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Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 4 by John Braheny

By on April 14, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songmine, Songwriting Craft

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Jb C000000137 018 part 4

Accession Number: C000000137-018 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 4  by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

JUNE 7 — JUNE 20
Songmine by John Braheny

[This is the fourth part of the writer’s account of his work on the soundtrack of a low-budget movie.]

Ideally, I would have a project-or and screen, someone to run it, and would record the music as I watched the segments on film, getting into the mood visually. However, this is a low-budget pro-ject, and a screen and projector are luxuries. If you have access to a video camera and playback system it’s a good idea to record the movie and play it back on your TV. However, I had to make do with a cassette recording of the dialogue track.

While we’re on the subject of budget, I should point out that the music part of a film budget amounts to about seven percent, and more often than not the filmmaker will opt for “library” music, which is recorded cheaply in other parts of the world, bought by companies like Capitol Records (who have an ex-tensive library), and sold by the minute. Whoever is responsible for the music listens to a wide range of styles and sounds and picks what’s appropriate. Much cheaper and less hassle than what we’re doing here, but also less original and tailored.

I knew the sounds of the Chinese instruments as well as styles of playing them as I had inundated my brain with them during the past week. I also had all the segments laid out carefully in terms of length and tempo. I started that process by determining where the music for each segment should begin and end. Here are some questions to ask yourself: Is it better to “sneak” the music in (or out) or to bring it in with a punch. If there’s dialogue, do I need to underscore parts of it by the way I write the music? If so, it must be timed exactly and written in the score. If that’s not necessary, do I need something moody but un-obtrusive in the background? Wh-ere does it feel natural to stop the music? At the scene change? A fade? Need there be a transitional pause between the music in this segment and that in the next? Does the music need to overlap or segue?

After making those decisions I timed each segment, converting feet to frames and frames to seconds. For example, the count on the Moviola might tell us that the length of the scene is four feet and six frames. We convert it to frames by multiplying four feet by 40 (the number of frames per foot), we get 160 and add the six frames we had, for a total of 166 frames. Divide by 24 (the number of frames per second), and we end up with 6.9 seconds, which we could call seven seconds. Obviously, a calculator-speeds this operation considerably.
After working out the times, I decide whether this segment will be “free timed”, having no particular rhythm or pulse, or if I’ll need a “click track” so I can base the music on a rhythmically timed structure. If I choose the former, I will have to establish, in my own mind, a “feel” for how the music should flow so that I can conduct the musician(s) and watch the clock at the same time. If I choose the latter, I need to figure out a tempo based on what’s happening in the film, set the tempo with a metronome, set a time signature, see how many bars of music I get at that tempo and lay out the music accordingly. Unless I need to synchronize the tempo exactly to the film (for dancers, walkers, etc.) I’ll have some leeway to vary the tempo so I’ll come out even in the end and not on the first or third beat of a phrase. That may be important if you want to repeat a chord progression or set up a repeatable musical structure in some way.

Remember, however, that the film music does not need to use song form structures as we’re used to hearing them. Only if you’re going for a hit theme would you do that. So you have a lot of flexibility. With a “click track” you always know exactly where you are, and that it’ll end at exactly the right time. With free timing, you can play it more expressively in some ways, but you have to pay close attention to the clock.

To Be Continued

Previously in the Songmine Collection:

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.


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Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 11 Issue 12 December 1996 – Interview: Allan Rich

By on April 10, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriters Musepaper

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 11 Issue 12 December 1996 – Interview: Allan Richl

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 11 Issue 12 December 1996 - Interview: Allan Rich

JB#: C000000062-017-001

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 11 Issue 12 December 1996 - Interview: Allan Rich

JB #: C000000062-017-002

Table of Contents

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

INTERVIEW-

ALLAN RICH 9
Where do you go after you’ve had a hit song on the top-selling soundtrack album of all time? Dan Kimpel probes the psyche of hit maker Allan Rich.

MUSICAL NOTES-
LISTENERS VOTE FOR COMMUNICATION 16
Harriet Schock discusses the importance of communication skills in songwriting, as in politics.

SPOTLIGHT—
PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM SONGWRITERS EXPO 19 18

THE NAS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 20
The Academy’s highest accolade is bestowed this year on songwriting legends Leiber & Stoller, Joni Mitchell and Smokey Robinson.

ORGANIZATION NEWS

MEMBER NEWS-NOTEWORTHY-MUSICAL CHAIRS 4
News about classes, biz events, where your favorite publishers and A&R reps are this month, good stuff about our Members and Pickups.

LASS WEEKLY SCHEDULE 6
Cassette RouletteTM (publisher song critiques) and Pitch-A-ThonT. (producers and record company reps looking for songs and acts).

NAS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 7-8

From the Acting Archivist…

Much like the Songmine columns posted earlier, the archives contain a large collection of Songwriter Musepaper publications. With this posting, I am beginning a project to scan the cover and table of contents of each issue and then OCR (convert the scanned picture to text) the table of contents in order to make it searchable. I don’t yet have the staff necessary to create complete scanned issues of the Museupaper, but if there is interest in a particular article or interview, I can scan that and make it available here.

Douglas E. Welch, douglas@welchwrite.com

Previously in Songwriters Musepaper:

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 6 Issue 1 – January 1991 – Interview: Fee Waybill

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Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 3 by John Braheny

By on April 6, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songmine, Songwriting Business, Songwriting Craft

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 3 by John Braheny

Accession Number: C000000137-018 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 3  by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

MAY 24 — JUNE 6
Songmine by John Braheny

[This is the third part of the writer’s account of his work on the sound-track of the movie “The Birdman”].

OK dear readers, I left you as we were getting the run-down on Chinese music and instruments from Dr. Lui at UCLA’s Anthro-musicology Department. I played my cassette tape of the session over and over in the car and in my house during the next few days. Then I called Curt Berg, who already had The Birdman’s theme written and I went over to his place to hear it. I thought it was beautiful and we discussed how it could best be arranged. Since Curt is an arranger, he was accustomed to thinking in terms of several instruments, musical textures, and so on. Des-pite all that, we decided the most effective way to express the feeling was a single wood flute played loose and free.

Curt was swamped with work, so I volunteered to put the rest of the score together. By this time the .producer/writer/editor was close to a final edit, and I could get more accurate counts to tell me how many seconds of music I needed. Many :ompromises are made on a low-budget film like this. He and his backer were already over budget, an almost standard predicament for filmmakers because something in-variably goes wrong and scenes must be reshot or re-recorded. I mention this to explain that getting by as cheaply as possible without sacrificing quality is the major concern of small, independent film-makers, and consequently, those who compose and produce the music for them. I took the job knowing I wouldn’t make much money or have a big budget to work with. I did it because Bernard does quality films. I enjoy working with him it’s a challenge, and when he gets a shot at a major feature film I’ll be there.

The challenge this time was that, in order for me to come out with any money at all to show for two weeks of my time, we had to forego professional recording stud-ios and record on the TEAC equipment at my office. This offer-
ed advantages other than the obvious financial ones. I could take my time, do lots of takes and experiment without being clock (and budget) conscious during the creative process. I should also mention the negative aspects. I had to be extra conscious of quality. because I don’t have a noise reduction gear and while mixing several tracks together I had to be concerned about noise buildup. Thankfully the score doesn’t have to be as noise free as records because the playback systems used with 16mm films are themselves noisy, and there are other sounds on the film (waterfalls etc) that will mask some noise.

These considerations, how-ever, ‘do not justify carelessness. The following things can be done to minimize noise:

• Don’t use noisy instruments. I had to can a popular brand of contact pickup because the pre-amp was too noisy.

• Use a graphic equalizer, if poss-ible, to de-emphasize noisy fre-quencies as much as possible without affecting the sound quality ‘of the instrument. For example, if you’re recording a bass instrument, you’ll be able to reduce the noise in the upper frequencies without aff-ecting the sound. It’s more difficult with mid-range instruments as the character or timbre of the instru-ment (or voice) is often dependent on overtones that occur within the “noisy” frequencies, so it’s all compromise at that point.

• Record at as high a volume level as possible without distortion. This is called recording “hot”. The idea is that when you finally mix it to the film, you may only need half that volume and the noise will be reduced along with the music.

* When mixing your music at home, before transferring it to “mag stripe” (the sprocketed audio tape that’s used to mix the sound to the film) mix it mono onto a full track if possible. Half track will do, and quarter track is the least desirable. The more signal on the tape the better. Make sure you mix as “hot” as possible without dis-tortion and that all the levels of the individual pieces of music you take to transfer to “mag stripe” are uniform so that during the transfer you don’t have to mess with volume for each one.

(To be continued)

Previously in the Songmine Collection:

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.


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Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 6 Issue 1 – January 1991 – Interview: Fee Waybill

By on April 4, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriters Musepaper

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 6 Issue 1 – January 1991 – Interview: Fee Waybill

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 6 Issue 1 - January 1991 - Interview: Fee Waybill

JB#: C000000062-016-001

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 6 Issue 1 - January 1991 - Interview: Fee Waybill

JB #: C000000062-016-002

Table of Contents

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

INTERVIEW – FEE WAYBILL 7 

The former Tubes’ lead singer chronicles his development as a lyricist and talks about his collaborators which include Richard Marx, Tom Snow and others. 

CENSORSHIP – EDITORIAL 12 

Len Chandler gives the censorship issue some historical perspective.

NAS SALUTES THE AMERICAN SONGWRITER 15 

Once more, hit writers performing their own songs create a memorable night. 

CRAFT – RX FOR VANILLI SYNDROME 16 

David Cat Cohen departs from his usual how-to for some philosophy on the value of craftsmanship. 

MORGAN AMES FROM THE HEART: INNER VOICES 17 

Dan Kimpel finds the primo vocal group. 

THE ART OF THE SINGER – BREATH CONTROL 

Vocal coach Lis Lewis gives you some exercises to keep your pipes tuned. 

TOOLS OF THE TRADE 20

Two New Toys For Total Nerds Hank Linderman has some new toys for ya, nerds or not. He also gets philosophical around this time of year. 

LASS NEWS 

MEMBER NEWS – NOTEWORTHY – MUSICAL CHAIRS – PICKUPS 4 

News about classes, biz events, where your favorite publishers and a&r reps are this month and good stuff about our members and Pickups (songs picked up at the weekly Songwriters Showcase and held for further consideration by our music industry guests). 

WEEKLY SHOWCASE SCHEDULE 25

Cassette Rouletteml (publisher song critiques) and Pitch-A-ThonTM (producers and record company reps looking for songs and acts). 

From the Acting Archivist…

Much like the Songmine columns posted earlier, the archives contain a large collection of Songwriter Musepaper publications. With this posting, I am beginning a project to scan the cover and table of contents of each issue and then OCR (convert the scanned picture to text) the table of contents in order to make it searchable. I don’t yet have the staff necessary to create complete scanned issues of the Museupaper, but if there is interest in a particular article or interview, I can scan that and make it available here.

Douglas E. Welch, douglas@welchwrite.com

Previously in Songwriters Musepaper:

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 6 Issue 1 – January 1991 – Interview: Fee Waybill

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Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 2: Research and Spotting

By on March 31, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songmine, Songwriting Business, Songwriting Craft

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 1 and Part 2: Research and Spotting

Accession Number: C000000137-017 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 2: Research and Spotting by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

MAY 10-23

Songmine
by John Braheny

Songmine-Film Scoring-Part 2: ‘Research and Spotting by John Braheny

In my last article I talked about the initial preparations for a film I scored, a Ray Bradbury short story called The Flying Machine, set in ancient China. I also spoke about my background and about the prod-ucer/director Bernard Selling. was doing the music with _Curt Berg, an excellent composer, arr-anger and big band leader. Our first move was to see the film, get some general impressions and talk with Bernard about his general concept for the music. Bernard is a musician (something unusual to run into in a director) and he had some ideas. Obviously, the music had to sound Chinese, but he felt it wasn’t important that we adhere strictly to the traditional style. Since, in film scores, basic song forms usually go out the window, except for thematic material, we had some latitude.

Next procedure is to “spot” the film, deciding in what “spots” there should or shouldn’t be music. This is a very subjective procedure. We start by figuring out where the music is absolutely needed to ex-press something that the actors or dialogue can’t say, to heighten the effect of the action, or to give flavor or “color” to a location. We include notes about places for “wild spots” or “stingers” we’ll record just in case we decide later that maybe we’ll need it and save ourselves from a last-minute session. We also decide which music will be out front, and which will be subtle underscoring.

I put together a form for myself that lists, from left to right:Film Footage and Frame Counts; Action; Psychology and Music. We watch the film on a Moviola, an editing machine on which the film, with a dialogue track, can be run back and forth and pieces can be cut or added. It also gives you film footage and frame counts that are mechan-ically geared to the film so that if you start at the same place every time, it’ll continue to be an accurate reference to the beginnings and endings of particular scenes.

Bernard had not completed the editing at this time, so some counts would be different and we’d get the final ones at a later stage. Even though I knew that, I went ahead and mapped out the film scene by scene, which at least would help me remember what followed in the story. Later, we’d convert film feet and frames to seconds to find out how much music we needed. Some Moviolas show time counts as well as film footage. For 16mm film there are 24 frames per second and 40 frames per foot. Under the Action heading I’d write whatever action was taking place in that scene. Under Psychology I’d deter-mine, in discussions with Bernard, the underlying importance of this action. What feeling is he trying to evoke in the audience? Should the music represent the point of view of one of the characters? Should it “tip off” or anticipate the next scene?

For instance, the Emperor is speaking to the “Birdman” in a garden. The Birdman doesn’t know that the Emperor intends to kill him. I needed to know whether Bernard wanted a little “impending doom” undercurrent of music to let the audience know that something was wrong and all was not as friendly as it appeared. He decided he wanted to keep the music light, from the point of view of the Birdman, who thought he might be rewarded for his beautiful invent-ion. That way we, the audience, would identify with him and be be as shocked as he was when the Emperor revealed his intentions.

We discussed the philosophy of the film in terms of the characters. The Birdman, a creator, a dreamer, a free spirit, should be represented by music that soared and evoked a feeling of freedom. The Emperor, bound by tradition and responsibil-ity, should be represented by music that felt more regimented, tight and conservative. After those “psycho-logy” considerations are explored and we have an idea of what the music needs to do, we get to the Music column, where we figure out how to achieve it. We need to consider what instruments to use, tempos, scales and modes, harmon-ies, etc., as well as musicians. To do this we need some information on Chinese music, so Curt called Mr. Lui at UCLA’s Anthromusic Depart-ment, we got together at his house and he graciously demonstrated several Chinese instruments and allowed us to tape his explanations of techinques, tunings and how to write for the instruments. (To be continued.)

Previously in the Songmine Collection:

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.


0

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 4 Issue 1 – January 1989 – Interview: Steve Lukather: Major Guitar Talks Major Songs

By on March 28, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriters Musepaper

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 4 Issue 1 – January 1989 – Interview: Steve Lukather: Major Guitar Talks Major Songs

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 4 Issue 1 - January 1989 - Interview: Steve Lukather: Major Guitar Talks Major Songs

JB#: C000000062-015-001

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 4 Issue 1 - January 1989 - Interview: Steve Lukather: Major Guitar Talks Major Songs

JB #: C000000062-015-002

Table of Contents

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

FEATURES
STEVE LUKATHER – Major Guitar Talks Major Songs
Veteran session player and Toto co-founder prepares for his solo album on Columbia and talks about writing Page 8

OUT OF THE CLOSET
Molly-Ann Leikin is saved from herself in a very unusual and productive way Page 15

PHRASING
Key To Hit Melody Writing Cat Cohen discusses what separates the great from the good Page 20

LASS NEWS
MEMBER NEWS – NOTEWORTHY – MUSICAL CHAIRS
News about classes, biz events, where your favorite publishers and a&r reps are this month and good stuff about our members Page 4

WEEKLY SHOWCASE SCHEDULE
Who will be at the Showcase looking for songs and what they’re looking for on Cassette Roulette (publisher song critiques) and Pitch-A-Thon (producers and record company reps looking for songs and acts). Also a list of Pick-Ups (writers whoses songs were picked up last month) Pages 12-13

From the Acting Archivist…

Much like the Songmine columns posted earlier, the archives contain a large collection of Songwriter Musepaper publications. With this posting, I am beginning a project to scan the cover and table of contents of each issue and then OCR (convert the scanned picture to text) the table of contents in order to make it searchable. I don’t yet have the staff necessary to create complete scanned issues of the Museupaper, but if there is interest in a particular article or interview, I can scan that and make it available here.

Douglas E. Welch, douglas@welchwrite.com

Previously in Songwriters Musepaper:

0

Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 1

By on March 25, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriting Business, Songwriting Craft

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 1: Research and Spotting

Accession Number: C000000137-017 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 1 by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

Songmine: Scoring Films on a Low Budget Part 1: Research and Spotting

APRIL 26-MAY 9
Songmine

SCORING FILMS ON A LOW BUDGET PART I
by John Braheny

A couple of weeks ago I finished a film score and thought, after explaning the process to several people, that it might be of interest to you, too. What is interesting, I think, is that I am not an arranger, per say, with a lot of background in theory and composition in that department. As a result, I realize that my potential and scope are limited by the lack of those skills, but it’s all about priorities in my life and becoming an arranger is not one of them. Nonetheless, I’ve done alot of work with film music. There was a period of about 3 years when I composed and produced music for radio and T.V. commer-cials and because I used unorthodox approaches to compensate for lack of chops in other areas, I came up with unorthodox sounding music, which was what they were looking for. Most people dping music for commercialsiareiarrangers.and con-sequently, inspire more confidence in ad execs, who are notoriously paranoid to begin with, and con-sequently, those composers get alot more work. I’m not going to B.S. you that I got rich on it. It just worked out that way when people wanted something out of the ordi-nary, some of them took a chance on me. It gave me the chance to experiment on somebody else’s bread and I did alot of things with studio technology using every new gadget and technique I could think of. Working with film is, to me, very exciting because beyond the mechanics of timing to the second, it’s very subjective and interpretive. Obviously, the ad people as well as film directors, know what the music is supposed to do, but there are lots of different ways to achieve what they need and that’s where the creativity lies. I play guitar and violinand thosechopscan ‘transfer to bass and viola without a lot of trouble. Also, though I lack techni-cal arranging skill, I have a fairly good understanding of the dyna-mics involved which are the same skills basically, that producers need in putting together a “head ar-rangement” (one using only chord charts)

So with that in mind, along comes Bernard Selling a month or so ago and asks me to score his new film. I’ve scored 3 other films for Bernard and he likes my work. He won an award for one of his first documentaries called “Henry, Boy of the Barrio” before I’d met him and subsequent films he produced and directed were aimed primarily at an educational market. His last two have been films of short stories used often in English classes. It’s good preparation for him to move into longer feature films and gives him a way to develop and demon-strate his skill and style. The film I just worked on was from a Ray Bradbury allegory called “The Fly-ing Machine” which is set in ancient China. The story briefly, is about an emperor who upon dis-covering a man flying over his kingdom in a self-made machine, then decides he must kill the man to prevent the possible danger that evil men might use this invention to do evil things. There is much dialogue between the emperor, who appreciates the possible joys of flying, the beauty of the invention and the imagination of the inventor, and the inventor himself, who ob-viously believes he shouldn’t be punished for doing something beau-tiful. In the end the emperor does execute the ‘birdman’, but not without considerable inner turmoil. It’s the classic confrontation bet-ween change and the status quo, and between technological advance and our protection from its evils (see the China Syndrome).

“But Bernard,” I said, “I’m not really into Chinese music. Why don’t you hire someone who is?” He explained that the music didn’t have to be traditional and strict and that he wanted what could result from the synthesis of styles. In that regard, he also put me together with Curt Berg who is a big band leader, composer and arranger. He was looking for a synthesis of our styles, too. As it turned out, it was a very busy time for Curt and he didn’t have as much time to work on it as he would have liked. He composed a beautiful theme,and we spent some time together on the research and recording end. Next issue we’ll get into the nuts and bolts including research, ‘spotting the film’ ,(where it does and doesn’t need music), conversion formulas (frames to seconds), choosing in-struments and players, click tracks, recording, transfers, mixing, etc.

Previously in the Songmine Collection:

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.


0

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 5 Issue 9 – September 1990 – Interview: Desmond Child

By on March 20, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriters Musepaper

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 5 Issue 9 – September 1990 – Interview: Desmond Child

Jb C000000062 014 001 

JB#: C000000062-014-001

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 5 Issue 9 - September 1990 - Interview: Desmond Child 

JB #: C000000062-014-002

Table of Contents

(Digitally converted text. Some errors may occur)

FEATURES

DESMOND CHILD – ROCK’S BUSIEST COLLABORATOR
John Braheny takes lunch with the man who brought a varied musical background and considerable production, lyric and melody writing talent to the realm of hard rock and metal with results that consistently see the tops of the charts Page 8

GETTING READY TO RECORD
Demo producer/arranger Daniel Teddei gives you some valuable tips on how to make your time in the studio more productive by preparing well before the session Page 11

THEORETICALLY SPEAKING
Designing Songs – Picking The Right Elements David Cat Cohen is back with yet another metaphor for examining the craft of songwriting Page 14

10 POINTS YOUR SONG CONTRACTS SHOULD INCLUDE
The Songwriters Guild of America has been in the forefront of developing writer-oriented contracts. Memorize these points. Page 18

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Dummy Demos – Hank Linderman lets us in on a great way to catch the magic as it happens before it gets buried in your tech manual Page 21

LASS NEWS

MEMBER NEWS – NOTEWORTHY – MUSICAL CHAIRS
News about classes, biz events,where your favorite publishers and a&r reps are this month and good stuff about our members Page 4

WEEKLY SHOWCASE SCHEDULE
Cassette Rouletterrm (publisher song critiques), Pitch-A-Thon ‘1 (producers and record company reps looking for songs and acts), Pick-Ups (the names of writers whose songs got picked up at those sessions in the past month) Pages 13-14

From the Acting Archivist…

Much like the Songmine columns posted earlier, the archives contain a large collection of Songwriter Musepaper publications. With this posting, I am beginning a project to scan the cover and table of contents of each issue and then OCR (convert the scanned picture to text) the table of contents in order to make it searchable. I don’t yet have the staff necessary to create complete scanned issues of the Museupaper, but if there is interest in a particular article or interview, I can scan that and make it available here.

Douglas E. Welch, douglas@welchwrite.com

Previously in Songwriters Musepaper:

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Songmine: The Chances for Advances by John Braheny

By on March 17, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songmine, Songwriting Business

A John Braheny Songmine column from the archives…

Songmine: The Chances for Advances by John Braheny

Accession Number: C000000137-016 Document/Digital File, “Songmine: The Chances for Advances by John Braheny”, OCR converted text under same Accession Number

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Songmine: The Chances for Advances by John Braheny

APRIL 12-APRIL 25
Songmine

YOUR CHANCES FOR ADVANCES
by John Braheny

For some unexplained reason, several songwriters have asked me in the last couple of weeks whether they should ask a publishing com-pany for an advance, so I took it as a sign that I should deal with in this column. In all cases the writers were in need of the bucks and I told them they should go for it but with some information I think is worth considering.

1) It’s an ADVANCE, and not a payment for the song. I know most of you are probably already aware that the bread they give you now comes off the top of any royalties the publishers may receive later. This applies, in general, not only to publishers but to BM1 and ASCP as well. Despite the fact that it is, right out front, called an ADVANCE I’m surprised at the writers I talk to who are very upset a couple of years down the road when their statement from the publisher don’t yield them a check. They’ve meanwhile con-veniently forgotten that the pub-lisher will pay themselves back for that loan. The computer doesn’t forget!!

2) REVERSION CLAUSES,and your publishing contract affected by your receiving an advance. Reversion clauses state that if a publisher does not obtain a released recording of your song within a specified period of time )a year is fair),the publish-ing rights to the song revert back to you. It insures that if the publishers don’t do the job for you, you can take it else where and it won’t sit in their files forever with nothing happening. So how does it relate to advances? Here’s the basic princi-ple. The more money a publisher puts out in front, before actually getting a record cut on the song, the more he gambles. So to hedge the bet, he/she is not going to want to give you back the song and lose the money if they don’t get the tune recorded. Oh yes, they’ll just write it off. I mean, are they going to turn you over to a collection agency if you don’t pay it back, or take you to court for a few bucks, or hire a detective to find you? Not too practical for them or very good business to alienate a writer who might write a hit tomorrow. So what they will do is tell you up front that they can’t give you a reversion clause if they give you an advance. That’s just a good business practice for them.

3) A GOOD DEMO ENHANCES YOUR CHANCES – Based on the same principle as above, if you go to a publisher with a good, usable demo and that saves them the cost of producing it themselves )$100.00 to $500.00), you’re in a much better position to ask for an advance. You’re also in a much better posi-tion to ask for a reversion clause but you may have to decide between the clause and an advance.

4) SPLIT PUBLISHING – If you want to keep a part of the publishing, they’re unlikely to want to give you an advance. Here again, you’re reducing the potential profit for them. In fact they’re likely to ask you to split the demo costs if you want to split the profit. Not unreasonable at all.

5) STAFF WRITERS – Writers under contract receive not a weekly salary but a weekly advance against future royalties, but there’s very little chance of getting a reversion clause. They want every song you write during the term of the con-tract and usually before, and they want those songs for life plus 50 years.

6) HOW MUCH?- $25.00 on up. whatever you can negotiate. What-ever the traffic will bear. Ultimately friends, everything depends on how badly they want the song; they risk that you take it somewhere else. If they’re excited, they’ll usually want to let you know it. I believe, if you need an advance it can’t hurt to ask for it but that the enthusiasm of the publisher and his/her willingness to give you a reversion clause are ultimately worth more. There’s a philosophy that publishers hustle harder if they have more of an investment in a tune, and there may be some degree of truth to it, especially in the case of staff writers. But publishers ability to assess the commercial viability of your song is their game and gamble and if you raise the stakes they lose more if they’re wrong. Bear it in mind.

Previously in the Songmine Collection:

About Songmine and Music Connection Magazine:

John Braheny met Eric Bettelli and Michael Dolan right before they were going to publish Music Connection magazine. Eric and Michael wanted to get their publication out to as many songwriters as they could. They had already heard of the LA Songwriters Showcase, and of John and his partner, Len Chandler. John’s goal was to advertise the schedule of guest speakers and performers at the weekly Showcase… so they made a deal. 

They published John’s Songmine column (he had never before written a magazine article!) in their very first edition, in November 1977. Trading out the column for advertising, this arrangement continued for many years. Plus, Eric and Michael came to the Showcase each week and distributed free copies to the songwriters!

Those articles became so popular that (book agent and editor) Ronny Schiff offered John’s articles to F&W Media, where they became the backbone of John’s textbook, The Craft and Business of Songwriting. As a follow-up, Dan Kimpel (author, songwriter, teacher), who had also worked at LASS, took on the Songwriting column at Music Connection magazine which continues to this day! You can subscribe to get either hard copies or online.


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Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 7 Issue 4 – April 1992- Interview: Thom Bell

By on March 13, 2016 in Archive Highlights, Songwriters Musepaper

Songwriters Musepaper – Volume 7 Issue 4 – April 1992- Interview: Thom Bell

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 7 Issue 4 - April 1992- Interview: Thom Bell

JB#: C000000062-013-001

Songwriters Musepaper - Volume 7 Issue 4 - April 1992- Interview: Thom Bell

JB #: C000000062-013-002

Table of Contents

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INTERVIEW – THOM BELL
Dan Kimpel, major Thom Bell fan, jumped at the chance to interview the legendary hit writer/arranger/producer of the Stylistics, Delfonics, Spinners, Deniece Williams, James Ingram and Elton John.

MUSICAL NOTES -THE ART OF THE SINGER: WHO NEEDS VOICE LESSONS? 12
Voice teacher/vocal coach Lis Lewis gives you some convincing reasons why you should consider a voice teacher.

SPOTLIGHT – A VISIT WITH PRODUCER ROGER BECHIRIAN ….. . .14
Dan Kimpel hangs out with the engineer/producer whose credits include Carlene Carter, Nick Lowe, Rockpile, Elvis Costello, the Sex Pistols, Trashcan Sinatras and others.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE -BE PREPARED 16
Hank Linderman tells you from long experience how preparation for your demo session can help you get it done fast and good and maybe even cheap.

THEORETICALLY SPEAKING – THE IMPORTANCE OF A SONG CONCEPT 18
David Cat Cohen makes a case for getting focused on a concept to help you write better songs.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE – IRVING GORDON BLOWS IT 20
John Braheny got irritated about an unforgetable acceptance speech.

LASS NEWS MEMBER NEWS – NOTEWORTHY – MUSICAL CHAIRS 4
News about classes, biz events, where your favorite publishers and a&r reps are this month and good stuff about our members and Pickups.

WEEKLY SHOWCASE SCHEDULE 13
Cassette RouletteTM (publisher song critiques), Pitch-A-ThonTM (producers and record company reps looking for songs and acts).

APRIL 1992 • SONGWRITERS MUSEPAPER 3

From the Acting Archivist…

Much like the Songmine columns posted earlier, the archives contain a large collection of Songwriter Musepaper publications. With this posting, I am beginning a project to scan the cover and table of contents of each issue and then OCR (convert the scanned picture to text) the table of contents in order to make it searchable. I don’t yet have the staff necessary to create complete scanned issues of the Museupaper, but if there is interest in a particular article or interview, I can scan that and make it available here.

Douglas E. Welch, douglas@welchwrite.com

Previously in Songwriters Musepaper:

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