Jan,

At every level of the music industry, it is force of personality. You are a politician. You have to MAKE people not only love your stuff, but CONCINCE them that it was THEIR idea. Whether it is the local band or singer doing karaoke, to the people auditioning for American Idol or Nashville Star. And they are EVERYWHERE. Every Karaoke night, every open mic, every writer's show. They are on My Space, they are on Web sites. They are just not going to come to your living room.

It all depends on your songs and the drive. Let me tell you a story. An over 40 school teacher from Green Bay Wisconsin making ten years of trips to Nashville and getting no where. She decides to take "one more trip." She hooks up with a guy who begins to take her through the networking steps.

She starts making regular trips and writing every time. Dozens of songs. She writes with artists in her neighborhood. She is the NSAI coordinator so they come to her some but she still has to dig and work. She is dedicated. She starts to write better and better songs and due to the guy helping her, including hit songwriters. She does a showcase on her songs in Nashville and her own CD. She does not perform or sing.

She meets a young girl that moves from New Orleans. She becomes this girl's big sister. And that girl is performing all over town. In the meantime, the woman has songs on her My Space site. They find their way to a band in Texas that cuts five of the songs. And of course, the songs are really great.

The singer finds her way into falling in love with a new male singer in town and they form a duo. On every trip all three are writing together. The woman gets featured on radio and magazines in Wisconsin, women' magazines that are interested in a woman living a dual life of school teacher, wife and mother and songwriter.

The duo auditions for a television show and wins. It is You Can Duet.The duo is called Steel Magnolia. They are now signed to Big Machine records being produced by and developed by Scott Borchetta who' other main artist is a girl named Taylor Swift. They will go on tour with her next year.

The teacher is named Julie Moriva. The guy who helped her was me. That is what my occupation is. Guiding and mentoring writers and artists.

This is the same we did with Frankie. Frankie had never written a song until sitting down with me last January. He wanted to just play guitar in clubs in Michigan. It wasn't till he started hanging around with Rene Mauve that he even started thinking about country or Nashville. The group that every thought was going to do something out of that area were called the "Bronk Brothers" which are okay guys but a very average bar band.

The point is that today's music business is about being inbentive
looking all over for talent and helping them get where they want to be while getting yourself where you want to be. It is about observing the unchanging rules of music.

Amateur writers write what they want to say.
Professional writers write what other people want to hear.
Great writers do both.

It is about using your life experience to help other people develop their musical journey. Do it enough and you may never be a big hit writer. But even if you are writing for a local group that doesn't go past their local area, at least your music is out there. It is on CD's. It is on WEb sites. Never know where that is going to lead.

I perform and interact continually with some of the biggest writers in the world. Everyone of them have music out in dozens of directions. It is about ACTIVITY. It is about writing a LOT of songs with a LOT of people and not missing an opportunity.


A writer doing a workshop with Jeffery Steele was having a conversation. He asked Jeff "How do you find ideas?" Jeff, said "They are all around you, you just miss them." The kid said something, I can't even remember what it was but I remember at the time it struck me as "Wow, that could be a cool idea." Almost as if on cue, Jeffery said "Did you just hear what you just said?" The kid said "No."

"That is why you miss it. You are too busy looking for ideas that you miss stuff right in front of you."

That is the basic problem with most writers. They overlook things right in front of them, bands, singers, artists, they miss them all because they are working so hard to get to those major acts. Give that up. Start working with people in your area first. Conquer that. Then move on to regional, THEN you worry about Nationally.

And do they have bad work ethics, are filled with ego, don't know what they're doing? Think that EVER Stops? Ever hear of Kanye West?

This is about working the angles and getting outside of yourself.

Everyone has the dream. Very few have the drive.

That is what separates amateurs from professionals.

MAB