The Muse Chart Room · before you book
The Muse Chart Room entry checklist.
The Muse Chart Room is the session for a song that isn't ready to record: part one gets it solid enough to record, part two records it. This sheet is where the room starts. Part of ABA Media Platform, a one-person media studio in Greeley, Colorado.
A song that isn't ready to record can still be ready for the room. This sheet is where the room starts. Answer the eight questions in your own words, as much or as little as you have. Nothing on it is scored. In the room we start from your answers and go deeper, instruments in hand.
The song · eight questions
Everything here stays in your head for now. We move it out into the room together.
Where did this song come from, and what influenced you to write it?
Which artists, songs or moments contributed to those influences?
Who would you like to see as your best-case audience?
In your head, how is it laid out so far: intro, verse, chorus, bridge? What's finished and what's missing?
What do you hear in your head when you play it?
Other instruments, a feel, a sound you can't get yet. Anything.
What genre do you believe it is?
Pick from the list below, or describe it.
Cinematic/Score · Rock · Pop · Hip-hop · Electronic · Jazz · Classical · Acoustic · Country · Metal · General · Urbano/Reggaeton · Regional Mexican · K-pop
How far along are the lyrics and the melody?
Enough lyrics to cover every section the song has (verse, chorus, bridge, whatever it has). Repeats are fine: two verses written where four are needed is enough for the reference. If the lyrics still need writing from scratch, say so here, and we'll talk about the optional extra hour before you book. Its rate is agreed before the session; whether to use it is decided in the room.
What's frustrating you about it right now?
Bring with you · six things
A recording project usually starts with a planning meeting, the kickoff. Part one of the room, the writing, does that job. So these are the questions the kickoff would ask.
A working title
Up to three reference songs
Records that sound the way you want yours to sound. We play them in the room; nothing is sold on them.
What you have so far
A voice memo, a work tape, a lyric sheet, a chord chart. Rough is fine.
Who's coming, and what each person plays or sings
More people means more hours, and the quote says so.
Where the finished song will be heard, if you know
Streaming, a club, a video, a demo for a band. It tells us how loud to make it. If you don't know yet, that's an answer too.
The song is yours, and who we bill
We're paid for the session, not for a share of the song; the short agreement that says so will be in your hands before you book. Tell us who the booking and billing contact is (usually you).
What happens next
- Send this back. We read it, and if anything on it needs settling first, we settle it before anyone books. Nothing owed.
- You get your quote: one price for the room, shown in two parts, writing and then recording and mix, itemized line by line, at the pace you choose. The room's fee is for the room; it isn't credited against recording later.
- The room: we take your answers deeper, instruments in hand. Then we lay out the song's options (other bridges, choruses, solos, intros and endings), so you know what to ask for later. Your portfolio carries them, with a chart of the form, key and tempo and a tempo map for your recording sessions to play to. With part two, we record the song: your rhythm-section performances are kept and staged for Milestone 1. If you stop after the room, your song goes out through the finished mix, Milestone 8, the last step every ABA song takes.
- Your portfolio is yours to keep, whether or not you go on. The room has done the kickoff's work, so if you go on, you start at Milestone 1. If you booked part two, Milestone 1 starts from the performances recorded there.
Print this page and the answer lines appear; or send the answers in an email, numbered. Either way reaches one person.