{"id":26111,"date":"2013-10-31T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T20:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=26111"},"modified":"2013-10-31T15:00:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T20:00:05","slug":"cliff-goldmacher-the-value-of-a-good-mix-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/31\/cliff-goldmacher-the-value-of-a-good-mix-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cliff Goldmacher: Stripping Down Your Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"CliffGoldmachermaritz02\"<\/b><\/i><\/h3>\n

The Benefits of Stripping Down Your Song Demos<\/strong>
\n.
\nWritten by: Cliff Goldmacher (www.EducatedSongwriter.com)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So You\u2019ve Got A New Song: <\/strong>Let\u2019s begin at the beginning.\u00a0 You\u2019ve written a song and, hopefully, you\u2019re thrilled with it.\u00a0 So thrilled, in fact, that you want to record it right away and use every instrument in both the Western and Eastern musical traditions on the demo.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame you one bit.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing more fun than dressing up your songs to go to town.\u00a0 But it might make sense to stop and ask yourself what your goals are for your demo.
\nWhy Demo Your Song: <\/strong>If the answer is that you\u2019re a recording artist in your own right and you\u2019re putting together a collection of demos that represent you and your sound, then, by all means, create a full-blown demo and best of luck.\u00a0 But if the answer is that you\u2019re hoping to represent your song in a way that highlights what is unique in your melody and lyric and you\u2019re hoping to pitch it to publishers or recording artists in order to get a cut, you might want to put on the brakes before doing a full-blown demo.
\nBudget: <\/strong>Let\u2019s start with the elephant in the room\u2026the money.\u00a0 Doing quality recordings of your songs is never inexpensive.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, doing a full band productions of a song can be downright expensive.\u00a0 As a result, you should have VERY good reasons for doing a full production of your song.\u00a0 An example of a \u201cvery good reason\u201d would be that you know a music supervisor who has come to you specifically looking for a song for a film or TV show and they\u2019re looking for a full band production.\u00a0 Another good reason would be that you\u2019re working with a young artist and you want to do a version of the song that highlights not only the song but the singer as an artist.\u00a0 However, if you\u2019re hoping to have a long, successful career as a songwriter, you need to manage your demo budget carefully.\u00a0 In terms of pitching possibilities and placement opportunities for your songs, I firmly believe that it is better to have a catalog of ten great sounding, professionally recorded guitar\/vocal or piano\/vocal demos than it is to have half that many full-band recordings.
\nWhat Is A \u201cStripped Down\u201d Demo: <\/strong>A stripped down demo is generally a recording of a single instrument (either acoustic guitar or piano) and a vocal including vocal harmony.\u00a0 This is in contrast with what I\u2019ll refer to as a full band demo which generally involves a rhythm section (drums and bass) as well as various \u201ccolor\u201d instruments like electric guitar, keyboards, fiddle (if it\u2019s country) and any one of a variety of other instruments.\u00a0 The trick to a well-recorded stripped down demo is that it implies something bigger without necessarily having to use a lot of instruments to do it.\u00a0 For example, a piano\/vocal recording where the singer adds harmony vocals on top of their lead vocal gives the impression of the chorus getting bigger more dramatic without having to use a big drum fill or electric guitar power chords to do it.\u00a0 Stripped down demos are particularly effective on ballads but can also work well on uptempo songs.\u00a0 Sometimes, it\u2019s as simple as including a shaker, tambourine or even foot-stomps and hand claps on a recording to give it a sense of drive and motion.\u00a0 Adding a slight percussive element like this still fits in the category of stripped down because it\u2019s being done in exchange for what a full drum kit would do.\u00a0 Give this snippet of a stripped down demo a listen to see what I mean.
\nStripped Down Does NOT Mean Low Quality: <\/strong>Let me be perfectly clear.\u00a0 Just because your demo is only one instrument and a vocal, this is not permission to do it yourself unless you\u2019re an experienced studio musician or demo vocalist.\u00a0 When a demo is boiled down to a single instrument and vocal, it is doubly important that the recording and performances be of the highest quality because every element of the recording will be exposed. Most importantly, trained studio musicians and vocalists bring an emotion, precision and energy to a recording that will make it stand out in a way that is essential for creating a positive first impression.\u00a0 I suspect I don\u2019t have to remind you how intense the competition is out there.\u00a0 You\u2019ve only got one chance to make a first impression with your music so make absolutely sure that your demos (whether stripped down or full band) are done by experts.\u00a0 In other words, save your money by using fewer instruments and scaling back your production, not by using inexperienced players, singers and engineers
\nWhen Less Is More: <\/strong>Beyond being easier on your budget, there are several additional reasons to consider stripping down your demos.\u00a0 First of all, a simple guitar\/vocal recording of a song shows that the song is strong in its most basic form.\u00a0 If you find yourself thinking that your song will only work if it\u2019s got a full-band production behind it, then you might want to re-investigate the song itself.\u00a0 Another advantage of scaled down production is that it leaves room for the artist or producer on a project to explore production options instead of pegging the song to a particular style of production.\u00a0 Along those same lines, a piano\/vocal demo sung by a vocalist with a clean, contemporary sound would open up pitch opportunities across several genres.\u00a0 In other words, it might be possible to pitch the same piano\/vocal demo to a pop artist as well as a country artist.\u00a0 If, however, you\u2019ve created a full band recording of the same ballad, the session musicians would most likely have to commit to a particular style thus limiting your pitch opportunities.
\nConclusion: <\/strong>Hopefully, your career as a songwriter will be a long and prosperous one.\u00a0 Having great songs is the first and without a doubt the most important place to put your time and effort.\u00a0 But, if you want to make a living as a songwriter, then creating quality demos and getting those recordings into the hands of those who can do something with them comes a close second.\u00a0 By stripping down your demos, you\u2019ll be able to stretch your demo budget and highlight what\u2019s unique in your songs without compromising on the non-negotiables like a quality recording studio, professional musicians and experienced demo singers.
\nGood luck!
\nBio
\nCliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, session musician, engineer, author and owner of recording studios in Nashville, TN and Sonoma, CA. Cliff\u2019s site, http:\/\/www.EducatedSongwriter.com, is full of resources for the aspiring songwriter including monthly online webinars. Go to http:\/\/www.educatedsongwriter.com\/webinar\/ for the latest schedule.
\nCliff\u2019s company, http:\/\/www.NashvilleStudioLive.com, provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual access to Nashville\u2019s best session musicians and singers for their songwriting demos.
\nYou can download a FREE sample of Cliff\u2019s eBook \u201cThe Songwriter\u2019s Guide To Recording Professional Demos\u201d by going to http:\/\/www.EducatedSongwriter.com\/ebook.
\nFacebook: www.facebook.com\/EducatedSongwriter
\nTwitter: edusongwriter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Benefits of Stripping Down Your Song Demos . Written by: Cliff Goldmacher (www.EducatedSongwriter.com) So You\u2019ve Got A New Song: Let\u2019s begin at the beginning.\u00a0 You\u2019ve written a song and, hopefully, you\u2019re thrilled with it.\u00a0 So thrilled, in fact, that you want to record it right away and use every instrument in both the Western and Eastern musical traditions on the demo.\u00a0 I don\u2019t blame you one bit.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing more fun than dressing up your songs to go to town.\u00a0 But it might make sense to stop and<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}