The Tolucan Times » Samm Brown III

Honest Assessments and a Word on Frustration

Samm Brown III — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:56:12 +0000

“The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes that enables you to achieve greatness.”
—Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Continuing the discussion on practice and rehearsing, as author Geoff Colvin points out in his book, the key is “how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress” and whether you “learn from your mistakes.”
We are living in an age of technology that allows us to assess our creative process in ways never imagined by Beethoven, Brahms or even Burt Bacharach. We can now instantly hear compositions as they are created, either digitally or analog. We can send MP3 files back and forth to collaborators. One of the co-hosts of my show, the Grammy nominated songwriter Pamela Oland, is co-writing songs with a composer in Holland and one in the Philippines.
Videotape and, if you can, record your rehearsals. Then you can watch and hear what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. This is the time to be brutally honest and constructively critical of your performance.
If you’re in a new band and don’t have the money to get a fancy-schmancy Sony HD video camera, you’ve got a digital camera that is the size of a cell phone. And while we’re on the subject of cell phones, turn them off when you come to rehearsals! Nothing can be more annoying and distracting than the guitar player’s cell going off playing the intro to Coldplay’s Vida La Vida in the middle of rehearsing a “heartfelt” ballad.
Short of that, there is no excuse for you not to be able to video your rehearsals. And as the saying goes, the camera doesn’t lie. If you have someone outside of the band operating the camera, you’ll be able to see and hear everything that will tell you what needs to be worked on, especially those things your eyes and ears might miss in real time. Isn’t progress a beautiful thing?
Some important things to remember as you get close to show time… One thing that most new bands forget to do is to time the show, from beginning to end, including between-songs banter (and don’t forget to factor in applause). This is important because almost every venue has a time limit. If you hit that limit, some venues will either pull the plug on you or pull some extra dough out of your wallet. Either way, it’s an unpleasant experience. So please, time your sets!
Rehearse everything you’re going to do on stage. If you didn’t rehearse it, don’t do it! I’ve seen so many awkward situations happen on stage because somebody did something no one saw before and it threw everybody, or just the drummer, off. I’ve heard the excuse “well I just felt it right then…” That’s okay if you want to gamble looking like an amateur but all the pros I’ve ever worked with rehearsed everything, from the apparent “ad libbed” patter between tunes to where each performer moved on stage, to the length of solos. It’s always best to come in slightly under the amount of time you’re given, rather than over. (Remember the time constraints of sets.) Sure, some superstar acts have reputations of going on and on and on, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen come to mind. But hey, they are superstars and don’t mind paying the heavy fines when they go over the requisite time. And remember that attitude is for amateurs. With altitude, you don’t need attitude! You’ll fly higher without it.

Samm Brown III is a former record industry executive, a 10-time Gold/Platinum RIAA award-winning hit record producer and hit songwriter, arranger and conductor (Michael Jackson, Maxine Nightingale and New Edition). He’s also a film/TV composer and artist manager who hosts a weekly radio show on KPFK (90.7 fm), Sunday afternoon at 2pm called “Samm Brown’s For the Record.” He can be reached for songwriting/artist consultations or song evaluations at (818) 985-2711 ext.452 or sbrownKPFK@aol.com.

How to and How Not to Rehearse

Samm Brown III — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:51:26 +0000

Whenever I see a first-rate, top drawer performance, I don’t think, “Oh, how gifted they are.” Instead, I think, “They really know how to rehearse.” Why? Because perfect rehearsal is the key to great performances, and most bands and artists simply do not know how to rehearse, perfectly. And they usually form their bad rehearsal habits at a very early age, and never change them.
How often do you hear about the right and wrong way to practice? How many managers or producers attend rehearsals, and “train or coach” their artists? Do you think George Martin or Brian Epstein trained and coached the Beatles? Of course they did. And with respect to George Martin, as he was an enormous influence on them musically as well. Both Lennon and McCartney have credited George Martin’s massive creative contributions to the Beatles’ phenomenal years of success and musical growth. Do you think the Beatles grew from being a mediocre-playing rock band (“I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Please, Please Me”) to a highly-sophisticated, classical, orchestral-oriented rock band (“Eleanor Rigby,” “HeyJude”) in four years all by themselves? I don’t think so.

“Train hard, fight easy.”

-Military axiom

As I am writing this, the Lakers are in the closing seconds of winning the NBA finals, and the announcers are talking about MVP Kobe Bryant and his work (practice) ethic. They’re talking about how Kobe has an incredible practice mindset, which is so intense that, “he’s not talking to you (the press) when he practices. He’s all business.” Well, there it is. The NBA’s greatest player out-working everybody else. No surprise there.
One of the mistakes most groups and artists make when they begin to rehearse is not using their time wisely. And, by that, I mean they have far too many “non-essentials” and distractions in the room with them when they rehearse. This type of “practice” is a habit that usually begins in high school because the band wants to show off to their friends, family, girlfriends, potential girlfriends, soon to be boyfriends, whatever. But someone has to take charge, and make the decision that anyone without an instrument in their hand, not part of the band, management or the necessary supporting road crew or sound people, are non-essentials. And they should be asked to leave. Or better yet, not invited in the first place. There will be plenty of time to invite them in when the show is completely rehearsed and ready for the last phase, “dress rehearsals,” or full-out rundowns.

“Perfect practice makes for perfect performance.”

-Samm Brown III

Now, I’m talking about the perfect practice process after you’ve spent the time doing the hard practice alone. In the “by yourself” rehearsal/practice phase, you should be exactly that, by yourself. Only you know what you need to work on most to get your skills up to an optimum level. Then when you get together with the rest of the band members, everyone has spent a number of hours working alone, on individual performances.
As a drummer, I would practice up to 10 hours a day, when I could, in a drum booth alone; practicing my sticking, patterns, cross-overs—the basic stuff. And then I’d add the flashy stuff like stick twirling, tossing and flipping (without dropping the sticks or the beat), and then back to sight-reading, advanced drumming techniques and rudiments. If I couldn’t get behind the kit (because I was living in an apartment), I had a drum pad set-up in my bedroom, and I would never let a day go by without a minimum of 2-3 hours of “alone practice.” No one saw me, and that’s always the boring, but necessary, hard part for the serious individual. It’s part of the discipline.
Whether you are a musician, singer or an NBA basketball player, practicing alone for hours is going to be boring and hard work. It is what Geoff Colvin, (author of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else), calls “deliberate practice.” I call it “perfect practice” but it is the same thing, and is very necessary.
If you’re in a band, no one likes to have to listen to the same player messing up the same part day in and day out because they didn’t do the alone “perfect or deliberate practice,” and wood shedding what they personally needed to. Unfortunately, too many think that because they rehearse with the band every day, that somehow those problem areas that they’ve not mastered alone will work themselves out. They won’t. Can you imagine any world-class concert violinist or pianist only rehearsing with the orchestra, and never spending hours and hours of “deliberate” or “perfect” practice alone? Think Kobe only practices with the Lakers?
To quote Colvin again, “The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes. That enables you to achieve greatness.”
You have to do it individually and then collectively with the band or track. It’s the first thing great performers know that’s necessary to get them from the wanna B-list to the “making-the-big-bucks” A-list. It’s a lifetime of commitment to your audience, profession, career and yourself. There is no other way.

Samm Brown III is a former record industry executive, a 10-time Gold/Platinum RIAA award-winning hit record producer, a film/TV composer, artist’s manager, radio talk show host, and hit songwriter, arranger and conductor. He can be reached for songwriting/artist consultations or song evaluations at sbrownKPFK@aol.com, myspace.com/scores4cinema or (818) 985-2711 ext.452.

Learn the Craft of Songwriting If Song is King, is Melody Queen?

Samm Brown III — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:43:56 +0000

Samm Brown III

Several years ago, I witnessed an event that I will never forget. It was at a Los Angeles Unified School District luncheon for board members and their families.
A girl group that I was managing at the time, called U4Ea!, performed a medley of girl group songs of the ‘60s, including such timeless classics as: “Gee-Whiz” by Carla Thomas, “Walkin’ in the Rain,” “Be My Baby,” by The Ronettes and “He’s A Rebel” by The Chiffons, etc.
As the girls worked their way through the 15 minutes of 21 hit songs, the adult audience of 40 to 60-something’s were not only clapping their hands, swaying and singing along but as they sang, I could see many of them wiping tears from their eyes. At the end of the medley, the audience collectively jumped up from their seats like they had just been hit by a jolt of electricity, applauding wildly. LAUSD board member Barbara Boudreau advanced slowly down the aisle toward the stage with a big, broad grin on her face, tears streaming from her eyes and arms outstretched, ready to hug each girl. To me, that moment was living proof of what Motown founder Berry Gordy always used to say to us songwriters at Motown, that: “It’s the song that makes the artist, not the other way around.” Here, I was personally observing three girls that no one in that audience had heard of prior to the afternoon’s performance, being treated like rock stars. But it wasn’t for them that all the tears and applause were for. It was those classic songs they sang written by someone else 35 years ago, when most of the audience was still in high school or college. What the songs did was trigger intense emotional feelings from that specific period in their life. Or as Barbara Boudreau said as she wrapped her arms around each girl, “You girls took me back to high school when I was 18 and in my senior year.” That is the power of a song that can reach out and touch so many people. And a hit song can do it all around the world, regardless of the language.
Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitan, author of “This is Your Brain on Music” and “The World in Six Songs” and who also runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University, said that it’s the “melody that humans recognize first.” (Ever ask someone if they can identify a song by only citing the words, rather than humming the melody?)
To me, a song is a left and right brain thing, and the right brain is the side associated with the realm of music, creativity, aesthetics and feeling while the left is associated with language, logical thinking, analysis and accuracy. That explains another thing that Berry Gordy used to say: “If you can’t hum back a melody by the time it gets to the last ‘sing along’ (chorus), it’s probably not going to be a hit.” Similarly, in film music, the great Elmer Bernstein (“The Magnificent 7,” “The Great Escape” and “The 10 Commandments”) used to say, “A memorable film score depends on a memorable, recognizable melody.” (I have that taped above my computer screen in my studio.)
For millennia, melodies have been used to teach humans to remember everything from their language’s alphabetical structure to military maneuvers. In other words, the right brain’s ability to remember melody quicker, and to hold on to it longer, is the platform on which words are placed. A strong melody can get ‘stuck’ in the brain as well as become associated with human emotions, moments in time and behavior far quicker than words ever can. And, like Barbara Boudreau, you too can instantly “be taken back” to a moment in time by a song. That’s the power of melody and the power of the song. As they say in Nashville, “The song is king.” If so, the melody must be queen and the lyric the prince or princess. So, long live the king and the royal family.

Samm Brown III is a record industry executive who is an RIAA award-winning record producer, songwriter, arranger, orchestrator and conductor, who has had nine number one records, (Michael Jackson, Maxine Nightingale and New Edition). He is also a film/TV composer, artist manager and hosts a weekly radio show on KPFK (90.7 fm) Sunday afternoons at 2pm called “Samm Brown’s For the Record” (a one-hour talk show exclusively focusing on the behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry). He can be reached at sbrownKPFK@aol.com.

Learn the Craft of Songwriting (Part 3) Start With a Great Title – A Skill Worth Acquiring

Samm Brown III — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:02:01 +0000

It has often been said that, “they just don’t make ‘em the way they used to…,” and I suppose one could apply that aphoristic bit of wit to almost anything. But nothing could be more on point than in the profession of songwriting. Profession? Yes, Virginia, it is a profession. Just like screenwriting, playwriting and even book writing – as in “author.” In fact, on the SR form for Sound Recording, to copyright your “work” (not your “art”), the composer and lyricist are referred to as “author.” And, as we mentioned in the last column, songwriting is – or should be considered – a craft. And, I might add, be so valued.
Like many of the writing crafts, there are numerous ways to begin crafting a song but the one I personally prefer is coming up with a strong title first. Why? Because in the world of pop, rock, country, R&B, hip-hop and musical theater (in fact, in all of contemporary songwriting), your title is the name of your product; your brand, what you want your customers to remember or to ask for. I can tell, almost 100% of the time, if a song is well crafted simply by its title. When I taught songwriting classes, I created the acronym S.E.M.I. to help students remember what a strong title’s ingredients are. (Notice I didn’t say great or “hit song” ingredients.) In addition, a strong title will, in all probability, give you an idea as to whether or not the song should be a ballad, up-tempo, moderate or perhaps a dance song. (e.g. – “Let’s Party All Night,” is it more or less likely to be a ballad, up-tempo, moderate or dance/club song? How about, “Happy Anniversary, Baby?”)
S.E.M.I. stands for Story, (as in suggesting a strong story), Emotion (Does it illicit an emotion?), Mood (Does it make you feel something?) and Identification (Does it make you “relate” or “connect” to it in some way?) Here are some song titles taken from the “most played” lists of BMI, ASCAP and Rolling Stone Magazine. See how many of these titles fit the acronym, S.E.M.I.
Leading the list we have the anthemic “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” followed by “Never My Love,” “Yesterday,” “Stand By Me,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”, “Mrs. Robinson,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “Rhythm of the Rain,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Respect,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Born to Run.” These are all classics, as well as million dollar plus copyrights. Now, as in most “rules,” there are always exceptions and in these cases, “Mrs. Robinson” and “Like A Rolling Stone” would qualify as exceptions (I’m sure you can probably think of others, like the Oscar® winning, “Evergreen”). But 13 out of 15 of the most valuable songs ought to tell you what seems to work most often.
Another point to mention is that not all of these titles have all four S.E.M.I. ingredients but they do have at least two. And I contend that the more of these “ingredients” you have, the stronger the title. How important is a strong title? In her book, “The Craft of Lyric Writing,” author/lyricist Sheila Davis quotes hit songwriter Motown’s Ron Miller (“For Once in My Life,” “Touch Me in the Morning”) as saying, “I always, absolutely, unequivocally get a title first. I may spend days finding the right title, and once I find it, I may write the lyric in twenty minutes.” She goes on to say, “Many successful writers have made (strong) ‘title first’ their main modus operandi, and it is a skill worth acquiring.”
How fast should you be able to write a song? I’ll tell you how long it took Burt Bacharach and Hal David to write “What the World Needs Now,” next time.

Samm Brown III is a film/TV composer, a former record industry executive, a RIAA 10X Platinum/Gold award winning record producer, songwriter/consultant, arranger, and orchestrator, who has had 9 number 1 records, (Michael Jackson, Maxine Nightingale, New Edition, David Naughton), artist manager and host of a weekly radio show on KPFK (90.7 fm), Sunday afternoon at 2 pm called “Samm Brown’s FOR THE RECORD”. It’s a one-hour talk show exclusively focusing on the behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry. He can be reached at: sbrownKPFK@aol.com.

Learn the Craft of Songwriting (Part 2)

Samm Brown III — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:49:35 +0000

I’d like to begin this column with a Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of one of the most misused words in our business, and that word is “art.” As in “your art,” “his/her art,” and “their art,” etc. So, here’s the dictionary definition: Art, noun. 1. Skill acquired by experience or study, 2. A branch of learning, esp.: one of the humanities, 3. An occupation requiring knowledge or skill, 4. The use of skill and imagination in the production of things of beauty: also: works so produced.
What the people who label themselves as singers or songwriters, or both, and put their CD’s up on the Internet are creating, sad to say, is not “art.” I know that sounds harsh, but if you look at the Merriam-Webster definition again you will have to agree that 97% of the hundreds of thousands of CD’s on the net were neither created with “the use of skill or imagination,” nor with “skill acquired by experience or study,” which is why most sell less than 1,000 copies. The Internet, in essence, has become the cyber refrigerator door that when they were in the 2nd grade, mom used to put their stick figure drawings on with a Snoopy magnet. So, because one’s stick-figured crayon drawings were on display on the family refrigerator for all to see, does that mean it qualifies to be in the Louvre next to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa? I think not. Whenever I hear someone refer to what they do musically as “art,” I cringe. It’s such a pretentious, self-indulgent use of a word that tarnishes its true meaning. I consider what I create as a work, as in “work in progress,” a “work for hire,” a song, an arrangement or a production. And, so does the U.S. Copyright Office (see their form SR for a Sound Recording). What do they call it? Perhaps 100 years from now some graduate student will find my body of work an interesting study that’s good enough to define as “art” but for now I wouldn’t characterize it as such. A “work,“ as in-progress or for hire, is just fine. “Genius” is the other overused word, but that’s for another column.
Malcolm Gladwell recently wrote a book called Outliers: The Story of Success. In it he says that: “(what) the Beatles and Mozart had in common: along with talent and ambition, (was that) each enjoyed an unusual opportunity to intensively cultivate a skill that allowed them to rise above their peers.” He also points out that what they (along with other successful individuals from Bill Gates to Fleetwood Mac) have is, “a willingness to put in the 10,000 hours of practice required to reach mastery (in their) field.” He goes on to say that he doubts if the majority of present day aspiring bands, singers or songwriters have put in even 1,200 hours of practice. Another book that basically came to that same conclusion is Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin (“New evidence that top performers in any field—from Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill to Warren Buffett and Jack Welch— are not determined by their inborn talents. Greatness doesn’t come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades”).
For years, I’ve been asked, whenever I’ve mentioned the Beatles (more specifically Lennon and McCartney) regarding their songwriting skills and prowess, what it was that made them so great? The answer — always clear to me — was that the Beatles learned to play over 500 classic cover and popular bar songs in 3 languages (English, French and German – “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”), over a period of 6 years before they had their first hit. Did the Beatles put in their 10,000 hours? Yes, they did! Have you?

Next Time: Start with a Great Title: Learning the Craft of Songwriting (Part 3)

Samm Brown III is a Record Industry Executive who is an RIAA award-winning record producer, songwriter, arranger, orchestrator and conductor, who has had 9 number 1 records (Michael Jackson, Maxine Nightingale, New Edition). He is currently a film/TV composer, artist manager and hosts a weekly radio show on KPFK (90.7 fm) on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. called “Samm Brown’s for the Record,” a one-hour talk show exclusively focusing on the behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry. He can be reached at: sbrownKPFK@aol.com.

How You Can Tell If A Song Has “Hit” Potential

Samm Brown III — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:45:45 +0000

Last time we talked it was about whether artists should write their own songs or not. The legendary record mogul and executive Clive Davis says “no.” Here’s what he said: “Many entertainers lose their careers by not concentrating on finding hit songs — no matter who they are written by. The odds are always against you, you have got to go over the best material, and that should win out, not withstanding any track record. I don’t care how many No. 1‘s you have written in the past; have you written a new No. 1?”
Did you see Bruce Springsteen’s Super Bowl half-time performance? Now, there is an artist who understands the difference between entertaining an audience and self-indulgence! Unfortunately, that’s something too few artists understand today. These young artists somehow have the mistaken notion that the world wants to hear about their opinions or personal lives, and pay them big bucks for the privilege to hear about it.
So how does one know if a song has “hit” potential? I suppose the first thing I should do is to define my definition of a “hit” song. And to do that, let me begin by saying a hit song isn’t necessarily a “great song.” And vice-versa. But a hit song is a song that a large number of people (hopefully millions around the world), want to hear again and again and again, to the extent that they are ready to part with hard earned cash for the privilege to possess it so they can play it at their leisure. Now this is different than a song that people “enjoy,” (as in “…everyone enjoys listening to my songs…”) or one that dancers at a club want to dance to. Back in the 80’s I used to notice a phenomenon that I called a “dance-club” hit. DJ’s know what I’m talking about. It’s a record/song that everyone liked to dance to (“great beats”, “I love the track”), but no one ran out to buy it the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. In other words it barely sold any copies at all. Its first cousin was – and still is — called a “radio hit.” There have been thousands of both.
That’s when I began to try and figure out why two records – both getting the same amount of airplay, exposure and promotional dollars, both heard as much, yet one sold extremely well, the other didn’t. Was it because the producers were different? Were the songwriters different? What if they were both the same person and further, what if the artist recorded both songs? Did everything Mozart ever composed become an “Andante from Concerto No. 21 in C major” – aka Theme from “Elvira Madigan”? Mozart composed some 500 compositions in his short life (35 years). And most of them were good – but not so many gems. Suffice it to say that neither were all the songs written by, without argument, the most successful songwriting band in Rock-and-Roll history, The Beatles.
I have often been asked when I mention the Beatles (more specifically Lennon & McCartney), what made them so great? The answer was always clear to me that any group who could learn and play close to 500 classic cover songs in 3 languages, had to eventually become excellent songwriters! Most people don’t know that the craft of writing “hit” songs again and again and again, is exactly that… a craft.

Next Time: Learning the Craft of Songwriting.

Samm Brown III is a record industry executive who is an award winning record producer, songwriter, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor, who has had 9 number 1 records, (Michael Jackson, Maxine Nightingale, New Edition). He is currently a film/TV composer, artist manager and hosts a weekly radio show on KPFK (90.7 fm), Sunday afternoons at 2 pm (PST) called “Samm Brown’s FOR THE RECORD”, a one-hour talk show exclusively focusing on the behind-the-scenes of the record, film/TV music industry. He can be reached at: sbrownKPFK@aol.com.