Robert Curtis
Songwriter in Residence
and Your Personal Site Guide

Robert (also called Rob by his family and many close friends) has an enthusiasm for songwriting and songwriters and loves investigating and applying the various software programs and other innovations that add to the craft and creative enjoyment of songwriting. He's also interested in approaches to advancing songwriting careers.

He started Songwriting Software Plus to share his enthusiasm with other songwriters looking for ways to help their own songwriting efforts and enjoyment. Plus, by operating this site he can talk on and on about songwriting without having to bring his non-songwriting friends to tears about it.

Robert's own songwriting journey was re-ignited in his mid twenties when he woke up to his forgotten childhood dream of becoming a songwriter. It took a few days on a quiet, secluded beach on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to clear his head enough to let his dream resurface.

He notes "I was so focussed on getting through college and on to 'making a living' that I lost touch with that dream until that soothing sun and tropical breeze cleared my mind".

With the dream in hand but the skills of the craft unknown to him he dove into the study of songwriting headfirst and has been enjoying and developing his craft since the 1990s.

His writing spans a zone from adult pop to contemporary pop. He credits numerous books, songshops and live song presentations, not to mention numerous rejections and volumes of constructive criticism, for bringing his writing to where it is today, still growing and evolving.

He particularly credits hit songwriters Pat and Pete Luboff and their book, 88 Songwriter Wrongs and How To Right Them, as being crucial keys in his early writing efforts. And he says he's following on with their newly updated and expanded version 101 Songwriting Wrongs And How To Right Them.

Robert has finished songwriting compositional study in harmony, groove and melody under private instruction with Jai Josefs, author of songwriting's definitive musical text Writing Music for Hit Songs. Also Robert was honored to become part of the Jai Josefs' songwriters group in Los Angeles, California in 2006.

Additionally, in the mid 2000s Robert furthered his contemporary keyboard studies with Mark Harrison, author of The Pop Piano Book (Hal Leonard publisher), in Los Angeles and looks forward to continuing again.

And in 2011, he sharpened up his recording acumen by attending the Recording Made Easy series at Guitar Center in Cerritos and La Mesa (San Diego) California cosponsored by Apple with a focus on the latest of all aspects of home recording using Apple's Garage Band as the centerpiece program. Topics covered principals of software based recording; making tracks to adding effects and automation features to mix down - as well as live recording techniques for vocals, guitars and the like to hardware issues like audio interfaces to condenser and dynamic mics and the designed use for all among many other items of home recording issues.

Career wise Robert has logged a publishing contract with Atlanta Music Group (BMI) including a song co-penned with Doug Sparks and Andrew Gold, a love song entitled "No Other Word", and in film work signed a co-write, "Who Needs Love", for the independent film The Wednesday Night Save The World Society. And on a recent Mother's Day, a song Robert helped to CO-write - Happy Mother's Day, I Love You - was played on the Willie Nelson owned and executive produced XM radio station 811. Also, in 2010 Robert scored a semifinalist selection in the 2010 Song Of The Year contest for his song "Shinin' In Your Light" and was also awarded a Song Of The Year Collective Works Award for excellence in multiple songs.

Robert continues to write and is enjoying recording his own material in co-production with Marc Jacobs and being proud of collaborations demoed by major up and coming artists in Los Angeles like Jennifer Nash and Kat Parsons. And along with co-writing projects with Doug Sparks he's enjoyed composing "Without My Heart" in conjunction with three-time Grammy nominated songwriter Lois Blaisch (Tiffany's "Could've Been") and artist and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Robert Martin (Bette Midler, Michael McDonald, Stevie Nicks, more).

Also, over the past few years, Robert has been privileged to work and write with hit songwriter and producer Daniel Avila (VME Records, Univision) and his talented and sweet artist on the rise Carmen Batres.

Robert was born and raised in the U.S.A. in beautiful upstate New York and now resides in the exciting melting pot of the world Los Angeles, California.

Hi, Robert here :-), I extend you a warm welcome and please feel free to let me know if there is anything I can help you with or if you have any suggestions to improve this site. I look forward to growing this site with your input. Thank you. Simply drop me a note at Robert@songwriting-software.com.

If you're interested in hearing some of my writing you can check out some recent tracks in streaming audio by clicking here.

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