Songwriting & Beyond…

Sooooo many songwriters out there are stuck with the ole ‘pen and paper’ system. You know the one, where you grab a pen and your songwriting pad and start writing down your thoughts.

Now before you attack me - I’ve NOTHING against pen and paper. God knows I use it extensively in my own musical life. But, there is a certain tool that you should be incorporating in your songwriting arsenal. That is, a DICTAPHONE!

For those of you who already have recording devices, this is probably not a biggie. But for the rest of you… I think you’re crazy not to have one

Any portable recoding device will make creating melodies and putting down your thoughts an absolute joy. You can grab a digital Dictaphone for as cheap as $40 from amazon. And the beauty of these babies is that for some of them, you can plug it directly into your computer via USB and just grab the file and place it on to your desktop.

Very cool.

If you want to go old school, then you can always get a portable tape recorder:

In fact, I use one even today and I ain’t shamed to say it You can grab one of these for around $20.

Are you getting your idea’s down? No? You should be!

Shamir

PS. If you already DO use some kind of recording device, do us a fave a let me know (post below).

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to help me name my blog. Here’s the original post I made:
http://songwritingtipsonline.com/blog/04/your-opinion

Well, I’ve chosen a title! As you can see, I’ve titled the blog ‘Songwriting & Beyond…’

This is PERFECT for me as it encapsulates what I’m about. I like it alot.

It’s simple, I know… but it’s RIGHT for I’m about.

I also want to say thanks for everybody who helped me with this. I’ve had over 300 comments on my previous post, and boy I’ve never had that much since I’ve had this blog online. So wow!

I had no idea that so many of you cared What a great feeling.

There are a couple of people who hammered this title in my brain, and these people are:

Waleed Muhammad
Dominick

Thanks guys!

I’ve also taken mental notes of what everyone else had to say.

Douglas Bamlett said…

“Songwriting and beyond” is ok but lacks punch. There is not much of a hook there if any.

…Douglas, I know exactly what you mean. Thing is, I had to choose something that inspired ME to post as well as others to know what my blog is all about. It was a fine balance I had to strike. But your words (and your lengthy comment post) was well noted. I sincerely thank you for that

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I’ll be posting soon..

Shamir

As you can see, I’ve just ‘revamped’ my blog. You like?

I’ve never really put much thought into what name I should give to this blog. At first, I called it “Songwriting, Music & Inspiration”. I called it this because I’m about much more than just songwriting. (ie. vocal coaching and music production too).

For me, songwriting includes all of these area’s and so I just lumped the word “inspiration” into the mix.

However, I feel a change is in order. Tell me something, is it me or does “Songwriting, Musicianship & Inspiration” sound a little boring? Maybe it’s me. I may eat my words, I don’t’ know.

But right now, I need your input. I really do. I’ve had a bit of a ‘mind block’ when trying to ‘re-title’ this blog.

So what do you think this blog should be called? All of your suggestions are welcome.

You see the nice picture above this post? Well, there’s a blue blank spot there left intentionally. This spot will be filled with the new blog title that I’m gonna choose.

So, all suggestions are welcome. Just one thing, I don’t like the word ‘muse’ so stay away from that one.

Post ALL your idea’s and suggestions in the comments section below.

Massive thanks…

Shamir

PS. Any thing you want to ask me to help you come up with a better blog name, go ahead. I’m all ears and I’ll be posting below too.