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 Mac
Millan
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.)
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)
Welcome new members: Julie Berger, Michael Mac Millan, and Dan Patterson