TAXI.com

I recently went to LA for the Taxi songwriter's rally. What an amazing event. The panels and guests were the "All Stars" of the biz..... from country to pop to R&B and more.... A&R presidents, publishers, song pluggers, and songwriters that have not one or two, but literally dozens of #1 billboard chart hits in many genre's of music. There were panel discussions, seminars, break out classes on specific subjects, and of course.... the one to one mentoring where you choose the mentor, and have a few minutes to set with an industry pro and have them listen & critique your material, and ask any question you can imagine..... a chance to pick their brain and learn something.The two biggest songwriters there were Jeff Steele (so many country hits ...it's unbelievable) and Jason Blume also a big country writer but also has pop & other genre hits as well. I had the opportunity to mentor with Jason..... Jeff was in for one panel and played a few of his hits on acoustic and was out the door since he and his family actually had something else planned for the weekend. At the end of his song set... he threw his pick... my eye caught something moving in the aisle...... his pick rolled right down the center aisle, and stopped 1 foot from my chair...... I reached down and picked it up....The classes and networking were awesome. It will take me a week or more to go back through my notes, and organize them. There was so much information shared and gained at the rally. I met so many other song writers...at all stages of writing...from beginners to people who are making a living from their songs. I made lots of new friends and hopefully one or two good collaborators will be the result. It was almost an information overload weekend.I wanted to pop in a few pics but can't figure it out.But I did meet Michael Laskow Taxi President in the hall registration line.I mentored with Jason Blume at the one to one mentoring. The session went well, I got some good and useful advice to make my songwriting even better...... I also had the opportunity to be in several of Jason's songwriting classes. Industry pro panels were happening in the Grand Ballroom all through out the event.I didn't really shoot more than a handful of pics the entire event...... and I won't waste space & time here with more...... however....Let me say this.... I was a bit unsure if my membership in TAXI was a worthwhile investment....and additionally, if the trip to LA was going to be worth it as well.After being there, and seeing what goes on, and meeting the screeners that actually listen to my (and your) submissions, I sat next to the past president of A&M records A&R division at lunch one day..... he was one screener..... these people do know the biz and music. Some of the panels dealt with "Broadcast Quality music" and played examples of what was and what was not BCQ. They dissected songs and showed us the mistakes 98% of songwriters make that kills their song in the first verse..... and most importantly, how to correct those issues in quality and writing.Do you have to join TAXI to learn this...... NO! I think Taxi makes it easier to learn it though.All in all, a fun and educational weekend in LA. And the networking in the lounge........!OK.... I'll share the "secret" that 2 songwriters gave.....and that's all...Jeff Steele...... "It's all about the lyric..... the story is King"Jason Blume........"It's all about the melody....melody is King"I hope that helps to clear it up a bit!Here's a link to a few picks in another forum I hang out in.....http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1867898

"Jeff Steele...... "It's all about the lyric..... the story is King"Jason Blume........"It's all about the melody....melody is King""That's easy enough to sort, Jeff does country, Jason does pop.Next time I bump into Jeff Steele, I gotta ask him for some pick flicking tips. (say that three times, fast, heh) I can never get that kinda distance.Image posting is easy once your pics are hosted somewhere on the Web-you go to a site like http://photobucket.com, sign up for a free account, follow their instructions to upload images from your hard drive, camera or phone, then get a URL for each hosted file you wish to post. (usually this will start with "http://" and end in ".jpg") Once you have the URL, you simply copy it to your clipboard (ctrl+C on the PC) and paste it into your post where you want the picture to go, between BBCode "tags" that look like this: [ I M G ] and this: [ / I M G ] only without any spaces. Alternatively, you can paste in the URL, highlight it by click-dragging with the mouse, then clicking the little button with the picture of a landscape on it. (fourth from the left in the bottom row of buttons, where it says, "add tags") This won't work with "Quick Reply", you need to be typing in a field with a row of smilies above it. Anytime you want to know how a Bulletin Board post was made, you can click the "Quote" button in the upper right-hand corner of any post; you have to be loggrd in to see the quote button-then you can see the code that was used to do stuff like this:Whoah! How cool is this?or this:





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HTH, CHEERS!

thanks for the advice.....yeah I was about 15 rows back or so...maybe only 12, and I saw that pick as it was rolling..... so sweet.some new friends!!!!