Stephen Schwartz Gives Advice to Songwriters This PDF includes sections: SECTION 1 - Career development and training SECTION 2 - Various points about the musical book and lyrics, getting started, workshopping SECTION 3 - Composing SECTION 4 - Getting produced SECTION 5 - Income and Copyright SECTION 6 - Technical concerns about Notation, etc. Additional Resources The following questions and answers are from the archive of the StephenSchwartz.com Forum. Copyright by Stephen Schwartz 2010 all rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced without prior written consent, including copying material for other websites. Feel free to link to this archive. Send questions to
[email protected] SECTION 1 - Career Development and Training Establishing Yourself as a Professional Songwriter Question: What is the best way to go about establishing myself as a professional songwriter? Answer from Stephen Schwartz: I wish there were an easy answer to your question. I guess the best answer I can give is to keep writing, to be really tough on yourself when you write and to go back and rewrite what you think is not good enough about a song until you're satisfied it's the best you can possibly do, and then to try to play your songs for people who might be of help to you: other musicians, singers, club owners, people in bands, etc. You can hire singers and a recording studio to make demos of your best songs so you can send or give them to people. If you're talented and perseverant, eventually this will yield results. That's about the best advice I can give; as I say, there's no easy step-by-step route.