Nashville Ear

There is a great secret among songwriters,.kind of like hyroglyphics inscribbed on walls of deep under water caverns,.. even the most pragmatic dictatorial anal- retentive formularistic hack songwriter will ascribe to what I'm going to say,..
There is not a songwriter alive who can profess to know how they write a song,.we can't point to anything except that "IT HAPPENS",.it just happens,.we don't know how or even why songs get written,.they just do,.

This is primarily for all you singers, usually under the age of about 25, but A BUNCH OF YOU WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER, KNOW IT APPLIES TO YOU TOO!

I am constantly listening to singer after singer, on writer's nights, open mics, even some of the bigger songwriters shows that you CAN'T UNDERSTAND A DAMN WORD THEY ARE SAYING!!!! I don't know why so many sing like they have a mouth full of half dried concrete, or think that they are being "ARTISTICALLY INTERESTING" by sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher, "Wah..wah...wah...wah...wah..." That is sooo dramatic!!!!

For any musician, the HOLY GRAIL is THE NAMM SHOW. That is the Yearly new music merchandisers convention where EVERY NEW PRODUCT, GADGET, GUITAR, PA, KEYBOARD, LIGHTS, COMPUTER PROGRAMS, and ever major product is unveiled. There are two. One in Los Angeles, and one here in Nashville.
There are booths, conferences, lectures, and EVERY MAJOR PLAYER, MUSIC RETAILER ARTIST AND STAR ARE THERE!!! Every musician wanders around, with his and her mouth agape, trying to take in every detail. Basically, it is SANTA'S WORKSHOP AND DISNEY LAND ALL WRAPPED INTO ONE THREE DAY MEGA EVENT!!!

WHAT'S NEXT?
A huge part of what I do is INJECT REALITY INTO DREAMS. It's not pleasant, but it is nessasary.

Dave Isaacs Guitar Guru of Music Row writes:

Lots of people do it, maybe you do too: avoid learning a song because it requires barre chords, or limiting your songwriting vocabulary because you struggle with them and it’s easier to just avoid them. I’m not going to suggest that barre chords aren’t a challenge, for most people they are at least in the beginning. But here are some things you can do to make the learning process easier.

One of the best things about living in Nashville is that every night is Songwriters' Night
Here are some of the places where you can go try your new lyrics to a local crowd.

Songwriter Evening (sign up day of event) @ Commodore Grille
Every Night Except on Tuesday

Open Mic Night (sign up early) @ Bluebird Cafe
Every Monday

Good People, Great Writers @ The Sutler Saloon
Every Monday

Songwriter Night (first show of the night is free) @ Bluebird Cafe
Every Tuesday-Sunday

Songwriter Night @ Soulshine Pizza
Every Tuesday

I talk here and on other forums about all things music, and questions always come up with people, "HOW DO I MAKE MONEY AT THIS?" Invariably, people want to know where is the money. In far too many things music, IT'S NOT THERE. We are entering our second decade, since the end of the 90's, where most music went FREE. As people, most notably college students, figured out ways to download whatever they wanted to, when it got totally easy to put things immediately on I-phones and I pods, and having limitless choices in music selections, for free, there was just nothing to be done.

"Imagination running wild ever since I was a kid
I could tell you crazy stories about things I never did
Spinning tires, breathing fire, dancing on thin ice
You'd have thought I'd done it all and seen most places twice..."

This is a phrase I have used for many years. I’ve had it on bumper stickers, quoted it in interviews and been asked about it. So it bears explaining here.

When people enter the world of Nashville, and in fact pretty much all of music these days, particularly if you are trying to “up the level of your odds”, by expanding your chances, they find themselves in a co-writing session. It is not easy, songwriting is a very internal art form, and yet you are trying to exist in a very extroverted world. Many don’t really understand etiquette, or even how to approach it. So here, I’ve tried to list a few things you might think of before the appointment, to make it go a little faster, and easier.