Blog: Words and Music by Ryan Michael Galloway

Let's Write Some Songs (repost)

2009-11-01T13:46:00.002-06:00

I’ve noticed some real schlock songwriting out there lately, and my friends have been pestering me to teach songwriting classes…or at least a master class. When I realized that some of that schlock was my own songs, I figured it was time to re-examine the basics. This is gonna help me as much as it’s gonna help you…I hope.

Teaching songwriting is like teaching judgment or creativity, it really can’t be done. It is up to the individual to figure a lot of these things out for themselves. However, a mentor can at least tell you when you’ve got a good idea, have turned a clever phrase, or have lost your audience because you’ve gotten undisciplined or confusing.

In subsequent posts, I will talk about hooks, ideas, rhymes, structure, and a few tricks to keep you from writing yourself into a corner.

Do you have a lyric, demo, or recording that you want someone to critique? Send it along or post it here. I’ll be honest and gentle. I’m no Paula, but I’m no Simon either.

Ryan Michael Galloway
972-841-0226
http://www.GigsterClinics.com
http://www.WeDontNeedNoStinkingRecordCompany.com

20 Ways to Make it in the Music Business, Part 2

2007-01-03T20:03:00.000-06:00

Like I said last time, I’m not a complete advocate of getting a record deal, but these suggestions will help you pretty much no matter how you want to execute your music career. How many of these you use will depend precisely on how serious you are. Now stand up and get to work, or sit down and shut up.

11. Commit and show up. Say what you’ll do, do what you say. It’s just like a job and people get pissed off when you don’t.

12. Answer your freakin’ phone messages and your email. If you’re not, you are not only rude, you are missing opportunities.

13. Eliminate impediments. A lot of things stand in your way, some that are due to your limitations or bad decisions, others are thrust upon you. Get them out of your life, if you possibly can. Bad friends reinforce your self-doubt, set up conflicts, get you into trouble, or let their problems slop into your life. You may be shy; learn to “act” past it until you’re comfortable. You may be angry or mean; learn to manage it. You may lack confidence; learn to overcome it. You may not have the proper equipment; figure out where to borrow, rent or buy it. You may not have experience; enter talent shows, open mic nights, sit in with other bands or friends—get the experience. You may lack transportation; make friends with people who have cars, find mass transportation, learn to use a cab, or focus on all the other stuff that you can while you are waiting to get transportation. Think outside of the box. No one is going to do this for you.

14. Build support teams. Enlist someone creative and high-energy to help you create your vision; where you want to be in how much time. Find friends who want to help you make the vision happen; people who can write press releases, make media contacts, or book your act for a fee. Pull the people who are just hanging around with you into street team work, like getting the word out about shows, and creating energy in the audience (loud applause, encores, etc.).

15. Be knowledgeable enough to be secure. You’re going to get offers. Learn what a good offer looks like compared to a bad one. Hire help, or be totally prepared to hire help (have them lined up) for when the offers happen. Not knowing, not being ready, means you will freeze when the opportunity comes. You’ll either sign a bad contract, or fail to sign a good one, because you won’t know the difference. Again, read The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell by Justin Goldberg, How I Make $100,000 in Music by David Hooper, The Gigster Textbook by Ryan Michael Galloway, This Business of Music by M. William Krasilovsky, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook by Bob Baker, CDBaby artists’ area.

16. Promote online. Garageband, Live365, Taxi, IdolUnderground, Myspace, YouTube.

17. Promote offline. Local newspapers, TV, radio, charity events.

18. Learn about equipment (lights and sound). The Gigster Clinics are there for ya’ :-)

19. Drive your own progress. No one wants you to make it as much as you do. Everyone is running their own lives. They get distracted, things come up. If they’re into you and your quest, they’ll be fine when you ask them if they did that thing they were going to do for you. Nag—gently—but nag. Set your own goals. Communicate them to the people on your team, especially your mentors and visionaries.

20. Be relentless. Do not stop pushing. This may take ten years, but sometimes outlasting everyone else is what gets you over the top. The Beatles didn’t happen over night.

20 Ways to Make it in the Music Business, Part 1

2006-12-31T21:00:00.000-06:00

I’m not a complete advocate of getting a record deal, but these suggestions will help you pretty much no matter how you want to execute your music career. How many of these you use will depend precisely on how serious you are. Now stand up and get to work, or sit down and shut up.

Focus. Limit anything outside your career that you can. Boyfriends, girlfriends, irrelevant job, irrelevant school (okay, high school and college can be VERY relevant—so you’re not off the hook), drugs, hobbies, clubs, etc. I said, “anything that you can.” I know it’s impossible to drop completely out of your social life, but a distracting relationship, a demanding sport/hobby, a pregnancy, etc., can derail your focus very quickly. You can’t be in two places at one time, let alone three, four or five. The people you depend on must be equally as focused. That’s why moms and dads move their whole lives so their children who are Olympic hopefuls can get training. It’s like that. You’re in training—like an athlete.
Network. All the other performers and musicians in your area are trying to develop their own industry and venue contacts. Share yours and get theirs—as a group you can move forward more quickly than as an individual. Try to develop an atmosphere of cooperation that extends across the boundaries of musical style—being a bigot in your own genre only limits your opportunities.
Get the facts. There are dozens of books available to learn about the music industry. Read them. Learn from others. Learn about song copyrights, promotion companies, record companies, record deals, independent releases, songwriting, song publishing, CD pressing, digital distribution, online downloading. Read The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell by Justin Goldberg, How I Make $100,000 in Music by David Hooper, The Gigster Textbook by Ryan Michael Galloway, This Business of Music by M. William Krasilovsky, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook by Bob Baker, CDBaby artists’ area.
Choose your genre. The more you focus your musical style, the more chance you have at commercial success. You probably can’t find too many places that you can place boot-scootin’ country mixed with occasional Mohawk spiked-inspired punk—although it would be really cool to try. Edgier style mixed with smooth jazz probably won’t work. If commercial success is not your goal, then go crazy…no limits. But if you’re trying to be a mega star or want a quicker start, you could make an already uphill climb much steeper by combining the wrong genres.
Choose your image. This goes along with choosing your genre. If you keep changing your onstage persona, your audience will never know what they’re looking for. They want to find something new and then stick with it. The audience doesn’t always follow when you re-invent yourself, but it will be easier to make changes later in your career than right after your initial successes. If you’re still not sure who you are, go to http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm and start figuring it out.
Learn to “sell.” You need to be a cooperative person, even if you’re not. You need to get a song across in a way that rips the heart out of your listener, even if you’re shy. You need to pitch ideas to record companies, promoters and managers, even if you are inarticulate. Learn to communicate on many levels.
Practice. Even a pro (Jessica Simpson) has trouble overcoming a screw-up when they are obviously unprepared. A little mistake is common, and fine. Constantly messing up because you’re not ready, is not.
Play live. A live performance is worth ten rehearsals. If you don’t have paid bookings, play for free.
Write or acquire original songs. It is hard to compete with no new content. If you can’t write, there are armies of songwriters who want you to cover their songs. Contact groups like the Collin County Songwriters Association, Blogging Muses (World’s #1 Songwriter Blog Site), GarageBand, or IdolUnderground as sources for writers and material.
Polish. Review with your team after every performance, rehearsal, disaster or success. Reinforce what works, tweak what doesn’t. Do it always, even if you just address it in informal conversations.

To be continued...

Get Out of Town, part III--RMG in NYC

2006-10-15T22:38:00.000-05:00

So it’s time to report in on some of the results of my own little open mike tour, while I bounce around the country as a traveling consultant.

In my last blog on the subject, I had told you about Don Mak’s idea for booking an “open mike” tour using www.OpenMikes.org. I had just started a day gig for a few weeks in Newark, NJ and NYC, so I used the opportunity to book four open mike nights in The City for the second and third weeks. Unfortunately I got too sick to sing for the third week’s bookings, but not before I had some really interesting playing experiences.

The first open mike booking was in the Lower East Side. First I have to tell you that in all my walking and looking around NYC at night, I never felt particularly threatened. Manhattan Island kind of strikes me as a big funky mall crammed full of a few million people. Police are everywhere, and the whole city is bustling until at least 11:00 PM every week night.

I got off the PATH train from Newark and found myself plunged into a crowd surrounding the Virgin Records megastore. Turns out that Ludicrous was there signing autographs. Once I got through that, it was smooth sailing as I walked to the venue about 15 blocks away. There I found two performance artist/comics running a no holds barred open mike experience in a small brick room stuffed with old chairs you’d usually find in an attic. It was “anything goes,” and the performances were mostly raw and raunchy. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if clothes were going to start flying off some of the performers—it was that edgy. Fortunately/unfortunately that didn’t happen, but it was high-energy for sure.

The participants were comedians, performance artists, and one musician (me). Out of 14 acts, there were probably four worth listening to, but there was an opportunity to get ideas and listen to a wide range of topics and experiences. People were nice enough at this venue, and very supportive, but despite descriptions I read, it was not a good musician’s venue. The PA was one of those minimalist two-speaker Fender systems with the built in limiters that shut down the volume every time something loud goes through it, and no one in the room knew how to operate it.

The next night I made my way to the Teabag Lounge open mike at Silk Road on the edge of Chinatown. The Chinatown location was a pleasant surprise—my wife and I always try to visit the Chinatown in every major city we pass through. I was greeted by Feliza Mirasol, who I recognized as Filipino. Since my wife is Filipino-Chinese, it was a chance to practice my Tagalog (official language of the Philippines). I felt very much at home with the crowd that gathered, and they were even more attentive than the audience the night before.

Feliza ran the Teabag Lounge event very professionally, and the whole night came off very smooth. I was honored to sit in with the first act, Michael Christian de los Reyes of the band “Burden of Proof.” Michael and I hit it off right away, despite his being decades younger than me (as were most of the performers). Michael is a talented performing songwriter, with ballads that really “get you,” and a great voice as well. He looks a bit hip-hop in his demeanor, but his voice is pure and lilting and he is also a great song arranger/interpreter as well.

The night alternated poets and musicians. Joy Leftow, a published poet of my generation, offered recitations of her poetry—and even got a little racy for a minute. I was happy to leave with one of her books. Corinne Manabat (a/k/a “Calamity) was the headliner for the evening, and gave edgy, gut-wrenching renditions of her poetry and hip hop rhyme. Jesse Yee recited her short, punchy poetry, which has is very accessible and usually very positive. I told Jesse I thought she’d make a good lyric writer, and we talked about songwriting for a while.

Finally, Ron Villanueva closed the night with some very interesting music. Like Michael, Ron has a great voice, but his musical style is more strident and less pop. He does a great job telling the stories behind his songs so you can get into them. This is good, because—while they are very well written—they are more challenging lyrically.

My experience with NYC’s music scene surprised me. I was certainly expecting the audiences to be harsh, and the performers to be much better than our performers and songwriters in Frisco, Texas where I live. What I found out is that the talent developing in New York is not much different than the talent developing in other cities around the country, there’s just a whole lot more of it. The audiences in New York have to be the best I’ve run into yet, in all my travels around the country. Sorry, Frisco, but they blow our audiences away in that they are really there to listen intently to the performer, and they respond very warmly when they hear something they like. I left The Teabag Lounge feeling like I’d been able to connect with the audience more than I’d been able to in a long time. They listened to the stories, moved with the music, and clapped loudly. I love that city.

Get out of town...(Part II)

2006-09-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

I recently read a blog by Don Mak about setting up an “open mike tour.”

“Great idea!” I thought. But being constantly on the road as a management consultant, I believed I would never have a chance to try it.

Then I started poking around on www.OpenMikes.org, the site that Don suggested we all use to book our “open mike tour.” To recap from Don’s article, this is an awesome site. Just go to the main page and type in your city or ZIP code. Tell the form how far out you want to look from the epicenter (25 miles, 50 miles, etc.). Then simply click “OK” and you’re off. You get list of every registered open mike night within the area specified.

Now it gets really cool, because you can ask the tool to tell you just the nights of the week you’re interested in. A quick click on Tues and Wed check boxes and another “OK” and you’ve got your listed narrowed down. There are links to the venues, reviews and maps. Click an “I’ll Be There” button for the gig and it will arrange a list of your appearances in your profile area, so you can keep track of where you’re supposed to show up.

I’ve been traveling with my Yamaha Silent Guitar—basically a neck, a frame, a battery and an acoustical modeling computer—because it’s the only thing I can bring easily on the plane. I dabbled with doing an open mike night at The Mission in Augusta, Georgia and a coffeehouse in Atlanta on recent assignments. Though the guitar can be too brittle for recording, it plays great for live gigs so I’ve been using it a lot.

So suddenly I find myself in Newark, NJ for a four-day-a-week, three-week consulting stint. Hmm. I haven’t played in New York since I played next to CBGB’s 30 years ago. Off to www.OpenMikes.org. I plugged in Manhattan, NY and within minutes found a list of open mike and open performance venues. Okay, so I got a little hung up on the one that featured anything goes, including poetry, strippers, and performance art. I finally decided against that one. I mean, I’m good but I don’t think I can follow a stripper. For one thing, my mouth will be too dry. Once again…a whole ‘nuther blog.

For the next two weeks, I’ve got four open mike nights booked. I’m not only excited about playing to a New York crowd, I know it will be fun listening to the material everyone else has to offer. Ryan rocks NY? Why not? How about you?

Your studio experience: Avoiding rip-offs and chaos

2006-09-07T20:21:00.000-05:00

So you’ve written some great songs, you’ve done some quick demos in your bedroom studio, and now you want to kick it up a notch. Maybe it’s time to take it to the studio and get some “professional help.”

That could be a good idea, but I’d like to steer away from some mistakes and dangerous assumptions. First, you’re going to need some help that the studio is not (usually) going to give you—an advisor and project manager in the form of a producer. Second, it’s really good to have a plan for your recording project. Showing up without a clue is going to cost you a lot more money.

Now, maybe you can be that producer. But the producer cannot be someone associated with the studio. Why? Because the producer is supposed to look out for your interests, not the studio’s. Paying an engineer or studio-affiliated person to be producer is a like hiring a fox to guard the chicken house. The studio probably wants you to take a long time to make your recording—they get paid by the hour.

If we were comparing the situation to the movie business, your record producer is the equivalent of the movie producer and the movie director combined. If they're doing their job right, they're managing the recording project as effectively as possible (like a movie producer) and they're telling you when your takes are good, bad, or not quite there (like a movie director). They also oversee the mix.

So what does the engineer do? The engineer works for the recording studio. They run the mixing board, place the mics, and position the musicians. They also usually know enough to record pretty good sounds from the instruments that you’re playing in the recording session. But half the time the engineer is going to sit with their arms crossed waiting for you to tell them what to do—even if that takes you an hour or two to figure that out. Then they're often going to drag their feet and take forever to get set up. The producer (remember them) should keep things moving along, watching the clock and avoiding time-wasters.

Now comes the plan, which the producer should be able to help you with. What are some ways you can cut studio time down to something manageable? One approach you might consider is “production-lining,” that is, trying to get the same types of tracks down for several songs in a row.

Here’s an example. Often, you’ll want to build the bottom of the band first. You’ll record the drummer, the bass player, a “scratch” guitar or piano, and a “scratch” vocal. The “scratch” instrument and vocal are there just for reference to let everyone know where they are in the song—you’ll record them better later.

It can take hours to get good sounds on the drums, so why just record one song when you get them right? You might as well record three, four, or five songs in a row when the bass and drums are together, tuned up and ready to go. Maybe it’s time to add a real guitar next. Got the sound you like? Go record all your songs, one-right-after-another, while you have your guitar out and it’s sounding really good. Who knows, you might not get that same great sound when you come back tomorrow—or at least it’s going to take more time to get the sound right again.

Who comes up with these ideas? You and your producer. Not the studio or engineer (usually), for obvious reasons. So before you go in and spend $50 to $350 an hour, sit down with someone who has some experience running studio recording projects. Make a plan, with a schedule and a list of players. Get your partner to help you make reasonable estimates, and set your musician arrival times appropriately. Finally, in my experience, if you’re going to allow alcohol or drugs into the session, go ahead and double your estimates.

Now, go make some history.

Why I write songs

2006-08-30T12:22:00.000-05:00

Joni Mitchell wrote a line in her song, A Case of You, that says in part, "Love is touching souls." Of course that's true, but for me so is writing songs.

A song gets into you like no other art form that I know. First, it works on several levels. There is the movement of pitch, the passage of rhythm and time, the intellectual exercise of language, and the emotional content--a marriage of music and message.

I've never been able to walk down the street humming a novel, a play, a sculpture, a photograph or a painting. Okay, maybe I've recited a few lines of poetry to myself--but it isn’t the same. It doesn't stick in my head all day long. A song impacts mood, lifts us up when we’re down, commiserates with us when we can’t get up, creates an anthem for our cause, and eases loneliness--usually in a healthy way.

I want to do that for people. I want them to think, have fun, be comforted. Where I can reach out and physically put a comforting hand on a person's shoulder, I can do that for thousands of people with a song.

The other reason I write is more self-indulgent. Songs are an outlet too. The next line Joni wrote was "Surely you touched mine, 'Cause part of you pours out of me, In these lines from time to time."

Been hanging out with me lately? Listen to the words…you’re in there.

Neighbors Magazine features RMG

2006-07-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

Neighbors Arts and Entertainment
[Dallas Morning News' Neighbors Magazine, Frisco Edition, 7/1/2006]

Local musician mentor launches Gigster Clinic

STAFF REPORT

Collin County management consultant and veteran performing songwriter Ryan Michael Galloway has set out to help the youth of North Texas capitalize on their musical talent.

Galloway, who hails from North Texas where he plays regularly as part of the local live music scene, has launched a new seminar program aimed at 14- to 19-year old musicians who want to take their talents to the next level. The program is appropriate for performers within most musical genres, including rock, hip hop, pop, country, R&B, techno, punk and most of the contemporary Christian permutations. Dubbed The Gigster Clinic, the seminar teaches young musicians how to develop an image, select a band, enlist technical and marketing support teams, promote and manage shows, select equipment, and keep fame, drugs, alcohol and money from ruining their life.

This clinic is not about the attitude of rock and roll, playing loud and acting obnoxious. Galloway says he believes that a performer's talent and onstage attitude are only two components of successful shows.

"I'm trying to give people a five year jump on their performing careers," Galloway said. "When you're doing this as a teenager, or even as a supportive parent, you simply don't know what you don't know."

Galloway got the idea from teenagers as he's played to support his recent CD Also Known As Ryan Michael Galloway. He says that when he performed publicly, he was besieged by young would-be performers who peppered him with questions about the equipment, songwriting, and performing. It dawned on him that no one is providing this training and mentoring, and the Gigster Clinic was born.

The multi-faceted Galloway has performed for more than 35 years, including stints as a jazz guitarist in Washington, D.C., a singer and rock guitarist touring with various bands on the east coast, and two bands based in Texas. In addition electric and acoustic guitar, Galloway plays blues harmonica, bass, mandolin, violin, viola and trumpet. His music style is just as varied with classical, rock, jazz, pop, disco and blues to his credit. He has arranged music for orchestra, including a 15-member ensemble of New York Philharmonic string players. He has produced recordings, provided project management for live events, promoted musical acts and concerts, and managed other musicians. Several major music companies, including RCA's Sunbury/Dunbar Music and Columbia Screen Gems Music have published his original songs.

Currently, Galloway provides formative management and mentors a number of performers, including Faith, a young Contemporary Christian artist from North Texas, and recently helped found the Collin County Songwriters Association and serves as its acting director.

Galloway says he is excited about this first clinic and has cut his rate by nearly 95 percent. Full participants will pay just $12 and will work hands-on and interactively with the presenter. This is just a small fraction of the usual $235 price tag," he said. "If individuals would like to audit the clinic and not participate in the hands-on stuff, the price is $5. The workbook for the clinic is $25 for everyone."

The text is a comprehensive reference document with checklists and information to support their efforts for years to come. Attendees can also contact Galloway for advice and mentoring on appropriate equipment purchases and career decisions.

The inaugural Gigster Clinic will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Frisco Chamber of Commerce, 6843 Main St. in Frisco. This session will be limited to 15 participants. To register for the clinic, call 972-841-0226 or email mailto:Ryan@RyanRocks.com.

Workin' the Garageband Thing

2006-05-02T22:19:00.000-05:00

In a previous post I told you about Faith, a young singer I'm producing. Faith recently recorded one of my songs, "If God Could Sleep." We organized ourselves as a band, "Faith 11.1" and put the song up on Garageband.com for some reviews.

The reviews have been quite interesting, if occasionally harsh. Still, with all the complaining: it's too safe, too commercial, sounds like a Disney tune, sounds like a pop song (gee, it IS in the pop category, jerk), the song debuted at 4.8 when the ratings finally came it. It has bumped up to 4.9 out of 5 stars, so I feel like we've got something here.

Taking a cue from CD Baby's Derek Severs, here's the plan: 1) we're going to examine all of the reviews to see if we gleen any consistent complaints, and if we agree we'll fix them, 2) we're moving the song up one-and-a-half steps to give her a little more control on the low notes--Faith had requested this change in the studio, but we talked her out of it, ooooops, 3) we'll remix and remaster the song, combine it with an excellent remake of "Hold On" by Kansas, and release about five copies as a single, 4) we'll acquire a UPC code through CD Baby and send the release to stock the CD Baby bin, 5) we'll authorize CD Baby to make digital distribution happen, getting us onto Wal*mart.com, ITunes, Share ITunes, TowerRecords.com, Rhapsody, etc., 6) we'll submit the single to Internet radio stations everywhere.

Stay tuned, it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Letting Influences In

2006-04-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's great to allow others to influence your songwriting processes.

About a year ago I wrote a song called "If God Could Sleep." I was really pleased with it. It was a boy-head-over-heels-in-love-but-not-sure-if-she-cares type of story about the butterflies of a new romance.

Several months later I had an opportunity to play the song for some families. I was aiming the performance at the adults in the small audience, but noticed that the kids--ages 5 to 9--perked up when I played it. I decided to write a religious-influenced lullaby version (okay, that's a stretch, me writing a religious-influenced song). It worked nicely, and there I sat with two good songs, thank-you-very-much.

I happen to produce a 16-year-old Contemporary Christian singer, Faith, of the band "Faith 11:1." I am a charter member of the band, which consists of C. Aaron Moore as arranger and keyboardist, and me as backup vocalist and guitarist. Fellow producer, Ron Logan, also adds occasional vocals, keyboards and guitars in the studio.

As her producer I am always trying to find or write songs for her to sing. "If God Could Sleep" seemed like a natural, but somehow we couldn't make it work as a 16-year-old singing to a child. I decided to get out the pen and write one more version, a Christian-oriented love song that hopefully had some crossover potential.

To get some different sounds and rhythms involved, I showed Mr. Moore the basic idea and asked him to write an arrangement of drums, bass, orchestra, and keyboard. Mr. Logan added my classical guitar work, as well as some keyboard tweaks and some electric guitar.

All the while, we sent Faith rough mixes of the song to play with. At Ron's suggestion, I wrote a bridge in a place we had planned an instrumental, and finally we brought Faith into the studio to cut the vocals.

All-in-all, the result was far more interesting than what I would have done in the studio myself. You can hear it now at http://www.SingingByFaith.com.

To my collaborators--great job everyone. I love it!

Collin County Songwriters Association

2006-02-03T18:52:00.000-06:00

Ryan Michael Galloway, Dan Scot Parr, Michael Reames, and C. Aaron Moore have joined forces to promote Collin County musicians by forming the Collin County Songwriters Association. They plan to host free performances, provide related news to local media, and reach out to other performers in the area. Ulimately, they want to promote and support songwriting and live music right here in North Texas. Their initial mission is to create a web portal with links to performers’ websites, and raise awareness of the Collin County music scene. Members often play at local venues and fund-raisers. On February 24 and March 18, Dunn Bros. Coffee in Frisco will host some of the association’s players from 8-11PM each night. Watch for upcoming stories in the local media.

Where to get feedback on your song

2006-01-26T22:08:00.000-06:00

You are going to write a lot of songs in your lifetime. You'll love some of them, but won't know how they resonate with listeners. How can you find out the effectiveness of yours songs without spending a fortune on a focus group? I have several suggestions that I think will help you assess your material and your audience.

A number of websites allow you to submit songs for review and rating by listeners. It will cost you something--either money or effort--so it isn't exactly free. But the knowledge you gain about your songs and who likes them will give you great insight on how to market them. This is especially true if you intend to do the marketing yourself, and not through a third party such as a record label. For an added bonus, you also promote your music and your act when you have songs reviewed by these sites.

My favorite review site--designed with independent musicians in mind--is GarageBand.com. My first reaction was to stay away, because "Garage Band" to me is synonymous with "unprofessional." But if you check this site out, you actually find out there is quite a bit of professional sounding work out there.

So far, I like GarageBand.com best because it strives so hard to be impartial. Reviewers are randomly provided songs to review, without any information as to who performed the work. That way, your ratings won't be skewed by people who are already fans, or sabotaged by rival bands. A very robust characteristic of the site is the ability to pick a fairly narrow genre to be judged in. There is a real difference between "Folk" and "Folk Rock" when you think about it. This site allows you to make those kinds of distinctions. To submit your song you need to conduct 20 pairs of song reviews as a member, or pay about twenty bucks. For the information you get, the twenty dollars is a steal.

IdolUnderground.com allows you to submit songs for review by listeners, but I see it as a place to promote music, not receive serious knowledge about your music. The categories are not as focused, so a "Pop Rock" song will have to compete with other forms of rock. A "Folk Rock" song will have to go into either Folk or Rock--what an ugly choice.

I believe MySpace.com--a blogging site--allows musicians to upload songs for free. The resulting comments on the material will be pretty random.

Of course the dream is to rise to the top of any Internet "Indie" charts out there. Why? Because it raises the possibility that the music bloggers in cyberspace will notice. A lot of these folks are the tastemakers of our day. If they say it's good, then more people will check it out and hopefully buy it.

You can check my GarageBand page out at http://www.garageband.com/artist/RMGalloway.

Why you should pay attention to John Mayer

2005-11-12T21:53:00.001-06:00

Hello, everyone. Checking in from 36,000 feet and headed home from a week on the road. A steady gig has got me bouncing between Dallas and the East Coast these days, as I let American Airlines beat the crap out of my guitar—but that’s a whole ‘nother blog.

Since I’ve been traveling so much lately, I’ve gotten a chance to listen to a lot more music than I have for a while. I’m really giving the MP3 player a workout, and I’ve been able to pay more attention than usual. One songwriter I’ve been paying attention to is John Mayer.

John is a new generation classic rocker; a nice mix of acoustic and electric with just a slight hint of jazz. He’s young, but some of the kids don’t like him very much because he’s a bit preppy and they think he’s “sold out.” I never really understood that mindset. If that’s the music John likes to write and sing, I don’t think we can call him a sellout—and I don’t think he could do it so well if he was just doing it for the money.

Not every single song that John writes is a masterpiece. In fact, there are just a few that I’m really knocked out with. I’m asking you to suspend any thought of whether you like his music or not, and get analytical. From a pure technical perspective, John is both an excellent guitarist and songwriter.

From “Why Georgia”:

I am drivin’ eighty-five in the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
Just stuck inside the gloom
Four more exits to my apartment, but I am tempted to keep the car and drive
And leave it all behind

Wow. There are so many internal rhymes, I don’t even know where to logically break the lines—AND they still make sense!

From “Your Body’s a Wonderland”

We’ve got the afternoon
You’ve got this room for two
One thing I’ve left to do
Discover me discoverin’ you
One mile to every inch of
Your skin like porcelain
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue…

And if you want love, we’ll make it
Swim in a deep sea of blankets
Take all your big plans and break ‘em
This is bound to take a while..

Your body’s a wonderland

Pretty racy, but great evocative poetry. On top of that, he’s not afraid to leave the rhyme unresolved, which would normally drive you crazy. But listen to the song, and he really makes it work. Frankly, I’m not sure how he pulls it off.

One more for you to listen to when you get a chance is “Daughters.” This was one of his big hits off of Heavier Things. The first verse is some of the finest lyric writing I’ve seen in long time:

I know a girl, she puts the color inside of my world
But she’s just like a maze where all of the walls are continually changed
And I’ve done all I can to stand on the steps with my heart in my hand
Now I’m starting to see, maybe it’s got nothing to do with me

Again, lots of internal rhymes, and great articulation. Have you noticed that lyrics often sound stupid when you read them and don’t sing them. Bigtime exception here.

If you notice, John doesn’t always take the easy way out. He may end with a typical rhyme like “do” and “you,” but in the process of getting there he does some really twisty and interesting stuff. Likening a girl to “a maze where the walls are continually changed,” may end with a simple word, but what a wow leading up to it.

If John keeps it up, he may be the next generation’s Billy Joel—and I hope he doesn’t find that to be an insult.

Okay songwriters, get your headphones out and get ‘em cranked up. Listen and learn.

Another way to bring ideas to the surface

2005-08-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

Writing poetry is hard, and let’s face it—songwriting is poetry. It’s even more challenging because you’re trying to fit words to melody, as well as meter and rhyme. You have three or four minutes to tell your story, and a third of that time is eaten up by the chorus. A daunting task, and one that could make you freeze in the headlights.

Often, you’re afraid to put the first word on paper, or even to utter it. Insecurity is the fundamental barrier to creativity. You really do much better creating when you’re not scared. Lonely, sad, or depressed, perhaps; but not scared.

You have to do something to get things going. How can you do that? One approach I find effective is to simply write. Write about something that’s bothering you, someone or something you loved, your relationship with a friend, lover, or parent. A special time, perhaps, that held a lot of good or tumultuous memories.

But don’t worry about songwriting for a minute. Don’t rhyme. Don’t write poetry—unless that’s easy for you. Even then, let it ramble.

Now, go back and re-write your draft just once. Correct it for grammar, organization, proper paragraph division, and a structure that makes the most sense. And then let it simmer.

Come back in a day. There is a very good chance you will discover some interesting phrases. Reading it over will probably give you some ideas for a song, and they may not be the things you wrote about in the first place.

Have you been goofing around with some ideas on the guitar, piano, or whatever you like to write on? Try merging some of those ideas with the narrative ideas you came up with in this exercise.

I bet you’re off and running.

Get out of town...

2005-08-01T01:39:00.000-05:00

As I write this I'm sitting in a hotel room in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My wife and two youngest are sleeping, and my 15-year-old is lying down listening to punk music on his headset..ocasionally asking me what I'm up to now.

I've just spent a week visiting my parents in West Glacier, Montana. For good measure, I got to spend a fair amount of time visiting my brother and his wonderful wife down in Columbia Falls. Have you ever been to Glacier Park, Montana? I don't know how a songwriter can visit this place and NOT write a song.

I had made arrangements to rent a guitar this week, but was almost derailed by a local music shop that was not willing to rent me a guitar as they had promised. Enter "Music One Workshop," an amazing music store in Kalispell. This place is world class, and one of the family owners of the business--George Miletich--was able to fix me up with a very acceptable instrument on short notice.

I had expected to play a songwriter showcase at Flannagan's Grand Central in Whitefish. After several calls and assurances from the club that I would be able to particpate, they elected to cancel the showcase for a few days dedicated to bluegrass music. An excellent idea, I'm sure, but it left me without a playing venue. As it turned out, I was able to do some parlour concerts anyway. It all worked out.

Back to songwriting. I find it is important for me to be involved in everyday worklife, romance, community involvement, etc. Without some normalcy, I'm not writing material that anyone can relate to. But when you change your environment for a tour, extended road trip, or a vacation, make sure that you plan for some time to write.

Between the change in scenery and all of the family time, I found my creativity peaking and lyrics pouring out. My son and I even started collecting ideas for a movie. Don't know if it will ever get made, but the intellectual exercise is great. On top of that, we might have shot a pretty good little music video.

On Tuesday I'll start back at my work-a-day life again. But the break has bourne a great deal of fruit. Stay tuned for some more serious postings on songwriting.

In songwriting, what's a hook?

2005-07-16T19:37:00.000-05:00

When I was starting out as a songwriter, this was one of my most frustrating questions. I would meet with publishers and record companies, and they’d say, "Great lyrics, nice music—where’s the hook?"

I’d say something like, "What’s a hook."

They’d answer back that it was that, you know, thing you could "hang your hat on" or other such garbage.

Simply put, a hook is something that stays in your head the first time you hear the song. It can be a repetitive lyric/music combination, or it can be a musical figure like the slide guitar in George Harrison’s "My Sweet Lord."

There are some tricks to coming up with hooks. It’s worth taking a minute to define one of the classic kinds of hooks that works so often in formulaic writing. You can find a lot of lyric/music hooks in the choruses of songs. They often are, or contain, the name of the song. Some examples:

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
It Only Takes a Minute, Girl (to fall in love) - Tavares
She’s Gone – Hall and Oates
Take it Easy – The Eagles
Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles
Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown – Jim Croce
One Thing – Finger Eleven
Calling All Angels – Train
Another Day in Paradise – Phil Collins
American Pie – Don McLean

The list could go on and on, and there's a reason for that. If you can come up with a hook, you know what your song is headed. Without it, you are meandering all over the place until you find one, so I like to have the hook figured out first.

Take a look at this:

When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all
I’m on your side, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down

*from Paul Simon, Bridge Over Troubled Water

Notice that, since the hook, "Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down,' is SO strong, that it becomes a sort of psychological magnet that encourages every line to lead up to it. This is the magic of a good hook. It helps the song almost write itself.

Don't get me wrong, I’m sure Paul found lots of challenges for his formidable songwriting talent to turn this song into the masterpiece that it is. But I submit that it was probably easier to write if he came up with the hook first.

Pay attention to that the next time you write. Try to find a phrase, as I mentioned in another post (Where do ideas come from?) that encapsulates the idea of the whole song. Then make sure every line of the verse leads up to that payoff, the chorus (and the hook line).

What not to write about

2005-07-11T21:04:00.000-05:00

When I was 19, I had just returned to my parent's house in Alexandria, Virginia, after spending most of the year unsuccessfully shopping my songs in L.A. My hair had grown so long that my dad joked, "They told me Jesus was coming back, but they never said he was going to live at my house."

But I digress. On returning to Northern Virginia, I lucked into a connection with Columbia Screen Gems Music through one of their New York staff writers who happened to be my friend. I spent the next few years being mentored as a songwriter by two great people: Lanny Lambert and Irwin Schuster. To give you an example of their stature, Irwin, as a senior vice president for the company, had just signed the publishing rights for a new band by the name of Boston. In his career, he'd also had relationships with such diverse luminaries as Carole King and Todd Rundgren.

Irwin was mentoring Lanny, after a fashion--Lanny was an experienced songwriter already--and the two of them mentored me in turn. I say all this to let you know that many of suggestions I make come from very senior and experienced song-crafters; and in this blog I'm sharing some of their teachings with you (along with 30+ years of my own personal experience putting their tutoring to work).

The old rule for a "breaking" hit--something that might put a new band on the map--was that it had to be up-tempo, positive, danceable, and sexually oriented (boy/girl relationship, and a few sexy references would be helpful). Songwriters never seem to have a challenge coming up with stuff to write about, but "rules" like this provide a way to channel what you're doing. The publishers and promoters just saw a lot of evidence that this kind of a song would have an easier time making it onto the charts.

By comparison, in country the themes are usually:
-She loves me
-She left me
-She done me wrong

If you're going outside of these areas, you'd better have something good--maybe patriotic, maybe a song about your buds, or about your favorite dog. Okay, family, kids, mom and dad seem to have snuck in there lately, too.

You may have noticed that there aren't any examples of musician-oriented subjects in my suggestions above. You know, songs about how hard it is to write a song, or how tough it is to be a musician on the road, or how cool it is to live the rock and roll life, or how other people's songs aren't any good. One of the things that Irwin and Lanny used to beat me up about was how lame musician songs were in most cases. Now that I mention it, I can only bring a short list to mind if I think really hard.

-American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)
-Your Song (sort of...Elton John)
-Turn the Page (Bob Seger)
-What's Your Name (Lynard Skynard)
-On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)
-Open Arms (Journey)

Here's a challenge...can you come up with any more? Post 'em here as a comment and let's see what we've got!

Okay, back to my point. There is a reason songs like these are discouraged by publishers, producers, and record companies. It's because, unless you've got a LOT of momentum (see the list above), a lot of fame, and you're in that sweet spot where your fans are actually paying attention...NO ONE CARES how hard it is to be a musician, how fun it is to be a musician, or how much you hate or like someone else's stuff.

To put it succinctly, write about what you want, but don't write about things that nobody cares about. And while you're at it, be careful with the really contrived references. I recently heard a sample from a young group here in Dallas that made reference to being in the back seat of his "SUV" with his girlfriend. My God, how could anyone ever thing that "SUV" could sing well is beyond me. In any case, it came off something like this: "I'm 17 and can't afford an SUV, but people my age think SUVs are cool, so I'll mention it in my song like I really have one and people will think I’m cool."

PUHLEEZE... The Beach Boys had their 409 and Woody Wagon, Vanilla Ice had his "Five-point-oh," and somebody was going to have fun, fun, fun till her daddy took the T-Bird away...but an SUV? How blandly urban.

Okay, I'm better now.

Where do ideas come from?

2005-07-10T00:29:00.000-05:00

Who knows. I've had some of my best while I've been doing something mindless, like ironing, showering, or washing dishes (yes I do those things, despite rumors to the contrary).

In Nashville songwriting circles, "ideas" are those unique phrase turns, exploded clichés, and "wish I'd thought of that" moments. There are a million of them, and they go from the ridiculous to the sublime.

An old lost friend of mine, Nashville songwriter Rick Giles, teamed up with Eddie Rabbitt to write "I Love A Rainy Night." What made that an idea worth using? The answer is that it gave the songwriters something that they felt they could expand upon--and other ideas that supported it. It's simple, but if you listen to the song, you can almost see them sitting in a room with a couple of guitars or a piano, thinking of all the reasons they loved a rainy night. It spoke to them, and they were able to make it speak to us.

An idea for a songwriter has to either be unique, or has to be something that inspires them to explain it in a unique or new way. "Beer for my Horses"? Now that's unique. How about "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than have frontal lobotomy?" It's Five O'clock Somewhere, if I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?, she's got to be somebody's baby, Magaritaville, Lord have mercy on the frozen man, I've got friends in low places--and all the lyrics buried deeper in well-written songs. One of my favorite ideas was from Paul Simon (despite its musician-oriented focus), "I was underneath the stars, playing my guitar, just thankin' the Lord for my fingers."

I have a few tricks for coming up with ideas, but it is going to depend on you as to how you use them. Different phrases will speak to me than will speak to you. It's what gets your creative juices flowing.

When I'm dry of ideas, I do a lot of reading. Sting used to read the classics--even the Bible, though he's not very religious. I used to read a lot of self-help stories (and not just about sex) in women's magazines, because I thought it helped me develop a more sensitive approach to my writing. It worked pretty well, too.

One day I was walking by a bookshelf at a savings and loan where I worked. There were a bunch of old, out of print books on the shelf just for effect. I read "Give Sorrow Words" on the spine of one of them. I had to write the song, and I never read the book. Another was an article about women fighting abuse and rape. It was called "Take Back the Night." I used it in a totally different way, but what a great phrase.

Another source of ideas can be your own vision. What sort of title would look good on a CD cover? When you come up with the title, do you see a video or pictures in your mind? It helps you come up with ideas that have gravitas, bold and weighty.

I've been talking about mostly titles, but there are ideas deeper inside the lyrics, too. My song, Man on the Moon--written years before REM's--has some okay examples:

"I'm makin' love to you and you're here, but you're gone
It seems like we're both in tune, but we're singing different songs"

That's a real oldie for me, but in context of the time and the song, it was pretty good.

I've discovered a really interesting source of ideas recently. Horse names. Go to the paper right now and look at the section on local horse races. A lot of effort went into naming these horses, and I'll bet you'll get some ideas just reading them.

Every once in a while, I'll tune in Delilah's syndicated romantic request show on the radio, just to hear people's stories. A few months ago I was driving home late, and a guy came on the line. She asked him to tell her about his girlfriend. He said "If God could sleep, he'd dream of this woman" because she was so beautiful. I had the chorus written before I pulled into the driveway (see www.RyanRocks.com/videos.htm).

Let's write some songs...

2005-07-09T23:52:00.001-05:00