Today I slept in, after a long hard week of writing (by day) and rocking (by night). Work is challenging right now. I enjoy it, but it is like doing battle with Mongol hordes sometimes. Very satisfying when you decapitate your adversarial foe with a handy blow from your battle axe. My battle axe is, of course, my technical writing prowess, intellectual capacity, and motivational fortitude. In the old days, I could have said my weapon of choice was “the pen.” But in this modern age, we don’t use pens anymore for writing. We use computers, or “workstations” in the parlance of our times.

None the less, I try to keep a vision of medieval warfare in mind as I hew through the imaginary warriors who seek to scale the walls of the fortress and crush us. It turns work into a sort of video game in my head, which is kind of fun.

After I made some eggs for breakfast today, I opened up Netflix and watched the rockumentary film, “The Anvil Story.” I had been meaning to watch it for a while, and now I am sorry I did not watch it sooner. It’s a real life Spinal Tap-esque story of a band called Anvil that has been trying to make it big since the 80s. I actually remember them from the 80s. My family was living in Australia and I was doing volunteer work at a public radio station that had a metal show. One of my school mates introduced me to Anvil’s music during the show, which we co-hosted. I had always assumed the Canadian rockers had had a brief and successful career, then retired in riches. But it turns out, success was always just out of reach for them, and they have been spending the past 30 years trying to make their rock-n-roll dream come true, while watching other similar 80s hair bands (many of them influenced by Anvil) get fame and fortune.

This movie is their story, and it was both heart warming and heart breaking. Thanks to the film and a solid fan base in Japan, the band is actually doing decently well with their 13th and 14th albums.

I say CHECK IT OUT!

There is only one way to become a songwriter and it is a lot simpler than you might think.

You just write songs.

A song is music and often (but not always) lyrics.

At first, your songs may suck.

Unless you were born with innate talent, they most definitely will suck at first.

Especially if you don’t know how to sing or play an instrument.

But these are just tools, and for most people, 90% of talent is PRACTICE.

If your passion is to write songs, you will be compelled to do it. That is the true sign of a songwriter – DOING.

Songwriting is about systematic DOING. That is, getting up in the morning and being driven to go write songs.

A book like Jason Blume’s “6 Steps to Songwriting Success” is also a great tool for getting the job done.

Don’t get discouraged. Sucking is part of not sucking. 99% of the songs you write might suck. But that one out of 100 will be a gem, and that is what songwriters live for. The other 99 songs are just “practice” for that one awesome song.

Consider this guy Andrew Huang of songstowearpantsto.com…

He writes prolific amounts of short, catchy, funny songs that people request.

There’s a market for his songs and he is self employed writing them. No day job, yea!

He became a songwriter by writing songs. Real simple basic catchy songs.

That’s it. Simple.

You don’t need a fancy studio.

You just need to DO IT.

You can write down music and lyrics on paper if you have to.

I do it all the time. It’s easier than setting up microphones and running computer programs. Old school pencil and paper.

Sure, it’s nice to have some kind of recording capabilities to document your songs when they are finished, especially if you don’t know anything about writing down music.

But even the most basic computers nowadays have built in basic multitrack recording programs.

Your song demos don’t have to sound awesome. They only have to be good enough so that someone who has good production capabilities (like me!) can take them and make them sound awesome.

If you feel you have a passion for songwriting, you will be compelled to do it.

But if you don’t have that passion, don’t do it. There are much better trades than songwriting if your goal is just to make some money.

Do songwriting because you like it. Songwriting requires soul fire and a drive to pursue your craft and PRACTICE it. How are you going to be motivated to write songs every day unless you are passionate about it?

Become an accountant if you like money.

RESOURCES

Check out February Album Writing Month (fawm.org). It happens every year, and it’s coming up soon. Thousands of songwriters, amateur to expert, do it every year.

FAWM is a personal challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. And it’s FREE.

Not 14 GOOD songs. Just 14 songs. And it is very doable.

If even one of those songs is decent, that is one more song than you would have if you sat on your arse and did nothing, am I right?

And FAWM is totally EASY and FREE to do online. Their web site is so user friendly.

Plus, all the other “fawmers” on the site will hear your songs and critique them, which helps you become a better songwriter. Don’t take anything personally. You need to be brutally honest with yourself and have a thick skin to be a songwriter.

When I do FAWM, I typically end up with 3 or 4 songs I think are pretty good (and generally my fawmer friends concur). Here are some examples of some of my past FAWM successes.

(NOTE: Mind you, many of these demos are crude – writing songs is not about production, only writing the song – music and words. That’s all. If you have a killer song, you can always hire people for production, but a crappy song will always be a crappy song.)

1. Dust in My Eye (FAWM 2009) – I recorded this in Garage Band on a Mac and all the effects you hear are computer generated. Real simple, nothing fancy.

2. Thrice Heart (FAWM 2009) – Another crude recording, but a truly inspired (by a girl, of course) song. Note the catchy guitar melody behind the vocals. Pure gravy there.

3. Road Hog (FAWM 2010) – A year of songwriting (and a full band) later, my demo production quality had remarkably improved, as you can hear in this AC/DC-esque song about “firing” your boss and becoming a free agent, which is exactly what I did for a year, just to see if I could.

And I did. And I loved it. And you can too.

Here are three more songs I just wrote at random:

BEATNIK FASHION STATEMENT

TORNADIC ACTIVITY

See also HOME RECORDING FOR MUSICIANS FOR DUMMIES – Digital Home Recording Tips.

If you are a musician or songwriter who is serious about making DIY recordings for demos or commercial CDs, I highly recommend “Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies”.

It has tons of great tips and ideas for making great home studio recordings on fairly inexpensive home studio recording equipment.

While it certainly can’t substitute for having your own personal pro studio engineer, it costs a whole lot less ($8.50 vs. say, $850.00). My home recordings have dramatically improved using this book. In fact, I want to re-record my entire first album, CACTUS JOE’S INSPIRADO, because I have improved my recorded sound so much using this book.

CLICK THE PIC for full deets and book reviews.

See also HOW TO BECOME A SONGWRITER.

ROAD HOG by GUPPY EFFECT is headed for the TOP 40 SONGS IN AMERICA. Be one of the first to hear it.

Hi Everyone.

And by everyone, I mean those people searching Google for the keyword phrase “top 40 songs in America” (in quotes).

Yep, I know.

Every day there are about 62 people on average world wide who search for “top 40 songs in America.”

How do I know?

Google told me.

Of those 62, at least 26 of you click on one of the Web sites (usually the first one) that Google spits out in the first page of search results (the top 10 highest ranked sites for that phrase in Google).

You are very likely one of those people. Kind of alarming that I know that, huh?

But Google knows all, and I know how to ask Google what it knows.

You should learn this too.

If you are a musician and you are not using Google’s keyword tool functionality to get traffic to your web site, you are missing a lot of potential fans on the Web. It’s really easy. It just takes some time and creativity. You’re a musician, so creativity is a given. You need to find TIME.

You can use keywords in your blog post titles and Web page content to directly target potential fans of your music. I am doing it right now. Just by including “top 40 songs in America” in the title of this blog, I know that about 62 people each day will see this post in Google search. They might not all click through to it, but some will. Most will immediately leave when they discover I really have nothing to say about the actual top 40 songs in America. But I just wanted to illustrate how I generate traffic to this site.

If you did not come here via Google, go to Google now and search for “top 40 songs in America” (in quotes). Tell me what you see.

I cannot actually help you get your songs into the top 40 songs in America. But I can help you get your Web site into the top 10 Google results for relevant search phrases related to your music.

And getting people to your Web site is the first step in exposing people to your music.

Then, if your songs are good and people love your music, you might actually have a shot at getting your songs in the top 40 songs in America. Whose top 40, I have no clue.

But I do know that if your Web site remains in an untraversed backwater part of the Internet forever, you are not going to get any visitors to your Web site, and thus few fans of your music.

When you are ready to make lots of music starved fans find your music – CLICK HERE.

You can thank me when you are rich and famous.

Joe here.

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There is no simpler promotional tool for musicians and songwriters than business cards.

And when they are FREE BUSINESS CARDS, that’s even better for the self-employed rocker on a budget.

You’re at a rock show and the promoter asks you about booking your band, but you didn’t bring any press kits.

Bummer.

But, you have a flashy cool business card you can give her, so you at least don’t look like a totally inept slacker amateur hack. Now the promoter can check out your music online at least.

Saved by the free business cards.

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