A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that song writing is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed among a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have external publishers.
Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabic, or other languages – the medium of sheet music typically is paper. However, access to musical notation since the 1980s has included the presentation of musical notation on computer screens and the development of scorewriter computer programs that can notate a song or piece electronically, and, in some cases, "play back" the notated music using a synthesizer or virtual instruments.
John Peter Petrucci is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced or co-produced all of Dream Theater's albums from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999), and has been the sole producer of the band's albums released since A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011). Petrucci has also released two solo albums: Suspended Animation (2005) and Terminal Velocity (2020).
The On-line Guitar Archive (OLGA) was the first Internet library of guitar and bass tablature, or "tabs". Born from a collection of guitarist internet-forum archives, it was a useful resource for musicians of all genres for over a decade.
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. Guitar World, the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original artist interviews and profiles, plus lessons/columns, gear reviews, news and exclusive tablature of three songs per issue. The magazine is published 13 times per year by Future plc. Damian Fanelli has been Guitar World's Editor-in-Chief since June 2018.
MXTabs.net was an American music tablature website created in 1999, offering free guitar, bass, and drum tablature created by users of the site, in addition to music reviews and instrument lessons. Although the site shut down in June 2006 in response to claims made by the Music Publishers Association (MPA) about the supposed illegality of music tabs, it has since been bought by MusicNotes and now offers free, legal tablature.
Guitar Pro is a proprietary multitrack editor of guitar and bass tablature and musical scores, possessing a built-in MIDI-editor, a plotter of chords, a player, a metronome and other tools for musicians. It has versions for Windows and macOS and is written by the French company Arobas Music.
The Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA) is a non-profit music publishing organization based in New York City. Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States which addresses issues pertaining to print publishing with an emphasis on copyright education and advocacy.
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and advance the interests of music publishers and songwriters in matters relating to the domestic and global protection of music copyrights.
"It's Late" is a song by English rock band Queen, written by guitarist Brian May and released on their 1977 studio album, News of the World.
SpiralFrog was a very early music streaming service based in New York City that launched in the United States and Canada on September 17, 2007. SpiralFrog offered free and legal music downloads, all supported by advertising, and was the largest site of its kind in North America. On March 19, 2009, SpiralFrog terminated operations due to loan recalls. While SpiralFrog was not successful in the end, it nonetheless helped shaped the digital music industry shift from the purchase to streaming models, and its ultimate revenue recovery
LyricWiki was an online wiki-based lyrics database and encyclopedia. In March 2013, it was the seventh largest MediaWiki installation with over 2,000,000 pages including 1.5 million songs. Prior to its shutdown, users on the site could view, edit, and discuss the lyrics of songs, which were also available for purchase from links on the site. Users were told to be mindful of copyright while contributing, and copyright violations were removed upon request. All the lyrics on LyricWiki were licensed through LyricFind.
Power Tab Editor is a freeware tablature authoring tool created by Brad Larsen for Windows. It is used to create guitar, bass and ukulele tablature scores, among many others. The current version uses the *.ptb file format.
MusEdit is a scorewriter program for Microsoft Windows, developed by Doug Rogers / Yowza software and first launched in 1997. The current version (4.0.3) was released in 2010.
MuseScore Studio is a free and open-source music notation program for Windows, macOS, and Linux under the Muse Group, which owns the associated online score-sharing platform MuseScore.com and a freemium mobile score viewer and playback app.
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches.
Behind The Player: Munky is an Interactive Music Video featuring Korn guitarist Munky. Released on November 1, 2008 by IMV, the DVD features Munky giving in-depth guitar lessons for how to play "Blind" and "Falling Away from Me" by Korn and an intimate behind-the scenes look at his life as a professional musician, including rare photos and video. The DVD also includes Munky jamming the two tracks with Korn drummer Ray Luzier, VideoTab that shows exactly how Munky plays his parts in the two songs, as well as other bonus material.
Behind The Player: Tim Skold is an interactive music video featuring Marilyn Manson guitarist/bassist/producer Tim Skold . Released on November 1, 2008, by IMV, the DVD features Tim giving in-depth guitar and bass lessons for how to play "Putting Holes in Happiness" by Marilyn Manson and an intimate behind-the scenes look at his life as a professional musician, including rare photos and video. The DVD also includes Tim jamming the tracks with Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, VideoTab that shows exactly how Tim plays his parts in the two songs, as well as other bonus material.
TuneWiki was a music-centered startup that provides scrolling lyrics through its social music players for cellphones and handheld devices. With over 6 million lyrics and the world's largest scrolling lyrics library, TuneWiki had agreements with the major music publishers including Sony, Universal, and EMI to legally use synchronized lyrics in TuneWiki's music applications. Furthermore, the mobile TuneWiki applications also used to provide lyrics for streaming radio on mobile phones, and TuneWiki has location-based technology to let users see where their favorite music is being played around the world. Users follow other users to discover music and discuss the music they listen to.
The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel, known by the acronym ACUM, is a non-profit copyright collective which engages in collective rights management for authors, poets, lyricists, composers, arrangers, and music publishers in Israel. As a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), ACUM is affiliated with more than 100 similar rights organizations around the world, with which it engages in reciprocal royalty collection agreements. It also holds an annual prize ceremony which honors authors and musicians in many categories, including lifetime achievement.
