Smiley World

Discover the phenomenonal complexity of music and reflect on the way it can positively influence your life with this sound collection of riveting quotes…

1. “Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.”
   – Joseph Addison

2. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
   –Maya Angelou

3. “Music is either good or bad, and it’s got to be learned. You got to have balance.”
   – Louis Armstrong

4. “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
   – Berthold Auerbach

5. “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”
   –Johann Sebastian Bach

6. “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”
   – Ludwig van Beethoven

7. “Music - The one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
   – Ludwig van Beethoven

8. “Music can change the world. “
   – Ludwig Van Beethoven

9. “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”
   – Leonard Bernstein

10. “Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live. “
    – James Brown

11. “Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”
    – Thomas Carlyle

12. “All music comes from God.”
    – Johnny Cash

13. “If you learn music, you’ll learn most all there is to know. “
    – Edgar Cayce

14. “Music is nothing separate from me. It is me… You’d have to remove the music surgically. “
    – Ray Charles

15. “Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is. “
    – Miles Davis

16. “There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”
    – George Eliot

17. “You are the music while the music lasts.”
    –T. S. Eliot

18. “We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it. “
    – Jerry Garcia

19. “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”
    – Kahlil Gibran

20. “When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had and never will have.”
    – Edgar Watson Howe

21. “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossile to be silent.”
    – Victor Hugo

22. “The history of a people is found in its songs.”
    – George Jellinek

23. “Music is the vernacular of the human soul.”
    – Geoffrey Latham

24. “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
    – Walter J. Lippmann

25. “Just as certain selections of music will nourish your physical body and your emotional layer, so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind.”
    – Hal A. Lingerman

26. “Music is the harmonious voice of creation; an echo of the invisible world.”
    – Giuseppe Mazzini

27. “Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.”
    – Henry Miller

28. “I started making music because I could.”
    – Alanis Morissette

29. “Music helps you find the truths you must bring into the rest of your life. “
    – Alanis Morissette

30. “Music is spiritual. The music business is not. “
    – Van Morrison

31. “Like everything else in nature, music is a becoming, and it becomes its full self, when its sounds and laws are used by intelligent man for the production of harmony, and so made the vehicle of emotion and thought.”
    – Theodore Mungers

32. “Without music life would be a mistake.”
    – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

33. “In music the passions enjoy themselves.”
    – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

34. “Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”
    – Charlie Parker

35. “Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside. “
    – Elvis Presley

36. “It’s the music that kept us all intact, kept us from going crazy. “
    – Lou Reed

37. “The music business was not safe, but it was FUN. It was like falling in love with a woman you know is bad for you, but you love every minute with her, anyway.”
    – Lionel Richie

38. “Music should never be harmless.”
    – Robbie Robertson

39. “Give me a laundry list and I’ll set it to music.”
    – Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

40. “All music is important if it comes from the heart. “
    – Carlos Santana

41. “Music is the key to the female heart.”
    – Johann G. Seume

42. “The best music… is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with. “
    – Bruce Springsteen

43. “All I try to do is write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.”
    – Bruce Springsteen

44. “In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.”
    –George Szell

45. “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
    – Henry David Thoreau

46. “For heights and depths no words can reach, music is the soul’s own speech.”
    –Unknown

47. “Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us.”
    –Unknown

48. “I believe in the power of music. To me, it isn’t just a fad. This is a positive thing.”
    – Eddie Vedder

49. “Music at its essence is what gives us memories. “
    – Stevie Wonder

50. “There’s a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don’t know what it is. But I’ve got it.”
    – Ron Wood

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

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Band agreements.

If you write songs within a band, you need to plan for the day when you will be earning royalties from your songs, and be clear what will happen if a member of the band leaves or if the band splits up.
The best way to deal with this is to all agree what is fair, and then put this in writing as a formal agreement which you all sign. This way there is little chance of any comeback if the band splits for less than amicable reasons.

Here are a few specific points you should consider:

1. If a member of the band leaves, do they forfeit all rights to the songs, and the songs remain the sole property of the band?
2. Are the songs written by one person, or a few principal writers, who wish to retain all rights?
3. If a band member leaves would both he and the band both retain a claim to the song, (this is probably the most likely option).
4. How do you determine each persons share?
   
   Do you base it on a song by song basis ranking each members input, or use the same formula for every song.
   
   Do you simply divide everything up equally, (i.e. 5 members each own 20% of all the songs and therefore receives 20% of the proceeds/royalties), or do you rank each individuals input?
5. If a member leaves, can he/she perform or profit from the music outside of the band.

Sample band contracts can be viewed and downloaded from the following sites:
http://undercurrents.com/agreements/agreement-bandmember.html,
http://www.blues101.org/articles/promotion1.htm and
http://www.musicianassist.com/archive/contract/files/member.htm

The advice from the UK Copyright Service on this subject is:
“Where music is written as a group effort, we recommend that you draw up an agreement to clarify issues, such as which rights belong to which member, and how royalties would be distributed in the event that members of your group leave.
For successful commercial bands, incorporation is also an option. As with a normal incorporated company, the band members would own shares in the band/company. In this situation, a band member would typically sell his shares to the other members if he decided to leave.”

Resources

Band member agreements

Music Copyright Factsheet

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As with any business, finding the specific targeted key is always the adventure when trying to climb to the top. Many fail and fall by the wayside in their attempts to climb the mountain. And many, quite honestly, just stall out without the right talent and management to back up the endeavor. The same holds true in the music business with singers and songwriters. The countless hours that A&R spend trying to find that key song for that new “baby” act is sometimes a relentless task. Oftentimes, the success or ultimate failure of an artist, isn’t the talent or in fact having the unique talent, but the songs that will carry their success down radio airplay lane. Without the right ingredients in the CD mixing bowl, you can almost guarantee failure. What makes for a good song? What songs do up and coming acts look for and how do you obtain these songs that almost create magic in the hearts of the listener when even the intro is played? These are great questions, and many have tried to answer them. I will give you some advice as to what holds true for many of your potential listeners.

If you’ve ever tried to get inside the mindset of a potential fan or one that will purchase your CD, you will notice some distinct differences in their thinking than what is popular or in vogue within the music business culture. To begin with, songs and artists that are currently selling are not the only thing that will sell. You say da, but most get on the current bandwagon with the same old tired sound and song structure and then wonder why they can’t get a record deal or get their songs cut or wonder why people aren’t buying their music. You will have to learn to think outside the box. Think back through the music era as of late and look at all of the styles and how music has progressed from big band, to the Beatles to the many 70’s rock bands to Boston, to the new Chicago (David Foster) albums to the slicker pop artists of the nineties with the barrage of improved keyboard sounds to today. Now I know that we could list hundreds to thousands of bands here, but for the sake of time I think you get the idea.

Are you really thinking about the next layer of the musical cake? What will that sound like? What are you currently doing to write not just off the wall music and productions to sound different, but music that will be the next level of the music era that people will look back at as a turning point in music history? As a singer looking to obtain A side songs for you’re your next CD, you will want to think about how and where you will obtain them. As a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency, I know how difficult it can be for artists and writers not only to break into the industry as a whole, but to maintain a credible ongoing writing career writing fresh and new creative lyrics and melodies. Yet the gotta have it today and write it from a fresh perspective is still king. At ReelMusician.com we are always looking at new and fresh production ideas for writers who obtain song production services from our company, and I can tell you that it’s a challenge. We pride ourselves in writing incredible productions and we do, but the art of making it a little different to the point where it stands out, really takes time and effort. Anybody can throw a song production together on the computer with a keyboard and a mic, but to create a unique, yet with musical integrity to the artist’s or writer’s original intent, and within the marketing bounds of today’s music buying crowd, isn’t always easy - It’s an art.

Even within the jingle production side to ReelMusician.com, we are always looking for new and creative ways to really showcase singers trying to break into the jingle singing market. The marketing behind the singer’s jingle demo reel is key. So again, when individuals think they can record their own jingle demo reel with a computer, keyboard and mic, they are most likely mistaken and I would guess most end in failure. Same thing holds for writers and singers trying to obtain top A sided tunes that will be a hit on radio lane. You have got to be writing and recording with individuals who have a proven track record, who think outside the box, utilizing their players ideas even when they overturn your original production idea, because it’s plain a better idea. And seeing that the overall production is the end goal, there is no attitude and hopefully A sided album cuts are produced and recorded.

There are numerous outlets on the web that most everyone is familiar with where up and coming acts can review and contact the writers or artists to obtain permission to record their music. The flood of sites available is astounding. As a writer or singer, comb through these sites and listen for not only valid recording material, but for ideas and ways to steer your next production close enough to mainstream marketable music, but close enough to the edge where your music and production sound fresh and new. See, it’s not that easy. It’s easy to write it here as a valid idea, but significantly harder to put into practice.

As we close, I will offer a few suggestions, and I am well aware that many claim to have the “answers,” but I will just remain confident that you are building your career, making career corrections as needed along the way and are practicing your craft, not merely as an art, but as a way to get a recording contract or plain get your songs cut by a major recording artist. You’ve heard it before, but writers do get significantly better with their writing and productions over time - keep doing it. Don’t be afraid to admit it when either your music or production isn’t working, but keep looking up, because there is hope in your admitting it and moving forward and learning how to better you productions. Don’t have an attitude about your music or the ability to change it, but don’t necessarily change it at every beckoning, because someone else “claims” to always have the superior idea. Lastly, just hang in there, keep at it and don’t be afraid to contact us should you have further questions about song production or jingle singing. Look forward to hearing from you.

Mr. Gauger is a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency and founder of http://www.ReelMusician.com You may contact the author at tgauger@reelmusician.com Free e-books “The Jingle Singer’s Guide,” and “Secrets To Great Song Demos,” may be downloaded at http://www.ReelMusician.com

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