Music of the Super Bowl: TakeLessons Shares Jingle-Writing Tips

Online, February 2, 2012 (Newswire.com) - This Sunday marks Super Bowl XLVI, with the New York Giants and the New England Patriots playing for this year's title. For many, however, it's all about the commercials. This year many companies are even releasing their commercials early via YouTube and social media, in order to get people talking early.

Sometimes, all it takes is a few notes or a simple jingle to get the consumer's attention. TakeLessons (http://takelessons.com), the nation's fastest growing music lessons provider, took the opportunity to share a few tips for musicians hoping to work their way into the industry and pen their own Super Bowl-Bound jingle.

The following is an excerpt from the TakeLessons blog:

1. Research Other Jingles
"Listen to everything," says Richard Leiter, a California-based composer who has created jingles for Walmart, Tropicana, the American Red Cross, and Microsoft, among others. "When it comes to the quality of your work, you need to match what's on TV."

Lloyd Landesman, a New York-based musician and jingle writer who has worked with Budweiser, Capital One, Dr. Pepper, Ford, and many others, agrees. "Pay attention to commercials and watch channels that are more youth-oriented, like MTV and Fuse," he says. "What kinds of music are being used in those commercials? Are they dance tracks and electronica, or more quirky, acoustic songs from artists like Ingrid Michaelson? Watching and listening to what's out there can give you an idea of what the industry is looking for."

2. Understand Your Role
"Jingles are custom-written works for specific companies that have both words and music," says Leiter. "Your goal as a jingle writer is to understand what a company's message is and to translate that into a song. In other words, it's their message, but your illumination of it."

Landesman echoes the point, emphasizing that aspiring jingle writers need to be open to suggestions and compromise. "You're providing a service," he says. "You want the client to be happy with what you've done, so if within the 30 seconds of music you're writing there are 10 seconds that the client isn't thrilled with, it's your job to find out what's wrong and correct it. Don't be married to anything you've done and be very careful about picking your creative battles. Will changing this guitar part to make your client happy ruin your spot? Probably not - and sometimes listening to your client's ideas can actually make your work that much better.

By sharing the tips with blog readers, TakeLessons hopes to continue engaging current students and help with any musical goals they may have. Readers are invited to share their thoughts by commenting on the TakeLessons blog, where they can also read about the connection between yoga and singing, and comments are also welcomed on Facebook (http://facebook.com/takelessons).