Of particular help to song writers is the “Store” page. Using this, the song writer can make themselves aware of the latest songs recorded, again studying titles, styles, tempos, and themes. Some groups web sites also enable you to listen to clips of song, which is helpful if you don’t recognize titles. Other sites just list titles.
I will offer a side note to artists. It is prudent if web site information is kept up to date, especially phone numbers, e-mail addresses and surface mail contact address. It is frustrating for a song writer to waste time, resources and money to send a demo to an address found on a web site, only to have it returned marked “Not at this address” or “Address not known.”
Usually, song writers pitch artists songs within their known genre. You pitch Southern gospel songs to Southern gospel artists, country gospel to country gospel singers and so on. But, occasionally, you will hear cross-over between genres. Southern gospel groups will pick up a bluegrass or contemporary gospel song, for example. This has happened in my case. I wrote a song, “Morning Prayer,” which was intended as a Southern gospel song. Tina Miller of Canaan’s Crossing heard the song, liked it, and put a bluegrass twist on the song. She took it to the group and they recorded it on their last project, “Seven.” I would never have envisioned it as a bluegrass song, but I love what the group did with it. I sometimes have artists say to me, “I love the song, but it is not my style.” I always tell them I will not be upset if they want to tweak the music to make it their style. Almost any song can be sung in any style, if one uses their imaginations. This is a good lesson for both song writer and artist.
Occasionally, artists will contact song writers and ask to hear songs. It is encouraging when this happens because it tells you they have heard something in previous pitches that makes them want to hear more. Although I employ all the knowledge accrued from the sources cited above, I always ask the artist what they are looking for in the songs they are seeking. Once in a long while, I will get an answer such as, “I want an up-tempo song,” or “I want a duet,” etc. Almost invariably however, the answer is, “I don’t know. I will know it when I hear it.” Inwardly, I scream, “Arrrrrgh!” It is a daunting task to give someone exactly what they want when they don’t even know what that is. I pray, use what I have learned and do the best I can at picking the songs, praying the Lord will lead me to the right ones.
I do a couple of other things aimed at helping me know what songs to send which artists. The first is I maintain a web site www.throughhisgracemusic.com which contains clips of all of the songs I have available for recording. I tell artists about it and encourage them to request to hear the full version of any song that piques their interest. I have to admit though; this resource is underutilized by artists.
Maintaining records is also important when pitching songs. For each artist to whom I pitch, I create what I call an “Artist Information Sheet.” The page contains the name of the artist/group, the contact person, their surface and e-mail addresses, the location of their web site and phone and cell numbers. It contains a space for comments in which I enter any relevant facts about the artist I might need to remember. The sheet also contains spaces for each demo I pitch to the group noting the date on which it was pitched, the songs pitched, the date on which I followed-up on the demo and the results. This sheet is very helpful in preventing pitching the same songs to the same group over and over again.
These are some of the techniques I use to help me decided what songs to pitch to whom. Sometimes it is effective. Sometimes it is not. A lot of prayer and hard work certainly helps.
|
