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Inspirations For Songwriters is I F S
IFS hopes to INSPIRE YOU to ACTION
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2,332 songwriters, artists, producers, and music fans receive IFS
Share IFS with your friends.

If you want receive IFS or
change your email address with IFS
send an email to

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If you want to ask me a question
send an email to
AndeRasmussen@...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you're looking for cowriters
try putting an ad on a songwriting website.

here's one of mine
http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000593.html

It's helped me find several new cowriters
and write several interesting songs.
Let the world know
who you are and
what you're looking for
If you ask in the right place
in the right way
you just may find it

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

IFS readers
tonight I just happened to drop by
http://www.dallassongwriters.org/
to discover they are holding a really excellent event tommorrow morning

I WISH someone would have let me know sooner.
I would have been happy to let IFS readers know about this outstanding
opportunity. Some of you still may be able to take advantage of it

Sat JULY 12, 2003

NASHVILLE SONGWRITER WORKSHOP
with
Austin Cunningham

WHEN:
Saturday, July 12th- 
9:30 AM to 3:00 PM (Sign in at 9AM)

WHERE:
Brook Mays Center  8701 John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 250.

Bring your songs for critique. Critiques extra - $10 each

Austin will speak on
* What it was like to be a staff writer
* How he got songs placed in movies
* How songs are picked up by the major recording artists
* How we, as song writers can place songs.
* How to "write from the heart."

He will also perform some of his well-known songs.
After a short break for lunch (included in the price of the workshop)
Austin will critique your songs for $10 each on a first come first serve
basis.
(Register early to assure a song critique. If we have time to go around
again, we will.
Bring more than 1 song just in case.)

Austin is a very gifted writer with hits under his belt. A former member of
DSA, he has resided in Nashville since the 80's.

MORE -----------

Texas-born Nashville singer and songwriter Austin Cunningham, whose music has
been recorded by the Judds, Hank Williams, Jr., Reba McIntyre and others,
will be holding a Songwriter’s Workshop at Brook-Mays music store on Saturday,
July 12th.  From 9:30 to noon, he will be giving tips on writing and co-writing
to get your songs heard, how he placed songs in movies, and how to "write from
the heart."  He will also perform some of his well-known songs. After a short
break for lunch (included in the price of the workshop) Austin will critique
your songs for $10 each.

Recently Austin won the coveted Johnny Mercer Award for "Emerging American
Songwriters", an award given to only on writer in Nashville each year. His last
two singles were featured in motion pictures.  Where the Heart Is soundtrack
includes "Grow Young with You" (Coley McCabe) and his song "Beautiful"
(Jennifer Paige) was featured in the Winona Ryder/Richard Gere movie Autumn in
New
York.  Other cuts include "From the Ashes" (Martina McBride), "Dancing With
Angels" (SHeDAISY), and Christian cuts include recordings by Susie Luchsinger,
Roy
Clark and Lisa Daggs, among others.

Formerly a staff writer for MCA, Starstruck and Famous Music,  Austin signed
a new publishing deal in the fall 2001 with Maximus Entertainment.  He has
been on heavy rotation on the new SM Satellite Radio X Country, and also on
local
Dallas country stations.

COST:
$35 per person (until July 9th). (includes lunch)
From July 10-12, the cost goes up to $45 because
Annie will have to run locally to buy more food.

Contact Annie Cornelius to Reserve
annieczannie@...

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~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dear IFS readers

below is a note from Patricia Smith who offer folks a chance to get their
songs heard by someone close to Tim McGraw. I notice several IFS readers in
this
list, way to go and thanks again Patricia!

~ ~ ~
 
Here is a list of the songs that made the final cut. This means that your
song will get pitched to Tim & Faith's people. This means someone will listen. I
can't promise anything, but if your song is picked for a hold or second
listening round, I will contact you personally. Please do not email or call me
and
ask if I've heard anything.
Believe me....when I hear (if I hear), I will be in touch.

If your song did not make this cut, please don't think it was because the
song wasn't good. There were many good songs that we listened to, but just did
not feel that they were suited for this particular pitch. There are still some
songs that are in the first stages of listening. The list below was from the
cutoff date of July 1st. If you sent your song after that date, then it will go
into the second listening session, which will begin immediately. Thanks again
for some great music and good luck. I'd love nothing more than to see one of
you guys get a cut.
 
Patricia Smith
nextnumber1@...

(28 songs out of 396 entries. Not bad!!)
 
All I Need To Know ~ Rick Paul / Suzanne Wanvig

The Story Isn't Over ~ Suzanne Wanvig

Two Story House ~ David Wayne

Safe Within My Heart ~ Steve Buttell

He Stood Up ~ Young / Ulanoff

You Complete Me ~ Donna Opfer

My Special One ~ Jon Turk

I'll Be The One ~ Julie Carter / Moriva

Haley's Grace ~ Julie Carter / Moriva

I Only See Forever ~ Wolfe / Hilden

I Just Wish ~ Wolfe / Wurst

In Your Eyes ~ Wolfe

I Don't Need The Lights On ~ Oakley / Scull

Eventually ~ Rasmussen / Aylor / Oates

When I Fall For You ~ Terry Sampson

Leap Of Faith ~ Guito / Mair

The Dash Between The Dates ~ Sonny Bell

Bigger Than That ~ Bell / Opfer

Tending To My Heart ~ Leonard Eckhardt

How Far Is Fargo ~ Leonard Eckhardt

Teardrops & Taillights ~ Blake / Groshens / Buckles

Lost By Love ~ Falcone / Henry

To Be With You ~ Gilli moon

It All Means Nothing To Me ~ Gilli moon

Another Heart ~ Wheeler / Hart

I'm Convinced ~ Patsy Shepherd

My Mom ~ Mike Deeson

I've Never Loved Like This (Cheryl's Song) ~ Ted Pearce

~ ~ ~

Patricia, thanks again for providing folks with such a great opportunity
Way to go IFS readers.
Ande

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From: dennymartinmusic@...

Hi Ande,

Today my web designer sent me something I'd written for IFS that he found on
the internet. I was from Jan, 2002 and I talked about the 3 full CD projects
that I had gotten hired to do and about workshops and writing. I thought I'd
bring you up to date on the progress of those 3 projects...

I'm sending the 3rd one out Fedex today. Betsy Foster's project was a
wonderful experience...a classical/pop composer who loves the purity of the real
instruments. I worked with grand piano, oboe, cello, pennywhistle, eulian pipes,
bagpipes, tympani, flute, violin, double bass and so many other great
instruments and players. She has a website betsyfoster.com and I know is going
to be
releasing her product very soon. A very talented composer who's put actions
behind her music. It's not enough to write the pieces...they then have to be
produced. She has had early versions of the pieces on her website and is very
active with Taxi and Tonos and other outlets for her work.

The Reach Higher CD with Ronnie Kimball written by Michael and Richard
Berardi continues to do well. They could teach a class on marketing...they're
very
active and smart in finding the organizations that they can affiliate a song
with. Recently Ronnie sang four of the songs from the CD at the Army's 228th
birthday party in Atlanta attended by 2,000 people. He closed with Liberty which
is a wonderful patriotic song. Also the song, Bricks From The Ashes has been
getting emotional responses from abused women and is used on dozens of websites
for the abused cause. Another song from the CD, In You is featured in a
Christian context on andiesaisle.com which has a mailing list of 250,000 people.
Michael and Richard, the writers continually find ways to get attention for
their songs and well as ways for their songs to useful to humanity. God gave us
our talent for us to share.

Terry Sue Crawford's Deeper CCM product is also making the right connections
for her and the message. She hired a record promoter earlier this year to work
Celebrate With Me, which is a wonderful song dedicated to a man who died way
too young from cancer. Terry Sue took the inspiration that she saw him share
as he went thru the various stages of the illness. Again an example of finding
the outlets for the creativity is as important as creating the work. Right
now, she's deciding on the next release from her CD. The internet continues to
be
a great equalizer and I'm thankful for the fact it opens so many more
opportunities for our work to shine a light in a dark world.

I appreciate what you do with IFS and just wanted to tell you thank you so
very much. You inspire us to be all we can be.
God's blessings,

Denny
http://www.dennymartinmusic.com/

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ande,

A site that you may want to check out - www.nashvillemuse.com I started it
a couple months ago, as a branch of a newsletter that I send out on a weekly
basis called, The Nashville Muse. I compile a list of events happening
around Nashville, and a couple other songwriting events around the country.
Songwriters send me information of where they are playing around town, along
with a couple nightly or weekly events that are of interest. This newsletter
foes to 350+ people in the Nashville music community on my list, and others
forward it to their list of songwriting friends, is posted on Shoptalk,
which is the NSAI coordinators website, forwarded to members of the 100
workshops, and many other songwriters receive it that I have no idea who
reads the newsletter. I get requests from all over the country for people
wanting to be added directly to the list - amazing.
It lets songwriters who live outside of Nashville know what is going on in
town, in advance of their visit.

I also do an event the 3rd Sunday of the month at 3 PM that I call, "Sunday
Dinner with your Songwriting Family". I cook burgers and hot dogs on the
grill in the warm months, chili or soup in the cold months, and everyone
brings a covered dish or beverage. We eat, (The songwriters bi-laws - when
two or more songwriters are gathered, we break bread or share beverages)
spend time networking, and play our songs.
Hit songwriters have been a part of the events, along with "To Be" hit
songwriters. It is a great group of songwriters that have become friends in
Nashville. "Friends are made and songs are played"!

I encourage other songwriting communities to do the same type of event!

Friends do not let friends......... Play to an empty room!

Thanks for your great newsletter!
You Da' Songwriter!
Doak
Doak Turner
PO Box 121456
Nashville, TN 37212
615-354-6400
doakt@...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Below is an email from an IFS reader.


Hello Ande!

Ok let me tell you a little about me, I write lyrics, sing and play a little
the electric guitar, but find very hard to make melodies. I'm not a "musician"
and software like cakewalk or finale are very complicated to use, but study
singing and guitar.

How can I make melodies?
How to think and imagine a new melody?

When I write my lyrics most of the time have no melodies in my mind and only
show what I feel through the words.

The problem about making melodies with my voice is that don't know what's
wrong but even if it's very easy for me to express my feelings with words seems
to bee very hard to imagine a melody that can let me express myself.

Becouse don't have a keyboard and don't play it, want to find a way for make
the keyboard effects on my pc. And then add drums and effects with it, but
have no idea about which software can do this work.

Can you tell me about a software with keyboard sounds, or where to find
keyboard sounds, or better kind of pc keyboard?

I have acid music software but honesty don't have many things to mix.

Then let's say that I made the melody and have lyrics, now have to make it
fit....

And how will fit the melody with the guitar cords????

I don't want to make this complicated but it seems to me.

Well I would like to send this message to every songwriter that's possible
and don't know if sending it to you everynone in the list will receive it too,
if you can please send it to the rest of the members.

Thanks!

Mesmerized by Melodies in Memphis

~ ~ ~

Dear Mesmerized,

I too am a lyricist, I cowrite everything. A song contains three basic compon
ents

Lyrics: the words the singer sings

Melody: they way the singer sings the words

Music: the instrumental sounds that surround and support the singer

I'd encourage you to find people who are strong where you are weak.
You don't need to know how to write music to create melodies.
Again the vocal melody is just the way you sing the words.
If I were in your situation I'd find collaborators.

I've put your question out to IFS
other readers may offer other suggestions.

If you want to ADD to my answer hit reply
and in the subject field write
IFS MMM

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

a BARD chimes in about
CAFEPRESS.com

From: marc@...

Hey Ande,

Another great issue. Thanks for it.

As far as Cafepress. I love it. I've made a number of crappy shirts before
that I really didn't get to test until Cafepress. Makes a great way to find out
if ye want to spend the money to mass-produce.

Great service.

------------------------------------------------------------
BARD MARC GUNN of the Brobdingnagian Bards
--> Live at Cactus Cafe, Tues, July 15 @ 8:30pm

http://www.thebards.net <--about the original celtic renaissance
http://www.celticmusic.org <-- Lord of the Rings CD, free MP3s

http://www.marcgunn.com <--about marc, celtic mp3s magazine,
poetry, pictures, music promo tips, ren faires, art & much more!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What would you like IFS to write about?
email your suggestions

Write on!

Ande Rasmussen
Editor and Publisher of I F S, Inspirations For Songwriters

AndeRasmussen@... 

My Bio
http://hometown.aol.com/anderasmussen/myhomepage/profile.html

If you'd like to hear some of the songs I've cowritten drop by

http://www.tonos.com/ande
or
http://www.mp3.com/ande

If you want receive IFS or
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Forward IFS to your music friends and members of songwriting
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IFS home page is
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All of our messages are archived on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS/messages

once you're in our archive
you can do a key word search
if you're looking for something in particular

I F S stands for Inspirations for Songwriters
I F S is a brief email for songwriters
filled with inspirational and
practical information about the
art, craft, and business of songwriting.

We want to help you be a more successful songwriter.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
The entire text of
"Inspirations for Songwriters"
© 2003 Anders Rasmussen



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