The Singer-Songwriter Handbook

Justin Williams, Katherine Williams, Justin Williams, Katherine Williams

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781628920291
• eBook ISBN:
  9781628920314
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

The singer-songwriter, someone who writes and performs their own music, is an ever-present and increasingly complex figure in popular music worlds. The Singer-Songwriter Handbook provides a useful resource for student songwriters, active musicians, fans and scholars alike.

This handbook is divided into four main sections: Songwriting (acoustic and digital), Performance, Music Industry and Case Studies. Section I focuses on the 'how to' elements of popular song composition, embracing a range of perspectives and methods, in addition to chapters on the teaching of songwriting to students. Section II deals with the nature of performance: stagecraft, open mic nights, and a number of case studies that engage with performing in a range of contexts. Section III is devoted to aspects of the music industry and the business of music including sales, contract negotiations, copyright, social media and marketing. Section IV provides specific examples of singer-songwriter personae and global open mic scenes.

The Singer-Songwriter Handbook is a much-needed single resource for budding singer-songwriters as well as songwriting pedagogues.

Table of contents

• FC
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• List of Contributors
• Editor’s Introduction: Justin A. Williams and Katherine Williams
• Part One A Songwriting
• 1 Nadav Appel: The singer-songwriter disposition
• 2 Mark Simos: The performing songwriter’s dilemma: Principles and practices
• 3 Zack Moir: Learning to create and creating to learn: Considering the value of popular music in higher education
• 4 Simon Barber: Professional songwriting techniques: A range of views summarized from the Sodajerker interviews
• 5 Lee Bob Watson: A river, a bible, and a broken heart
• Part One B Songwriting in the digital era
• 6 Mark Marrington: Composing with the digital audio workstation
• 7 Richard James Burgess and Rob Toulson: Singer-songwriter meets music production and studio technology
• 8 Lisa Busby: Collage, cut up, and pop mantras: Post-digital approaches to songwriting
• Part Two PERFORMANCE
• 9 Dane Chalfin: From “me” to “we”: Audience-focused practical tools for interpretation and performance
• 10 Sija Tsai and Andrew Hillhouse: The Mariposa Folk Festival and the Canadian singer-songwriter tradition
• 11 Seth Lakeman testimonial: Stories from my life, and tips for getting ahead (interview with Katherine Williams)
• Part Three THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
• 12 Samuel Nicholls: Audience engagement and alternative revenue streams
• 13 Jo Collinson Scott and David Scott: The portfolio career in practice: Key aspects of building and sustaining a songwriting and performance career in the digital era
• 14 Emma Hooper (aka “Waitress for the Bees”): How to (almost) never play a bad gig again: A simple way to approach performing professionally
• Part Four CASE STUDIES
• 15 Alexandra Apolloni: Vocal authorship: Marianne Faithfull and “Sister Morphine”
• 16 Claire Coleman: Indie folk’s bowerbirds: Nostalgia and contemporary singer-songwriters
• 17 Juliane Jones: Play the Bluebird to the Bitter End: Open mics in Nashville, NYC, and Shanghai
• Bibliography
• Index