Product Description

"Your First Cut, A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting There" is a 224-page workbook designed to guide, encourage and enable the aspiring, serious songwriter toward achieving the goal of getting his or her songs recorded by a major label recording artist. "Your First Cut" sets your goals for you, keeps you focused, and then helps you track your own progress. Outlining the step-by-step process it takes to get your songs heard and ultimately recorded, "Your First Cut" allows you to discover how far along you are in that process, where you need to go and how to get there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302774 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"'Your First Cut' is one of the most original and helpful books on songwriting I have ever read. Highly recommended." -- Paul Corbin, VP - Writer/Publisher Relations, BMI Nashville

"I love this book! It's thoughtful, kind, and empowering. I recommend it to any songwriter." -- Karen Taylor-Good, Grammy nominated, 1996 SESAC Songwriter of the Year

"Wow, what an amazing resource . . . profound, encouraging and inspiring. A sure-fire 'how-to' guide for the serious songwriter." -- Woody Bomar, Senior VP/GM, Creative Services, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Nashville

About the Author
Jerry Vandiver is an exclusive staff songwriter for Talbot Music/Nashville. His first major label cut was "Don't Waste It On The Blues" by Gene Watson, reaching # 5 on the Country charts, now included on Watson's "Greatest Hits" CD. He has since had songs recorded by Lee Greenwood, Barbara Mandrell, Phil Vassar, and two by Tim McGraw including "For A Little While", featured on McGraw's triple platinum "Greatest Hits" CD. Vandiver's songs can be heard worldwide on over 13 million records.

Gracie Hollombe, as former Director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), guided and inspired coordinators of over 100 workshops worldwide, sharing information on the craft and business of songwriting. For two years, Hollombe hosted NSAI's "Thursday Night Workshop", interviewing music industry guests and moderating "Pitch-to-Publisher" and "Pro-Teaching" sessions. Hollombe, a Nashville songwriter, recently landed her first major label cut with new Warner Bros. /Latin recording artist Jose Miguel

Customer Reviews

Don't Leave Home Without It!
Picture this... you've been drifting around in the songwriting sea for years, unsure of where to go next. There doesn't seem to be any clear direction to take. That elusive first cut is somewhere out over the horizon, and you're not sure where. Sound familiar? It was to me until I picked up a copy of this book. In it is a wealth of information, good advice, and a practical guide to the songwriting world. You won't learn how to write a song by reading this book, but you'll finally have the answers to what to do once the songs are written. It's all so clear now. I'm not there yet, but I've got a map, and I'm headed for the horizon. Don't leave home without it!

Want to get your songs cut? Here's how.
"Your First Cut" is the most helpful and educational book about how to succeed as a songwriter that I have seen. It does not teach one how to write a song. There are many other places to learn that. But whether you are just beginning or have been writing for many years and don't know how to get your songs before the ears of those who can get them recorded, this book is a godsend. It lays out in very clear step-by-step fashion what it takes to become successful as a professional songwriter. Starting at the most basic level ("Do you play an instrument or sing?") Jerry and Gracie take the reader on a journey leading to having one's songs recorded by a major label artist. The steps are laid out in pyramid fashion, with the early chapters forming the foundation on which the succeeding chapters are built. Stressing a continual process of improvement, both of one's own writing skills and of one's relationship network, "Your First Cut" is like a manual explaining just how successful songwriters "get it done" in the publishing and recording business. The book is also filled with inspirational anecdotes from hit songwriters and suggestions for helping one establish and stay focused on one's goals. Make no mistake; there is nothing in here that says it's going to be easy--success in this field takes an enormous amount of hard work, resilience and persistence and sometimes just a little bit of luck, too. But while no book can "guarantee" a successful music career, (certainly that takes talent and effort on the part of the reader) it is safe to say that if one is NOT following the steps outlined in this book, one will most likely NOT be successful. This is the way the pros do it, folks. "Your First Cut" is probably worth at least a few years of hanging around Nashville, New York or L. A.

A Great "How To" for Songwriters
This is a great book for the aspiring songwriter. Songwriting is such a creative process that the basic step by step of getting better, getting songs heard, meeting publishers, and ultimately having a song on the radio is often lost.

This book lays out for the writer in clear and concise steps what needs to be done to get a song on the radio. Not only is the process presented step by step, but also as a pyramid. Completing steps high up on the pyramid can be self defeating if you don't have the foundation laid from earlier steps.

The book is clear, concise, and inspring. Each chapter (or step) includes stories from writers who have "made it" already.

The book is designed to be "loved". . . that is, by the time you complete the last step (have a song on the radio!) it ought to be dog eared, written in, re-written in, and pretty much beat to hell.

If you are serious about becoming a hit songwriter, you need this book.