That’s Karen singing, and she wrote the words this FEMA parody to the song “Fever”. If you can help, donate what you can at www.myspace.com/karenstaley.

Love,
Cathy Lemmon, President of ADN, Inc.

 My musical friends… this is where we need to head back to if our real desire is to make music. I’d love to be able to honestly tell you that the machinery of the corporate music industry could make mega star careers for all of you. I know better. That will only happen for a select few. There are simply too many musicians, singers and talented folks all clamoring for their shot at the big time. But think for a second… is this the only option on your dream? Does it begin and end with making a great demo, shopping it to the labels and then calling it quits when you don’t get a big recording contract? I sure hope not. Besides, you might not fit the usual superstar mold. If you still want to sing… I believe you have an audience out there.

Today, we need to forge our own careers. We need to think small, mobile, and no further than the next couple of house concerts. You’ve heard of house concerts, right? With facebook, Youtube and Myspace, your fans can be geared up for house concerts on a moment’s notice. Find your die‐hard fans in the next city; simply ping them and let them know you’re coming to town. Put them in charge of making sure friends come to see and hear you play in their family rooms or back yards. It works. People come WITH MONEY! This is especially true in the smaller towns.

So how do you make this happen for you? I would say you need great songs to begin with.  Artist Development Network can help you with co‐writing and recording if you want a professional touch. Then you need to learn to play and sing those songs on a single guitar. This is not difficult if the songs are great in the first place. Next, you’ll have to make some fans. Go to the social networks. It helps to have some great photography and great demos up too.

Again, A.D.N. can help you there as well. Next, you just announce that you’re coming to town and you want to do a house concert. I would work outward in a radius, branching further and further from home over time. And for those of you that don’t have relationships and commitments…put your stuff in storage and tool around the United States for a few years doing this. You will have a huge fan base if you stay with it. All you need to do is make enough money to get to the next gig. Not too hard. You’ll get fed at the houses where you play. Your fans will probably be eager to let you spend the night too. You get to meet people. You get to listen to your fans tell you stories, you get to be a full time performing artist. Praise the Lord. Can I get an Amen? Pass the peas. 

At first when I started wondering if a person in their 30s, 40s or 50s could do this, I was taken back by the idea. Since then it’s really grown on me. Why not? I don’t think you’ll be any worse off if you take a few years off and go for it. If you’ve got kids you’ll need to limit this work, of course. But if you’re free, really free… why not go for it!

I talk with artists all day long who really want a career in music. They don’t necessarily want to be rich; they just want to make a living doing their music. House concerts are a realistic way of doing this. You don’t need a band. You don’t need anything but great songs, some CDs, a car, a portable laptop, a guitar (or keyboard) your sweet voice and a cell phone. 

Artist Development Network can be a big help in getting your singing career together quickly. Come to Nashville and co‐write some amazing songs. We’ll get you recorded just right and give you the tools you’ll need to start this ball rolling. From that point on, it’s up to you and your adoring fans. I’m betting you can do this. ☺

• I started writing love songs in my teens, to communicate with girls
• I grew tired of average and started hunting for chords beyond Kumbaya
• I started finding chord progressions that really interested me
• I discovered inner rhymes and interesting rhythms
• I excelled at writing ballads and ignored up-tempo songs
• I worked my butt off to write better up-tempo songs, which took while
• And lastly…I started concentrating on melody as my top priority!

This progression through the process took years! I guess I couldn’t have really skipped any of these steps, as they’re all important. But I have to kick myself for not becoming more “melody aware” earlier on. Truly, melody is the most important part of a song. It’s the very thing that listeners take away, and the one thing that is remembered long after the words are forgotten. I do not know all the verses to This Land Is Your Land. But I know the melody cold. So do you.

Here’s how I forced myself to write a better melody. It will work for you too. Are you ready? This is so simple; it’s almost laughable…

Sit on one chord for at least twice as long as you normally would when you begin to write a song. There! That’s the whole trick! LOL. If you’re going to make that song interesting, you will have to write a decent melody, right from the start. Try it. It works.

You can always go back and augment chord changes and the progressions, if you want to. You may also decide to let it lie. Melody is actually the thing, or the ingredient, that makes a song magical. There’s a little more to consider as well. Note that the melody of the verses and the melody of the choruses should be different, but they should both unfold in a familiar and natural way for the listener. Melodies should also be singable and original. This is very difficult to do. You’ll find this out. Writing brand new, interesting and easy to sing melodies could prove to be the most challenging thing you ever do as a songwriter. Perhaps that why there are so few great songs.

You’ll discover that your songs come together so much easier when you start employing the Harper Melody Method. And here’s another melody trick: When I write country songs I will often compose a unique melody hook (known as a motif) for 1) the musical intro, 2) a brief intro-related line between the end of the first chorus and the beginning of the second verse, and 3) the intro motif repeated at end of the song for closure. This is, again, more melody writing; the lines just don’t have words, that’s all. The same rules apply. This practice will glue your songs together and give them a very professional feel.

Practice these tricks that make melody an integral part of your songwriting. And if you can, give your songs many reality checks as they progress. Failing to do so spells disaster every time. You see, we as writers, and the folks that give birth to these creatures, we know our songs too well. By the time they’re mixed and mastered our ears are glossing over important stuff. Like proof reading, it’s all too easy to pass the point of no return. Have new ears critique your songs often because ultimately the public will be the judge of them. And when your song gets to people hearing it for the first time, they will give it about 30 seconds for an audition. Those little motifs and hook lines had better be there to give them a level of comfort. You either deliver what they can sing or hum along with or they’ll find another station that will.

Remember that TV series called Name That Tune? I think about that show every time I write a melody these days. Will my lyric be recognized in 5 notes? That’s my acid test, my bottom line.

Now I can guess what you’re probably thinking… most of the newer songs on today’s radio will fail this test. Yeah… you’re right. But that doesn’t get you off the hook as a budding professional songwriter. You should carefully design your songs to become standards that will enjoy years of radio play. The melody, my dear young songwriters, is the key to making that happen.

Contract David Harper at:
musicbydavid@gmail.com

* Call it trickery, call it skill… the end result of this one simple technique will result in songs with much better melodies. Learn to write like a pro.

It seems today’s music programming for FM radio is entirely different. All it takes is a day or two of careful listening to see that the simple objective of radio programming is: don’t touch that dial. Corporate-based radio doesn’t really want anything all that great or over the top. This explains, by the way, precisely why alternative isn’t alternative anymore, and, why “Sounds like…” syndrome rules the airwaves.

Most of us are not privy to what goes on behind the scenes of big corporate entities. But it would seem that they hold tight to tradition, as do their counterparts: the recording companies. Artists complain and gripe about how things ought to change. But do nothing. Why? Well, for those of you who are regular churchgoers, you can get a first hand view of imbedded tradition every Sunday, and how brutal a fight you’re in for if you’d like to shake up the status quo. You won’t have to go far to hear stuff like “that’s the way we’ve always done it” or “that’s our tradition, and we’re stickin’ with it.” Oh, yes, the semi-comatose pastor is probably preaching out to a sea of blue hair from the pulpit. The board of directors probably has an average age of 55+. The church is, no doubt, in a huge decline. The kids don’t want to come anymore and there are fewer young families every year. This church will be up for lease in the future. It’s only a matter of…time.

Seems like the bigger the entity, the slower the change. Thankfully, we live in a capitalist democracy (sort of) where the ultimate acid test is the bottom line. Radio stations, churches, magazines, newspapers and the like are all experiencing the financial reprimands of boring the crap out of people for years now. A few embrace change and actually survive. But most do not and will not, and I am beginning to see, first hand, exactly how well the expression “Real change happens one funeral at a time” applies in today’s world.

As artists, we have a responsibility to feed others and ourselves. It’s about money and art. The line separating the two can be a little fuzzy and in constant motion. But the difference between a number five hit on the top 40 charts and a number one hit is usually originality. The number one hit most often employs ideas that are unique, fresh and new.

Now, I would never suggest to you that you go the starving artist route and recreate the wheel. I would, however, strongly advise you to learn the rules, and then break them often. When you can do this successfully, you really have the makings of a music career. Getting above the media smog and the noise requires a lot more than a pretty face and a nice song. You’ve got to have a #1 attitude and something unique to back it up. This means doing it in a fresh new way with conviction and enough momentum to bulldoze straight through the traditionalists.

Those that can pull this off will thrive. I don’t know what the magic formula is for you, but there has to be a bit of tradition and a bit of new. Introduce new ideas gradually. Taking your time and testing ideas out in front of live audiences along the way is the realist’s key to success. You don’t want to spend an entire year writing left field songs and rehearsing a band only to find out a year later that your audience won’t embrace it. You want to pepper new ideas in the familiar landscape and keep adding to it until you either cross the line successfully, or drop off the edge. If the worst happens and you find yourself free falling, it was only a performance or two and you can backtrack to where you know the line is. Also, along the way, you’ll build a reputation as a very creative person. Artists that are known to be genuinely creative can cross lines without too much damage to their careers.

And once you’ve come up with something that is truly unique, you’ll find a lot more cars in the parking lots where you play. Everybody is hungry for something that is traditional and unique and fresh.

Go forth with gusto, dear young’ns.

Contact David Harper at:

musicbydavid@gmail.com

So many heroes have gone without knowing our appreciation for putting their life on the line to defend our great country. LeeAnn said, “I was inspired by the dedication of our military, their families, and the support of their communities who count the days until their safe return. God bless them all.”

This is a beautiful and touching song we hope you will enjoy listening to. The demo singer is Craig Campbell, who just signed a record deal in September!

Congratulations to both LeeAnn and Joe Sins for the wonderful song, and for Craig’s gift of voice!