ASCAP Expo in LA
It has taken a few weeks for me to write about the ASCAP Expo in LA.
I loved the experience. I was there doing some one-on-one mentoring with songwriters. I was given 15 minutes for each writer. 15 minutes!!! I’m just getting started. So much to say to someone about songwriting in general and then even more when talking more specifically about one particular song. Every writer wants to believe that what they are coming up with is commercial and that the world will want to hear their song. And then the whole world will be singing it. I love talking with writers about how to make a song better. Sometimes it can be so hard, it may mean completely tearing your song apart.
I think most new writers fail to work out where they are going in the song before they start to write and rhyme. Once your brain gets wrapped around
a certain rhythm or pattern of phrase, it’s hard to break away.
I love to know where I’m going, where I’m driving, I like to say. A sort of road map. Making the time to do helps the song get where it needs to go.
There were so many wonderful opportunities to hear great songwriters
share their experiences with writing at this event. Jon Bon Jovi, Richie, Sambora, Desmond Child, Glen Ballard, just to name a few.
It was an amazing experience for me to hear Glen Ballad play “Man in the Mirror” on the piano. One of my personal “wish-I-would-have-written-that”
songs. If you don’t know the song, check out Michael Jackson’s recording of it. Moving song and performance.
If you have the opportunity to go the the Expo next year, don’t miss it.
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Tags: songwriting, women songwriters, Nashville songwriters, #1 songwriters, Jon Bon Jovi, Glen Ballard, ASCAP, ASCAP Expo, Los Angeles, Michael Jackson
