First off let me say, I have no affiliation with the organisation mentioned in the blog.I recently came across a site where you actually get something for nothing, just by requesting it. You doin't have to buy anything and you don't have to sign your life away. It's a publication entitled 'Sell Your Songs' and is released by the International Songwriters Association . I highly recommend that you click on the link and get your copy. This is a valuable document for all seasoned professionals and beginners alike. If this kind of material had been available when I first started out, four decaeds ago, it probably would have made things a lot easier and I would probably be sipping Pina Coladas with Jagger and Richards in the Bahamas. (yeah, right!)Check it out, there truly in no obligation and I'm positive you will not be disappointed. Even you seasoned professional who think you know it all already. It's good to get a refresher and remember why we got into this business in the first place. One thing that I always find amazing is that after nearly forty years of writing songs there's always something else that just jumps out at you and you get that fuzzy feeling all over and think "Where the f**k did that come from". The learning process never ceases from the day we are born until the day we die.
In 1975 when I was 24 I was the music school principal for the Yamaha Music School in Sydney. An elderly gentleman came through the door and stated that he desired to learn clarinet, I enquired after his age and he said he was 85 years old. Then said all his friends told him he was too old to start learning. I said my opinion was you are never too old. Within three months he was playing clarinet quite fluidly and off the chart. Having never played an instument or reada note of music in his entire life, but just having a deep rooted love of music, as he said. He was a migrant from Britain named Edward Heath, no, the former British PM. ;-)
Just reading the first part of this course brings back a lot very similar experiences and intuitions that I went through as a younger musician. This is a valuable document of the like that was never around back then and in a way I'm glad it wasn't because crawling, kicking and struggling with the business of music was the only and best way, although at times it seemed totally futile. Dragging yourself up the next hill to kick down the next door was the accepted norm. Then all the disappointment would disappear just by picking up your instument, in my case, the guitar, and another little gem would pop out of no where, and you'd be off again on another tangent, forgetting all the heart ache that had gone before.
I remeber submitting my songs to an A&R man at Chappels in 1977, his name wasn't even worth remembering, I actually got a foot in the door and had a face to face with him, which was a virtual impossibility, he put on my cassette, listened to about four barres, and said he couldn't do anything with it, I asked him what it was that wasn't there, and he said it's not Kris Kristofferson. I felt like shaking the shit out of him and hitting him in the head with a phone book. I just went home amnd continued on. Even learnt a couple of Kristoffersons songs, just to get the feel, then went back to my writing.
Things haven't changed much in forty years from what I can see. So it's a good thing now that the scene has opened up and everybody can get their stuff out there and have success without the inane mumblings of self gloified spin doctors. After all, it's the music that counts.