Woo hoo! What an exciting week it has been for Songwriter Girl!
Last Wednesday April 15, Songwriter Girl flew in (I know a lot of you love the reference to the cape) to the Bluebird. Kimberly Maiers-Shaw of Songwriters Guild hosted the first
Songwriter Girl Café. We had SG Camp alum who came from near and far to perform for a sold out crowd. Also performing were The Jane Dear Girls, Bonnie Baker, Bridgette Tatum, Melissa Bollea and myself. Let me just say, there was a lot of love in the room.
I was so moved by such a great response to these girls (and two guys who were sitting in with their co-writers), supporting the vision of Songwriter Girl. Everyone performed
beautifully and for some of these writers it was their very first performance at the Bluebird. It won’t be their last. Following the show, we all headed over to La Paz
for a celebration/reunion. Big fun!
May 15-17, Montgomery Bell State Park….
Songwriter Girl Camp is in countdown mode.
We are 3 weeks away, getting very excited and anticipating meeting everyone. We have some incredible industry pros. One of my dear friends and fave co-writers, Bridgette Tatum will be there. She is enjoying fabulous chart success with “She’s Country”, recorded by Jason Aldean of Broken Bow Records.
This camp is an incredible opportunity to co-write, network, become inspired, connect and have fun.
Here’s the link for camp
http://www.songwritergirl.com/Songwriter_Girl_Camps.html
Also, take advantage of our Songwriter Girl Stimulus Plan of $100.00 off the camp price.
This makes your camp pass an amazing $248.00!
Here’s the link to purchase your pass
http://shop.songwritergirl.com/main.sc
The weather in Nashville has finally taken the turn for spring and I love getting outside
to walk, garden and just take in the gorgeous sunshine. I started thinking about all the challenges that face us when winter finally ends, for example, as I always say to my husband Bill, take the front yard back and make it look like someone lives here..ha..
The to do list seems endless in the spring…. clean up the yard, de-winterize the house, organize the closets, re-shape the body and for me, lighten up my load in the songwriter department. It’s spring and so it’s time to get motivated and get back on track!
Here are 5 Simple Steps to help boost your motivation and do some Songwriter Shaping:
1. Raid the hook book
You know how the spring makes you want to clean out your pantry? The same goes for your hook book (or file). You know all those snippets your wrote down while the snow was flying that you meant to go through…now’s the time. You may have some amazing gem of an idea that you forgot about. Take a few minutes a day and separate the great ideas from the good ideas.
2. Take back the calendar
Put songwriting on your list of things to do in your week if you are having trouble fitting it into your schedule. If you only have time in your life to work on a song one day a week, that’s fine. You might want to devote a certain morning of each week to have your coffee outside with your laptop or notebook, letting nothing distract you. When you write down your goals, you are more likely to follow through.
3. Dust off your contact list
Make a point to re-visit your contact list and connect with those co-writers you haven’t seen in a few months. Make sure you keep track of when you make contact and when you will follow up. Follow up is the most important part.
4. Where’s the melody?
Besides cleaning out your hook book, don’t forget about all those melody snippets you sang into your phone or your little recorder. My digital recorder makes mp3s and I try to keep up with dumping them into my computer as I go. You could find
the perfect melody match for that lyric you just unearthed in your hook book.
5. Renew your songwriting commitment to yourself
Make the time to set some goals for yourself. If you are not writing full time, decide
how much time you can devote to writing each week and stick to it. Your goals may include starting those guitar lessons or getting 3 songs together to perform at a local
writers’ show.
Just remember, have fun while writing!
If you can dream it, you can do it.
Love and success,
Kirsti
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