Ask the Expert – How to find a musician co-writer

Ask the Expert – How to find a musician co-writer

Mike Williams writes:

When I was younger I advertised with a local radio station for someone to collaborate with, writing music for songs I had written.  I had the tunes in my head but couldn’t write the music.  No response at all.

Now, at least, I can write guitar chords to some of my songs, and have had some positive feedback.  However, whilst I have come across some great musicians at church, no one seems willing and/or able to work on/with my songs.  I’m frustrated that I cannot find a way forward, particularly as I feel God has blessed me with some of these songs.

Any ideas?

Andy replies:

Thanks for the email. To be honest I’m afraid I’m not sure how I can be of any help. We don’t really have a forum right now on our website to connect people who want to write together, partly because our readers are so spread out across the world and partly because songwriting collaboration with people who don’t know each other has often led to disputes over song rights and ownership. So whilst I think a forum for co writing could be beneficial to the worship community at large, the potential difficulties of hosting something like that have made me put that idea on ice for the time being.

So really I’d suggest that you do as much as you can to connect with more local musicians and write together as you get to know each other. Adverts in local church bulletins or even connecting with local worship pastors, music teachers or students to see if there is anyone else interested in connecting could yield results. Keep going, I’m sure you will find someone soon if you are pro active and creative in seeking people out and don’t give up.

Alternatively you could start to work on your chord theory so you understand the harmonic options you can choose to back up your melodies. All our intermediate courses (except drums) have a lot of chord theory built in to them so you can get to understand what choices of chords are available to you in any key.

I hope some of that helps. If anyone else has other suggestions please comment below.