When you were a child, you were probably taught to say please when asking for something and thank you after receiving it.

In fact, please and thank you are such basic human expressions, that they can be applied to a wide variety of situations, both as a songwriter and as a listener:

Please and thank you can be used simply as meditations or prayers:
Try starting your day by asking for exactly what you want and ending it with a moment of gratitude for everything you received. Notice how doing so affects the flow of your creativity.

Please and thank you can serve as songwriting guidelines:
Write a quick draft of a song expressing dissatisfaction or desire (based on the emotion of please) or a song of gratitude or celebration (based on the emotion of thank you).

Please and thank you can also serve as filters through which you can get at the heart of what others are trying to say through their words or music:
Listen to random song. Is the basic emotion, underneath the specific lyrics and melody, some version of either the artist’s unfulfilled desire or their thankfulness for what they have? Can you hear how much of what is expressed through music often boils down to some form of asking for something that’s missing or celebrating what is already there?

Listen to this SOS podcast to get the skinny on slimming down your musical (and personal) communication style to the bare essentials–thereby allowing you to connect with your audience more quickly and deeply.

 

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Springboards. Sparks. Influences and Inspirations. What are yours? What do you model your music after?

When it’s time to create your next song, you can always benefit from others’ works by extracting out the spirit, concept, or essence of the work and translating it through your own Voice and perspective.

As artists mature, they are still influenced by the music of their predecessors and contemporaries, but rather than copying, imitating, or emulating the styles of their heroes and teachers, they engage in the modeling process.

Just as researchers have methodologies, companies have business models, professionals have career tracks, and economists have schools of thought, musical artists can decide upon the approach they take to their craft, before composing any words or music. A consciously chosen approach can be based on a number of elements, including:

• timeless topics
• successful song-formulas
• proven assumptions behind song-crafting
• time-tested strategies for creativity and productivity
• undeniable grooves, moods, or vibes
• modes of storytelling
• a compelling perspective

Songwriters can extract the spirit, structure, or conceit of a great song and use it as a springboard for their own compositions. We can Song-Model.

A song-model is different from a genre, a sound, or a tradition in that it has nothing to do with how the music sounds or what it is made up of. It’s more like a mood encoded into the music and lyrics or a borrowed approach to the songwriting structure. A model exists apart from the actual content of the song.

Join the Song-Modeling discussion and JP explores three common qualities that have been modeled in countless songs: sex/passion, romance/imagination, and compassion/love.

 

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Fame. Celebrity. Star. Superstar. What do these words bring to your mind?

Are you famous? Do you want to be? Are you hoping to be famous someday? Have you given up on your chances at fame? Has fame never been important to you in the first place? Are you secretly jealous of those who have achieved notoriety?

Though fame may be a powerful resource, the quest to achieve or sustain it can be a grand illusion and costly distraction–one that that holds many artists back. The quest for connection, on the other hand, brings with it the promise of deeper relationship–to the music, the audience, and to oneself.

Join the SOS conversation as the last of seven common myths of musicianship and the creative process–fame–is explored from a broader perspective than usually addressed in most music and entertainment circles.

 

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Which side of the Great Divide do you make music on? Are you a messenger or an entertainer? A timeless teller of tales or a cutting-edge groundbreaker? What can we learn from the songsmiths of the first half of the twentieth century that might be missing from the provocative musical pioneers of the second half?  

In these complex times, the need for songwriters and performers to function as messengers, as opposed to pure entertainers, is greater than ever. While a pure entertainer works to divert an audience’s attention from “everyday life” and worldly matters, a messenger works to shine a spotlight on issues of personal and social purpose and relevance. But without delivering a message through an entertaining, user-friendly format, a song’s deeper meanings may be lost. Ideally, an artist functions as both an entertaining storyteller AND a provocative truth-teller.  

Join in part two of this conversation where JP addresses the gifts and the hazards of following the traditions and trends in pre- and post-rock-and-roll popular music.

 

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Something really big and really important happened to popular songwriting between the years of 1950 and 1969. Many things, actually. And we are still reeling–socially, creatively, psychologically, and politically. Come take a journey back in time and then forward and back again as we mine the fields of recent history looking for musical gems and touchstones that can be put into immediate use in our songs, performances, and understanding of what we hear. This is part one of a two part conversation.

 

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At a certain level, all creative endeavors share a common root structure–a well of creativity from which all are free to draw inspiration. By looking outside the language of your particular field, you may find hidden solutions to your artistic challenges and surprising breakthroughs in your ability to express yourself. Join JP as he explores how you can bring more music into your life and more life into your music by borrowing principles and practices from six other art forms, including cooking and sex, and applying them to your musical creativity.

 

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Good songwriting may be based on considerations about key, tempo, harmonic progression, lyric form and structure, but somewhere along the line, you have to lay down your weapons and surrender to the unknown–the mystery of music. But does that mean it’s all up for grabs? Can you know exactly when and how to give up control and in what proportion? There are some tried and true techniques for subverting the rational mind in order to allow the pure spirit of the music to come through. Listen in as JP takes you on a brief journey into the non-rational spaces of musical creativity.

 

 SOS Episode #11: Getting Out Of Your Head: The limits Of Rationality In Songwriting and In Living (or “When To Stop Making Sense”): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Many musicians and songwriters have two competing dreams: the dream of connecting with others by making a positive impact on their lives and the dream of hitting the big time, rising to the heights and living happily ever after in the realm of the rich and famous. To further complicate matters, we are given mixed messages about the importance of fame, being taught that it shouldn’t matter to us as artists (it should be “all about the music”) and simultaneously being told that celebrity is THE goal and that everyone deserves their chance at super-stardom (think American idol). Join JP as he shares some hard earned lessons and practical perspectives on artistic survival and alternatives to the cult of personality we call show business.

 

 SOS Episode #10: Star Struck: Spiritual Casualties On The Illusionary Path To Rock-Stardom: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When a show is filled to capacity, the marquis reads “Sold Out.” When an artist loses their authenticity in order to please a supposed market’s taste, we say that they’ve “sold out.” How can you “Sell Out” without “selling out?” Do we ever have to compromise our authenticity to achieve commercial success? How about achieving both? Listen in and discover your own answer to the important question: “Who am I making my music for?”

 

 SOS Episode #7: The Artist's Dilemma: Being Sold Out With Out Selling Out: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Every day brings new challenges. Just getting up in the morning can require faith, fortitude, and remembering your purpose. But as an artist, you have the opportunity to start again, every morning, as a new person; to reinvent yourself as you would a new piece of music. Join in the conversation about using your artistic license to refresh your identity as you continually refresh your music.

 

 SOS #6: Inventing Your Music, Reinventing Yourself: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Many musicians have graduated from the “ground school” phase of technical practice and study to be able to delve into the deeper aspects of musical knowing that one could call musical wisdom. Still, there are even more riches to be found in music’s mystery when we begin to apply principals such as rhythm, pitch, form, frequency, and dynamics to the rest of our life. Join the conversation about music, knowledge, and integrating them into a “whole-person” framework.

 

 SOS Episode #5: Tune In: Applying Musical Wisdom To Life: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download