Questions and Answers
by Molly-Ann Leikin

Earlier this week, a nice man named Dave Byers who represents the Christian Songwriters Association, sent me a list of questions, asking me
to answer them for all the members of his association. I felt his
questions were important, and I wanted to share them, plus my answers, with all of you.

Molly:
I'm very proud of you, Dave, and all of your songwriting colleagues.
You've been given special gifts, and I'm pleased to know you are using
them. Good for all of you for being at your guitars and desks and
keyboards every day, writing down your thoughts, willing to go to the wall
for your inspiration. Good for you!

You asked:
Molly, many songwriters start on this wonderful journey of songwriting out of pure love of music. We get music and/or words in our heads and start scrambling for a pen. What would you suggest to songwriters that we might further our craft and get better at songwriting? What are the some good productive ways to learn for instance?

Molly:
I recommend that you all start by learning your craft - not just taking a
one-day seminar, but sitting down with a craft book and incorporating all
the "rules" of songwriting into each of your songs. Write a little every
day. The more you write, the more natural writing and the craft of writing
will become.

By the way, both of my books address all the elements of craft plus the
business and creative issues that arise in a songwriter's life. Without
craft, you have to rely on luck. With craft, you have power.

My books are: "How To Write A Hit Song" ($9.95) and "How To Make A Good Song A Hit Song" ($12.95) Both are available through my publisher at the toll-free number: 800-637-2852 or from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com

When you buy two of my audio tape series from me, I'll send one of my books to you as a gift.

You asked:
Many of us writers get into songwriting and get to a point where it seems
we're banging our head against the wall trying to get that 1st song
published or recorded. When you have a song you think is good, how can the writer in nowhere'sville, Pennsylvania get an artist, or publisher to hear
it?

Molly:
We're all very lucky today that there are so many new venues to which we
can submit songs. However, before you send anything to anybody, you should make sure it's a hit - not just pretty good - but a smash - so when you finally get it to someone who can do something with it, he/she will be
dazzled by your writing - not just your potential - but your writing - and
will call you in the middle of the night saying "I'm sending a plane for
you - be in my office tomorrow".

It's your responsibility to make sure BEFORE you ever start marketing your material that's it's really marketable and competitive in the marketplace. My clients send me their new songs as they write them, and working by consultation, together we make sure every note and every syllable is as strong as it needs to be in order to realistically compete. Heavy on the realistically.

We polish what needs polishing and then we move into hustle gear.
You asked:
How do you hustle?

Imagine your song is your child and nothing is too good for it. If you had
a son who showed promise with his painting, wouldn't you go to the wall to find the right art class and give him the right encouragement? Of course! So since your song is your child, stop at nothing to make sure it gets where it is supposed to go.

There's no such thing as calling too often.
There's no such thing as sending too many follow-up letters.

Usually, the difference between you and the guy on the radio is he made one more phone call.

But how do you get through to the people who don't want to talk to you
because they don't know how good you are and have plenty of good writers already? Before you call anybody, write out a "pitch". Get it down to fifteen seconds and load it with positive information. Practice with a tape recorder, so you sound confident when you finally get to the phone.

A nervous writer makes a publisher nervous.
A confident writer makes a publisher interested.
A cocky writer makes a publisher hang up. So don't go overboard.

But practice your pitch. Make it sound interesting. Imagine what would
keep you listening if someone called you with a product you thought you
already had. Like the phone company when they call right during dinner...

I tell my clients daily, and I say over and over again in my books:
remember that once you write a song, it's not you anymore - it's a product
- just like a surfboard or a Mercedes. If you have a great product and a
great sales pitch, you can sell anything. One without the other - you have
nothing - no matter what the source of the inspiration, or the message.

Read some Zig Zigler - he's the salesman's saleman. He also never tried to
sell anything that wasn't a great product.

You asked:
Does a song today need to be professionally recorded to have a chance? For instance with a full band, etc. or is the vocal/guitar method still
effective?

Molly:
Again, your song is your child and you have to give it the best you've got.
I make very full demos, and even though the people who do them for me give me their very best deal because I send them my clients, I still pay a lot
of money for demos. But the recording has to be able to compete with all
the other work a publisher/producer/music supervisor receives. Interesting
that a song should "work" with just one voice and one instrument, but you
have to showcase it with a full blown recording. Go figure.

It is a rare song these days that can be done guitar/vocal and compete with
somebody's master. Publishers expect a first class recording - in fact -
they have come to expect masters.

Case in point: a writer I work with was making very nice, country demos.
He sent them out continually. In one month, he got 2 replies saying the
songs were great but the publishers were looking for master-quality
recordings for their sound tracks. So my client re-recorded two of the
songs as masters to see how they'd fare. Within three weeks, both were in
a movie soundtrack.

Yes, it should be the publisher's job to make the demos and it should be
the music supervisor's job to make the masters, but should's don't change
the facts. It's on the writer.

It isn't fair, but that's the truth.

My clients know I don't always tell them what they want to hear, but I
absolutely always tell them the truth.

You asked:
What are your feelings on rhyming? Are there just a few acceptable patterns, or as long as a rhyme pattern is in place?

Molly:
Well, you asked the toughest person in the world about rhyming. So here it is: rhyming to rhyme is of no value. A lyric should say what you mean.
If it just rhymes and doesn't say what you mean, what good is it? I like
to think it's possible to say what you mean, have the words fit the melody,
"sing" well and rhyme at the same time. These days, I'm pretty well
standing alone out here. However, let me add this: in any art, you should
know the rules first and then take licence. Taking licence because you're
in a hurry is no excuse. There are no prizes for speed. You can put a non-rhyming lyric away for a day or two and come back to it fresh and I bet you can "fix" most of the problem areas. But don't insult the craftspeople among your colleagues who strive to cover all the points, by saying - "ah - it's close enough".

It's not.

The problems I see most writers having is they don't know what they want to say before they start to write. That has nothing to do with rhyming. I
suggest in my books and to all of my clients that they write the story of
the song out in prose - no rhymes, no meter, no melody to contend with.
Get the story straight. Then ask yourself "how can I say this in a way
that's never been said before? Where's the news in this piece? Take your
time with it - nobody will ever think less of you for spending a week or a
month on a lyric instead of ten minutes. A ten minute lyric sounds like a
ten minute lyric.

Did Michelangelo whip through the Cistine Chapel? Did he have a bus to
catch? Okay - then respect your work in the same way. Use your gifts and
honor them. God wasn't in a hurry when He made the sunsets or you.

You asked:
What do you think are the 3 most important things that a song must have for us to end up hearing it on the radio?

Molly:
A song has to have a great melody. Once we like the tune, after the fourth
or fifth hearing, we'll listen for the words. Then the song has to be
recorded so it blows us away - and the writer has to push that song like
it's the last one he/she will ever write and all the notes in the world are
going to perish. Y'gotta keep on writing every day, even if all your
previous songs have been turned down a thousand times.

You asked:
In a story type song, how many characters do you think are best introduced into the song? For instance, how many is to many, not enough, etc.

Molly:
Story songs are my favorites. The best ones are visual and tell us
something new. They also have simple, repetitive, hook choruses. Don't
get so bogged down in lyrics that there's no room for the melody.

The best story song I ever heard has so many characters I still am not
quite sure what happened - "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia". Try and top that. I don't think it's about how many characters there are in a
song - I think the question should be what's the story and where's the
news? Ask yourself the same questions a journalist asks:

who, what, where, when and why?

And also ask yourself if your story is original. The audience has to give
up three minutes of it's life to listen to your song, so don't you think
you should say something new to justify that gift of time?

In my books and on my tapes there are lots of exercises. One is to imagine
you're writing a movie. What is going to make Warner Brothers give you
$100,000,000. to make this one? How is it different from "Titanic" or
"Jurasic Park"? Be smart. Be aware. Don't be a victim.

You asked:
If we could read just one of your books, which would you point us to?

Molly:
You ask very tought questions, my friend. But okay - I'd start with the
first one, "How To Write A Hit Song", and then ask the universe to send you an additional $12.95 so you can have the complete set.

You asked:
One last question, do you think a songwriter needs to be in Nashville, L.A.
to pitch songs, or is the "demo in the mail" routine actually effective?

Molly:
While you are learning your craft, you have no reason to subject yourself
to being just another schnook trying to leave a footprint on 16th Avenue.
I suggest you stay home, write two hundred songs, make a hundred demos, go to a few songwriting seminars here and there, meet some of the heavy players, get a business card from each, call the next day, develop a
professional relationship, get some feedback on your best three songs.
Then, when the first one is published by a MAJOR publisher - not somebody with a POB in Tuscaloosa - come to Nashville every few months to co-write with the writers in the loop. Then, when their publishers get interested in you and can offer you a staff job, come on down.

In my books and on my tapes, I stress that I would never send an
unsolicited tape so someone I don't know. It's like setting fire to money.
Always call first, find out if that person will accept a hit song from
you, ask how to mark the envelope so it's not confused with an unsolicited
tape, and then call every week for the rest of your life to make sure the
tape is heard. If it isn't right for the current project, ask which
project is coming up that you could shoot for. Don't ever let a no be a
no. In my books, I show you how to turn a no into a yes.

Thank you, Dave, for asking me to join you and your friends. I feel
blessed that I've been able to use my gifts to help so many other writers
make their dreams come true. One of my clients has a Grammy nomination, another won an Emmy, and in the past 7 years, 157 of my clients have made deals. I hope my next success story is someone from your group. Call me if I can help, okay? Write well and come by my website:

www.songmd.com

And check The Songwriter's Collaboration Network, where writers looking for writing partners and singers looking for songs, find each other. The
listings are free!

© 1999 Molly-Ann Leikin

Go back to column listings