Helping you write your best songs with a focus on the benefits of innovative songwriting software, tools, resources and programs.

From Songwriting Software Plus

March, 2003

The Online Community Advancing Songwriters' Careers: Tonos

Get the benefits of sharing, collaborating and submitting your songs to a site nurturing the development of songwriters world wide. Enjoy your own homepage with up to 10 streaming audio files of your songs, an online studio in which you can get and exchange musical tracks and top of the industry song placement opportunities plus so much more! Click here to find out more about the benefits of joining Tonos.

Contents:

Editor's Note (from the laptop of Robert Curtis)

Articles:

1. Heads Up - Lyricist 3 About To Roll With Piano Chords And More
2. ParaMind Co-writing/Brainstorming Program - Helps Expand Ideas And Rewrite Lyrics

Editor's Note:

I'm excited to bring you two items this month that can really help your songwriting. Lyricist, the unique word processing program for lyric writing and the best selling program at Songwriting Software Plus is growing soon. Also I'm excited to be introducing the ParaMind co-writing/brainstorming program.

Lyricist makes lyric writing a lot more efficient and has been oriented towards guitar players but soon it will sport a key feature for piano players plus other welcome additions.

ParaMind is different from the other brainstorming programs at Songwriting Software Plus in that it takes your idea, a lyric line let's say, and it can then set about rewriting your line, in a logical way, up to hundreds of times. It's pretty cool. I'll explain more below.

Subscriber Note: This newsletter is best viewed as an HTML file (formatted with colors and center alignment, etc.). Please consider switching your preferences in your email program to allow HTML files for the best viewing if you currently only accept text.

Article 1

Heads Up - Lyricist 3 About To Roll With Piano Chords And More

New developments are coming down the pike for the Lyricist program targeting for a Spring launch (maybe May).

The new version will aptly be given a new version number, Version 3, as the changes coming into the program are significant.

Lyricist 3 will include such features as Song Key Transposition, Piano Chords (non-guitar glyphs), and support for the Nashville Number System.

Let's talk more about this and how all of this can soon impact your songwriting.

Put Piano Chords Above Your Lyrics

The Lyricist 3 program will allow you to put piano chords above your lyric lines as an alternative to the guitar fingering templates that are available now in the current Lyricist version.

Having the option of piano or guitar chording above your lyrics not only gives you the choice for your own preference but also allows you the flexibility to prepare a piano or guitar oriented lead sheet for your collaborators or players while you're recording.

Plus the piano chording format should work as a standard chord based lead sheet for virtually any instrument.

Will Include The Nashville Number System

If you want a short cut way to prepare a lead sheet that quickly lends itself to key changes on the spot then having your lead sheet coded with the Nashville Number System will make that happen.

Let's say you've prepared a lead sheet for a demo session and your demo singer cancels at the last minute, I hate when that happens, and you were all set with that singer to do the song in the key of F using the I, IV, V and VI chords.

Next, it's your lucky day, another stellar singer happens to be available but sings the best in Bb. If your lead sheet is coded with the Nashville Number System, in other words with the chord numbers of the chord progression written out (similar to what I noted in the paragraph before) instead of individual chords written out like F and A and so on, then all the musicians can readily make the adjustment to another key. Boom, key change problem solved.

Or Change The Key Of Your Song In Lyricist And Keep Written Chords

Taking this key issue further with Lyricist 3 you'll also be able to change the key of your song instantly and keep written out chords and that will allow you to quickly implement some cool things.

First, if you or your collaborators are not that familiar with the Nashville Number System then you'll be able to print out the song in whatever key you chose with the chords written out above your lyrics.

Additionally, you'll be able to switch readily from piano chords to guitar chords to the Nashville Number System if you want to.

Also, just for creativity purposes while you're writing your song, trying it in different keys can help to stretch you musically if you're always writing in one key and this may give you some different ideas about how the song works best..

Lastly, if you demo your songs with other singers, you'll be able to prepare lead sheets with the chords written out in the key best for your demo singer to sing in and to even prepare a couple deferent keys as your singer might actually like to try a couple different keys to get the best feel for the song.

All Adding To The Established Features And Benefits

If you purchase Lyricist 2 now you'll get the upgrade for free when it's released (all purchases after January 1, 2003 qualify for the free upgrade to Lyricist 3 upon it's release, make sure you register your new software though, per the instructions that come with it, to qualify).

Find out more about how Lyricist can help you now with all of it's current features and benefits and to see how to purchase Lyricist by clicking here.

End of Article

Article 2

ParaMind Co-writing/Brainstorming Program - Helps Expand Ideas And Rewrite Lyrics

ParaMind is newly hitting the charts at Songwriting Software Plus and essentially falls in the category of brainstorming. However, this program is different from other brainstorming programs in that it can take an idea and automatically expand it.

ParaMind may better be called an idea expander rather than a brainstorming program.

ParaMind will take a lyric line you've written and logically rewrite it up to hundreds of times changing only the words of the line you want rewritten. The words replaced are all related, such as adjectives related to sight, or adverbs related to walking for example.

In a few minutes or less of typing, one sentence or paragraph is turned into up to 100s to 1000s of related sentences.

Okay, you might be thinking this could be overwhelming but when it's on your computer screen you can quickly scroll through the new combinations and see what grabs you.

Click here to see an example of how only one lyric line is rewritten over a hundred times by ParaMind.

Because the line is only changed subtlety one word at a time you can more easily scan through the new lines quite handily. In essence you've got an instant collaborator with a whole ton of new possibilities to consider at a glance.

Click here to see a screen shot walk through of this process as it really happens in ParaMind.

Idea Expanding Features And Benefits

"Large Merge" is a way of producing pages and pages of new word combinations in just minutes. For the times when you have to see how things look in different relationships to each other, "Large Merge" will feed you back hundreds of new relationships. You can then scan through them with the "tagging" editor to quickly copy the ones that you like for new areas for your idea to move in.

Paste in any text from the clipboard in Windows and use the "Find Word to Substitute" for an automated search of the word categories.

"Substitute Highlighted Word" allows you to browse through the databases and find a single word that fits your idea. It is unlike a thesaurus as it doesn't limit you to look for words with similar meanings, but words in related word chains. It adds a whole new level of word association to songwriting beyond using a thesaurus..

"Replace by Category" is a toggle that allows you to either search the database or skip the search. Since it is a toggle it is a function that is used in conjunction with other features. It is an advanced feature that is best used when you have built a large custom database.

You can use the "Find Word to Substitute" feature to select a word category when you use the "Merge" feature. That is, you can look through the database of word categories for the word category you want to use when you do a "Merge." Therefore even if you select a category to merge at random, you still use meaningful words to expand your idea.

What Others Are Saying

Here are some quotes from companies and individuals about the benefits of using ParaMind.

"ParaMind Brainstorming Program. A great way to brainstorm ideas on almost any topic."

- Inc. Magazine

"The ParaMind Brainstorming Program: Just the thing for the sole proprietor (songwriter :-), this program is an idea multiplier. You enter them and the program replaces words or fills in ideas to help you expand your horizons."

- Ziff Davis

"ParaMind is an extremely unique program. I write as a hobby, and when I get writer's block or can't think of a topic, I just fire up ParaMind, type whatever I'm thinking, and expand it. A great creativity booster with a neat interface."

- Don J. -- from Softseek Website

ParaMind Highlights Review

• ParaMind offers you an instant way to generate new ideas.
• ParaMind works by replacing only one or more words in your idea-sentence with words that are the same part of speech and even the same subject matter, tense, class, etc. You can then replace another word in the sentence for even more new ideas. You take out a noun to replace it with another noun, or you take out an adjective to replace it with another adjective.
• With ParaMind, you will be able to take an idea that was only a sentence and in five minutes come up with pages of information related to your idea. You can then easily export the ideas to your word processor and edit and print the results.
• Using ParaMind means using the hidden properties of words. It means interacting words in ways never before thought of.
• You can add your own Word Categories to the database with the simple "Category Add" feature. ParaMind also provides hundreds of word categories which the reader can merge into his sentences.
• Higher speeds of word association are now possible because of the copy-merge concept in ParaMind.
• Everything in ParaMind is customizable therefore its limits are only your own.
• ParaMind is also geared for those who want a hard copy, or a paper trail in their pursuit of their topic.
• The learning curve is extremely easy with ParaMind.

Click here for information on purchasing ParaMind idea expanding software.

End of Article

Information & Credits

Songwriting Software Express is published monthly by Songwriting Software Plus: Robert Curtis, Editor.

You can send your feedback to feedback@songwriting-software.com.

Songwriting Software Express and the Songwriting Software Plus web site were developed
and continue to be run and grown using the Site Build It! web site system.

If you're interested in building a site for your business or business idea then
I encourage you to investigate Site Build It! further by clicking here.

With Site Build It! build a Web Business...Not Just A Web Site.

For a fast Site Build It! overview click here for the Quick Tour Slide Show.

Subscription Information