TED SABLAY July 2023 Newsletter

• NEW JULY SOLO SHOWS

• TEMPLATE FOR POP SONGWRITING

Hi everyone,

Hope your July is off to a good start. With the success of last month’s “Ted’s Choice” show at Taverna Costera, where I both performed and curated the lineup, I’ll be playing there again this weekend and turning Saturday into a double header. The gig at Horse Trailer Hideout will be an acoustic duo show and the Taverna show will be with the full electric band.

With Killers shows coming up soon in August and September, these solo shows will be my last Las Vegas shows this summer. The July 29th Zion National Park will be my last until fall 2023.

To improve the quality of my live concerts, I’ve invested in a proper in-ear monitoring system so my band and I can hear ourselves properly without straining. If you would’ve asked me before doing this how much something like this costs, I would’ve said one million dollars in the voice of Dr. Evil, but given the current level of technology, a good in-ear monitoring system costs the rough equivalent of one good Gibson guitar — not bad!

In the meantime, I’ve continued writing songs and have finished two more (“Give Your Heart Another Day” and “Running Out of Time”) ready to be performed this weekend.

Along the way I’ve developed a template for pop songwriting (creatively titled “A Template for Pop Songwriting”) to help myself and other writers start and finish songs. This template maps the usual song components — verses, pre-choruses and choruses — to the three primary narrative forces that drive good storytelling: agreement, contradiction and consequence. Although it focuses on “music” part of songwriting, these guidelines can be used for developing lyrics as well.

This template — synthesized from books I’ve read and songs I've written, covered at gigs and taught in music lessons — can be downloaded by free by clicking on the graphic below.

Looking forward to seeing you at the shows!

Ted