Let’s talk song writing. During the last few days, all the students at the academy have had an opportunity to co-write a piece with one of the professional song writers on campus. Karl started us today with a lecture filling in the kind of etiquette required of people in this end of the music industry. I was good to hear some of the appropriate and inappropriate things to do in the process all the way from approaching potential collaborators thorough to not handing demos of your work to other artists and labels with the risk of plagiarism.
This all linked in really well with our next speaker. Caroline from APRA/AMCOS talked us through who the organisation is, what they do in regards to us sharing our songs, as well as the various aspects of getting recognised for your original works. I’m already a member of APRA since my debut album a few years ago, however I learnt heaps more about how I can do things better as a song writer and performer. There was talk about how the splitting of music works is done in different places, as well as how to get rewarded from your artistic reporting (letting APRA know what songs we perform at our gigs). I’m going to attempt to put these things into practice this year, and see what comes out of it.
Just before lunch, the tutors (professional song writers, producers and recording artists) shared their advice when it came to recording your work. Simple statements like “Why are you recording?”, “What is your recording budget?”, “What is your recording budget?”, plus much more. This panel based session made me reflect on the successful and not-so-successful aspects to my first release. Cathy (Catherine Britt) spoke about having a busy lifestyle, which I identify with. She schedules time to song write each week. When I'm back in NZ I will schedule a couple of times each week to develop my original songs each week as well, as it’s easy to let this time get sucked up with other aspects of life. I would like to be remembered as a great song writer, but that sort of thing takes a lot of time and hard work.
Our band were ready to go work with the band, but unfortunately we drew the short straw, and got to work with the backing band last. This had it’s positives, as a couple people in our group were able to do full records of their original songs. We also went through prospective songs for the graduation concert next week. Before dinner, we managed to get our spot with the band, however due to the other groups needing more time to work on their pieces (understandably I’m sure), our group didn’t get the best run with the band. I’m sure there are situations when this occurs, however I feel our group came out of this stressful environment rushed, and not having the opportunity to produce the amazing work I know we’re all capable of. Huge respect to Simon Johnson for producing all of the charts, as well as the band to playing tight to what was written in front of them. I know the songs or sections of songs that weren’t covered due to our time restrictions will be fantastic thanks to all of hard work.
Gig time … Time for me to make myself look pretty, sound pretty, and perform my first Australian show. I look forward to it. Wish me luck people. This could be epic.
(Notes of the show to come in tomorrow’s blog).
This all linked in really well with our next speaker. Caroline from APRA/AMCOS talked us through who the organisation is, what they do in regards to us sharing our songs, as well as the various aspects of getting recognised for your original works. I’m already a member of APRA since my debut album a few years ago, however I learnt heaps more about how I can do things better as a song writer and performer. There was talk about how the splitting of music works is done in different places, as well as how to get rewarded from your artistic reporting (letting APRA know what songs we perform at our gigs). I’m going to attempt to put these things into practice this year, and see what comes out of it.
Just before lunch, the tutors (professional song writers, producers and recording artists) shared their advice when it came to recording your work. Simple statements like “Why are you recording?”, “What is your recording budget?”, “What is your recording budget?”, plus much more. This panel based session made me reflect on the successful and not-so-successful aspects to my first release. Cathy (Catherine Britt) spoke about having a busy lifestyle, which I identify with. She schedules time to song write each week. When I'm back in NZ I will schedule a couple of times each week to develop my original songs each week as well, as it’s easy to let this time get sucked up with other aspects of life. I would like to be remembered as a great song writer, but that sort of thing takes a lot of time and hard work.
Our band were ready to go work with the band, but unfortunately we drew the short straw, and got to work with the backing band last. This had it’s positives, as a couple people in our group were able to do full records of their original songs. We also went through prospective songs for the graduation concert next week. Before dinner, we managed to get our spot with the band, however due to the other groups needing more time to work on their pieces (understandably I’m sure), our group didn’t get the best run with the band. I’m sure there are situations when this occurs, however I feel our group came out of this stressful environment rushed, and not having the opportunity to produce the amazing work I know we’re all capable of. Huge respect to Simon Johnson for producing all of the charts, as well as the band to playing tight to what was written in front of them. I know the songs or sections of songs that weren’t covered due to our time restrictions will be fantastic thanks to all of hard work.
Gig time … Time for me to make myself look pretty, sound pretty, and perform my first Australian show. I look forward to it. Wish me luck people. This could be epic.
(Notes of the show to come in tomorrow’s blog).
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