The Songwriter's Guide to Submitting a Demo

The Songwriter's Guide to Submitting a Demo

Managing Music

I remember being asked in a radio interview, a few years ago, how many songs I had written. I don't recall the number at the time but I answered the question with the exact amount. The person giving the interview was surprised that I knew the exact amount and I was surprised that he would think otherwise.

In 1977, after Navy Boot camp, I went to a Naval Train School in Florida. One of the first thinks I had to learn was how to type. Back then it was state of the art IBM ball typewriters and I got pretty fast too. As a way of practicing I remember going through all my songs, which at the time we're mostly hand written, and started typing them out nice and neat.

It was at that time that I realized I had no Alphabetical or Chronological list for my songs. At that time I was 18 and had written 61 songs. I can tell you exactly how many songs I had because I started cataloging them and made a lists.

It's really become quite fascinating. It's, in many ways, a time capsule of my life. Each time I finish a song I type it up, now on my computer. I go to my Chronological list and enter it. As I look at songs that came before the new one I've just entered I can remember where I was when I wrote the previous songs.

About 20 years ago I started putting my songs in books. Each book has 50 songs and the songs are printed and put in plastic sheet covers so they can be taken out and copied. Keep in mind I started doing this before I used a computer. I've realized lately that a great deal of my songs aren't in my computer. Over the years songs were typed out on a typewriter, word processor or a computer with a very old and no longer used program. So lately I've been going through each book and enter them into Word so they're all on the same program. Plus, they're all uniform with the same font and look.

As I've been entering songs I've found periods of writing when I wrote Sad, Joyous, Praise, Funny, Love and Thankful songs. Periods of mellow piano and periods of Rock guitar. But, I think most importantly for me, I find that I wrote songs to cleanse my soul. I discovered that I didn't write a vast majority of my songs because I was trying to write a hit song. I wrote them because it was a way, my way, of dealing with what I was going through in my life at the time. I even recall as I'm entering them in the computer what I was thinking at the time I wrote the song. I'm talking years ago.

I recently came across 7 or 8 songs in a row that dealt with a painful breakup I went through in a relationship years ago. Toward the end of the string of songs is a song called "I'm sad today". It's been a habit through the years to record each song I write and send it go my best friend Kevin Mannarino and I'll never forget what he said about that song. He had written back and told me that I should have had a disclaimer on "I'm Sad Today" so he could have read it before listening to it. The said the disclaimer should read, "Remove all sharp implements and guns from the room before listening to this song". Kevin went on to say it was the sadist and most depressing song he'd ever heard. He said anyone who listens to the song will want to do themselves in. Of course he was saying this in his own hilarious way but after hearing what he said I realized more clearly the power of a song

In any case my point is this. Managing you music is one of the first and very important things a songwriter must do. It's, for one thing, good business sense but for another it's good for you as a songwriter to in a way chronicle your life and your work. At the bottom of each song I've developed a box for important information regarding the song. In the box are 24 sections for information to impute. ISWC number, BMI and or ASCAP numbers, PA & SR numbers, and the list goes on. Many of the songs won't have that info because they may never be recorded. Some quite frankly are too bad to record. But, they still need to be cataloged with at least when and who wrote them and co-wrote them.

For me it also brings order to my world and that can be important too.

Song Demo Submissions

Since I last wrote in this blog I've received about 30 demos. 5 out of the 30 appeared to have read my book "The Songwriter's Guide to Submitting a Demo". The other 25 had countless problems with their demo package that I cover in my book. I won't go through the list of problems because the same list can be found in my book. However, it does still surprise me that there are so many songwriters making the same mistakes over and over again in their demos, year after year.

Corelli's Music Box, BMI

Corelli's Music Box, BMI

Now it was clear to me that if I was going to go back into music I needed to go all the way. I needed something that would cause me to not throw my hands up and say, "I quit". Corelli's Music Box was the answer. Back in 1996, before the internet, everything was done by snail mail. I wrote BMI about what it would take for me to start my own publishing company and they sent contracts and info back to me. The process took a couple of months but on September 16, 1996 Corelli's Music Box, BMI was offical. So I figured if I was going to record again, since no one was jumping at the chance to record my songs, I'd make sure they were published even if it was through my own publishing company.

I never dreamed of publishing anyone elses songs nor did I realize what a valuble learning tool having my own publishing company would be. Then one day my cousin Brett Helling sent me a song called, I am Runnin' and I realized I wanted to record the song. "I am Runnin'" became the first song I published that had been written by someone else.

I am Runnin - Jerry Corelli

Everything in the song was recorded by Brett. All I had to do was record the vocals at my studio. Bretts writing style is very similar to mine so it was a no brainer that I should record and publish the song.

When CMB (Corelli's Music Box) started going I got an invitation to post it in "The Songwriter's Market" book. After the book came out I started getting cassette tape after cassette tape from songwriters. Back then the common songwriter didn't have the capability to burn CD's so it was mostly cassettes. I can't tell you the wealth of information I learned from getting demos from songwriters. Well, actually I can through my book "The Songwriter's Guide to Submitting a demo" If I've learned anything it's to not give away valuable information. The fact is that the book isn't expensive and contains a lot of info for songwriters who, to this day, make the same mistakes over and over again when they send their demos to me. I'll admit it isn't selling off the shelves though. The reason for that, I believe, is the beginning songwriter mentality. Believe me I had it too. There's an arrogance I've seen in myself and a lot of songwriters who have sent me demos that says, "You can't teach me anything."

The book isn't about writing a HIT song. It's about the does and don'ts when sending your demo. Believe it or not songwriter after songwriter make the SAME mistakes time after time. Then they sit back and wonder why they don't hear back from a publisher, good or bad. This book will help songwriters.