Meeting Critiques

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday workshop. Winners each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter up to 2 songs per month (or more if time allows) by going to this link https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ to enter the lyric and audio file or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Time is limited to the review of 8 songs per meeting on a first come basis. (If we run out of time, the songs will be moved to next meeting). Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges. Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten. Winners are announced at the Virtual Awards Program in February which include performances by the finalists.

HOW WE SCORE THE MEETING SONG CRITIQUE

    Q:  Each month DSA has a song critique session for the  purpose of helping the song writer improve his or her song.  At the end of each meeting, two songs are judged to be the 1st and 2nd place winners.  A song for each 5 songs. Time limits us to 10 songs per meeting on a first come first serve basis. How does this judging work?

   A:   Our panel judges (usually two) select their choice of a 1st place winner who gets 6 points and 2nd place winner who gets 4 points.  Our members fill out their critique sheets and give their 1st place choice 2 points and their 2nd choice 1 point. The sheets are then collected and tallied.  The song with the most points gets 1st place the 2nd most points receives 2nd place .  If some people seem to win more often, it is probably because they have been writing longer, attended more workshops and have read more books.
          The two best songs are then sent to two or more publishers in hopes of
 getting a publishing contract.  I hope this clears up any questions members might have had about how their songs are judged.  Our members and panel judges make that choice.

BEST SONGS OF THE MEETING CRITIQUES

Each month songs of members are critiqued at the 1st Thursday meeting. Songs that are critiqued each month are published in Songwriters Notes. Members only may enter by uploading lyric and audio file to https://dallassongwriters.org/song-critique/ or you may upload the lyric and perform the song live at the meeting. Members will have until the end of November to rewrite and record their song before it is sent to the judge. At the end of each year, the songs are judged by industry pros and the Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter whose song garnered the most points from the judges.
Also, The Vern Dailey Songwriter of the Year Award goes to songwriter who has the most songs with the highest points in the top ten.