Serve The Song

Songwriting Tips for DIY Musicians

song craft

Collaborate, Record, and Mix in Your Browser with Indaba Music

Posted by Brian Casel  |  June 15, 2009  |  1 COMMENT

Still scrolling through craigslist in search of potential bandmates in your area?  Can’t find anyone who shares your musical influences?  Thanks to Indaba Music, now you can branch out and connect with other musicians in ways never before seen. Indaba Music is an online community of musicians all connected to a highly advanced browser-based music [...]

Artistic Honesty and the Human Condition

Posted by Mary Shaw  |  June 11, 2009  |  ADD COMMENTS

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.

Collaboration Tips for Successful Bands

Posted by Brian Casel  |  June 4, 2009  |  ADD COMMENTS

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 [...]

Make Your Own Songwriting Templates In GarageBand

Posted by Mary Shaw  |  June 1, 2009  |  6 COMMENTS

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.