My Bittersweet Experience at a Gospel Music Association Academy

Joining #GMA

So I finally did it! I became a member of the Gospel Music Association (GMA) during the 1995-1996 membership year! After years of writing songs in college and afterwards, it was time for the next step in my #songwriting ambitions.

I paid my dues and received my membership packet! I found out that they were having a weekend seminar for music artists and songwriters later that year in Minneapolis. That wasn’t far from Fargo, ND, where I was living at the time.

Going to the Next Step

I was so excited about the classes, the #song contest and finally taking the next step towards my dream of making a living as a songwriter in Nashville! I picked a song, recorded it at the little church in Moorhead, MN, that I was attending, and sent off the cassette tape with my lyrics to hopefully get noticed.

Registration

I drove down to the Twin Cities, checked in my hotel, and then headed over to the small seminary campus where the seminar was being held. I registered and got right into a class along with several other registrants. Hope filled the room like an air-filled balloon.

Panel Discussion

We went to a panel discussion with a popular CCM group and got to find out from insiders what it was like to be an artist making a living traveling and performing music. I found out some good things, and some interesting things that I hadn’t thought about.

One Important Lesson

One thing was that if you are an artist with a label, you can’t just spontaneously start singing on of your songs out in public, like on a beach. They want you to always be at your best, since lots of peoples’ paychecks are dependent on your success. So I found out about limited freedom and was encouraged to enjoy my current freedom and really think about whether that was important to me.

That night we got to hear that group perform, as well as the finalists in the songwriter and performing artists categories. I was not a finalist. I was OK with that at the time, but just wondered how I really did.

Second Thoughts

I wrote down my mixed feelings on a page in my notebook. When I got home, I was doing OK. I told my bible study group I wanted to move to Nashville and become a songwriter. That was met with some concern and warning. So I began to question my desire and how to meet it.

When I got my song critique in the mail, I was dejected. There were a lot of red marks and some comments and encouragements. It was what I really needed to hear, but coupled with my bittersweet seminar experience, I didn’t take it well. If I had, I would have kept going.

Recovery

It took me a several years to recover. Fast forward twenty-two years. I’m still recovering. I’m just now starting to believe again that I really could make a living as a songwriter. I have been seeing a lot of on-line programs claiming to help people do just that.

Feeling Good about My Songs

This weekend, I got to sing five of my original songs to a small congregation in the area. I did really good and got a lot of good compliments, which made me feel good about my songs. Who knows where this could lead! I’m back to where I was twenty-two years ago, but this time it will be different. How? You tell me.

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Guitar Shane