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Birds On The Wires

September 9, 2009 By Graham English

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: composition, creativity, inspiration, music, music hacks

Weekend Links For Your Pleasure

October 3, 2008 By Graham English

I've been extremely light on the blogging front lately, but I have big plans to breathe new life into this site. I'll be shifting gears as I reexamine my time, attention, and creative work. In the mean time, here's a few links I've been meaning to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Lifestream Tagged With: Apple, applications, apps, Blogging, brain, creativity, iPhone, Korg, links, MIDI controllers, mind, musicians, nanoKey, Science, theremin

How To Rescue Your Time And Get Your Life Back

June 1, 2008 By Graham English

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the time required to become an expert songwriter. That advice could have been just as well for any craft, not just songwriting. And the number of hours that I referenced, 5,000, was arbitrary. There is no magic … [Read more...]

Filed Under: LifeHacks, Prose, Technology Tagged With: advice, applications, apps, creativity, expertise, experts, goals, GTD, keywords, measurement, metrics, Practice, productivity, research, Songwriting, tagging, tags, time tracking, time-management, War of Art

Rewriting Song Titles For Practice And Inspiration

December 22, 2007 By Graham English

Here's an exercise I love to do when I need inspiration for song titles. If nothing's coming naturally, this trick can really get the creative juices flowing. Even if I end up using nothing that I come up with, I find that within a day or two, one of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: Billboard, billboard charts, creativity, hooks, HowTo, inspiration, iTunes, lyric writing, song titles, Songwriting, songwriting tips

Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone

July 23, 2007 By Graham English

In an attempt to hack their creativity and artistic output, Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt created a deck of cards they called the Oblique Strategies. Whenever they came up against a creative dilemma--and especially while under a moment of pressure or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: LifeHacks, Music Education, Prose Tagged With: composing strategies, creative process, creativity, CreativityHacks, flow, GTD, hacks, inspiration, iPhone, music hacks, MusicHacks, oblique strategies, peak performance, PerformanceHacks, problem solving, productivity, SongwritingHacks, strategies

Songwriting Challenges – Where Do I Begin?

March 8, 2007 By Graham English

One of the most common challenges I hear about songwriting is not knowing where to begin. With the lyrics? With the music? Or something completely different? It's a rather simple challenge to find a solution to, really. Start with a single note or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: challenges, composing, composing strategies, creative process, creativity, CreativityHacks, exercises, image streaming, imagination, listening, listening practice, listening skills, lyric writing, melody, random word generator, song writing, Songwriting, songwriting process, songwriting techniques, songwriting tips, strategies, writing lyrics, Writing Music

Unleash Your Creative Thinking And Bring Excitement To Your Life

November 26, 2006 By Graham English

Some people have the misconception that only a select few are able to unleash a steady flow of creative thinking. That is not true at all. The fact is, intuitive creativity is very much like a muscle that needs to be exercised in order to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: LifeHacks, Prose Tagged With: creativity, HowTo, LifeHacks

Seed Your Creative Process With…

October 8, 2006 By Graham English

A Random Article from Wikipedia Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies A Random Word A Random Sentence A Random Paragraph A Random Web Site You have to put something into your mind to get something out. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: creative process, creativity, CreativityHacks, oblique strategies, Songwriting, songwriting tips

Discover the Power of Mental Rehearsal Part 2: Image Streaming

September 15, 2006 By Graham English

Image streaming is the exact technique used by geniuses such as Einstein, Edison and Tesla. Not only will image streaming enhance your creativity, it will actually increase your IQ! Image streaming is your doorway to the subconscious mind. This … [Read more...]

Filed Under: LifeHacks, Prose Tagged With: Albert Einstein, brain, composing, consciousness, creativity, CreativityHacks, exercises, HowTo, image streaming, intelligence, IQ, memory, mental rehearsal, Nicholas Tesla, personal growth, problem solving, subconscious, Thomas Edison, visualization, visualizing

Why I Write For The Garbage Can

August 7, 2006 By Graham English

Do you know of an author that has written a book in one sitting? Or how about a composer who created a masterpiece in an afternoon? You haven't? Me neither. And that's why I write for the garbage can. Johnny Mercer, the songwriter, said he used … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: creativity, inner-critic, inspiration, intentions, Johnny Mercer, songwriters, Songwriting, writing

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Graham is a singer/songwriter and jazz-trained keyboard player, music producer and studio musician, best-selling author of Logic Pro X For Dummies, and serial entrepreneur.

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