Risk the Reward
Mar 1, 2009 sojourn
What a whirlwind 24 hours… the culmination of planning a workshop, then both witnessing and reaping the fruit of hanging out and learning from seasoned veteran artist and songwriter Craig Bickhardt. Going out on Friday nights is always tough for me, with work and my desire to just degauss at home. But once I get to the venue, relax and enjoy the show, I realize every step of this mini-journey is so worthwhile, and this past Friday night was a great precursor to the next day’s workshop.
Saturday morning it’s an early rise and get to the Well to setup and greet our workshop attendees and presenter. The day goes off without a hitch, the interaction very much in tune with expectations for our time with Craig. Our NSAI chapter is so dynamic; we had a couple of brand new faces and some recently signed members in attendance, all willing and enthusiastic participants. And Susan, our hostess at The Well serves the group like family… just can’t thank her and The Well enough.
No punches pulled in the accounts Craig shared of both success and rejection, perspectives on the current and future states of the music industry, especially as it pertains to the songwriter. But even with the less that “hopeful” picture, I think we all left encouraged to press on with our respective art and raising the bar for the work we produce.
There were many nuggets of wisdom shared. Craig’s views on creativity always stir introspection. He told a story of two groups of children being asked to draw pictures, one was offered candy for doing so, the other just asked to draw. The drawings from group that got the candy were not very creative at all, the focus was on the reward, not the potential art. The group that created without the objective of being “compensated” for their effort produced thoughtful and inspired works of art.
What’s the point?
To me, and I think we as writers know this, there’s risk in being a writer. It takes time, often significant amounts of time. Time away from family, sacrificing sleep, and time away from our comfort zones. It takes guts, and money, and shattered hope through rejection, and the fear of sharing that first draft or forgetting the words or melody, on and on… there is risk in being an artist.
What about the reward for taking such risks? Truth is, there is no realistic promise or guarantee of tangible reward. But the heart of what I got out of this segment is the need to do a gut check on my motivation for creativity. I need to expose the nagging slack in my discipline and slay it by making time away from being tethered to the Internet, closing the door to my studio and being willing to sit in silence as my mind and being dive into a character, scene or feeling that might end up in a song, story, or other form of art.
We didn’t spend much time on tools like literary devices, but Craig made what I perceived as a pretty profound perspective regarding imagery… that is, to use imagery to reveal and expand upon a character, motivation, and/or emotion. This is where taking time in quiet is key to “seeing” what I’m writing about.
Though quite tired and drained, I drove home Saturday afternoon through heavy rain inspired to press on as an artist/writer, re-committed to the understanding that being true to my own art means embracing risk and putting forth effort to produce the ultimate reward — art itelf.
Tags: bickhardt, Evening Muse, NSAI, songwriting
Stone Yard
Jan 30, 2009 sojourn
I’m planning out the weekend, co-write in the morning, NSAI coordinator meeting Sunday, slip in a neighborhood birthday party (the adult flavor) on Saturday night, and oh yeah it’s Super Bowl weekend, what… huh?
Where did January [2009] go?
It’s been whirlwind since the 2nd day of the year… started back to work earlier than normal from Christmas holiday due to “the acquisition”, then had to travel out west a week on business. This past work week just flew by, and though I did some writing during the month, I missed both gigs I had scheduled. Fortunately I have enough discipline to keep the fire from going out, and I’m ready to make another surge, I’ve got my flippers and goggles on — I’m diving in with a somewhat refined approach:
- I decided I was still missing that single point of reference for all my lyrics and song ideas, so I bumped my MasterWriter to 2.0 and now have the application on my PC and Mac, and I’ll figure out how to sync the two data sets as I go, but I’ll keep the master on the Mac.
- Didn’t spend enough time on Logic, but that’s a big goal for February, especially learning to program the drums via midi to make better demos of finished songs.
- I’ve also update my productivity maps in MindManager, and have a more centralized work flow for tracking goals and getting to sites and resources I frequent.
- Lastly, I’m enjoying hooking up with some old friends on MySpace and listening to their material, very inspiring, and some flat out really good material.
NSAI has another busy month ahead. Craig Bickhardt will be in town for workshop and show (see NSAI Charlotte site for details), and I’ll get to meet a writer who I really admire that’s coming in from Charleston for the CB events. Plus, I need to make a final decision on travel to Nashville in late March for coordinator refresh and hopefully some networking.
Busy times centered on work really mess me up from an inspiration perspective. Yeah, the muse shows up, we engage, but I have a real problem with focus when I’m spent and things are so hectic I’m just a total scatter-head (hence the bullets above). Some famous philosopher said: a wooden bird starts with the first stroke of the pocket knife, a great meal with fresh herbs and spices, a good song with the “cojones” to say phooey on all this other crap, I’m gonna sit down and write me one.
Guess I’ll head out to the “stone yard” and turn a few over till I find me something to sing about… new month, new set of opportunities.
Tags: bickhardt, grit, MasterWriter, NSAI, stick-to-it
Stew
The swirl of the new year is settling, I mean we’re almost half way through January and this is my first post for 2009. I don’t make resolutions, but do plan keep my threads centered on music and writing (and art) this year. Not to say there won’t be a rant laced in here and there, but I have a goal this year to get over the feeling I don’t have the goods for the indie music mix and do much more to develop and promote my work.
This past week was interesting in a variety of ways. I’ve been reviewing and editing my “day job” scenario, hence my LinkedIn profile, which I’ve drastically changed to a more “corporate” view [without totally losing my identity], I’ve also found some really cool groups that mix technology and music/art mindsets.
I try to read through discussions at least once daily, and I was going through a rather long thread last Sunday about some conference I know nothing about and the last comment was from Paul Cullen — the name caused me to pause and jog my memory. I checked out his LinkedIn profile and sure enough it turns out Paul and I knew each other back in the early ‘80 in Ft. Myers, FL while attending Edison Community College. We are both bassists/guitarists, roughly the same age, and working at being indie artists. While my career has some pretty cool bright spots (like performing with Marian McPartland in college and a 90 minute set with Branford Marsalis at a Blues club in Ft. Myers), Paul spent a couple of years with Bad Co. in the early ’90’s. We’ve exchanged several emails and contact information. Paul travels to Charlotte a couple of times a year, so I hope to see him soon.
I’ve recently established a great co-writing relationship with a writer (Allen Szyrwiel) that’s just on fire and way talented. He’s inspiring me to step up my game, and we get along like kid brothers which makes it all that much more fun. We’ve finished one song, have a 2nd in the hopper, and hope to crank out a few more in ‘09.
NSAI Charlotte is as busy than ever! I spent a few hours this week updating/maintaining our website (Wordpress blog) with information on upcoming Q1 workshops (Hugh Prestwood and Craig Bickhardt), adjusting to the new version of WP, and some general housekeeping. It feels really good to give something back to the songwriting community, I know I’ve been blessed by past coordinators and all the great members of our chapter.
The one thing I haven’t done near enough this week is write or practice. But I’ve set my goals, already attended one SongU feedback session and selecting my self-paced course for this month, as well I’m cleaning clutter in my studio over the next 7 days to ensure my creative environment is ready for work.
The ingredients are in the pot, time to add water, stir and make “stew“.
Tags: Nashville, NSAI, Paul Cullen, songwriting