Songwriting With GarageBand
(PC World) What I like about this system is its simplicity. I don’t get caught up in adding effects or breaks or anything else, I just play. I don’t ever stop recording–sometimes I stop playing and start again with something completely different. When I’m done, I’ll listen to the track and see if there are any gems in there–even a 10-second fragment of music gives me something to work with. [Songwriting With GarageBand]

11 Irresistable Reasons To Write Every Day
(Christine Kane) Let’s face it. Most people want a good answer before they’ll invest. (Translation: An answer that will make money, make them more important, or give them power over something.) For those people, I don’t have the good answer. Because the process of writing daily, preferably with pen and paper, is the answer. It’s an end in and of itself. [11 Reasons to Write Everyday]

Does co-writing in Nashville hurt or harm songwriting?
(Andrea Stolpe) Somehow the collective wisdom of Music Row has determined that if we put two or three or even four songwriters together in a room the result will be a song that is two or three or four times better when, in reality, the creative process is diluted, the focus blurred and the result is an innocuous little ditty that has all the right parts and then some unrecognizable 24 year old kid from Oklahoma will record it, a promotion team will run it up the charts, someone, somewhere will hear it on their car radio and think to themselves, “That sounds just like the last song they played,” and then the song will win a BMI Award, the songwriters and publishers will make money and so the publishers will encourage the writers to write more of these ditties, the promotion team will urge the A&R department to get the kid from Oklahoma to record more of these kinds of songs because they can run them up the charts, the guy in the car will start listening to the Top 40 station because, “He just can’t stand this shit anymore,” the head of the sales department will tell the label head, “That kid from Oklahoma may be having hits but, he’s not selling records,” the kid will be dropped, staffers at the label will be let go, the songwriters’ option will not be picked up, stand-up comedians will make jokes about country music and, eventually, we will all die. This, in my opinion, is the unnecessary result of co-writing. [Co-Writing interview with Thom Schuyler]

Using Jam Sessions as a Songwriting Tool
(Corey Stewart) What’s also amazing is when musicians who’ve never played together synchronise their ideas to generate a song which becomes alive in that very moment in time. I look for any opportunity I can to play with other musicians and songwriters. It’s a great way for me to meet other people in a setting in which everyone shares something in common. To maximise the songwriting idea gathering benefits of jamming with other people here are some suggestions [Jam Sessions as Songwriting Tool]