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Muse's Clues - Richard Miller

©2014 Richard Miller. All Rights Reserved.
Used By Permission

Meet and Greet

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to attend the first Martin Taylor Guitar Retreat in the Shetland Islands in Scotland.  The retreat is designed for guitarists of all styles and skills, beginners are welcome, and, this time at least, it included seminars on singing, accompanying singers and a very good presentation on getting started in the music business.  Interestingly, the most significant, thing I took away from the retreat was the importance of human contact.

The master classes given by Martin were inspiring and very informative but the contact with the other students was also significant.  Working with them gave the opportunity to focus more tightly on tempo, mood, getting into character, and delivery and the end product was far greater than anything I’d managed to create alone at home.  This led me to wonder what might the best way to meet real people with similar interests be.  Following on from that I began to wonder how to begin to develop useful contacts, contacts with influence.

The first site wasn’t an abundance of success.  It was a subscription site and generated two hits.  The first made four appointments, and cancelled everyone of them either on or the day before the meet, the second was a bass player who had no more sense of tempo and rhythm than I had of nuclear physics.  That was enough.  I decided to carry on alone until the guitar retreat opened my eyes to working with committed musicians.

My first search lead me to MusiciansConnection.  They charge $9.95 for a lifetime membership which sounds pretty reasonable.  Before opting in I tried to find an independent review of the site and then, that having failed, tried the search engine.  That revealed a heavy bias towards the United States and particularly California.  In the short time I looked I could find very few contacts in Europe nor were any testimonials readily available.  So, I decided not to pursue it any further.  That isn’t to say it wouldn’t work for someone in another part of the world but being a musician on a very limited, and at times non-existent, budget I decided to keep my wallet in my pocket.

The second website I found was Musicians Contact.  The business has been going since 1969 so it seemed to be worth having a look.  If you are looking for musicians the site is free.  If you are looking for work there is a  subscription to pay.  However, it should be noted you can deactivate your subscription and reactivate it later if you find work and don’t need to advertise for a period of time.  Anyway, for reasons noted above I opted for the free service.  It’s necessary to complete an ad, which can either be public or private, before browsing the musicians is possible.  Once done it too revealed a heavy bias towards the U.S. and, again, California but the recent ads showed a sprinkling of global opportunities which made this site interesting.  If anything comes of it I’ll let you know.

Finally, I wandered over to Music Starts Here, a site suggested to me (See, linking up with people works!!), which features connections in and around Nashville.  The site gives itself a very good introduction in the About Us section so there’s no need for me to repeat that here.  In short it is dedicated to those who wish to make the pilgrimage to Nashville, whether they are a songwriter, artist, musician, technician or interested in working in the industry, how to prepare for the journey and what to do upon arrival.  There’s a host of links and videos in every discipline offering experience and advice for the would be pilgrim.  It pays to look through all the links, even those that may not intuitively relate to your primary goal(s).  For instance in the technicians sections there’s a good article on recording rehearsals which could go along way towards improving delivery both on the record (yes, I am that old) or on stage.  Needless to say there are opportunities to connect with individuals of all stripes via this site.

Everywhere you look the advice runs along the same lines.  The internet is a wonderful place to study and learn but there is no substitute for direct contact.  It may be physical, if you happen to live near each other, or it could be virtual if you’ve got a decent connection and access to some form of online connection.  Whichever way works for you its reasonably certain that opportunities will increase with collaboration.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Richard Miller is a caterpillar who has begun his chrysalis phase. Originally from Maine, Richard has, via a series of mis-adventures and accidents, worked as an accountant in the English Midlands, a systems programmer on the South Coast of England (where he also pursued an illustrious career in rugby) and a statistical programmer in Belgium. Now he has put all that aside, bought a house, stripped it back to the brick and started to renovate it from top to bottom while simultaneously transforming himself from a results oriented automaton into a winged song writer. You can peak inside the chrysalis at: www.vanishingpirates.com.

Featured Article - By Brad Dunse

QUICK TIP: Wax On Wax Off

If I could give you one simple, easy exercise this month that would help you be a better songwriter, would you start it right now?

One that seems so effortless, but has proven instrumental in creating super star writers in other writing fields, and is totally adaptable to songwriting.

Lt me say it this way…

You’ve seen The movie, The Karate Kid haven’t you? They made two of them for crying out loud, you must have seen or heard of one of them. I still prefer the original 1984 version.

Anyway, What if I was Mr. Miyagi, you were Daniel LaRusso getting beat up by the Cobra Kai song evaluation gang, and I had a way of helping you out?

I knew you were up for it, great!

Okay, you’ll need something to write with.

Find yourself a pen and paper and let’s try an easy three step exercise.

1. Pick a song that is either a top hit or one that is really successful in its market.

2. Google up the lyrics and read them all the way through 10-times. That’s right, I said ten times. Don’t really want to read them ten times? Okay, drop what you’re doing and give me fifteen times then!

3. Now, write them out by hand exactly as they appear. Do this three-times. Oh, come on, humor me and try it.

I know if feels a little like “Wax on, wax off Daniel-son.” Actually, that isn’t too far off of why you’re doing this.

If you saw the movie, do you remember why Daniel was slaving over floors, fences, and old cars in the movie? Even if you hadn’t seen it, I’ll show you in just a second.

First, here’s the thing.  After you’ve read the lyrics and know them well, and as you are writing them out by hand, ask yourself these questions…


• What song form is this?

• How is each line constructed and metered?

• What words are getting the beat stresses, and why?

• What is the rhyme pattern?

• Do the vowel rhymes differ in the verses compared to the chorus?

• Is there equal number of syllables in each line, or are they toggled or differ in some way?

• Do the verses point towards the chorus?

• What kind of language is being used?

• Do the words “tell” me what is happening, or “show” me what is happening?

• What kind of images are given?

• How do the lyrics advance from verse to verse?


That’s it!

Try this with as many hit  or notable songs as you can, or if you want to study a certain writer, do this with his or her songs.

There is proof that writing by hand has a huge learning effect on the brain, and although it seems like you are waxing the paint off Mr. Miyagi’s car collection, or scribing your way to insanity for no reason at all; you are really etching songwriting techniques into your brain.

Take the time to study successful songs this way and you will begin to see your own writing markedly improve. Don’t ask why it works, it just does, so use it to your advantage.

So do you remember why Daniel was doing all that seemingly mindless work? It was so when he fought in the tournament, what he learned was engrained in his body language, pretty much without even thinking of it.

You are doing similar, so it is engrained in your songwriting. It really does work.

Here’s a clip from the movie to help the point. Some language in this clip, so there is my disclaimer.

Until next time… keep writing from the heart.

*****

A performing songwriter, Brad Dunse is  member of ASCAP, NSAI, SongU, and Minnesota Association of Songwriters. His songs have been played on various independent, internet, and public radio stations across the country with The Wall touching a major country market station. Interested in song evaluations? Go to Brad's site for more information.

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