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(Tips, Tricks, & Techniques provides how-to information about folk music and other topics. The main Tips page contains a list of additional tips.) IN THE BEGINNING As I write, this is the time of year in the Jewish tradition when the cycle of Torah readings comes around full circle and the end of Deuteronomy flows seamlessly into the beginning of Genesis (Bereshit in Hebrew). This is often called getting back to Bereshit; but that expression also means getting back to basics. So, let¹s get back to Bereshit. In the beginning...you¹ve got to start somewhere. You¹re an aspiring singer/songwriter, but your music has never been heard outside your living room and you haven¹t set foot on stage since you played a carrot in your second-grade production of Peter Rabbit. Where do you begin? First, to write well, you have to, well, write. Write often! Keep an instrument and a recording device (dirt cheap will do just fine) out and available at home so you can reach them both when the creative urge strikes and when it goes on strike. Carry a small notebook (or microchip recorder) with you at all times so you can jot down ideas whenever they occur—concepts, song titles, turns of phrase, etc. If you¹re afraid you may forget a melody if you aren¹t near your recorder, songwriting expert and teacher Ralph Covert suggests that you phone yourself and sing it into your answering machine. (Be sure to advise your housemates not to pick up until after the beep goes on). What Next? So now you¹ve created some gems. How do they get to the right people¹s attention? There are scores of books, seminars, and groups out there dedicated to advising you how to pitch your songs. But these days, publishers and record-label A&R officers are inundated with so much unsolicited material that unless something about your demo grabs their attention even before they play it, they are eager to pitch your demo right into the dumpster. You need to develop a reason for these people to know you or your work well enough to give your material a listen instead of the heave-ho (no, not a nauseated prostitute—end of today¹s puns). This takes two things: networking and performance. Swallow hard and steel your nerves: You have to get your material performed in public; it¹ll never get discovered by accident (no, not even by dressing it in a tight sweater and having it sit at the soda fountain counter of Schwab¹s Drugstore). Unless you are so inept or insecure a performer that you need to hire someone to perform your material for you (and should it come to that, you¹ll find no shortage of people willing to do exactly that for you), you need to start hitting the open-mike circuit. Here in Chicago, a good place to start is the music section of the Chicago Reader. Most major metropolitan areas have similar papers. If not, crack open the Yellow Pages to bookstores, cafes, bars, or nightclubs and start phoning. Ask if they have live music, and if they do, whether and when they have an open stage or open mike. Ask about the ground rules—each venue has its own. Also try the Web site of the North American Folk Alliance, which has hyperlinks to regional and local folk music societies that, in turn, link you to lists of acoustic music venues. Main Page • List of Tips • Contact Sandy Copyright © 2000, Sandy Andina, All Rights Reserved |
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