My name is Katie Lott and I'm a full-time musician, recording artist, teacher, and performer. I currently live in New Orleans, LA, where I work with musicians one-on-one at a music school I co-founded with my fiancé, NOLA School of Music.

I created Modern Songstress to help indie singer-songwriters like myself navigate the world of songwriting, performing, and building a career in music.

I've created tons of articles with inspiration songwriting tips, performing tips, and more!

To get you started, here are a few of our most popular posts:

• Why Songwriters Should Embrace The Rewrite
• How You Should Invest In Your Music Career
• Keyboard Basics Every Songwriter Should Know

I've created a TON of printable worksheets and reference sheets for you guys. They're all available for direct download in pdf format, no email opt-in required!

• Songwriting Proofreading Checklist
• Guitar Chords Reference Sheet
• Piano Chords Reference Sheet
• Lyric Planning Worksheet

For those of you who want to dig a little deeper, I have several books and online resources available for purchase:

• How To Get Started As A Singer-Songwriter is a book that outlines the basics of getting started building a career as an indie musician.
• The 4-Week Songwriting Challenge includes 4 unique challenges for writing a songs using different methods. The challenges are available in pdf format so you can print them out and take notes if you want! 
• Music Theory For Songwriters is a course outlining the basics of music theory and how they apply to songwriting.
• Idea To Song (Coming Soon): a step-by-step guide for beginning songwriters, outlining the process of writing a song. The course includes 8 video modules and printable worksheets.

So come on in and take a look around! And hey, if you want to connect with Modern Songstress on social media, feel free to like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter or Pinterest.

Happy Songwriting!

Katie

Idea To Song is a 8-module video course walking you through the steps of writing a song. Though the course is for beginning songwriters, the music theory concepts are pretty advanced.

Each module consists of a video lesson (ranging from 5 to 30 minutes) and most modules have worksheets.

Before you take the course, I'd recommend you print out all of the worksheets and reference sheets. You may want to print additional worksheets as you work through the modules. (Some of them you'll need multiple copies of!) You may even keep some of the worksheets around for future songs!​

• All Worksheets (in one file)
• Lyric Planning Worksheet: Plan out your lyrics ideas for the different sections of your song.
• Rhythm Analysis Worksheet: Use this to mark where your lyrics fall within the beat, lining each note up with its subdivisions.
• Rhyme Finder Worksheet: Use this worksheet to find both perfect rhymes and near rhymes for any word.
• Chord Finder Worksheet: Figure out what the 7 diatonic (within the key) chords in whatever key you're playing in.
• Chord Progression Planning Worksheet: Plan out the pace of your chord progression by marking however many measures and beats you will hold each chord out for.
• Melody Shaping Worksheet: Plan out melody visually by using the lyrics to guide your melodic shape.
• Solfege Ladder Worksheet: Analyze your melodies and where the notes fall within the scale by going up + down the solfege ladder as you sing.
• Song Proofreading Checklist Worksheet: Use this to review your songs and identify any spots that may need fixing or re-writing. (This is more of a general guide than a list of rules, though!)

• All Reference Sheets (in one file)
• Key Signatures Reference Sheet: The number of sharps or flats in every major and minor key.
• Guitar Chords Reference Sheet: How to play major + minor chords on the guitar.
• Keyboard Chords Reference Sheet: How to play major + minor chords on the piano
• Music Terms Reference Sheet: Definitions + explanations for all of the musical terms in this course.

• Random Word Generator: Not the prettiest website, but this is the one I use. This one is a *true* random generator, which means you'll have to skip through lot of medical terms, but I've found some great hooks through this site. Some of the random word generators out there are geared toward creatives and writers, meaning they only have more generic words and don't use the entire dictionary.
• RhymeZone: I use this for rhymes and only rhymes. Their "near rhymes" function has pretty limited results, so remember to use the technique in this course to search for your own near rhymes. Don't search for synonyms and antonyms on this site (see below).
• Thesaurus.com:  My favorite  place to find synonyms and antonyms and related words. All of the synonyms/antonyms are links to their own page of synonyms, so before you know it, you'll get lost down the rabbit hole of endless lyric possibilities!
• Evernote: I use evernote for all of my obsessive list-making, so of course that's where I also put my lyric ideas. They have "notebooks" and folders you can organize everything in which is really helpful!
• Voice Memos iPhone App: I'm sure there's an equivalent on Android, but I use this all the time. (I have hundreds of voice memos in there right now...) Super convenient for remembering melody ideas wherever you are!

• Writing The Lyrics Course on Coursera: Pat Pattinson has some really interesting ideas about organizing your lyrics, he goes really in depth about classifying different types of rhymes, and talks a lot about the idea of "prosody." He's a bit of a quirky personality, but once you get past his theatrics, I think you'll definitely take something away from the course. NOTE: Lately, Coursera has been trying to advertise all their courses as "paid," but as of now you can still "audit" the course and get access to all the video lectures for free.
• Writing Better Lyrics and  Songwriting Without Boundaries: some of Pat Pattinson's songwriting books.
• The Art of Writing Great Lyrics: I really enjoyed this book, although I disagreed with a few of her ideas, I still got a lot out of it.

• SongFancy: This is a great place to go to for inspiration as a songwriter (and some gorgeous, pin-worthy graphics!)
• Cari Cole: Cari Cole has several different songwriting, voice and music industry programs, but she also has a great blog with tips and inspiration for singer-songwriters.

• Singing Success: Singing success is great for singers who want to truly understand how their voice works and how to use the different parts of their voice in a healthy way. It's part vocal warm-ups (with in-depth explanations) and part improvisation exercises. I've only done the recorded program, but they also offer Skype coaching.
• How Your Voice Works: an online course all about the "technical" side of singing - learn the anatomy behind the voice.

• Distrokid is the cheapest way to get your music into iTunes/Spotify and all those other places. For a yearly fee of about $20, you get to release unlimited tracks.
• ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are the three Performing Rights Organizations (P.R.O.s)  in ths US.  If you're serious about either releasing your music on your own, or having other artist perform your songs, you need to join a P.R.O. so you can get paid royalties. You can only join one, so do a little research before choosing one.

• The D.I.Y. Musician Podcast: Go back and listen to old episodes that you think are relevant to you - There is seriously so much information hidden in this podcast!
• Social Media House: This is a great course for learning how to build an engaged following on social media as an artist or band.

• ​Music Biz Besties is hoested by Katherine Forbes, a website designer for musicians. It's a really great community full of really supportive people working in the music industry.
• Music Launch Hub is one of my favorite facebook groups - there are so many great discussions about the current state of the music industry, and advice for musicians.
• The Songstress Society (shameless plug here...) is Modern Songstress's community for songwriters. Go join, meet some people, ask questions, and share your music in there! :)