Archive for the ‘Songwriting Advice’ Category

Songwriting Interview with Mofro’s JJ Grey

By Don • Mar 7th, 2007 • Category: Inspiration, Songwriter Interviews, Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles, Songwriting Tips

Florida’s own Mofro plays my favorite sort of groove - a southern funk swamp shuffle that can easily switch to different genres, without compromising their fundamental sound.
Their debut album was deemed one of the “Best Albums of the Decade” in 1999.
Their third - and latest - album is called “Country Ghetto” and sounds like JJ […]



Songwriting Tip: How to write song lyrics

By Don • Jan 24th, 2007 • Category: Inspiration, Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles, Songwriting Basics, Songwriting Tips

Contributed by: Dainis W. Michel
Are you curious about how to write song lyrics? I’ve put together a few tips that might help you. Be sure to go through the free music composition lesson on [the] site [listed below] to gather further information on what will help you grow as a songwriter.
There are many, many approaches […]



Bye-bye major record labels. Amos Lee, and other songwriting news

By Don • Nov 6th, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice, Songwriting News, Songwriting Tips

Don’t label me. The New York Daily News covers high-profile musicians taking the independent route and bypassing major labels altogether (Link):
If done successfully, going the independent route can be more lucrative than a record deal. Artists get to keep the rights to their master recordings and potentially capture a much bigger share of their record […]



Songwriting Workshops? Never Again

By Paul • Nov 4th, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice

Can I be totally honest? This will most likely get me into that never found but often heard of “banned list” - but I’ve just have to say it. I hate workshops. There. I said it.
I grew up in Nashville (you can find out more about me here) and as a songwriter I’ve attended many […]



Songwriting Articles

By Don • Oct 25th, 2006 • Category: Site News, Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Tips

Readers have requested that I highlight the songwriting articles on the site better. I am working on a redesign of the top of the page to highlight featured articles and the articles archive.
In the meantime, here are some of the more popular articles over the last two months:

Songwriters Ask: Should I rewrite?
Create A Great […]



Band Cracker gives Virgin Records the finger.

By Don • Oct 23rd, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles

These are the stories I like to see. I am not on a crusade against record labels - but I love to see a band step up and fight when they feel they are someone’s stooge.
The band Cracker and Virgin Records did not part on the best of terms. Apparently, without informing the band, the […]



Quick and dirty PC audio interface for songwriters

By Don • Oct 10th, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice

We have talked before about quick and easy ways to capture audio, and if you already have some recording software on your computer, Behringer has just released a cool little USB audio interface box called the U-Control, that I have been using - with decent results. For under $30, it’s not a bad deal.
Previously I […]



Group Project: Songwriting Tips

By Don • Sep 30th, 2006 • Category: Inspiration, Site News, Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Resources, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Tools

Who’s up for a group songwriting project?
Some readers have emailed me songwriting tips, but don’t really want to contribute a whole article to Blogging Muses. So, more than one reader has suggested putting together a repository of songwriting tips from the Blogging Muses readers.
Great idea! So I spent last night putting together a little […]



Songwriters, Get Out Of Town (Part II)

By Ryan Galloway • Sep 27th, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles

(From contributing blogger Ryan Galloway)
I recently read a blog by Don Mak about setting up an “open mike tour.”
“Great idea!” I thought. But being constantly on the road as a management consultant, I believed I would never have a chance to try it.
Then I started poking around on www.OpenMikes.org, the site that Don […]



Songwriters: A song a week. Could you do it?

By Don • Sep 20th, 2006 • Category: Inspiration, Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles, Songwriting News, Songwriting Tips

This is quite an inspirational piece for me as a songwriter.
So … there’s this guy, Jonathan Coulton, that decided to write a song a week for 1 year. He would post a new song every Friday that he recorded in his very modest home studio. He dubbed the project “Thing-A-Week”.
He started out not really knowing […]