8 Things Worth Sharing | February
The winding path, parenting fails, anti-productivity, and upcoming songwriting workshops!
First and foremost, how are you?
No, REALLY. I’m interested to know you more. And I’m especially interested in what YOU are interested in...I share things I’m keen on here, but I love getting recommendations from people!
So I would love to invite anyone and everyone to share ONE RECOMMENDATION in the comments below: something you love! Something that has delighted you, entertained you, taught you something interesting or worthwhile in the last month! A book? Podcast? An article? A recipe? A blog? A video? A photograph you took?
Share something with this community that has tickled you in the past few weeks, by clicking the button right here:
Delightful Things
Here are some of my favourite things of the past few weeks:
The podcast ‘On The Irregular’ with Java Bere - in which Java interviews creative women who have taken the ‘winding path’ to their creative pursuit. I love the honesty of people and stories that aren’t so clear-cut—people who struggled through their 20s, not really knowing what to do. It’s lovely to remember that you’re not ‘done’ by the time you’re 35.
My partner Fionn is an illustrator, and made this short web comic about parenting that hits the Nail. On. The. Head.
I know. Right?
I am currently reading (and loving) “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals”, which is really an ‘anti-productivity’ book; dissecting a culture of toxic obsession with productivity, and deeply looking at what it means to really live well, in time. An excerpt I highlighted (among many…):
It’s a self-help cliché that most of us need to get better at learning to say no. But as the writer Elizabeth Gilbert points out, it’s all too easy to assume that this merely entails finding the courage to decline various tedious things you never wanted to do in the first place. In fact, she explains, “it’s much harder than that. You need to learn how to start saying no to things you do want to do, with the recognition that you have only one life.”
Songwriting
I was recently asked about the week I spent with John Mayer a few years ago, and what I learned from him. I dug up an article I wrote at that time, and have reposted it here:
I also talk in more technical terms about a really critical lyric writing technique that I learned from analysing his songs, which you can check out here:
Upcoming Songwriting Workshops
6. March 17/18 - Writing Beautiful Melodies
Join Benny and I live, online! There are only a few spots left for this Melody Workshop in March, so jump in if you want some tips and tools on beautiful, memorable, and emotional melody-writing.
You can book tickets here.
7. April 6 - Picking the Perfect Chords
In this 90-minute workshop, we'll explore a process for writing chord progressions that doesn't feel random, doesn't get repetitive and gives you total control over the direction you'd like to take your song.
Book tickets here.
15% discount on Participant tickets - use promo code ‘earlybird’ (for the first 10 from this newsletter :) )
Benny has made some great videos on the How To Write Songs YouTube Channel in the last couple of weeks about this. This one focuses on understanding the chords and chord choices in the Major Key, and this one explores chords and substitutions in the Minor Key.
8. Inspiration is a wave…
I shared these quotes with my songwriting groups this week, and love them:
Lost in all the noise around us is the proven truth about creativity: it’s the result of desire—the desire to find a new truth, solve an old problem, or serve someone else. Creativity is a choice, it’s not a bolt of lightning from somewhere else.
From The Practice, by Seth Godin.
And this follow on from Austin Kleon ('Steal Like an Artist'), in writing about inspiration...
You cannot will the wave, but you must paddle out to catch it.
Paddle out, team.
Until next,
Keppie
"Bathtubs over Broadway" on Netflix. Steve Young, head writer for Letterman, discovers and collects albums of industrial musicals written by the most famous Broadway writers for big corporations for their annual meetings. Talk about writing to a song prompt! These musicals, whose heyday was the 50's, 60's, and 70's, were written to introduce new products to the sales force of GM, IBM, American Standard, and many other companies. Many famous actors gigged these. Imagine writing songs about bathtubs, Mircochips, or how your bathroom is "the place you go to be yourself"? Song geeks will dig this.
Turning The Tables
on Disney+
No words... just a magnificent watch for WOMEN... but really, for all people
Enjoy! xov 🤗