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  • Songstuff Writer and Artist Development Challenges

    By john

    Independent writers and artists face several large disadvantages when they are compared to signed, mainstream writers and artists.  Disadvantages that add up to making it a competition that indies can’t win. Hell they can’t even compete.   Lack of budget and poor contacts are fairly obvious disadvantages. Lack of experience and a lack of knowledge restricts songwriters and artists alike. Lack of an overall strategy, and a limited set of incomplete tactics, makes for a critical problem
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All We're After Is A Little Recognition- Petewentzsgirl7913's blog (:

I Need Inspiration

So its Friday, All I've done today i look at pictures of Pete Wentz, listen to Fall Out Boy, Everyone Dies In Utah, and Paramore. I think after all that I'd be able to find something. But nothing. I thought I wanted to write about... someone.. but I don't know now. I want..to feel something. I want to know that theres something good waiting for me. But I havent found anything. I really don't know. Maybe I just need to vent. I want to spend a day in Pete Wentz's mind just one day. I'd...

petewentzsgirl7913

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The Writer's Blog

The Auction, The Dreidel, And "silent Night"...

Bay City Arts Center’s auction/dinner is over. 61 people for the dinner—biggest crowd ever, I understand—and 80 came for the documentary movie (ditto). A number of people who came said they did so because of my front-page article in the paper (nice to know the paper did that). I spent most of my time designing the graphics for everything, and fighting with the printer. (I finally figured out the problem wasn’t the printer: it was because my Sotheby’s-style auction brochure was so huge—the Ar

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Tonic Lounge Post-Mortem (&c.)...

Tonic Lounge show was really good. The place was packed (not because of me, but it’s nice to play to a packed house) and the audience was very appreciative. The other comics were good, too—a couple of them really good. I got paid, and sold a CD—neither of which I expected. For once, one of my gig trips to Portland actually paid for itself (or would have if I hadn’t had to drive 50 miles and 1-1/2 hours out of my way because the highway home was closed by an accident). Got to throw my “Anoth

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

"spend The End Of The World With Me"...

Christmas shopping done, I think—and the “Spend the End of the World with Me” song is done, too. It’s undergoing peer review, and then I’ll essay recording it. Played it at Garibaldi City Hall, and the audience did like it so I guess it’s a “keeper.” Ragtime, definitely; I couldn’t make it come out jazz with me playing guitar but ragtime is kinda close. It’s only got one verse and a chorus; it’d be nice to have more, but those two things really do sum it up, and saying anything else wo

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Recording/videoing "quoth, The Parrot"...

2012 is an election year. A big one. We’ll either re-elect or depose a President, and if the latter, replace him with someone who may or may not be crazy. We’ll be deciding whether to re-elect or depose most of Congress, too. And state legislatures. And city councils all over the country. And people aren’t all that happy with the government they’ve been getting. Might be an opportunity to get attention for a political song. Specifically, “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot.” Wri

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

The 2012 Worklist...

I think it’s time to try a different tack with this Music Biz thing. 2011 was supposed to be the Year of Promotion, and looking back, I don’t see a lot of progress as a result. Continuing to do the Same Old Thing while expecting different results is the classic definition of insanity; I would rather do something different and hope (more sanely) for different results. Some advice I gave Michael and Sedona when they were doing the first Sedona Fire album (just released, by the way, and I w

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Netarts Post-Mortem...

Netarts Christmas show was good. Audience appeared to enjoy the stuff; there were a few people there who knew me, and a couple who’d heard me play before, but most of the crowd were new. The Netarts Community Club is a small place but it was full. And I got paid! I hadn’t expected that. Tips, too. It was actually the best-paid gig I’ve had this year (which isn’t saying much for this year, I know). No CD sales from the Netarts show, and no new names for the “joelist”—but there were t

roxhythe

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Songstuff Stuff

New Article - Songwriters - Learn How The Position Of Your Lyrics Can Change What You're Saying

Learn how the position of your lyrics can alter the meaning of what you are saying. Anthony examines how to position lyrical phrases within your music so that the message you are trying to get through to your audience is the message they get. Songwriters - Learn How the Position of Your Lyrics Can Change What You're Saying Author Anthony Ceseri Comments Please leave Anthony some comments and feedback on this article, and / or suggestions for new articles, or si

Songstuff

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The Writer's Blog

Netarts Christmas Show Setlist...

Finished the setlist for the Netarts Christmas show Dec. 20 (Netarts Community Club, 7 p.m.). They wanted all Christmas songs. They’re going to get: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (Elmo & Patsy Shropshire)—fast pop White Christmas (Irving Berlin)—slow two-step Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass Blue Christmas (Hayes & Johnson)—slow, bluesy two-step Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz Even Roadkill Gets the Blues—slow two-step Another Crappy Christmas (

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Soul Searching...

Soul searching (where did I leave that dang thing?)… It appears precisely none of the city-manager jobs I put in for are going to pan out, and I’m told by the experts that shouldn’t surprise me; I’ve been out of the business too long, and the “market” assumes I have forgotten everything I know. I haven’t—but as in songwriting, the market is always right and I have nothing to say about it. I will have to do something else for a living—provided someone is willing to hire me to do something else

roxhythe

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Songstuff Stuff

New Article - Visualization

When writing lyrics why is visualization important? The use of effective imagery can be the difference between listeners connecting to your lyrics or not. This article by Jon Hanover is for lyricists who are looking to improve the use of imagery within their lyrics. Click to follow the link to "Visualization" just now. If you would like to leave a comment or some feedback for Jon, or you would like to discuss visualization in lyrics based on this article, please reply to this

Songstuff

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The Writer's Blog

About Writing Christmas Songs...

Watched an instructional video on “How to Write Christmas Songs.” (It was free. Wouldn’t have watched it otherwise.) It was annoying in part because of the mechanical approach—it assumed all you had to do is write down a bunch of words and phrases with the right imagery, string them together, and voila! Instant Christmas song! I realize a lot of people do sit down to write deliberately (and I’ve always been impressed by their ability to do that). There are numerous organized exerci

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Tonic Lounge Setlist (&c.)...

For the Tonic Lounge Dec. 28, I’ve got a maximum of 12 minutes. That’s four songs if (1) I’m playing solo (no lead breaks), and (2) the songs are short and (3) people don’t clap too much. (I can ask them to limit their applause. I’m sure that’ll go over well.) How about: Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?—slow & sleazy Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step The Abomination Two-Step—fast bluegrass Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow, sleazy Gospel Three of the four are

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

A Few Things...

A few things… I’m procrastinating—it is cold outside—but procrastinating really is one of those things that by rights should be done later. Got speakers from next door neighbor Bob that may work for the square dance caller setup. They’re not super-large but they’re as large as the ones our instructor uses—and he’s able to fill a grange hall with sound. I have Dick Ackerman’s old Radio Shack amp (that we used as the basic engine for 45 Degrees North’s amplification), and my ancient 6-cha

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Reviewing The 2011 Worklist...

I was patting myself on the back for accomplishing most of the things I wanted to do today. I was able to do so, though, because it was a short list. I have of late assigned myself way too much to do and not managed to do it. I got the new sweatshirt design done (and it was pretty good), and wore it around in public some (where it got mostly appreciative comments), tried to retrieve Wayne the songwriter’s CD from the library (which couldn’t find it), welded “Luke” the ‘puter’s hard drive rack

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

The Trip To Portland...

The New Family Marimba is home; it’s got short legs, which I might want to change—but maybe not. (Squatting on the floor to play is supposed to be good for you.) I did get advice from the vendor on electrifying the thing; he’s unaware of anyone ever having done so, but he did have instructions from someone who electrified a different African percussion instrument using a fleet of little piezo mikes, connected in series. I don’t know if that would work with the marimba; one would have to mount

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Another Wild Idea...

Got an interesting proposal today. There’s an artist—songwriter, perhaps—who’s putting out an album, and is asking for, well, investors. I could contribute anywhere from $1 to $750, and I’d get a sliding scale of goodies depending on the size of my contribution. For my dollar I’d get a free download of the single of my choice, for instance, and for the $750 she’d come do a concert at my house, bar, Legion Hall, or whatever. (That last is pretty attractive.) She’s trying to raise $8,000.

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Website Thoughts...

I have envisioned the Joe Website as primarily a repository for LINKS. I want a link to the blog, links to the Soundclick sites and to ReverbNation, a link to the videos on YouTube, a link to CDBaby for online CD sales, and to the three (out of four) Retail Outlets selling the CD that have Websites of their own. I want some specific “click here for…” links, too, that can change regularly: “click here” to play a song, “click here” to play a video, and so forth. There are some “un-linky”

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

2Nd Street Market Post-Mortem (&c.)...

Leftovers Day show was good. Small crowd, but I knew most of them (and also knew where they’d heard about the show). Near as I could tell, they liked all the songs. “Bluebird on My Windshield” was an obvious favorite; so were “The Abomination Two-Step” and (of course) “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” “Hank’s Song” made ‘em think (good), and they liked “The Occupation Song,” which continues to surprise me—I’m not that happy with it, but it’s the audience’s opinion that counts, not mine. Jane’s

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

Happy Thanksgiving...

Breaking news, first: I’ve been asked to play Eric John Kaiser’s Songwriters Showcase at the Thirsty Lion Pub in downtown Portland, Tuesday Dec. 6. They want Christmas songs (it’s St. Nicholas’ Day), and at this point I can give them five: I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step Another Crappy Christmas (Don Varnell)—fast quasi-pop I Want a Man for Christmas—rock ‘n’ roll I n

roxhythe

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The Writer's Blog

About That Digital Revolution...

Good news, maybe, from one of the cities where I’ve applied for the manager job. I’m in Tier Two (those are the people who will be considered if the Tier Ones—the people they really want to interview—don’t work out)—and the Tier One candidates mostly haven’t worked out for one reason or another. So I may hear something soon. Or not. I still haven’t applied for any more city manager jobs. I figure there’s no point. I will concentrate on doing something else. One evening’s practice wit

roxhythe

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Songstuff Stuff

New Article - Why Do The Lyrics Of John Mayer's Daughters Work So Well?

New Songstuff author Anthony Ceseri performs a lyrics analysis of the song "Daughters" by John Mayer, looking at how he evolves the meaning of the chorus by adding extra information to successive verses. Why Do The Lyrics of John Mayer's "Daughters" Work So Well? Please leave Anthony some comments and feedback on this article, and / or suggestions for new articles, or simply showing Anthony some love for contributing this article to the Songstuff Music Community by replying to

Songstuff

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