It's all about the song
Writing Professionally by Bronson Herrmuth
Learn from these few paragraphs how to look at songwriting if you want to make a living at it.
This is a small excerpt from Bronson's new book "Opening The Closed Door".
So I got my appointments with the publishers and I walked up and down Music Row with my guitar and
went to them one by one. The different executives that I met with listened to about the first 30 seconds of two
or three of my tunes and then told me that they could not help me. Some said it politely and others were quite
rude. I was very offended and very confused. I was in shock, actually, and I stayed that way for a week. I quit
making appointments because every one of them was a disaster. They tore my songs apart and several even
suggested that I REWRITE them. I couldn’t believe their audacity, their nerve, insulting me and my songs like
that. Unbelievable.
My immediate reaction was that every one of them was obviously a fool and had no clue what they were
talking about. Fancy offices, gold records on the wall, shiny cars, high-dollar suits, diplomas and degrees
behind them where they sat. Bet they couldn't get up in front of a big crowd and kick butt like I could. Heck,
they probably couldn't even play an instrument or sing and here they were telling me that my songs weren't any
good. It really, really rocked me. For the first time in my life someone did not like my music. It had never
happened to me before and I just could not believe it was happening then. But it did, and it was the same with
every one of them. Not one of them offered me a contract on any of my songs.
So there I was, living with everything I owned in the world in my motor home parked in the alley behind
my producer Pete Drake’s studio on 18th Avenue. I was out of money, had no gig, and my plan was not going
the way it was supposed to, to say the least. Sitting there with my old Martin guitar, singing my saddest songs
and feeling very sorry for myself, it came to me. Like I was hit upside the head with a shovel. I understood
completely what was really happening. Just like that, I understood that it wasn't that they didn't “like” my
songs; my songs were just not the kind of songs they were looking for. It in no way meant that my songs
weren't any “good,” it just meant that they weren't the right kind of songs to be pitched to the Country Music
Artists recording in Nashville at that time and place. And as I sat there and thought about each and every one of
my songs, I agreed totally.
I also realized the most important part of this extremely valuable songwriting lesson I was experiencing.
Why would my songs be right for other people? I did not write them for someone else to sing or record. It was
the furthest thing from my mind when I created those songs. I just wrote them, and when I sang them for
people, they liked them and it excited me and gave me confidence in them, so I wrote more. I never questioned
any of them in any way and no one else had either. I was very proud of every song that I wrote and that part has
never changed. I firmly believe that every song that I conceive is a gift from the Lord and should be treasured as
such. I have never consciously thrown away any words to any song that I have ever written. I have kept them
all and every one of them holds a place dear to my heart.
What changed that evening sitting there pondering and reflecting my fate was that I realized the starting
point of writing a song professionally. The inspiration to sit down and write a song totally intended for
someone else to sing and to record on their record. A song that is so powerful it inspires other singers and
artists so much they cannot resist recording it. The type of song that will be successful on the radio, to the
masses. A song that will be sung and recorded over and over because it is such a great song. Simply put, the
concept of writing a song “commercially” as opposed to writing for yourself, “artistically.” I would venture to
say this issue could be the #1 biggest stumbling block a songwriter first encounters when presenting their
music to a music publisher: their songs being accepted as being commercial. So, what is the difference?
The main difference between writing a song commercially versus writing a song artistically is really very
simple. It is the Hook, the Title of the song. In a song that is written commercially, the Hook is everything.
Very simple and straight-ahead and everything in the song lyrically is about that one idea, the Hook. Every
word, every completed thought, has to directly relate to the Title of the song. A song written to and about the
Hook. One idea, one picture painted. The beginning, middle and end of this “story” all happening in 3 to 3 1/2
minutes, relative of course to the actual style or genre of the music you write. Don’t assume that your listener
will be able to read your mind or read between the lines. It is not going to happen. You have to say exactly
what you mean. No gray area, just black and white and as simply said as possible.