Sunday, October 26, 2014

Song Club - continued

Typing on 9/23/14...

Adam Levy has taught me a great deal about songwriting and "opening up." He has given me several methods or "tricks," if you will, to help me with my writing. One of these is a writing prompt.

Some time ago he invited me into his exclusive club called Song Club. Each week he would give a topic or phrase and you had to include that in your song. I wasn't as diligent as I should have been and there were weeks that went by where I didn't follow through, but the weeks I did? WOW! The creative juices flowed freely and the words just came from nowhere! (I know they came from God and from within and from my life experiences, but you get the idea)

I could give you some examples, and I'm happy to do that, but I'm hesitant to tell where all my song ideas come from for fear of it making them less "personal" or less interesting. :-) Just know that if I ever share with you where the ORIGINAL idea for a song came from it doesn't mean that I didn't put my own spin and my own life into it. The idea of the Song Club is a writing PROMPT - something to get the individual writer started down a path. It's still up to the writer to come out the other side with a song.

So Adam took a hiatus from this and he turned me onto another one. Same thing - I didn't take part every week, but the weeks I did I was VERY pleased. I had even thought of starting one of my own but didn't get much response so never followed through. Well this morning on the drive in I decided I AM going to do this, and if you're a writer that is interested in this let me know!

To go over some specifics, there is NO COST and you still own the song when you are done. This is for us as songwriters to get our juices flowing and get a song. You don't owe me or the other members a thing, but you will feel better about yourself if you follow through every week.

I will get doe details together over the next couple of weeks and get this started soon. No, that's not another "when I get around to it" thing. I'm just trying to decide the best time to start. I had originally thought about January 1 and let it be a weekly thing for the year 2015, but then decided that's too long to wait... I need this for me. :-)

So I thought about October 1 - but that might be too fast to get this going. I don't want people thinking they are coming in late if they want to be in on the first one. :-)

So - what's your thoughts? This blog entry should post before October 1st, so what's your preference?

My email - for direct communication - jimmylogan0916@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Song Club

Typing this on September 23...

Two nights ago there was a new episode of the Commercial Suicide Songwriting Podcast. I started listening and then finished it up yesterday morning. It has inspired me in two ways...

First, I had told Steve Rempis, one of the co-hosts and the actual founder of the show, that I had an idea for a segment and would record some "listener submissions" to be used. So far I have not done this. No excuse, it just hasn't been at the top of my radar...

Second, I realized a couple of weeks ago when Katie Hutton asked me, "written any songs lately?" that I could only answer... No. This kinda made me sad in a way, and I told myself then that I would get back on that.

Well, needless to say I've not written anything since that conversation and I haven't even submitted the old ideas I had. I did get to thinking while driving to work this morning just WHY I haven't written. Several things came to mind...

First, I've been performing a lot more and promoting my new CD. By the way - do you have it yet? :-) If not, I can mail you a copy and it can also be purchased on iTunes, listened for free on Spotify and I have a limited number of "download codes" where you can get the whole thing on CD Baby.

Anyway, performing is a passion of mine and like I said it's been more and more lately and now I've started in a regular band on Saturday nights. No, it's not as fun as having MY band and doing my own music, but it's fun to make people happy and watch them dance. As a dancer I know the feeling of a good, solid band doing traditional music that I can dance to, so I have a connection with the crowd.

Another thing that has taken some of my writing time has been preparing for our weekly Star Wars RPG game via roll20.net. And no, this is NOT a complaint. That has been some GREAT gaming time (and you, gentle reader, will remember that gaming is a high interest hobby of mine) but the MAIN reason I have zero regrets is that it's time I get to spend with Kyle every week! I will not be trading that in for anything and wish I had more "gaming time" with Colton as well...

But anyway, these things were going through my mind on the ride this morning and I was thinking about another song I had written as "self therapy." No, this one is not on my CD and I really thought I had put it on YouTube, but now I can't find it...

Anyway - it's called "Riding with Daddy" and while I was "riding with Vanessa" to work this morning I was singing the song quietly to myself. When I got a particular line I could not for the life of me remember the words to the first part, but I remembered the second part. And just like that the "real" words - what it should have been from the beginning - came to me...

Stand up for yourself but don't be a bully...

So, am I writing? Yes. Well - rewriting, and that's part of the process...

Rather than continue, I'll come back with the next post and talk about the Song Club... :-)




Tuesday, October 7, 2014

lunch hike

Edit - this was actually typed a couple of weeks ago...

Just walked back in from a lunch break today. Whew! I wanted to get more exercise - well I got it today! I went to a "local place" and scouted out a place to hide the final stage of a big multi I've been thinking about off and on for a long time... I found it! No special equipment needed to get there, but for a guy my size on a 90 degree plus day... Well - it was a walk! :-)

I have another stage already planned. I found "the spot" a few years ago and had an idea and it has just brewed in the back of my mind. I think I'll get a chance to use it on this one... I also have another spot I've wanted to use before but never had a good way to use it. Now my gears are turning for that stage as well... :-)

We used to name all of our caches with the title of a book as it refers to where the cache is or the way it is hidden. The book I'm reading now is A New Dawn. It's the new Star Wars book that ties into the future Rebels show. I'm thinking of incorporating that somehow, but I'm not sure...

Anyway - just wanted to document the hike and start documenting this cache. Vanessa and I never cared for multis that were just point A to point B and just another film can, so I want this to be something you have to figure out. Something that's not completely obvious at first, but yet makes sense. I might even hide clues in other caches and wind up hiding several in the process, but the "big" one be something worthwhile...

Maybe one of my CD's for FTF. :-)