger with the music component.
So thus I began my attempt to be a songwriter. I was learning to play the piano (though school), as well as understanding musical notation, so with a songwriter computer program and diligent efforts, I soon began writing music for some of my work. With the advice of WIM, I sought to get a “professional” demo done of select songs to one day pitch to publishing companies. Paying $500, which may or may not be a lot, I learned that sometimes it is better to do things on your own or wait to find someone who actually will take you, and your work, seriously, as the place I went to did not care about my work, nor the quality of it. They force 6 songs to be sung and recorded in about 1 hour, often making mistakes in alignment, which I realized later when I listened to it on my own.
The disappointment of that experience pushed me to buy music software and make my own demos from home, which were much better, but being that singing is not my strongest suit, as I realized through the demo process, I thought about letting go of the singer/songwriter path, and focused on words alone. I still wrote music, but I knew I had to think of another way of getting my work out there to the world.
