I’ve been on a quest to be more creative, to understand the creative process more deeply. I wrote about the difference between concrete ideas, the building blocks of finished products, and meta ideas, the blueprints that generate them. Using meta ideas, I would have no problem generating new ideas. More often than not, though, I wouldn’t know what to do with them. I’d get stuck, put the idea away…

I’ve been writing down small music (and other) ideas for over 20 years. I’ve generally struggled to store, organize, and retrieve them effectively. As I was going through my archives recently, it dawned on me that there are two fundamental types of ideas: one is “concrete” and the other is “meta.” A concrete idea is specific and actionable. It may be a chord progression like: A minor for two and a…

In 2016, I decided to start my own brand of music education. I took the role of music coach, agent, and collaborator. The student and I would write and record music together to integrate learning and creativity in a holistic way. While I’ve suspended these services for the foreseeable future, I’m posting are the core concepts and aims of Songmind Studios. I’ll eventually make all my teaching…

From time to time, we can find ourselves stagnating when studying music (or any other topic). To help become immune to this, it’s useful to fully recognize our strengths and acknowledge our weaknesses. Every strength is an opportunity to improve further and if we can acknowledge where we are struggling then we can begin to grow much faster and reach excellence. Ask yourself the following questions…

It’s common for songwriters to feel overwhelmed when finishing their songs and getting them ready for their audience. There can be tremendous blocks going from inspiration to song completion. Listed below are the top issues I’ve encountered while interviewing songwriters and students of music who write music. 1. Not knowing “where to go next” with your song. This is a major problem for many…

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (by Patrick Lencioni) is a highly recommended book for anyone that works with other people. (So - almost everyone!) The five dysfunctions are set up in a hierarchy. The bottom of the pyramid below shows that trust is the foundation and all else moves up from there. five-dysfunctions-pyramid The book opens with a story that brings the main five principles…

A long time student of mine recently began learning classical guitar. He had been studying jazz and blues for a number of years. He has a love for latin fingerstyle rhythms. The more lessons we had, the more he realized that he wanted to deepen his technical foundation. I recently told him: “The number of times you’ll reach a plateau is inversely proportional to how deeply you practice.” In other…

We songwriters put a lot of work into our songs. Putting together interesting chord voicings, refining our lyrics to perfection, and getting the form ‘just right’ can take a lot of effort, but be very gratifying. When your song is finally finished, you might want to make the investment of bringing it to a studio with a band to lay down all of the parts. When it comes to recording in the studio…

It’s difficult to keep track of everything that needs to be done with your musical ideas. If you write with any frequency, these ideas can amass until there are so many that you can’t keep track of them. Your ideas might range from little snippets to near complete works. Here are some things that commonly go wrong for me: I don’t take enough time to think about where an idea needs to go to be…

Have lots of unfinished ideas? Learn how to take a short instrumental idea and finish writing your song in one day. Over the years, I’ve written tons and tons of short musical ideas. I had been putting off turning them into real pieces until now. Inspired by my research on speed composing, I decided to make a challenge out of my problem. The Snippet Challenge & Simple Instrumental Song Forms In a…

Why start a composition with a blank slate? Jam on a cover tune then take it in a different direction. Sometimes, the less experience you have figuring out songs, the better. When I was first learning guitar and had much less skill, I tried to figure out songs that I heard. I was usually unsuccessful at transcribing them accurately, but there were many occasions that I enjoyed what I was playing…

How to begin writing a song by choosing a lyrical theme and a musical mood. The Keys to Simplicity Selecting a mood / topic for the song The central theme of your song can come from anywhere - your mood, the news, or a conversation you heard while at a coffee shop. After choosing something, stay in that mindset until you find the need for a well-placed and meaningful contrast. It’s important to…