Songwriting Zen

How Keeping A Journal Helps Me With My Songwriting

Do you keep a journal? If not, you should.

For me, keeping a journal is one of the best ways to keep my songwriting process in check and flowing with creativity. It’s also one of the best ways to play with the muse.

Keeping a journal can mean many things to many people.

It can be a detailed snapshot of life as portrayed in the film “Bridget Jones’ Diary” or, it can be more of a ‘stream of consciousness’ concept as mentioned in Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking book on the creative process “The Artist’s Way”.

Personally, I think the stream of consciousness idea is a much more effective way of gathering songwriting ideas. Being able to empty my brain of all its information accumulated throughout the day is for me, really beneficial.

I look at my journal as a loyal friend who’s always there to listen to my problems and share in my hopes, dreams, questions, thoughts, feelings and aspirations.

Personally I find the physical act of writing down whatever’s on my mind very cathartic. It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The more I clear my mind of trivial clutter the more room I have for the good stuff.

Writing in my journal every day has enabled me to get to know myself a whole lot better.

There’s no hiding from the truth when I do this, it always comes out in the end and because of this, my journal writing has a therapeutic quality to it.

Now here’s where I’ve found the real benefits to my songwriting come into play.

After about four to six weeks of writing consistantly I noticed the volume of information I wrote and was amazed by it. I can’t use that old ‘I havent got anything to write about’ excuse anymore now can I?

Once I started re-reading my journal entries I started getting some flashes of inspiration here and there. It was from these flashes that potential new songs were born.

I noticed I was reading some juicy stuff in my journal and it made me realise that what I think, feel and how I see myself and the world around me is worth writing about and sharing with the world.

As I was re-reading my journal entries I would look for anything that popped up and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck.

Anything that made me say ‘wow, that would make a great song title’ or ‘wow, I really like that line’ I’d grab a highlighting pen and mark it.

I’ve been a regular journal writer for many years but my re-reading process has always been the same. Every few weeks I still read over my entries and highlight all of the good stuff.

I’m constantly amazed at how easily a song manifests itself to me by doing this technique. I’m also equally amazed by the insights and flashes of raw honesty I find while reading my past entries.

It’s really wonderful what you come up with when you just allow yourself to write.

If you’re already writing a journal then keep at it but if you are just starting then start it today. You’ll not regret it one little bit.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, songwriting resource, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Sharing Your Songwriting With A Day Job

You can be a songwriter, have a day job and still remain sane at the same time.

Here’s an article outlining some hollistic time management tips for artists from Linda Dessau of Genuine Coaching, an organisation that helps artists (including songwriters) enhance their creativity.

Even though I’m fortunate enough to be making a full time living out of playing music, I wish I had this information when I was working day jobs to supplement my musical income.

Nowadays, my time is spent between performing as a solo artist and in duos and bands either playing my own music or covers, working in recording studios as a session musician or consulting with other artists on how to grow their own music businesses.

My life is a rewarding and enriching experience in which I am forever grateful for.

However for many, many years I was working a number of day jobs as well as trying to do all of the above music business tasks.

I would wax and wane from loving what I was doing to absolutely hating it because of financial and time constraints plus not being able to put my own life into perspective because I was way too close to what I was doing.

In the article “Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job” , Linda outlines that choice and acceptance of what we do with our time are the very things that we, as songwriters must come to terms with.

Reading this article will inspire you to look at your life situation a little more differently with a sense of gratitude and compassion for what you are doing.

Here is the article “Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job” by Linda Dessau.

Enjoy!

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Managing Your Time, When Music Isn’t Your Day Job
By Linda Dessau

You CAN do everything.

Repeat.

You CAN do everything. What you cannot do, however, is do everything at the same time, or create a day that’s longer than 24 hours.

The two most important aspects of time management are acceptance and choice. When you think of time in terms of acceptance and choice, you’re never wrong,bad, or lazy. You’ve just made certain choices.

When you think in terms of discipline and willpower, however, your inner critic can really do a number on you. We already have low self-esteem as artists; let’s not add to the problem!!

An example of this from my own life is that I choose to live alone instead of with a roommate; that means I also choose higher rent and the need to bring in enough income to cover that rent.

When sneaky thoughts of resentment or self-pity creep in to my head, I need to remember the choice that I made, and I need to accept this is how things are for now.

Here are some tips for using choice and acceptance to manage your time.

1. Decide what you want to have time for.
What keeps getting pushed to the back burner or rushed through? How will you spend your time once you’ve made your songwriting dreams come true and you’ve become the artist you’re meant to be?

Nourish this vision until it’s clear in your mind. It’s essential to know what you’re working towards. Remember, you won’t always be this busy unless you choose to be.

2. Choose not to be this busy.
For one week, track your time using a time log. You can make one yourself; simply chart out (on paper or on the computer) your day in fifteen-minute intervals and then record what you do in each of those blocks of time.

Completing a time log will illuminate how much time you’re spending on different things. Look carefully at the choices you’re making. What do you most want to do with the time you have available?

3. Accept your day job for what it is.
A source of the financial support you need to eat and live and write songs! Practice feeling grateful for the job you have, instead of feeling resentful about the time it’s taking away from your songwriting.

For instance, what recording equipment, CD’s, manuscript paper, software programs or musical instruments have you bought from the money you earned in this job? Also, the job is giving you life experiences, and most likely lots of opportunities to interact with other people.

Your passion is to communicate with people through your music. How can you take some of that passion and apply it to your day-to-day interactions? What kind of stories do your co-workers have to tell? What ideas do those stir up for you that you can use in your writing?

4. Look for a day job that’s meaningful and that’s taking you in the direction of your dreams.
Do you need some ideas? Try meditating to access inner wisdom and spiritual guidance. If songwriting is your primary passion, what’s your second passion? What ELSE gets your juices flowing?

There’s no need to be in a job that doesn’t make you feel alive, in order to support what does. Some artists that I know get lots of fulfillment from teaching children or adults about their craft.

Others take jobs that involve public speaking, to give them more experience and confidence talking to groups. Some take jobs in music stores, where they can have lots of time to learn about the newest equipment, meet lots of fellow artists, and get a discount, to boot!

5. Schedule time with yourself for your songwriting, collaborating and rehearsing.
Keep these dates with yourself and others as sacred appointments! Be good to your body and don’t sacrifice sleep for productivity (if you keep doing that, you won’t be in much shape to produce anything!).

There are only a couple of things that we really NEED to do every day. Everything else is a choice.

© Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

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About the author

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues.

To receive her free monthly newsletter, Everyday Artist, go to http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html

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I really liked Linda’s point about accepting your day job for what it is. A means to get you things, give you life experiences for your songs and to practice your day to day communication and social interaction skills, so important if you are a performing songwriter.

Be grateful about who you are and what you do and don’t be so hard on yourself is the message that I get from the article – Loud and Clear!!

As I mentioned before, I wish I had this information earlier in my songwriting career. It would’ve saved me a lot of misery.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting tip, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting news, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Ten Songwriting Myths Busted

I happened to come across an article by Andrew Hacker of ARTS Recording Studio in Australia called “10 Songwriting Myths Busted”. It certainly breaks open a lot of the misconceptions about songwriting and what the related process is really about.

Here it is for you to read and judge for yourself…

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Ten Songwriting Myths Busted!
By Andrew Hacker
ARTS Recording Studio

1. My songs are great because my friends like them and the audience screams when we play them.
Perhaps they are great! But perhaps your friends are just being friends, or perhaps the audience screams because they think you look hot!

Just remember, there’s a huge difference between a great performance and the song itself being great. Don’t confuse one with the other!

One basic guide for a lot of songs is whether they still stand up without much added ‘performance’ or ‘production’. Are they still emotionally impacting just on acoustic guitar or piano – or even just sung a capella?!

Great song writers don’t have to all shred like Steve Vai or play like Franz Liszt but they know when a melody and lyric hit home, when the imagery works and why you need a bridge.

Take Bob Dylan as a classic example – can’t sing to save himself, but a brilliant song writer!

2. If I write non-specific, general lyrics, more people will relate to my song.
Great intention, but it just doesn’t work. People love lyrics that tell them stories – specific stories – that they can connect with.

For example if I say “There was a man with a wife, a working-class job, a hard life.”, do you really care? Probably not.

But what if I tell you “Tommy used to work on the docks. Union’s been on strike, he’s down on his luck – it’s tough – so tough!” (Thankyou Bon Jovi!)?

The specific images – a man with a real name, the docks, striking unions – tell a far more powerful story that you can more easily picture and so relate to.

Sometimes writers make lyrics vague because the story they’re telling is personal. In that case – and if you still want the song out in public – then consider only revealing the specific details you’re comfortable with or changing the lyrics to be in the third person (he/she/they), or both.

What ever you do, don’t be vague and then expect the public to be interested.

3. To write a great song you need great gear.
No! To write a great song, you need a great idea.

Great, fresh, original ideas are all around you, and the gear you’ll need to write a great song is probably a notebook and pencil. In fact, if you can even half sing, you don’t need an instrument either – countless great songs have been written just by singing (probably in the shower!)

4. A rough demo is fine.
OK, to write a great song you need next to nothing, but to demo it is something else entirely. Labels expect pretty much radio quality demos. Why?

Because recording gear is cheap, so there’s no excuse!

A quality demo is like a tie at a job interview – it’s just a basic expectation and anything less will suggest that you’re not serious. Remember when you demo something, you’re competing with everyone else’s demo as well!

Of course there’s more flexibility for non-performing song-writers who are pitching their songs for others to use. In that case a quality demo can just mean providing a clear, basic outline of the song (usually a cleanly recorded instrument and vocal line).

None the less, a rough, poor quality recording will put you in a worse light that no recording at all!

5. The song will come to me if I just wait to be inspired.
Successful song writers are proactive about writing new songs. They look at almost everything with a “could-this-be-an-idea-for-a-new-song?” attitude.

Perhaps hundreds of their ideas never become songs, but they don’t wait for that perfect song to just fall out of the sky!

One of the best ways to be “inspired” is to set a deadline. Tell yourself you’ll write a new song by the end of the day (in fact there are plenty of positions for paid song writers where one day is about all you’ll get!)

6. My job is to put the song down just the way God / the universe / the muse gave it to me.
Never assume that the first version of any song will be the best. All great writers go through some editing or critical process.

Sometimes (and it’s very rare), this process leads back to the original version of the song, but usually the song can be refined so that it comes across more powerfully than at first.

One of the best quotes I ever read (sorry, I can’t remember who said it exactly), goes something like “Song-craft without inspiration – no one will care! But inspiration without song-craft – no one will even understand!”.

7. Some major A&R dude is going to walk into the club and “discover me” so all I have to do is look good and play well.
Sorry people. A&R dudes don’t go to clubs any more! – at least not unless they were really, REALLY impressed with your demo first.

Put yourself in their position for a second. Your job is to find “the next big thing”, and you need to find it among a bazillion artists!

Which is easier? To listen to demos (the great ones anyway!) or to drag your sorry bum all over the country from pub to club?

8. For a song to be original it must be like nothing anyone’s ever heard before.
Face it – everything you write is in some way influenced by your previous experiences, including all the music you’ve ever heard. It’s very unlikely that you’ll come up with something totally new – and even if you do, people probably wont “get it” anyway.

Most mature song writers really value how previous music has inspired them. They are OK with recognising that they are original, not because they have created something new out of a vacuum, but because they’ve created a new thing by combining existing influences with their own experiences.

9. The real goal is to get a record deal, then you’re a success.
I think for most artists, the real goal is to be able to communicate with others through their music.

Sure, a record deal could mean an opportunity to communicate with more people than ever before, but if fame and fortune and being a “rock star” are the goal then it’s probably going to be really unsatisfying in the end.

10. Trying to write music that’s commercially successful means you’re a sell-out.
OK, so a record deal doesn’t necessarily make you a success, but there’s not much higher praise you can get than other people willingly paying their hard-earned cash for your music!

Those who say being commercially successful makes you a “sell-out” often do so for one of two reasons.

Some aren’t writing music for others, but just for themselves. That’s fine, but it doesn’t automatically make those who write for an audience a “sell-out”. (Of course there’s probably no one like that reading this – at least not if you’ve posted any of your music on Myspace!).

Others seem to think that music (perhaps art in general), should transcend money.

Personally, I think all creative human endeavours are potentially artistic. When architects create buildings or scientists create new vaccines there’s art involved, but no-one says “Hey you’re a sell-out for making people pay for your creation!”

Personally, I think it’s up to the general public to decide on the value of our musical creativity – be it worthless, worth something, or priceless!

For us to assume the value of our own art is (I think) pretty arrogant.

Happy song writing,

Andrew Hacker
ARTS Recording Studio

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About the author

Andrew Hacker is a producer, audio engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. He runs ARTS Recording Studio, based near Newcastle, NSW

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Wow!!! What you have just read is PURE GOLD.

Andrew has successfully encapsulated all of the common misconceptions about the music industry and busted them all in one fell swoop.

Talk about MYTHBUSTERS

I really like his matter-of-fact approach to his article. There’s no mincing of words here. If you want to read more of Andrews thoughts and find out more about his studio business check out his MySpace page.

Advice such as:

“…there’s a huge difference between a great performance and the song itself being great. Don’t confuse one with the other!”

“For us to assume the value of our own art is (I think) pretty arrogant.”

Has certainly given me some food for thought. What do you think?

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting tip, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting news, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

How To Write A Song Today

To be a songwriter you need to have the mindset of one. Always be on the lookout for the next songwriting idea.

I came across an article written by Shamir Rele, who runs a songwriting blog called “Songwriting & Beyond.” The article is titled “Write a Song Today – The Songwriter’s Way of Thinking” which pretty much sums up how I feel about writing songs.

No matter whether your life is going good or bad, is eventful or not, you can always find a song in whatever you do.

If you let it that is.

That’s the songwriting mind Shamir is talking about.

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Write a Song Today – The Songwriter’s Way of Thinking
By Shamir Rele

Is there ever a “right time” to write a song? So many songwriters have asked me, “can you write whenever you want?”

Well, the answer is a resounding YES. You can indeed.

But, let’s be real. What if your Mum was in hospital or you just went though a divorce. Then what? What if you simply weren’t in the mood?

Well, here’s the secret.

First of all, let’s switch the word “writing” with the word “creating“. In theory we are writing a song, but in practice we’re actually creating something.

Just think about that for a second. We’re ‘CREATING’ something here.

So if we are creating something, we need to fuel that creativity with something. We fuel that creativity with INSPIRATION. Before we even think about what to write about, what structure the song should be or what melody to use, we need inspiration.

I can hear you already. “What if I don’t feel inspired?” Well, this is exactly why you need to switch your mind.

I can’t even begin to tell you how important this is. Let me explain, stay with me here.

Here’s a typical scenario. You wake up early in the morning to go work, you miss your train and when you get there your boss gives you a hard time for being late.

Because you’re late, you’re made to work through your lunch hour. When you do, you eat some crummy old sandwich which makes your stomach upset. Despite the fact that you’re now not feeling well, you carry on working, dying for the day to end.

Work is finally over. You get home, and cook yourself some food. It’s the best meal you’ve had all day. You’re feeling a little better knowing you can finally relax and watch some TV over a nice beverage.

But guess what, you’re too tired to write a song. You’ve had such a mad day, you just can’t be bothered. You don’t know what to write about. You just don’t feel inspired.

Now here’s where you switch your mind.

Everything that has happened in your day are a series of events all leading up to writing a song. How many events can YOU draw inspiration from?

The answer is ALL of them. You can write about your whole bad day but the key here is to pick one or two events and elaborate on them.

For example, we can do something with “being late for the train” and “late for work”.

You could structure it in a way were your verse would be about getting up late, how your breakfast was burnt, when you left it was pouring with rain and you left your umbrella, the trains were running late, and you were late for work again.

In fact, that could actually be your hook (chorus) “I’m Late Again”.

The song can be structured in a way were you are simply stating how you are always late! (It doesn’t matter whether that’s the truth or not! It just has to flow well, that’s all).

Songwriters who write constantly understand how to harness the power of inspiration. The above example was quite a negative day, but if was the opposite, then you would write about just that, (ever heard of ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers?).

Structure your song so you are keeping your listener interested in where your song is taking them next.

Sincerely,

Shamir Rele
www.songwritingtipsonline.com

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About the author

Shamir Rele shows us that anyone can learn how to write a song with his no nonsense styled approach songwriting tips.

Grab your tips here - www.songwritingtipsonline.com

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Nice one Shamir

What Shamir is saying in this article is that a song can come from anywhere. We just have to let go of the outcome and (in the above example) allow a song to be written based on our recollection of the days events.

If Shamir finished the “I’m Late Again” song would it be a good one? Would it be a hit?

I don’t think it matters. What matters is that a song was written in the first place

Can you see my point? Writing a song can be the simplest or hardest thing to do. It’s all up to you and your attitude towards it.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Indie Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen