Ideas

The Role Of A Songwriting Judge

Here is the second part of the songwriting workshop I conducted last Tuesday for SCALA (Songwriters, Composers & Lyricists Association) called “How To Win A Songwriting Competition – The Role Of A Songwriting Judge”.

One of the things I love about SCALA’s FOOM (Festival Of Original Music) Song Competition is the fact that, as a judge I get to make comments and give constructive feedback on every song I judge.

Furthermore, these comments are given back to the entrant so the amount of accountability in what feedback I give is immense.

Some competitions don’t do this and if they do, you have to pay for it.

Here are the notes I was using for the “Role Of A Songwriting Judge” section of the latest SCALA Songwriting Workshop.

It’s my hope that this gives you a bit more of an insight of the other side of song contests.

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The Role Of A Songwriting Judge
By Corey Stewart
www.songwritingzen.com

From my experience, the role of any songwriting judge is to be:

1. Objective at all times
The overall brief that I receive before judging FOOM is “judge the song, not the performance”. I must say that this is a very challenging brief to uphold. But it’s a brief I take very, very seriously.

As a FOOM judge I can’t allow my personal feelings towards a certain type of music or songwriter (if I happen to know them personally) get in the way of the job at hand.

If, for some reason there’s a conflict of interest I’m expected to disclose it. My job is to pick the best song(s) regardless of performance, genre and/or personnel.

2. Encouraging and freely giving of information
On the FOOM page of the SCALA website it reads:

“Whilst we encourage judges to provide feedback they are under no obligation to do so (but most judges do provide some feedback). Feedback sheets are returned (along with lyrics) to each entrant. Entrants are reminded that any such feedback represents only the view of the individual judges and usually is offered as a general guide only.”

Personally, giving comments on the feedback sheets is the very thing that I take the most seriously of all. It’s the thing that keeps me coming back to judging FOOM every year.

I love being able to have the opportunity to freely give encouraging and constructive feedback about the song I’m judging.

Through the feedback sheets, the FOOM entrant will know who I am and that I’ve presided over their song so I better make sure I give them information that they can use to improve what they’ve already written.

It’s a big responsibility but it’s one I embrace wholeheartedly.

3. Constructive in feedback
There is a huge difference between constructive feedback and negative feedback disguised as constructive.

Its one thing to be able to give feedback freely to songwriters but if the feedback is negative and destructive then it’s really not worth giving at all.

When I give feedback I always try to find at least one positive thing about the song and use that as an anchor for the rest of the feedback. There are ways of saying a song is not as good as it could be without destroying the very soul of the songwriter who wrote it.

As long as the feedback is balanced and the recipient knows that the feedback comes from a place of love, respect and encouragement for the songwriter and his/her craft then it’s okay to give it.

FOOM is about encouraging the writing of new material not the destruction of it.

At the end of the day, it’s not Australian or American Idol.

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At the end of the day a winning song in a song contest had jumped through many hoops to get to its final destination.

It has been evaluated, re-evaluated, listened to many times and in some cases been the topic of animated discussions between judges.

It’s hard for any human being to be 100% objective about anything. We are judgemental creatures of habit that crave security over change and stability over chaos.

Songwriting judges are no different.

Bear in mind that if you enter a song in a song contest don’t use it as a measure of your self esteem, use it as a learning experience. If you get any feedback, cherish and embrace it as a means to improve your craft.

I will do my best through Songwriitng Zen to keep you informed about any songwriting competitions that come my way. If you have any positive or negative songwriting contest experiences, let me know.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 Songwriting Contests No Comments

Building A Songwriting Ideas Archive

As a songwriter, there are going to be times in your life where you’ll be inspired to write a complete song but, for most of the time there will be times where all you’ll be doing is fishing for songwriting ideas.

It’s important for a songwriter to have an ideas archive at their disposal.

You don’t necessarily need to have a fully set up home recording studio to capture songwriting ideas (although it would be lovely to have one ready to go) however, some sort of recording device like a tape recorder is essential.

Most songwriters I know write with an acoustic guitar but, now matter how you write songs, I am amazed at how many don’t record their ideas on tape, but rely on their memory.

For something as important as songwriting ideas, never, ever trust your memory

I personally set aside some time each day to pick up my guitar and noodle. I play whatever comes to mind but I always have a tape player handy.

This is because, when I get a hint of an idea to develop I simply press record and commit the idea to tape for future reference.

Once the idea is down I start fishing for the next idea.

The beauty about this process is that I am not under any pressure to remember any ideas that I may have conjured up in that time, I’ve already recorded them.

If I forget them it doesn’t matter.

As well as noodling on my guitar I am also noodling with my voice, singing whatever comes into my head. It’s taken me a long time to just be able to babble rubbish into a tape player and not feel bad about it.

When I am lyrically noodling I am only interested in the melodies and the rhythms I come up with. The actual lyrics can come later.

At this stage I am not even looking to finish a song, just gathering ideas, phrases, riffs and melodies and getting them down on tape.

After a while you start to develop a collection of songwriting ideas, riffs and phrases on tape, an aural journal if you will.

Be warned though, your inner voice is going to have a wonderful time telling you how bad it the ideas sounds and how awful the lyrics. You have to ignore it and look at your ideas as works in progress that aren’t finished yet.

Once you have say, two or three 60 or 90 minute tapes full of stuff, it’s then time to listen back and hear what you’ve done. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas you would’ve forgotton.

At this point of time it would be like hearing your songwriting ideas for the first time and it’s from this perspective that songs get completed.

Just think, with your ever growing list of possible song titles at your disposal and your musical and lyrical noodlings on tape, imagine how many more songs you are going to write.

Exciting isn’t it?

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting technique, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, ideas, Songwriting, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, writing

Saturday, March 15th, 2008 Songwriting Ideas No Comments

Mindmapping Your Songwriting Ideas

From one idea, many ideas form.

I love mind maps. I’m a visual person, and developing a songwriting idea by using a mind map really helps me write my song lyrics more effectively.

Right now you’re probably asking “what is this mind map?” Well, according to Wikipedia a Mind Map is:

“…a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing”.

A mind mapping exercise is a simple, but a very effective way of fleshing out the body of a song from a single idea, phrase or a word.

It’s very similar to brainstorming but in a very visual way.

If you follow the steps outlined below, you will have a whole song laid out in front of you. All you have to do is follow the paths that you have created.

Heres how you do it.

1. Take your idea, phrase or word and write it in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it.

2. From that circle branch out five lines in different directions. At the end of those lines write a word that is associated with the central word. These words could be the basis for your verses and choruses.

3. From each of those five words start writing five other words that relate and so on.

By the time you have had enough (or you run out of paper), you’ll see the whole song mapped out in front of you and it all started from one songwriting idea, phrase or a single word.

Start from the central theme and work outwards, following the word paths you’ve created. Can you see what phrases you can come up with from doing that.

Be careful not to have too many initial branches springing out from your central theme. This will turn your mind map into a complicated mess of too many ideas pulling against each other. Up to five is plenty.

Remember, you dont have to use all (or any) of the words you have written down, this is another way of opening your mind to new ways of generating songwriting ideas.

Most of us are visual people. As mentioned before, I personally access information the best this way. I can tell you having a whole song mapped out in front of me makes the job of formulating a song so much easier.

Give it a go and see what happens, you’ll be amazed at some of the paths and tangents you create.

Let me know how it works for you

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

PS: For more information on Mind Maps, click here.

Keywords: mind map, songwriting idea, songwriting, writing songs, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting help, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, ideas, mind map, music, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting tip, writing, zen