{"id":249,"date":"2010-01-16T21:55:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-17T05:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2012-11-09T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T23:15:53","slug":"dont-digg-baloney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/dont-digg-baloney\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Digg Baloney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\nAs part of my research for writing this blog, writing my column for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musesmuse.com\" target=\"_blank\">Muse&#8217;s Muse<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/ijackson57\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>ing about songwriting tips, I tend to spend a lot of time online looking at other songwriting websites and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Blog\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blog\">blogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 160px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Digg_new.svg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Digg, Inc.\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/4\/4d\/Digg_new.svg\/300px-Digg_new.svg.png\" alt=\"Digg, Inc.\" width=\"150\" height=\"82\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\">Image via <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Digg_new.svg\">Wikipedia<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>What I&#8217;ve noticed is that people mean well, but sometimes they are giving incorrect information or selling something as a &#8220;how to&#8221; write something, when it is clearly just &#8220;my way&#8221;.\u00a0 It&#8217;s hard for a beginner songwriter especially to know what is true and what is simply someone&#8217;s opinion.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, I read a blog just recently that stated that in a chorus, you must have two distinct phrases and then they should repeat.\u00a0 The blogger also stated that you should also have the hook in the chorus.\u00a0 Well, the truth is that this is not always the case!\u00a0 You could simply go through a list of your favourite songs and find that most don&#8217;t follow these so-called &#8220;rules&#8221;.\u00a0 Now this person is probably just trying to be helpful, but it would have been better for him to say:\u00a0 &#8220;this is one way you might write a chorus&#8221;.\u00a0 And that would be helpful!\u00a0 And where did I find this tip for writing &#8220;better&#8221; songs?\u00a0 On <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Digg\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.digg.com\">Digg.com<\/a>.\u00a0 That means that people are reading these blogs and deciding that they are important enough to digg them and pass them on to others.<\/p>\n<p>Please do not take ANYONE&#8217;s tips (not even mine!) as gospel.\u00a0 They should simply be thought of as one approach to your songwriting.\u00a0 You should always be suspicious of someone who tells you &#8220;THIS is how you write a song.&#8221;\u00a0 The internet is full of information, but you have to decide for yourself if the information is valid or simply someone&#8217;s idea of the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\n<center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Research<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some will make statements that simply aren&#8217;t true, or use incorrect terminology or musical references.\u00a0 There are legitimate sources for information on musical terms and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Music theory\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Music_theory\">music theory<\/a>, for instance.\u00a0 Find out what they are and double check when you&#8217;re not sure of something.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More is better<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you see the same tip in more than one place, it&#8217;s probably because it&#8217;s a good tip.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trust your gut<\/strong>.\u00a0 If something doesn&#8217;t seem right to you, ignore it.\u00a0 If it seems ridiculous, it probably is.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody thinks they can tell you how to write a song.\u00a0 Listen to their work if they have any online before you decide if they are worth paying attention to.\u00a0 Check their references.\u00a0 When they claim that they can guarantee you&#8217;ll write a hit, email and ask them to list their hits!\u00a0 You can go to websites like <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Broadcast Music Incorporated\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/bmi.com\/\">BMI<\/a> and ASCAP and check their names.\u00a0 Have they even REGISTERED a song, let alone written a hit?<\/p>\n<p>And last, but certainly not least, do not give money to someone before you have thoroughly researched their legitimacy.\u00a0 I had a guy who sent me a letter from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Nashville, Tennessee\" rel=\"geolocation\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=36.1666666667,-86.7833333333&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=36.1666666667,-86.7833333333%20%28Nashville%2C%20Tennessee%29&amp;t=h\">Nashville<\/a> EVERY YEAR for 10 years, telling me how he was going to get my song (which he would incorrectly name every time!) to top artists in Nashville for the measly sum of several hundred dollars.\u00a0 I laughed and dumped it in the recycling box every year.\u00a0 I&#8217;m nobody.\u00a0 Why would he want my song so badly?\u00a0 Because he didn&#8217;t!\u00a0 He wanted my MONEY so badly :-).<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/22008d09-a764-4d78-b36a-6e6a88f9503e\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?x-id=22008d09-a764-4d78-b36a-6e6a88f9503e\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of my research for writing this blog, writing my column for the Muse&#8217;s Muse and Twittering about songwriting tips, I tend to spend a lot of time online looking at other songwriting websites and blogs. Image via Wikipedia What I&#8217;ve noticed is that people mean well, but sometimes they are giving incorrect information [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[107,175,173,174],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-tips","tag-american-society-of-composers-authors-and-publishers","tag-ascap","tag-broadcast-music-incorporated","tag-nashville"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prwoq-41","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}