I got two great links from Steve Rubel today. First is The Web 2.0 Awards. Over 300 Web 2.0 sites in 38 categories. Second is Keotag. The first thing I did was grab the tag feeds for "graham english". It's a slick way to keep track of what … [Read more...]
Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Give me 5 minutes and I'll show you how to instantly find unique and interesting details to put into your lyrics. The technique is called Object Writing and it's so ridiculously easy that you'll be pissed you didn't know about it sooner. I learned … [Read more...]
Lenses, Filters And The Long Tail
Yesterday, I was talking about The Long Tail and how there's a lot of opportunity in being a filter to lay-people. I've been getting some really good quality traffic from being a filter over at Squidoo. Last week my songwriting lens was the 3rd most … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget Square One…
I've noticed a lot of resistance to "songwriting rules". Most of the criticism falls in the Craft vs. Inspiration camp. And my defense is always that it isn't an either-or argument. From Don't forget square one...: Horse trainer Linda Parelli … [Read more...]
How To Find The Head-Turning Hook That Reels ‘Em In
Be the one song your fans listen to today that gets their adrenaline pumping. Before you commit to a single note of your next song, you want to do some serious sleuthing behind the scenes. I call it being a hook detective. What you're looking … [Read more...]
New MusicHacks Series
I got excited about my previous creativity hacks and busted out a number of ideas for a hacks series. So stay tuned for songwriting hacks and ear training hacks and stay connected to my MusicHacks del.icio.us bookmarks. Because you're going to help … [Read more...]
It’s February Album Writing Month!
I wish I hadn't found about this on February 11. But we've still got 17 days to take up the songwriting challenge. Who's down? Find out more about February Album Writing Month Btw, I found this link from Joe Taylor Jr. … [Read more...]
Songwriting For Busy People
Mind Hacks posted how choice is demotivating when there are too many options. "Offer students a choice of 6 essays, rather than 30 essays, for extra-credit and more will take up the opportunity if there is less choice of essay titles - and, what … [Read more...]
Squidoo: Everybody’s An Expert On Something
Seth Godin has created a service called Squidoo. It's a platform for you to share your expertise. I've created two Squidoo lenses: Ear Training Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts Songwriting Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts Where's your area of expertise? … [Read more...]
How Do You Develop New And Interesting Chord Changes?
Here's a handful of my top techniques that I use to develop new and interesting chord changes. 1. Stick with I-IV-V I know, it's not new, but I-IV-V doesn't have to be uninteresting. There's a reason why these chords are so fundamental to our … [Read more...]