Multi-national award winning songwriter Bill Pere was named one of the "Top 50 Innovators, Iconoclasts, Groundbreakers and Guiding Lights of the Music Industry" by Music Connection Magazine. Noted for his exceptionally well crafted lyrics, his songs span a wide range of styles, held together by distinctive guitar work on his acoustic 12-string, electric six-string or midi-guitar which provides a full orchestral palette. He has songs on many multi-artist CDs, including a Grammy-winning album.
It is rare to find a noted songwriter whose primary concern is teaching the secrets of the craft to others, and who can actually do that in a clear and effective way. In 2002, "Songwriters Market" editor Ian Bessler called Bill's article on the relationship between songwriting and personality preferences "Groundbreaking". Hit songwriter and past President of the Songwriters Guild of America George David Weiss wrote to Bill "I can't tell you how impressed I was with how knowledgeable you are and your way of making the material comprehensible". At Bill's 2006 workshop in Dallas, Mary Dawson, author of "How to Get Somewhere in the Music Business From Nowhere with Nothing" commented "That was the most coherent presentation on songwriting I've ever heard, bar none." When Bill began writing articles on songcrafting in the 1980's, industry icon John Braheny, author of "The Craft and Business of Songwriting", wrote "Few teachers have emerged in the past two decades who have the skill and desire to make this information available and applicable to the craft of those who could change the world. Bill Pere is one of them. "
When Bill Pere leads workshops, teaches classes, or presents at conferences, it is typically as a songwriter and performing artist with decades of music business experience. It often surprises folks to learn that he has a graduate degree in molecular biology, has designed global computer systems for collecting and analyzing scientific data, and has other assorted science-related certifications and affiliations. He is a qualified practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the most widely used preference-profiling instrument in the world. The New York Times wrote "Bill Pere embodies the link between science and music".
Bill often says that his science-oriented background made him a much better composer and lyricist than he likely would have been without those additional perspectives. In his thirty years of interacting with thousands of songwriters, from all-time greats to living room hopefuls, that background has enabled him to use the information as a pool of data yielding insights to the essence of what causes a specific song to evoke a specific reaction in a specific type of audience. His participation in thousands of song critiques, across all styles and levels of proficiency has provided him a window overlooking a vast sea of raw creativity, revealing patterns, tendencies, and interactions leading to the new conclusions presented here.
Bill says that it quite literally has taken thirty years to write his songwriting book. It required that much time to experience all the data, make sense of it, and present it in a meaningful way. Over that span of time, tastes and styles have changed; recording and listening technology has changed; music distribution channels have changed; Yet amid that sea of change, the elements that make a great song have remained constant. Those are the timeless things Bill seeks to help songwriters understand and master.
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