In this guest post from Jake Hawken, we dig into the philosophical side of songwriting, artistic honesty, and lyric writing. Jake breaks down the two general categories of artists: The Healthy-Minded and The Sick Soul, as described by the philosopher, William James. Read on for a fascinating take on the mind of an artist.

I’d like to mention a great workshop event for songwriters and bands happening this week in New York City. It’s workshop taught by frequent Serve The Song contributor, Cliff Goldmacher. This workshop is for songwriters who would like to streamline the demo process, keep their demo budgets in check and maximize the return on their investment. The workshop also provides multiple examples of stripped-down demos that have gone on to become major label cuts.

A few weeks back, I wrote a guest post on the Indaba Music Blog titled 8 Tips for Successful Collaboration With Your Bandmates. To achieve success as a band, you must engage in meaningful and creative collaboration with your bandmates. Here’s a quote from that article: In sports, they say the Most Valuable Player is [...]

I bought my first Mac five years ago because of GarageBand, and it’s the best thing I ever did for my music. This amazing tool allows singer-songwriters from Ari Hest to Fallout Boy use it for everything from song sketches to full-blown final recordings.

In this post I’m going to show you how to setup your own songwriting templates in GarageBand so you can be ready to rock whenever the muse hits you. Pre-made templates will help you overcome writer’s block and are much more efficient than starting every song completely from scratch.