Write a song
Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF) National Songwriting Competition winner, Michaela Baronov shares her songwriting tips with Time Out.
By Resli Buchel
When did you start writing songs? I wrote my actual first songs when I was in year six, so I was about twelve years old.
How do you write songs today? I get tunes in my head and it's just really random. Usually it's something really little, I start humming and the tune just sort of follows through. Also, if I have an experience, I really want to write about that, so I can share it with other people.
Are you ever embarrassed performing your own songs? I showed my first couple of songs to my parents and it was intimidating... but now I've just had so much support from people that it's not intimidating anymore.
What have been the highlights of your song-writing career so far? Don [Spencer, ACMF founder] sponsored me to go to the Sydney Song Summit, which is this sort of whole bunch of lecturers and people in the industry, and Alan Caswell was one them. Don got me to catch up with him and co-write with him, so that was so exciting. It's unbelievable!
What advice would you give to someone who wants to write a song? I'd say definitely get into poetry first because you don't want a song that just says ‘the cat's on the mat'. You want something that is deeper and makes people think more. And, learn an instrument because it assists with your melody and then you've got your own accompaniment.
Find out more about the ACMF National Songwriting Competition for 2008 at www.acmf.com.au.