| January 2001 Guild Tidings The official Publication of The International Songwriters Guild Volume 6, No. 1 Meetings are held the first Sunday of each month at 5:00 P.M. The location is 3020 E Robinson St., Orlando, Florida. (The American Federation of Musicians Union Building) Next Meeting: 5:00pm Sunday January 7th 2001 Officers:President/Treasurer Russ Robinson (407) 851-5328 Co-Vice President/ newsletter Susan Foster-Trewick (407) 679-4017 Co-Vice President/ Member Reception Matthew Griffin (407) 903-1212 President’s Letter Happy New Year!! Dear Members, What a celebration most of our local Floridians had from all over the state, on Saturday 12/23. After our Songwriters Showcase at Beardall center and the great party that followed hosted by members Connie and Roy Champion. I wish every one could have attended Thanks to prospective member Sam Brown for making the day at Beardall by opening the show with a comedy routine, and later singing some of his own compositions. New member Danny Patterson set the place on fire with his vocals and award winning Florida song. There are too many of those that appeared to name, but everyone that performed was a hit. Too, I want to thank Annabelle Wosgien for providing the sound reinforcement system, (and Danny for providing the Boom box and cable) that made it all possible. I have several contests coming up with big cash awards, I’ll tell you about Sunday. Bring your notebooks to list them. I’d love to have one of you win one of these contests BIG TIME! Be sure to read about the ISG 2000 song contest on the inside cover. This is a new idea, and could be profitable to all of us. I’m looking forward to a good year coming up for the Guild. We have many talented people, and every one of you deserves a break. Let’s hope it will happen in 2001!!! Best ever Russ Rusty Gordon Seminar Series continues February marks the return of Rusty Gordon to the Orlando area for the 5th in a series of “Business of Music and Songwriting” Seminars that started in December 1999. She will be presenting 2 seminars on Saturday the 3rd of February at the Musician’s Union hall. (The same location as the ISG meetings). The seminars will start at 1:00pm and 3:00pm. The 2 topics are “Audience Psychology” and “Publishing”. Each seminar will be $15, and if you attend both, the donation will be $25. A free jam session/showcase for seminar participants and ISG members is planned for later on the same evening, with details to be announced in the next newsletter. ISG 200 Song Contest We’d like to invite the first place winners of the monthly evaluations to submit their songs for the yearly song contest. An independent Publisher will judge the songs, and the first 3 positions will receive small prizes (to be determined). Please submit your tape/CD and typed lyric sheet to me as soon as possible. The winners were as follows: Jan: “One of these Days” by Susan Foster-Trewick, Feb: “We Belong” by Bill Frank, Mar: “When Can I See You Again” by Susan Mathis, Apr: “Satirical Blues” by Susan Foster-Trewick, May: “My Friend Jesus” by John Fales, June: “The News Café” by Sharon Conway, Jul: “I’m Spending Christmas with You” by Sharon Conway, Aug: “Spectre” by Asli Walker, Sep: “Sunday” by Lisa Firestone, Oct: “Happy New Year Blues” by Sharon Conway, Nov: “High Maintenance” by Bill Frank, Dec: “When you Remember me” by Susan Mathis. I will be putting the songs on a CD for submittal to the publisher, so please forward your tapes to me at: Susan Foster-Trewick, 9525 Handley Court, Orlando, FL, 32817-2779, or bring them with you to the Sunday meeting. SOME THOUGHTS ON LEARNING TO READ MUSIC Part 2: John B. Gayle The advantages of learning to read and write music: 1. You can make an instant record of any melody that chances to come into your mind. This is particularly important if you are at all forgetful since it can prevent the loss of an idea that may have great value. I usually carry a couple of 4X6 index cards or a blank piece of paper and simply draw a few inches of a music staff, freehand, and scribble a few notes to remind me of the melody. This is a lot faster and easier than carrying a tape recorder. Rusty Gordon and other people who teach song writing emphasize the importance of preserving new melodies when they come to you, noting that once lost they are lost forever. 2. Song writing is an iterative process consisting of endless rewriting. It’s a lot easier to edit a melody that has been preserved as a paper record than it is to modify a recording. This is especially important at the early stages of creating a new song when changes are the rule rather than the exception. Writing music is not very time consuming. I can write a simple tune in only a little more time than it takes to sing it 3. Recorded music is fine for listening but cannot be learned and played by just anyone, particularly those people lacking an “ ear” for music. Since many people can play musical instruments if they have the music available, use of the musical notation system expands the size of the group of people who are potential buyers of your compositions. In other words there is still some market for sheet music. For my part, it somehow bothers me that there are so many CD’s and tapes released containing songs that have never been put on paper. I mentioned that it is sufficient to be able to write in only one key. Most people who play by ear are much more proficient in some keys than others. For example, my best keys are f, c, and g. I’m lost when I need to play something in g-flat or g-sharp by ear. Even though I can play comfortably in several keys, I prefer the key of g, since I tend to think of new melodies as being in the key of g. The situation is similar to that of people who speak several languages. Many such people tend to do most of their thinking in their native language and silently translate words spoken in foreign languages into their native language for better understanding, i.e. they think in one language and speak in another. I found it interesting that the narrator of a tutorial for use of a computer program named Band in a Box mentioned that he always composes in the same key since it is easier for him to think in that particular key. In the case of song writing, it is important to create a permanent record. Once such a record is available it can easily be transposed into any desired key to accommodate a singer’s voice range or for any other reason. Since it would require at most a few hours to acquire a limited familiarity with musical notation, I believe that the obvious advantages fully justify the effort. Also, once a songwriter uses the notation method enough to become comfortable with it, the ability to read music in other keys and make use of other aspects of musical notation and music theory will follow gradually with little conscious effort. This will enable the songwriter to read other people’s music and facilitate collaboration between songwriters. I personally feel that learning to read music represents a commitment to the profession that every serious songwriter should be willing to make. Using Minor Keys, Part 1 by Matt Griffin As some of you have noted, we at the ISG spend a disproportionate amount of time (in critiques and here in the newsletter) talking about lyrics. So just for you, this month we’re going to tackle a music issue: writing in minor keys. A lot of writers seldom if ever write in a minor key, and many that do tend to reserve their minor-key music for their saddest songs. It’s certainly true that minor-key melodies tend to sound more downbeat than their major-key counterparts. But many other interesting (though typically serious) emotions can be effectively conveyed in the minor, including thoughtfulness, nostalgia, anger, self-reflection, worry, loneliness, regret, frustration, and indecision to name a few. It would also be wrong to assume that minor keys should be reserved for, say, downbeat ballads. Lots of great upbeat songs, including quite a few dance tunes, have been written in the minor (a memorable example: “I Heard It through the Grapevine”). Also, if you haven’t experimented with minor keys at all, it isn’t necessary to start with an entire song; a minor-key bridge can be a very effective break from a major-key song. A common choice is a relative minor, which has the same key signature as its associated major key. The uninitiated may be surprised to learn that there is more than one minor key scale based on any given tonic note. The C-major scale is the same for everyone: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. But there are many C-minor scales, all sharing the flatted third note (Eb). The three most common in modern music are the Aeolian or natural minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C), the Dorian (C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C), and the Blues scale (C-Eb-F-G-Bb); the Blues scale omits the second and sixth. There are other minor scales (e.g. the melodic and harmonic minors), but these are seldom used in songs today. Note that the Aeolian is typically used for key signature purposes in written music, regardless of which minor scale is actually used in the song. So which scale should you use when writing, and where should your chords come from? The wonderful answer is, it doesn’t really matter. You can mix and match melody notes and chords from any or all of the three common minor scales. They’ll almost certainly sound great together (if you have any talent at all in arranging melodies with chords, that is). So if you’re composing a song using the Aeolian minor scale, feel free to borrow an Adim (A-C-Eb) chord from the Dorian scale. Give it a try! Next month we’ll go into a little more detail, and we’ll give some minor-key harmony a try. Web Chatter cybertoad2000@yahoo.com Happy New Year to all those of you out there in Cyber land. This is a reminder about the Newsletter website, where we will be posting 2 months worth of “Guild Tidings” at any given time. We hope that those of you that have Internet access will start availing yourselves of this feature. Asli Walker is the host (thanks Asli), and her site is http:// borrowedreality. com. The link to the ISG is at the top of her home page. We will be sending out e-mails to those folk on our ISG mailing list (Please e-mail us at i_s_g_2000 @ yahoo.com so you can be added to our address book.) I’m looking forward to seeing you all at e-meetings next year. December TOP FIVE WINNERS Of last month’s Evaluation Session 1st Place: When you remember me Susan Mathis 2nd Place: A Child Again Paul Vernon 3rd Place: Sweet Desire Dan Patterson 4th Place: Arms of the past Michael MacMillan 5th Place: The Game of Love Jack Gayle Gig schedule Jeff Mason is playing at Tijuana Flats on Friday evenings (weather permitting) from 7:00 to 10:00pm. This is located at 444 S. Hunt Club Blvd, tel# (407) 774-0402 Paul Vernon is playing at various locations. If you wish to see him perform, please call him at (407) 296-2019 for his latest schedule. SusieCool will be performing at Millie’s Caribbean Restaurant on alternating Saturdays from 7:00 to 8:30pm. Millie’s is at 9318 East Colonial Dr, call ahead (407) 658-9266 to see when she’s performing. Where’s your next gig? – Let us know, so we can be there Please feel free to contribute articles to the Newsletter If you have any information that you would like to see added to the newsletter, please see Susan Foster-Trewick at the meetings, or you can E-mail her at cybertoad2000@yahoo.com. Please keep your articles brief. Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing in the ISG. For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please call Russ Robinson (407) 851-5328, or e-mail: i_s_g_2000@yahoo.com “Dues Clues” We are trying to keep better track of dues payments. You will notice that your mailing label has a date in the top right hand corner. This represents the date that we have a record of your last payment. As Russ has mentioned, this needs to be updated, so if you see ?? Or an incorrect date on your label, please let us know so we can correct it, and if the Date is more than a year old, then our “Dues Clues” will tell you it’s time to send that check to Russ again!!! (If you see “Guest” written there, it means that this is one of a few complimentary issues we are sending you since your visit with us. This will give you an opportunity to see what we are all about, and decide whether you want to join our Guild.) |
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