How to Make a song?
HOW TO MAKE A SONG FOR THE MARKET
Do you have goals to publish a song to iTunes, Spotify or Pandora? Do you want to get a
million hits streaming your music on YOUTUBE? If yes, you need to be sure that the song
has its own “earworm” effect and comes with much energy to make a lasting impression on
the ears and hearts of your fans. Your fans need to remember you for releasing that song
which sticks in their minds for a long time.
If you want to use a song as a movie soundtrack, you need different elements to make it
market ready. We shall cover that angle in a future blog
Before we delve further into the topic, let’s first understand what “music” means.
If you thought it was just a simple word that recently came into use, you might have made
the first big mistake of your career as a musician. Music is a two-part word that goes way
back into time. The first part “Mus” relates to the ancient name of “Mausas” the ancient
name of the Israelites who lived in Egypt in the year 3000 B.C. The name means “that
something has been taken out of a thing,” while the second part “ic” originates with the
ancient gods of Egypt, the god of “Spirits.” Therefore, we can say that music is a
combination of sounds taken from the spirits, something very special.
Going into the process of creating a song, we can say that a song is a tune that came to
your spirit or mind as the case may be. It comes into your mind and sticks. It does not get
out of your head. When you experience this, you know that you have a song that needs to
be created.
At this point, you have never played it on an instrument nor sung it in the shower. Not
ever. However, it is still in your mind, waiting patiently. Waiting to be released to the
outside world. An idea yearning to be heard. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Now, to get this song out of your spirit into the air, you need to record it with a musical
instrument or by just humming it. Once any one of these happens, Voila! You have a music
idea.
Remember though, that it is still just an idea. A song idea that you need to release to your
audience. To successfully do this, you need to deal with this idea as a real estate unit. In
the music industry, this idea is called a “unit” because you can rent it to a filmmaker who
wants a soundtrack for a movie. You may sell it to a publishing record company or label
who want to share a profile with you by helping to publish this unit, and as long as the unit
is successful, people will live in it. They may take it along to school, listen to it on the
road, or dance to it at a wedding, all because they love your “unit.”
To say the song is a real estate unit may sound strange but, it is a very accurate
expression.
Around the world, a typical building would need an architect first to draw a plan to show
what your building will look like. Included in this blueprint would be every detail that
makes a complete structure including the doors, floors, and finishing details such as colors
of the walls and interior decorations to make the house appealing to its beholders. Next,
the plan would need to be put on the ground by a civil engineer and then completed by a
decorator who puts finishing touches on your building to make it habitable. Just like this
hypothetical building, you also need to put in much work to make your music ready for
release to your audience.
Let us explain this building using an example from the world of music:
1.The Idea: It all begins with an idea as mentioned above. The idea is an
“earworm” tune in your mind that came out of your creativity.
2.The Plan: You need an architect to build your phrases, music lines and rhythms
into sounds, demos or even the song itself with the whole sounds library,
synthesizers and more available on the scene now. At this stage of building, you
may be delighted with the results.
Here is a link to the producers in The Musician’s Marketplace. You may hire from among
them.
3.The Builders: These are the musicians who will play the solo for your song. The
singers who will sing your words or melody, the chord makers, who can
professionally create jazz chords for your song, the drummers who know how to
rock the song. Everyone mentioned will need to build a part of your song to make
it a complete real estate unit. Interesting, right?
Link to the next article. Article #2 is about How you can save money while in the
studio.
4.The Finalization: You may need to visit the studio to record at this point. If you
play instruments, you will need to take your tracks for recording. If you are a
singer, you will need to record your takes. A list of what you need to consider
while in the studio will be covered in the next article. At the finalization stage,
you need to get the services of a sound engineer to balance the sounds in your
composition or compress the track. This is the stage of finalizing your tune or
including parts of the beats that were not included in your framework. It is
essential for the sound engineer to fine tune your track during production as this
will enhance the listenability of your song.
5.Polishing the building: You know quite all right that after building a house, you
need to polish the floors and install furnishings in the interiors to give visitors a
pleasant sight to behold. That is what a mastering engineer does to your track. He
masters the song for you. Why is this so important? It is because your song might
sound right in your car, but sounds horrible on your computer or someone else’s
speakers. Thus, you need to master your song to make it sound pleasant on all
devices on which your song will be played.