I’ve been slowly becoming aware of Rebecca Minor’s talents as a songwriter for the past five years now.  Over that time she’s sent me songs occasionally asking me to review them and give her comments and I’ve gladly done so because I recognized in her a true talent.

About a year ago Rebecca presented me with a sacred song that I thought had real promise for the Digital Sheet Music division of Watchfire Music.  It needed a tweak here and there, but she seemed to eat up the information I gave her and came immediately back to me with fixes.

I took this immediacy as a very good sign – first, a desire to get it right and an egoless approach to correcting her mistakes of crafting, and second, an aggressive response to my suggestions indicating a drive to succeed that is so necessary in this business.

At that point Rebecca asked me if she could study the art of songwriting with me.  I gladly offered her a series of master classes and suggested that she set about to create six sacred songs over the next months and become a Watchfire Music composer.  It takes a minimum of six songs for us to sign a composer’s catalog.

She jumped at the offer.

We then began this series of two-hour classes every Saturday.  She would bring me her sacred songs, play and sing them at the piano and I would push her to clear up her ideas, perfect her rhyme schemes, scan her lyrics to her melodies perfectly and make sure her music illuminated the text properly.

I never actually made the corrections for her.  Instead I pointed her in directions so that she would learn to do it herself.  I tried to push her to the perfect model and raise her consciousness to a more personally demanding height.  I was a tough teacher and had her go back again and again and rework her songs to get them right.

She was a terrific student.  First of all, she’s very talented.  What she brought me in the first place always had great worth artistically.  Rebecca is also a church soloist with a lovely voice who studied as a classical vocalist and is in the process of widening her range of expression to achieve a more contemporary direction.  She’s still in her twenties and so her music naturally was evolving into an interesting mixture of some of today’s more popular artists, but still having its roots in a time honored classicism.

As a serious student of songwriting myself, I come from an opposite direction.  I started out as a Pop musician and in my latter years have evolved hopefully into a more classical composer still maintaining my roots in Rock and funk.

So we were sometimes meeting half way.  I simply had about 40 years of experience on her.

Within about 8 months Rebecca had fulfilled my challenge of writing the six sacred songs.  This was not easy for her.  Her finances were tight and she had no way of recording these songs for us or producing the necessary professional sheet music to submit.

We met and discussed the problem.  I suggested to her that since she was a much loved soloist in her church that she possibly approach several of the more affluent members of her church for some financial help in building a home studio, purchasing the Sebelius software necessary to create the sheet music, learning the software, also learning Apple’s GarageBand and eventually its big brother Logic Studio so that she could home record her songs and while she was at it, learn the art of studio recording and all the equipment necessary to record professionally.

She looked at me like I was crazy.

“How long would it take me to do all that?” she asked.  I answered, “Oh about five years.”

She then went out and did it all in a few months.  I’m telling you that this woman has some fire in her belly.  She’s smart, she’s driven and she’s talented.  She now creates her own sheet music and records her songs in her home studio carefully financed by happy investors.  She made it all happen with a little guidance from yours truly.  I’m proud as punch.

We signed her to Watchfire Music and are releasing her first six sacred songs this month.

Check out the music of Rebecca Minor.  It’s tuneful, uplifting, contemporary and yet most accessible to listeners of all ages and elegantly crafted.  Most importantly, it’s inspirational.  It will lift your Sunday services with a fresh sound and an inspired thought.

I’ve watched many talents in this business whither and die on the vine over the years because they did not have all the necessary ingredients for success.  In eight short months Rebecca has evolved into a successful businesswoman, composer, and professional.

Keep your eye and ear on this one.  She’s the real deal.