23 Hz

No Fear in the Mirror

There are two ways we can miss the songwriting target.

First, we can think too highly of our abilities. Consequences of this kind of thinking are:

• Feeling discouraged because you aren't writing with any big-name, hit writers
• Feeling angry because other people (less-qualified songwriters) are having success that you deserve
• Feeling desperation because you don't have enough irons in the fire

Second, we can think too lowly of our abilities. Consequences of this kind of thinking are:

• Avoiding opportunities to write with people we look up to
• Not enjoying the fruit of our labor because of a focus on what was done wrong or could have been done better
• Not taking creative chances, risking that what we do could be seen as silly or irrelevant

Having an honest community of people (not just songwriters) will give you a healthy and honest understanding of where you stand.

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Hot or Cold

I recently had a conversation with my song plugger about my performance over the previous weeks. He said something to the effect of this:

"You've been really consistent, which is good (moving his hand left to right, as if a line on an X-Y graph). But we'd rather you actually do this (moving his hand left to right but including ups and downs). When you're consistent, we don't get the peaks (great songs)."

Deep down I knew he was right. It was easy to see that I'd been writing too much each week. When pursuing quantity over quality, it's easy to convince ourselves that "good" is good enough.

Along the "good" path I believe we will find that, while the road is clear and level, most of the fruit has been picked. Only on the road less taken will we experience the new and unknown. We will look out from unseen views, taste rare fruit (both sweet and sour), and most likely get cut by thorns along the way. But discovering greatness will always be worth that less-traveled journey.

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Heinz Maier's Droplets

water + food coloring + good timing =

"The New Way" by Heinz Maier

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!