I Hate Mornings

• Christine Rosen “agrees (The New Atlantis » The Myth of Multitasking)”:http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking with my notion that successful multitasking doesn’t exist. It’s all about “the zone” (ie. attention).

• Victor “responds (Getting Ready to Get Ready and Singletasking. | Adventures in Songwriting)”:http://adventuresinsongwriting.com/?p=29 to the The Myth Of Multitasking from a songwriting perspective.

• Justin “speculates (How music consumption is going to change – Vox)”:http://justin751.vox.com/library/post/my-prediction-on-how-music-consumption-is-going-to-change.html on the future of music, where tunes will be as customisable as Starbucks coffee. ;o(

• Bruce “argues (Digital music can’t be marketed, it can only be found. – Music Think Tank)”:http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/digital-music-cant-be-marketed-it-can-only-be-found.html that the nakedness of digital music throws the traditional turd-polishing model out the window…

• Peter Holsapple “muses (Catch and Release – Measure for Measure – Opinion – New York Times Blog)”:http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/catch-and-release/ about using the TV (with the sound off) as a songwriting tool!

• Just in time, I discovered the “50/90 challenge (50/90 :: The 50 Song Challenge)”:http://5090.fawm.org/ to write 50 songs in 90 days starting on the 4th July. I’m in! And it looks like “Cory’s in”:http://www.songwritingzen.com/?p=158#comment-266 too!

• “Better Than The Van”:http://betterthanthevan.com/ is a new site offering a directory of people willing to open up their house to bands. Keep an eye on this one.

I spend a lot of time trawling the web for songwriting-related articles. It’s a pretty time-consuming process (much easier these days with RSS!), and it’s easy to miss the occasional classic. I bookmark them all for myself on “Delicious”:http://del.icio.us/ihatemornings/ihatemornings, and they show up in the sidebar of my site, but for the benefit of all you webophobic songwriters out there, I’m going to start collating a weekly roundup of the articles I found worth reading.

I hope you find them as useful as I did!

h3. “The Five Key Steps to Songplugging”:http://www.bloggingmuses.com/2008/06/12/the-five-key-steps-to-songplugging/

Another useful guest article from “Blogging Muses”:http://www.bloggingmuses.com, this time covering the stage that most songwriters don’t like – getting the song you just wrote into the right hands.

h3. “How To Make The Most Out Of Open Mics”:http://www.songwritingzen.com/?p=139

Cory over at “Songwriting Zen”:http://www.songwritingzen.com has posted this guide for open mic amateurs. If you find it useful, make sure to check out his previous rant, “The 10 + 1 Commandments Of Open Mics – An Open Letter To All Performers”:http://www.songwritingzen.com/?p=128.

h3. “Musical Influence, Plagiarism and Prolificacy”:http://adventuresinsongwriting.com/?p=28

“Adventures in Songwriting”:http://adventuresinsongwriting.com has a good honest (pragmatic?) take on originality and plagiarism in songwriting. An antidote to the “precious poet” style of songwriter…

h3. “Surviving the Hits”:http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/surviving-the-hits/

Suzanne Vega wonders why Luka and Tom’s Diner were hits rather than any of the other catchy songs she has written over the years, and talks about how much work went into the arrangement and production.

h3. “Day to Day of a Staff Songwriter”:http://andreastolpe.berkleemusicblogs.com/2008/06/15/day-to-day-of-a-staff-songwriter/

Andrea Stolpe always writes great articles for the “Berklee Music Blogs”:http://www.berkleemusicblogs.com/, and this is no exception. A fascinating look at the everyday life of professional songwriters.

h3. “…And The Rest Is History: Debunking The Myth Of Getting Discovered (Part 5 of 7)”:http://www.soulofsongwriting.com/sos-episode-26and-the-rest-is-history-debunking-the-myth-of-getting-discovered-part-5-of-7/

Joshua Pearl’s “Soul of Songwriting”:http://www.soulofsongwriting.com podcast is always good for a balanced, spiritual approach to songwriting and musicianship. His incessant tea slurping offends my delicate sensibilities, but the man lives in Woodstock so I forgive him. ;o) His current series (“Debunking the myth of…”) is particularly good for those of us who need a little grounding occasionally.