Description
Do you find it easy to start a song, but always hard to finish one? That’s a common problem, and one I love helping songwriters with. Much of my own training has been in the study of the structure of music. If you have song ideas, but you can’t finish the song, there’s always a reason it’s not working for you, and — more importantly — ALWAYS a solution. Let me help you!
What To Expect From One-On-One Skype Songwriting Sessions With Me
First, try to get your song in some recorded state. Don’t worry if your recording is very rough. I’ll start before our first session by listening several times to your song in whatever state it’s in. Once I’ve heard it, here’s what I do:
- Before our first session, I’ll make notes about my initial impressions. I’ll consider chords, melody, lyrics, formal design, and other aspects of musical composition.
- At our first session, I’ll describe what I’ve heard in your song, the good and the bad. I’ll describe ways in which I think what you’ve done is effective, and also ways in which you might improve what you’ve done.
- Together we’ll dig into the nuts & bolts, working to getting it sounding the way you want.
- I’ll finish each session by giving you ideas (activities, exercises, etc.) that you will do to try after our session. If you find the session helpful and want to schedule an additional session, I will give you tips and ideas to try, and then we can assess their effectiveness at our next session.
- Within 24 hours of each session I’ll send you an email with summaries of ideas we talked about so that you can study them as you work on your song.
- If you’ve then scheduled an additional session I’ll spend the week between sessions devising alternate ideas for you to consider as we prepare to meet via Skype again.
You should note that you are welcome to use any ideas I suggest, and you are of course welcome to reject any ideas. They are your songs, not mine. If you accept any of my ideas, you will not be required to share songwriting credit with me. That’s not my intention. The full authorship will be yours. I simply want you to be satisfied that you’ve got your song sounding just the way you want.
Additionally:
- I am a composer of music, and my desire is to help with issues relating to the writing of music. I am not a producer, and so production-related issues (beats, loops, recording techniques, mixing, etc.) is not something I will be offering in these sessions. The sessions are meant to get the compositional aspect of your music working.
- As you hopefully know from my blog, I treat everyone with respect. I don’t trash anyone’s music, and can promise that I’ll treat you and your songs with dignity. I think I can promise that you’ll finish each Skype session feeling good about what you do.
- If you’d like to see an example of how I look at music, and the kind of observations I’m likely to make when I listen to your songs, check out my YouTube channel. It contains videos I’ve made that target some essential principles of songwriting.
Price
The cost per songwriting session is:
$65 USD per hour. See below to set up and pay for your session.
Guarantee
Once you’ve signed up for your session, I guarantee that you’ll get a one hour Skype songwriting session with me, and that session will contain ideas for you to try.
I CANNOT guarantee that you’ll like my suggestions, or that they will necessarily lead to finishing or fixing the specific songs we’re working on together. I will be your teacher, and that’s the nature of teaching. I can guarantee that you’ll be given ideas that you can try, ideas that will help you not just with these songs, but any other song you’re working on.
How to Sign Up
If you’d like to sign up for a Skype session, and you have a Skype account, and if you are prepared to work hard on your songs, please do the following:
- Write me at gary@pantomimemusic.com, and send me links where I can hear the song that you’re currently working on, or need help with. Do not email MP3s – links only. It would be helpful for you to email lyrics if applicable.
- In a return email, I’ll propose dates and times for our Skype session. It would be helpful if you could make a suggestion regarding scheduling. Reply to that email to confirm that the date and time will work for you.
- Once we have agreed to a scheduled session, please return to this page and click on the “Add to Cart” button below. NOTE: The sessions are not considered scheduled until payment is made. COST PER SESSION: $65 USD, paid before the session.
I look forward to the possibility of working with you, and if you sign up, I’ll work hard to make sure that my sessions with you are productive and worthwhile.
-Gary Ewer, B. Mus