I have an article in "Musicians Together" magazine....

[Rick Jones]

....one I wrote myself this time, and hopefully of help to anyone with "writers block".

http://musicianstogether.com/magazine/?p=422

[riverdog]

Yo Thunder & Grace,
Howzit goin' bro? I read your article and thought it was refreshing to the topic of writing and this forum. Very interesting and I agree as I in my search and writing try to avoid the obvious, although I certainly don't always achieve it. Like when I play a passage and feel, "well this next part naturally follows this chord progression", a flag goes up and I try to make a right turn instead of a left so to speak. This happens even to the point where I might play a postion I hadn't played before, not even knowing the chord name rightaway but rather teaching my hand to play certain notes, a certain way, in a certain position. This happened quite a bit on my tunes like; "Seven Ten" and "Dancing With Simone", both on my YTC. Now I have no training and can't read a lick of music and half the time I don't know what I'm doin', however, I hear it in my head and then do whatever it takes to bring it to life on the fretboard. So I relate to what you are saying and your view is eye opening and helpful.
Thanks Rick for sharing this, well done.
Hope all is well,
riverdog

btw I have a couple of Bob Seger covers I just did & up on my YTC if you like Seger. I always thought he was a down home rocker with some great lyrics, especially "Turn The Page", which I know you can relate to. Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/user/uncaskillet

[boombox]

First of all, to riverdog, good call on Seger - he's almost forgotten over here. Always loved his songwriting, though I prefer him doing his own songs - the Metallica cover of Turn The Page didn't really do anything for me. I always think of him as one of those acts who got a bit of an unfair break once he had commercially peaked - a bit like April Wine, who remain in my top 5 hard rock bands even 30 years after I first bought 'Live At The El Mocambo' after hearing them on the BBC's 'Rock Goes To College' (which has the honour of several years later, of being the first cassette bootleg I ever bought). But I digress...

Finally got round to reading your article, Rick. I see what you mean in it. I have never found songwriting easy - especially, as riverdog says, when you reach a point and then you know where it should go. Unfortunately then, you end up realising your song sounds like someone else's. Finding that originality is the bit which evades me, the wall comes on (sorry walls are bigger than blocks!) and that's it. Probably why I've only ever written half a dozen songs, only one of which was ever performed live.

Speaking of songs sounding similar, Give this a listen - very clever!

http://www.youtube.com/v/VJIlmwkKCkA?

[riverdog]

Thanks Boom for the props. I'm with ya on likin' me some April Wine. We covered several of their tunes in my band days, 3 guitars rockin'!

riverdog