Creating a Demo

Once you've written a great song, you may want to share it with the rest of the world - and make some money from it as well.  You can introduce your song to the public by creating a demonstration recording, or demo, that you can share with an artist, publisher or music producer.

Before you start preparing a demo, make sure that your song is ready - that it is perfect in every way. Have an unbiased person who knows a lot about music and the music industry listen to your song and suggest any changes to the lyrics or music that might make your demo sound better. Some organizations for songwriters, such as the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) will provide you with a professional evaluation of your song.

Your demo should be of professional quality. It should sound close to the way that it would sound if it were played on the radio. No matter how good your song is, if your demo makes you sound unprofessional, a producer is not going to be interested. Use the best vocalist and the best musicians that you can get. If you create demos from software that you have at home, you should make sure that the person who is operating the software knows a lot about music engineering.

You may find that you have to rewrite your song several times before it is good enough for a demo.

Consider using a demo service in a city that has a large music industry. Such a service may be able to create a top quality demo for you at a cost that is less than what you would spend if you had to take care of everything - including paying for musicians, recording engineers and studio time - yourself.

What to Include in Your Demo

The genre of your song will play an important part in determining what you must include in your demo. Knowing what you can leave out and what you must include can be important when you are working within a tight budget. You will always need a vocalist singing the lyrics and an instrument such as a keyboard or guitar playing melody and chords. But if you are creating a demo for a dance song, will also need to include all of the percussion. A hard rock song is going to require more instruments on the demo than just one guitar.

Of course, make sure that you include anything that makes your song "special" in your demo - for example, if there is a section in the song where different instruments harmonize in a unique way, be sure to leave that in.

Music professionals receive many demos every day and only have time to listen to a small portion of each demo - some say that they usually listen to only the first 20 seconds. Make sure that the best parts of your song are at the beginning of the demo.

Finding the Key

Before you record your demo, you will need to know what key your song should be played in, and that will depend on the abilities of the vocalist.

Send a lyric sheet and a work tape to your vocalist at least a week before the recording session, so they can learn the song and figure out the key in which they can sing it to their best ability

A lyric sheet contains the title and the words to the song, copyright information and your contact information.

A work tape is a simple recording of your song - just a singer singing the song, accompanied by a guitar or a keyboard. If you feel that you have a good enough voice and are a good enough musician, you can record the work tape yourself at home. Even though the quality of the performance on the work tape does not have to be exceptional, the melody, the chords and the timing have to be just right, because the singer and the musicians will be using it to learn how to sing and play your song.

Be sure to let the vocalist know how you want the song sung - is it an upbeat song where the singer produces a lot of frills and flourishes at the top of their range, or is it a powerful ballad in which the vocalist will have to sing many strong notes at the bottom of their range? Do you want your vocalist to belt out the song or to sing it softly? This will determine the key that your vocalist will use and the key in which your demo will be played.

Recording Your Demo

You should come to the recording session with a work tape and copies of the lyric sheet to distribute to each musician.

Bring copies of a chord chart for each musician a well.

A chord chart shows the chords that will be played in each bar of the song. If you do not know how to write a chord chart yourself, you can have a musician write one for you.

You might also want to bring a recording of another song that reminds you in some way of how you want your song to sound on the demo tape. This can give your musicians a better idea of what you are expecting from them.

Sending Your Demo to a Professional

The easiest way to send your demo to a producer, publisher or artist is to put it on a CD, with important information, such as the song title, your name and contact information, copyright information and the length of your song, on the sticky label.

Along with your CD, send a cover letter that introduces yourself and your song and explains who you think would like to perform or to listen to your song. Provide a copy of the lyric sheet as well.

Before you send your demo, contact the person you plan to send it to (or their representative) and ask them if it is OK for you to send it. If you get their OK, make sure you write something on the envelope so that the person who opens the mail knows that you aren't sending them an unsolicited recording. People in the recording industry will often refuse to listen to unsolicited songs, because they are worried about getting in trouble for copyright infringement.