the complete singer-songwriter
--Bruce Cockburn
Jeffrey's conversations with songwriters over so many years have resulted in the most creatively valuable book on the subject.
--Ben Harper
This is an important book whether you are a professional singer-songwriter or plan to stay at your day job. Everyone needs a mentor, and this is it.
--Bob Feldman, Red House Records
What a great book! One of the best resources for songwriters I've come across.
--Holly Figueroa, founder of Indiegrrl
A great piece of research and writing. I haven't seen anything like it using actual up-to-date singers and songwriters.
--Dan Bern
The tips on songwriting and performing should be taken to heart by writers and performers at every level.
--Book News
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers...jumps right inside the essence of songwriting to the point where you will possibly wonder how the author knew the intimate details of your creative process.
--James Linderman, Muse's Muse
FROM BACKBEAT BOOKS
The Complete Singer-Songwriter, by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
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Of all the paths available to today's musicians, the life of the singer-songwriter remains one of the most alluring and popular. From songwriting and solo performing to recording and promotion, singer-songwriters wear many hats, and for all the challenges they face come extravagant creative rewards. The Complete Singer-Songwriter is the ultimate guide for the modern singer-songwriter, chock-full of real-world advice and encouragement for both aspiring troubadours and those looking to polish their craft and career. Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, author of Rock Troubadours: Conversations on the Art and Craft of Songwriting and the founding editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, draws on his own experiences as a performing songwriter along with interviews with many seasoned artists--legends as well as hardworking underground talents--to offer an invaluable companion for the journey from idea to song to the stage and studio and beyond.
Tips and techniques from Ani DiFranco, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Jewel, James Taylor, Greg Brown, Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, and many more.
Career advice from booking agents, lawyers, publicists, and A&R people.
Topics include...
Fishing for Song Ideas
The Songwriter's Tool Kit
The Editing Process
Collaboration
Commercial Considerations
Getting Ready to Perform
Finding Venues
Booking Basics
Home vs. Studio Recording
Engineering and Producing
The Label Connection
Surviving and Thriving in the DIY Age
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
One of the powerful and beautiful things about music is that it leaves you a way to express a set of emotions that has never been expressed before. Whether or not it is earth shattering or necessary even, it's just unique, and it's something the world doesn't have.
--Kelly Joe Phelps
It might come from one little moment on a CD, remixed and reimagined in your head as you walk down the street. Or from a conversation overheard in a café, or the rhythm of the windshield wipers and the summer rain. Maybe it's the way your fingers happen to fall on your instrument, suggesting a groove and then a snippet of melody. Wherever it comes from, a song idea is an extraordinary yet everyday gift, and following it through to a complete expression of words and music-and then sharing the result with others-is the most creatively exhilarating experience I know. No wonder, then, that so many people become hooked and want to make writing and performing songs an active part of their lives. Songwriting engages so many of your faculties, from the most intuitive/creative to the most analytical/practical, and that's true whether you have professional aspirations or just want to make music in the available time around your day job.
One of the great things about being a musician today is that you can participate on so many levels. Even if you're not heading out on a cross-country tour, you can audition your songs at a local bookstore or open mic-and that may actually turn out to be the first small step toward that dream tour. The major labels may not break into a bidding war for your first album, but you can find an indie label hungry for talent or just release it yourself-you can even burn your own CDs for friends and family. And no matter what kind of career you wind up having, you can keep raising the bar on your art.
This book is written for both active and aspiring singer-songwriters, amateur and pro and all points in between, as a guide and companion for the journey from idea to song to the stage and studio and beyond. The advice and perspective in these pages is informed by my 25 years of writing, performing, and recording songs and my 15 years of interviewing singer-songwriters about their careers and creative processes. Pearls of advice from these conversations appear throughout this book, along with tips and insights generously shared by managers, agents, publicists, lawyers, record-company people, and others in the singer-songwriter trade.
The opening chapters talk in detail about the songwriting process, from finding ideas to editing to collaborating, but they do not tell you how to write a hit song (there's a whole shelf of books for sale purporting to share the "secrets" of commercial songwriting). The philosophy of songwriting here is that if you do what you love, and pursue it passionately and relentlessly, the rest will follow. And the ensuing chapters then proceed to exactly what does follow, from performing and recording to promoting your music in a crowded marketplace. More and more singer-songwriters, both well known and obscure, oversee every aspect of their music down to the last design detail of a CD tray card, so this book offers many tips for do-it-yourselfers. It is by no means a complete business and legal guide (to find one, see the Resources section), but these pages are packed with real-world advice and lessons learned the hard way.
As a singer-songwriter, you wear many hats: composer, lyricist, vocalist, instrumentalist, frontman/woman, and often manager, agent, label executive, producer, publicist-not to mention roadie. No one is born with the ability to perform all these roles well, and that's the greatest challenge of this gig as well as its greatest reward. I hope this book inspires and supports you along the way.
--Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
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