There are plenty of songwriters and composers in the world. If you want to know what sets them apart from you right now, there might be several things. However, the base of anything like this is talent and perseverance, so having this puts you in a place to make a serious go at composing. For an advantage towards composing good music, consider a few of these changes.
Have A Listen
The key to writing popular and good music is listening to your genre of choice and see what elements to this music make it sound so good. Sometimes it is a particular vocal range, guitar tone, and things like this. Pay close attention to every single piece of these compositions and pull pieces and inspiration from these completed works for your upcoming projects.
Upgrade Your Equipment
The best song that you have heard, did not get created in the basement of some guy’s house using the stock mic and recording software he pulled off a freeware site. You have to be willing to invest in your future here, and comprise a collection of quality instruments, software and the like. You can record in the basement of your house, just make sure that you have a great set up to do so. You want condenser mics, a mixer, and software on your computer that is powerful enough to edit what you record and master the end result. Some of the better recording software out there is: Pro Tools, Sonar, Ableton and Cubase.
Clean It Up
You want the best possible recording before you start sending off samples to companies that might be interested in purchasing your composition. Do not be afraid to edit and re-edit. It will be a rare occurrence to completely write and compose a new song over the course of one day. Record your ideas and continue to work with them until they can present themselves with professional flair.
Ask The Panel
You should literally have at least ten people that will be honest with you about what you create. This does not mean people like your mom or dad that would tell you everything you do is just a wonderful creation worth millions. You have to comprise a group of people that can seriously listen to something you create and provide feedback and constructive criticism before the final product gets sent out. The benefit here is that people love to listen to music, so many of these honest people you have comprised are willing to give you solid advice for the cost of hearing the song itself. So what this means is, you can get feedback that can make the song worth buying without putting out money to get professional reviews.
Find Your Niche
You cannot expect to be a great composer of every single style of music out there. It is impractical, and you should appreciate the beauty of finding your own wheelhouse. For example, someone who listens to and loves country music might not be the best fit to start composing hip hop club hits. Take what you love, what you can write well, and perfect the product until it is irresistible to famous artists and record labels.
Take Care of Yourself
Be sure to invest in comprehensive business insurance for any endeavor you own (studio, company, gallery, etc) so that you can forget about the money and focus on the artistic side of things. No one is immune to market economics (especially not the arts), so remember that if you balk at the possibility of spending $200 a month on some potentially life-saving insurance.
Of course these are just a few things to consider when composing. If you want to take this path seriously, you should give yourself the opportunity to succeed.
Vonda Richardson writes about music and art management at businessinsurance.org.
