You will meet with Global Songwriters Connection President, Sheree’ Spoltore’, where you can play up to 30 songs for assessment purposes. This meeting will take place via Skype once you have either been invited, have applied and/or have been accepted into the event. The assessment session needs to take place at least two weeks PRIOR to the event. The goals of the assessment session are to:

1. Hear and receive an overview of your catalog. You can play up to 30 songs. These do not have to be fully demo’d songs and you do not have to play 30 songs. You may choose 10 or 20 of what you consider to be your top songs.
2. Identify your areas of songwriting strength and equip you with the verbiage to relate your strengths to your pro writers prior to your co-write.
3. Identify your areas of songwriting development and the areas you know you want to work on prior to your pro co-write.
4. Help you select your songs to play for the publishers. You may choose to play the same 5 for each publisher or you may choose to play 5 different songs for each publisher.
5. Review your photo and bio and help you prepare for your publisher meeting by preparing your goals and what you hope to achieve in your publisher meetings.
6. Answer any questions about how to make the most of your time in Nashville or questions about preparing for the event.

Your assessment session is to be scheduled two weeks PRIOR to the event. This session may last up to two hours so please plan accordingly.

You will be co-writing with three hit songwriters who have had numerous number one hit songs but are also known for being great mentor writers. You will write with a different hit songwriter on each day of the event.

Your co-writing session will begin right after breakfast at 9:00 am sharp and end at 11:50 am in order to prepare for lunch at Noon. The co-write will include one other GSC Focus participant so this will be a three-way write lasting for three hours.

When you go into the session, you will present the pro writer with your written assessment which will outline your strengths and the areas of development you are working on from your assessment session.

The purpose of this co-writing session is for you to ask questions and understand the pro-writer thought process. For instance, Why did he choose to use one line over another line? or Why did one idea work better than another idea or one title works better than another title?

This co-writing session will not only introduce you to the world of professional songwriting, but it will introduce you to the writers and create connections for you in the future.

The goal of this session is for you to leave with information, knowledge, experience and hopefully, a good guitar/vocal work demo of your song. There are no guarantees that you will finish the song and there are no guarantees that the song will be a hit song just because you are writing with a hit songwriter. We do guarantee that it will be an amazing and magical experience.

Each day you will have a 30-minute face-to-face meeting with a top Nashville publisher where you can play up to 5 songs for the publisher to hear.

You can play the same 5 songs for all three publishers OR you can play 5 different songs for each publisher. We will discuss your song selection for playing to the publishers during your assessment session, your goals for the publisher meeting and how you would like to approach the meeting to maximize your results.

This is your time, so you may choose to ask questions, play your songs live, receive guidance and/or advice, or simply connect with the publisher and chat instead. The choice is yours.

While working towards a career in the music industry, you will repeatedly hear the words network, network, network and relationships, relationships, relationships. But, it can be challenging to build a relationship without a little time to just sit and get to know one another. Frustration at its finest and the consummate catch 22!

Our GSC Focus luncheon will include the 6 Focus attendees, the 3 pro co-writers for the event, the featured publisher of the day and some of our GSC team. This luncheon is all about you having the opportunity to actually get to know the publisher and the pro writers on a personal level and them getting to know you.

Bottom line–the publisher luncheon is a great opportunity to finally network, ask questions and sow the seeds of a real working relationship. Simple as that.

We are excited and honored to have Bruce Michael Miller performing our GSC Focus Song Evaluations. Bruce has been one of Nashville’s most requested song evaluators for over 5 years. He has garnered the respect of songwriters worldwide and was “the” top song evaluator during his years at a Nashville songwriter organization. Bruce was an anonymous evaluator for many years and was only known by the evaluator number “13.” Songwriters who were lucky enough to be assigned to Bruce quickly named him “LUCKY 13!” The name Lucky 13 stuck and thousands of songwriters did their best to get their songs to Lucky 13!

This time it is your lucky day! Bruce is passionate about equipping you with tools to help you write a better song, period. He is very gifted at showing you how to get your song to the next level and not just pointing out what needs development (photos and bios are available on all of the GSC Focus Professionals).

Your session with Bruce will be for a full hour. We recommend coming prepared with 3 to 5 songs, although you may only get through 2 or 3. It is difficult to gauge how many songs you can get through during a song evaluation session. Each song is so different when it comes to the amount of time needed to provide you with guidance and instruction. This is one more way that you will get more songs heard during the three-day event and continue to receive guidance, instruction and the information you need to write your best personal songs.

There will be a Q&A Panel daily over the course of the 3-day event. These panels are come and go events as some of you will be slipping in and out of the panels for your 30 minute publisher meeting. You will receive your personal event and meeting schedule upon arrival. These panels are casual where we will listen to your specific questions.

Day 1

Pro Writer Panel – All three pro writers will be on hand to answer your questions. You will have just finished day 1 of your pro co-writes with these writers. It is a great time to ask why they may have made a specific choice while writing earlier that day so that you can understand the thought process or any other question you have always wanted to know about the life of a pro writer. This panel is NOT about the pro writer telling you their story for an hour about how they made it or the story behind a specific song. Most of you in this event have heard many of those stories through the years and as interesting as they are…they do not move your career forward! Remember, this is your time and should stay focused on you, your songs, and your songwriting career. Here are some suggestions for the types of questions you should have prepared to ask:

1. If you have a list of song titles, you might run them by the pro writers to see how strong they think those titles are on a scale of 1-10. Why is one title stronger than the other? If they were to see that specific title would they listen or pass it over? How important is a title to a song? What are some of their favorite song titles? What title do they wish they had written? What do they think makes a great title?
2. Present song concepts to the pro writer to see how fresh or unique they think that idea is. What do they think makes for a great song concept? What is their process for coming up with a unique song concept? When do they throw out a song concept? Have they worked at a concept only to discover it didn’t work? Then what?
3. Since you’re both songwriters and you want to do it professionally, why not ask them about their work. What is the hardest part of their work? The most frustrating part of their work? The most exciting part of their work? What mistakes did they make when getting started? What did they wish they had known when they started as a songwriter? What two or three pieces of guidance or advice would they give to a songwriter working towards a commercial career?
4. Consider asking them what they would suggest you do to further your songwriting career if you do not live in Nashville. Or, if you do live in Nashville, how can you set yourself apart from the crowd?

Day Two

10 Ways to Make Your Song Sing – Sheree’ Spoltore’ will equip you with insight into the publisher’s thought process and song crafting tools that will make an instant impact in your songwriting skills. We will use your songs as an example of how to get it to the next level. These songs will be chosen from assessment mentoring sessions with Sheree’. We want to use your songs and your thought processes to bring out the best in you as a songwriter. You and your songs are the focus at every moment during this event. These 10 tools are powerful tools if your goal is the commercial songwriting market. But, understand that commercial songwriting market doesn’t necessarily mean the radio. This is a totally interactive time together for your questions regarding songwriting like why one thing works and another may not work as well. The goal and intention is to equip you with the songwriting skills/principals you need to get to the next level. The fun part of this session is that everyone’s skill set will be different and the group will learn and grow together! So exciting to see the light bulbs go off! Other GSC team members may be in this panel as well.

Day Three

Increasing Your Income – Sheree’ Spoltore’ will answer your questions on how you can earn income through your music starting now! Sheree’ will show you the various places for opportunity within your songs. You will be equipped with all of the information that you need to create your own song placement machine. This information will better position you for your publisher meetings in the future. It will teach you the process of what publishers do every day and introduce you to the pro songwriter life.