Jump to content

Your Ad Could Be Here

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • john

    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
    • 0 comments
    • 1,610 views

"dropboxing" (And Blog-A-Day Two)...

66 of the songs mastered (to equalize the volume) and archived in the “Dropbox†program Jane turned me on to. When I copy a file there, it automatically sends it to the rest of the band (Clint, Jane and Ken). I’m basically doing everything I’ve weitten—I needed to re-master and archive the songs anyway, since most of them were on “Alice†the ‘puter’s now-deceased hard drive. Clint, Jane and Ken can decide which ones they’re interested in us performing. Ultimately, we should
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

So Damn Cool!

I'm sitting here listening to keyboards and guitar being played next door in my daughters bedroom. In there are two young teenage girls exploring this fantastic, exciting world of endless inspiration that music brings. Just as books can enthrall and captivate, taking you to worlds in your head (and heart)so can music. Although I've heard the same rendition of a song for the thousandth (is that a word?) time, and I do worry a little about the neighbours, I can't help but think how lucky I a
Desertrose

Desertrose

1

Dearly Beloved Warbling One.

Looking at the instruction leaflet for my new GHD hair straightener I was amused to read that it "goes into shiver mode" when its cold and makes "warbling noises". Funny that. Sounds just like my hubby in winter. Speaking of which....My God, what is UP with this crazy weather? Positively chilly today! Something like 75 % of NSW is currently flooding! That's an area as big as France, so they said on the news. I have never seen so much rain! My brother is right now filming, for the n
Desertrose

Desertrose

0

Pine Grove Post-Mortem (And Blog-A-Day One)...

Should mention the “upper†first. Got tapped at the last minute to be part of a band playing a benefit concert in Manzanita. The “band†ended up being Ken, Jane, and myself, and we probably played two hours. We ended up doing a lot of my stuff (with over 80 songs, I have a lot of material to work with). The crowd wanted uptempo material, so they got it: Spend the End of the World with Me The Abomination Two-Step Naked Space Hamsters in Love Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus Bluebird
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

About Recording...

It was the evening of the Big Snow—six feet worth fell overnight in Cascade Locks, Oregon, January 6, 1980—that the Dodson Drifters recorded “Valvoline,†the first song of mine that ever got played on the radio. It was a fluke. We were partying in the studio, which was in Portland, and sound engineer Craig Imm was experimenting with the equipment, and had got things arranged so when you recorded you heard lots of reverb through the headphones, but none of it ended up on tape—and
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

More Updates...

One. Forgot to mention an “upper†from Influence Night: I stopped to get some of that ghastly overpriced gas in case I got marooned in the mountains in the snow on my way home (I didn’t get marooned, obviously, though the highway was slick); the gas station was run by a couple of teenagers (one with girlfriend) and they noticed my “Deathgrass†T-shirt (which I’d worn to the music hall) and asked, “Is that rock?†So I explained that “Deathgrass†was the band, and how we got the
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

When I Grow Up...

So it’s my birthday tomorrow. I’m not “doing’ birthdays anymore I’ve decided. It’s depressing seeing the numbers climb and I don’t want to think of myself in terms of a number because it confuses me. What should a forty four year old woman look like, act like, sound like….. Who should she be? I don’t “feel†that number, but hey, everybody says that, don’t they? I don’t however still feel like I am twenty -THAT person is gone. I remember her….I can se
Desertrose

Desertrose

0

Influence Music Hall Post-Mortem...

The Influence Music Hall is a nice place. (It could use a better heating system.) Decent stage and very professional sound system, and at least two people who know what they’re doing with it. I am interested in seeing how the recordings turn out. They had a decent crowd, too—a little over two dozen people, which filled most of the seats in the place. The other performers? Open mikes tend to run the gamut, and this was no exception; some performers were better than others, some wer
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

New Article - Writing Titles For Your Songs

Writing Titles For Your Songs Choice of a song title is more important than you may think. This article, by Songstuff author Anthony Ceseri. covers key factors in selecting a title and the impact that can have on the success of your song. Click on the link below to read the article right now... Writing Titles For Your Songs Please leave a comment Author Anthony Ceseri Comments Please leave Anthony some comments and feedback on this
Songstuff

Songstuff

1

Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

How does one start the day with the plan and intention of going to a belly dance class and end up doing a 90 minute Israeli Folk dance class, in a totally different suburb as WELL, with a person you’ve only spoken to twice for about ten minutes in total? I have to wonder about myself sometimes. After belly dance class, which was once again inspiring and refreshing both mentally and physically, I was invited by this woman – a stranger really (can’t even remember her name?) to go with he
Desertrose

Desertrose

0

The Square Dance Caller At Work...

Ordered three songs from Hanhurst’s Music, the people who supply music for square dance callers—“A Fool Such as I†by Bill Trader (the song was made famous by Elvis, Hank Snow, and a few others), “The Midnight Special†by Huddie Ledbetter, and “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me†(yes, the Hee-Haw theme) by Gospel songwriter Susan Heather. Yes, I can sing all of them. Been working on the Hee-Haw song first. (I think it fits my image.) From Hanhurst, I got “karaoke†versionsâ
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

The Cable Tv Taping

Feb 21, 2012 Thorny Swale performed 5 of my original songs at Northwestern Community Television (http://www.nwct.org/) a public-access cable station west of Minneapolis. This great opportunity came through a partnering between NWCT and the Minnesota Association of Songwriters (http://www.mnsongwriters.org/), of which I am a member. "Minnesingers" the original music program consisting of MAS performers is the brainchild of MAS member and NWCT Executive Producer Rita Fox. This
Donna

Donna

0

The Cable Tv Taping

Feb 21, 2012 Thorny Swale performed 5 of my original songs at Northwestern Community Television (http://www.nwct.org/) a public-access cable station west of Minneapolis. This great opportunity came through a partnering between NWCT and the Minnesota Association of Songwriters (http://www.mnsongwriters.org/), of which I am a member. "Minnesingers" the original music program consisting of MAS performers is the brainchild of MAS member and NWCT Executive Producer Rita Fox. This was an amb
Donna

Donna

0

Breathing Exercises

Most singers will have heard of the importance of breathing from the diaphragm, but what does that really mean? This article explains how to breathe properly when you are singing and describes exercises to develop your voice by breathing from the diaphragm. By Songstuff author Ken Taylor Click on the link below to read the article right now... Breathing Exercises Leave a comment below and / or click on the following link to discuss this article about breathing exercises for
Songstuff

Songstuff

0

Tangled.

My head feels tangled. I feel tangled, strangled and frustrated. Its not been a good day. Why won’t the words come when I want to write a song? The things I want to say. Do I even have anything to say? It’s been a LONG, “not good day†as I woke up at 5am. Bloody ridiculous. One week I’m only getting to SLEEP at 5am and the next I’m waking up at that ungodly hour. All I know is that 5 am looks, feels and sounds different depending on whether it's the time you fall
Desertrose

Desertrose

5

Mercantile Post-Mortem...

Performance at The Mercantile in Beaver was very much fun. Packed house—I think the place holds around 80 people, and it looked like every seat was filled—and very appreciative audience. I think they’d like us back. And I’d like to go back. Jane and I only did five songs (more than any of the other performers, though) but I think we were the high point of the show. I was asked whether one could pull something like this off at the Bay City Arts Center. We do those regular Open
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

Beautiful Things.

Nature makes beautiful things. Remarkable, spectacular amazing things. We set off early for a trip up to Jenolan caves, two hours from home. The drive there is scenic….rolling hills, lush green country side and miles of pine forest plantations. We stopped for morning tea (but I forgot the tea cups, lol!) and I filmed for a while in one of the forests. Fairy tale white spotted red toadstools were pushing up from the ground everywhere among the fallen pine needles. Just magic! The
Desertrose

Desertrose

2

A Poster, A Gig, And A New Retail Outlet...

Poster for the “Jedi Pigs of Oz†puppet show is (mostly) done—just need to add the date and time. Rather than trying photo manipulation on the ‘puter, with new software I hadn’t used before, I did it the old-fashioned way—cropping portions of appropriately-sized photos by hand, pasting them down and scanning the result. Exactly how they would have done it in the ‘30s (except they would have used one of those room-sized “process cameras†instead of a scanner—I had one of those
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

Just.....be.....quiet....

There is something rather “exhibitionistic†about blogging. One wonders how far you could, or should go. This whole thing – the internet….billions of voices all crying out to be heard. (Imagine the energy that creates in the universe? Out there in cyberspace?) There's something rather pathetic about that, but then again also very human. You could conclude that human behavior then is – pathetic, or is it just that we’re all the same and like a dog pissing on a lamp post we all
Desertrose

Desertrose

0

Do Nothing Days.

I'm supposed to be writing in a journal, every day for the next eight weeks of this Unveil class. Self discovery and all that.... So, towards the within I go. I'm kind of cheating by writing here, but I've lost track of all my other failed blogs that were started with good intention and I just don't "do" paper and pen anymore. It was one of those days where you just don't achieve much. Laundry - my God, for the third day in a row there was blue sky! I'd forgotten what that looked like
Desertrose

Desertrose

0

Coming Back.

I started a new belly dance course today called Unveil which focuses on “empowering the feminineâ€. Not that I have any problem in the feminine department because it seems I am 100% living in the feminine realm – which in itself can be a problem. (Its always about balance) I’ve been living, for so long now completely in the “heartâ€â€¦.too much emotion stuff going on. Too much being still and “feeling†rather than actually getting off my arse and DOING. There have been many ye
Desertrose

Desertrose

1

Thirsty Lion Post-Mortem (&c.)...

Thirsty Lion show was good. Only three of us “guestsâ€â€”one performer didn’t show up. Fairly big audience—and very appreciative, even though most of them had come to hear the other two guys. (One of those guys was very, very good, too. Like me, he played all originals, and all love songs; he also had a decent voice, and had definitely mastered his guitar. His train song, the most country-sounding song he did—written, he said, for a girl who was leaving for Nashville—was one of th
roxhythe

roxhythe

0

Your Ad Could Be Here



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By continuing to use our site you indicate acceptance of our Terms Of Service: Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy, our Community Guidelines: Guidelines and our use of Cookies We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.