My Critique Of Taxi

[bwrenhewmach]

CRITIQUE OF TAXI Open LetterGreetings guys, gals, fellow songwriters, musicians Taxi members, and staff. My name is Bill Wren my friends used to call me Wild Bill but now they call me Mild Bill. I have been a member of Taxi for little over a year. I come from a Rock background, and started playing music before the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show. Played in Rock copy bands from Michigan to Texas most of my teen and adult life. In the 1980s I took a stab at song writing, my 1st song was Ships of Wood and two others followed. I sat on them for twenty five years till it dawned on me, I better ¡§get er done¡¨ before they pat me in the face with a shovel. So I went out and bought a 16 track digital recorder some keyboards recording microphones etc. and ¡§with a little help from my friends¡¨ recorded a couple of my old songs. While we were recording them a strange phenomenon started to happen to me all these melodies that had been swimming around in my head for all those years just started flowing out of me. So I ended up writing, and recording 12 more songs. Well of course all my family and friends loved the songs, but that was almost to be expected. My question became, are they really that good? And how would they stack up in the real world (the music industry)? That¡¦s when Taxi came into the picture. So after a year of $5.00 and $20.00 fees for returned submissions and custom critiques hammering my music. I wanted to turn things around for a moment and critique Taxis performance thus far. Wild Bills review of TAXI sorry I meant Mild Bills Honest opinions and instruction, ---------------------------------------10 Guidance and direction for new song writers-------------------------10The value of submission and custom critiques -----------------------10Courteously and friendliness---------------------------------------------10Taxis recommended books, links, and other aides-------------------10Overall value to new song writers---------------------------------------10+++++++ Wow I wish I could get great marks like thatƒ¼!!!!!!! Now this critique is only the view of one person. I know some are thinking Mr. Mild Bill is just trying to kiss up, no that don¡¦t work with these guys. I¡¦ve tried!!!!!!!!! However I do have some personal experiences to back up this glowing critique. In the beginning my songs were good, but soon found they were not good enough for the real world. I gained this information and insight not just from Taxi but from other A&R sources as well. In just one year Taxi has worked with me instructing, encouraging, guiding and helping me until finial one day a light came on, and I could clearly see what I needed to do. When I started Taxi I was an amateur song writer. Now in the last 3 months I have had five of my songs forwarded by Taxi and 3 other forwards from another source, and one signed contract. This is submitting just 6 songs plus 2 instrumental versions . Have I made any money yet? No! ,but that¡¦s not the point at this stage of the game. Is that Taxis job? I think not. They did their job well. Now it¡¦s solely up to me, my song writing ability, now that I know what it takes. I¡¦m not an expert by a long shot but I would like to share a couple of the important things with those like me just beginning. In my case my material was pretty good but the quality of my production lacked. So I went out in the back yard a dug up one of my Prince Albert cans and forked over some cash to use to hire a good producer. Not just any producer but one that new where I was coming from with my type of music and one who also pays very close attention to detail. Very important! You can have the most beautiful yard on your block mow it just perfectly but if you don¡¦t trim up the hedges, weed eat along the fence lines and edge around the sidewalks it will look and be unfinished. So is music pay close attention to detail take the time to weed eat, sweep the sidewalks and make sure ever blade of grass is cut. Make sure it¡¦s the best it can be.. The second thing is form; I¡¦m not talking about genre. Music needs to be pleasing to the ear and easily processed by the human mind in any genre. If someone wrote a great novel, but some of the sentences were backwards and a few words inverted, it may be the greatest story ever but because it is in a form that is not easily read others won¡¦t enjoy the novel. (the only exception being of course Lead Zeppelin and maybe the Beatles {:O) So is the way of music we need to keep our uniqueness, but put our music in a form or structure that is easily processed in the minds and hearts of the listener. Most people listen to music for fun and relaxation. Not straining their brains to process complicated or confusing information. Music is a language, so it needs to flow and be easily understandable. These are just a couple of things I learned along the way. This letter is my way of thanking the Taxi staff not just for the forwards but for also guiding me to success with my music. I also hope I have encouraged others as well. On my web site if you go to songs and click on the name of the songs it will bring upinformation regarding most of my forwards on each song and other stuff. PS you¡¦re also welcome to listen to the songs if you like. Love you guys Wil, no, sorry Mild Bill www.songbirdinc.net

[devin]

I second "Mild Bill's" evaluation! I've been playing/writing for a couple of decades now...recently lurking on the Taxi Forum as a guest...and finally able to contribute (as of last week) as a Taxi member.I am very impressed by the high "signal to noise ratio" of the discussions here in the forum. The regulars and moderators are doing an awesome job...thank you thank you thank you.I just received my first custom critique, and it to is a thing of (accurate)beauty. I couldn't get a single one of my "I love your music!" friends to write down 10 words to improve my song...and listener #255 gives me a whole page and a half. What an overwhelminly positive concept.And finally, congrats Bill. Your success is testament to your journey, and your hard work!

[cyagi]

Thanks for the insight Mild Bill. I am a fairly new singer/songwriter and just joined Taxi this week. I am always skeptical of laying down $300 for something like this, so it is great to hear of the other people's positive experiences. I responded to my first few listings and am anxiously awaiting the results...Curt

[jay10music]

Thanks from Laskow!Dear Bill,I want to publicly thank you for your kind words. You can't imagine how much it means to all of us under TAXI's roof.As you MIGHT imagine, we take a lot of heat from people, who as Jack Nicholson has said, “Can't handle the truth.”We all take our jobs very seriously, and being truthful is a big part of what we NEED to do in order to do our jobs WELL. We could be LESS truthful and make more people “happy,” but to what end? The short-term benefit to us would be more members and more renewals, but the long-term goals I set for this company sixteen years ago would not be met.We'd rather give our members REAL value and suffer some slings and arrows, than sugar coat the truth and help our members less.Thank you for “getting” what we do here, and for giving us high marks in such a public way. I've printed out a coy of your letter and given it to every staff member and every screener so they know that they know how much their work is appreciated.I'm also treating all the members of the A&R team and regular staff to awesome Chinese food today in honor of your “report card.”Thank you again,MichaelP.S. I also want to wish Aub a continued and full recovery, and thank Matto and Aub for their logical and practical assessment of our recent tech difficulties on the hosting site. In the end, it turned out to be a blown chip AND an endemic software glitch that happened at the same time. That's why it took a few days to solve the problem. Thanks for your patience. ML

[tedsingingfox]

See? MORE proof that this place is the real deal. So is the company founder.And I totally agree with your assessment, Bill (wild or mild). Ted

[linziellen]

Hello Bill - Wild!!! Bless you! What a wonderful, heartfelt post! I'm not yet a member of TAXI but good Lord am I rearing to go... I can't wait! I'm in serious need of guidance and I get the feeling I'm in the right place. I joined this forum in 2005, got a little lost, fell down a rabbit hole and hit the big pause button I found down there! Now I'm back again and I'm feeling goooood, Reading something like this is an absolutely fantastic way of rekindling the fire!!! Thank you Bill and "CONGRATULATIONS", you obviously deserve every inevitable future success!Lindsey

[hummingbird]

I agree wholeheartly with Bill's post. Bill, with that attitude, you will be successful, it's just matter of time. And I'd probably add one category:Run a terrific music convention....... 10+And Michael, I really appreciate your post because you say something I think is vital about Taxi. Yes, you could make more people happy by lowering your standards but you would make me unhappy because then you would be expecting less of me. I have spent all the years of my membership trying to reach the standards you set at Taxi. Through that struggle you have made me into a better musician and composer than I could have ever dreamed of being.... thanks to Taxi, the Road Rally, and my fellow Dots.Hummin'bird

[keithl]

I cannot remember the last time I was THIS focused about writing music.Another great plus about TAXI.

[ibanez468]

Flat,I'll second that!! Can't remember the last time I was either.I-468

[dabresk]

I agree as well. I mentioned in another post about the change in my writing. I looked back at the stuff that I did a year ago and compared it to what I am doing now. What a change. The critiques have completely changed the way that I write.I have learned more about engineering and have made vast improvements on that as a direct result of the screeners.Also, I have now moved into genres that I have never explored before.And, uh, I spent a lot of money on equipment. And I am going to spend more, because it's all about improving yourself.Overall it has been a wonderful experience - life changing for me!I will give the screeners and everyone at Taxi a 10.I will give the forum posters a 10.I just renewed for another two years.Just another part of my five year plan.One more thing....being in Taxi reminds me of my Piano Lab classes in college. Once a week, each student of the piano prof would play a piece, and the students (and the prof) would critique. I grew as a player as a result. Taxi is very similar in that respect. I have grown as a writer as a result!Thanks to everyone!Bresky