Inspired Voice

2011-01-20T14:55:00.000-08:00

Music is like a massage and comedy is like a tickle. This is why I love working with Mark Lundholm, my favorite comedian. Laughing is soooo good for the mind, body and soul!

If you need a good laugh and would like to hear a bunch of my new songs, I hope you will join us. Click on the button below for more information.

Stay tuned,

Elizabeth Edwards

2010-12-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Below is a radio interview I did with John Hollis from Rockers in Recovery while playing at the 12 Step Music Festival in the Florida Keys. My interview starts about 5 to 10 minutes into the show~Enjoy

Elizabeth Edwards

Listen to internet radio with Rockers In Recovery on Blog Talk Radio

Where Do The Ideas For The Songs Come From?

2010-10-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times over the years where the ideas for the songs come from and to be honest, I don’t really know. I have been writing songs since I can remember. The very first songs that I wrote were “my versions” of the Christmas Carols. I gave them all new lyrics when I was about six years old and started writing full original songs when I was twelve or thirteen. I have written hundreds of songs, some I don’t even remember anymore but the best ones get recorded and shared.

Another question I get a lot is, do you write the words or the music first? I wrote a song yesterday that came to existence the way most of my songs do but even faster so while it is fresh in my consciousness I will describe my process.

First I get an image or an emotional impression of something that stands out and gets stuck in my mind. Then I sit down at the piano or with the guitar and start playing around with melodic phrasing until I find one that fits the idea. Then I doodle with what I call a word wheel. I put the words of the main idea in a circle in the middle of a blank page and I do a free association kind of thing and write down all the words and images that come to mind, sometimes this is the first thing I do and where I get the idea to begin with. I have hundreds of notebooks (I am sentimental and can’t bare to throw them away). From there I go back to the piano or guitar and play with chords and pull words and phrases from the word wheel. If I am open, what happens next is hard to explain, but if you have ever been fishing it is similar to that feeling you get when you are just sitting their relaxing enjoying the day and all of a sudden you get a bite. For me in songwriting it is usually a phrase that fits perfectly with the melody and it creates an emotion and I just know it is right. That is when I get excited and a little obsessed and I stay with the song as long as I can, it is like pulling that fish in. Except it is more like I am pulling the song out of me instead of toward me.

After I have pulled as much of the song out as possible, I walk away from it for a while; I come back to it again and again and see if there is anymore of it available to me. From there I start looking for anything that resembles a hook – no pun intended. The “hook” is the actual name of what you call the part of the song that you want to hear over and over again and the better you are at writing “hooks” the more successful a songwriter you will be so hopefully I find one. Then I start playing with the song structure, verse chorus, or verse refrain, rhyme patterns, rhythms and determining where the hook is going to live in the song. Once I have the hook, and I know where it lands in the melody, I start asking myself a bunch of questions like, what could this mean? What is the story? Is this first person, third person n other words, point of view, is it a conversation? Who’s talking? Why? Where is the jumping off place? What is the pay off – the landing place? What feeling do I feel when I sing this song and themn I try singing a bunch of different way looking for the emotional response that “hits” me and that I hope to generate. By this point it is almost like an obsession for me – I playing over and over again with different lines and lyrics, musical phrases. I call this part of the process “playing with the clay”. If you have ever taken a pottery class, you know you have to keep the clay wet while you are shaping your work; the same is true in writing a song. I don’t allow my self to get to attached to something until I get that intuitive “click”, and then I know, this phrase lives here in this part of the melody. How long does it take? Sometimes I write songs in a couple of hours, sometimes it takes me days and some songs get stuck and can take me weeks, months or years. I am usually chewing on more than one idea at a time, in fact I, like many writers I know have more ideas than they have the time or bandwidth to develop into finished work.

How do I know when it’s finished? There is a satisfaction level that I have to feel. When I get there or feel like it’s close, I usually play it for other writers or friends who will give me an honest constructive critique. This is an important step and at first it feels vulnerable to put your music out there especially at first, in fact it never stopped feeling vulnerable for me, I’ve just developed thicker skin and the ability to open my mind to hear constructive criticism. This is probably the most important part of the process really. Do I always make changes that are suggested, no but if not I have a clear understanding of why I am choosing what I choose. Sometimes I do find ways to improve it based on feedback and often the song is better when I take this extra step.

If you are interested in songwriting I would suggest joining a songwriting organization to learn more about the craft and business. The West Coast Songwriting Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International are two outstanding organizations that support songwriters. I hope you have found this interesting. I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy

Elizabeth Edwards

Everyone Is Creative

2010-04-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Everyone is creative. People often say to me, “You are so creative, I wish I were.” My answer to this is - creativity is part of human nature, it is not a matter of being creative or not, the question to ask is, how do you access your creativity and to what purpose do you use it? Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.” We create our reality – how amazing is that!

Some of the best musicians I know are math geniuses and that makes sense because the musical part of song writing is very much related to timing, tempo structure and sequence. I am not alone in believing that great songwriting comes from a whole brain experience.

The left hemisphere of the brain is largely responsible for analytical, logical, sequential skills. People with left-brain dominance are detail oriented and good at reading and following directions. People with right brain dominance think and learn in visual, kinesthetic and audio images, there is a tendency to daydream in random thought patterns. Both of these qualities are needed to create great songs.

I took a tip from Eric Maisel – Dr. Eric Maisel is an author, family therapist and cultural observer and is widely regarded as America’s foremost creativity coach. He suggests that writers write in the morning and this really does work for me. I can edit anytime, but getting it out on the page the first time, that is the part I do in the morning. And when I mean write I am not talking about stopping to edit, I am talking about purging the content of my random mind onto paper (I am right brain dominant).

There are a couple of reasons this works for me. If I don’t access my ideas before I start problem solving and organizing I might not be able to access it later in the day. The other reason I purge my thoughts every morning is because I can then come back later in the day and refine and hone my ideas and marry the lyrics with the music (this is all left brain stuff).

One more reason and probably the most important reason to write in the morning is that if I don’t write first thing, my day is likely to slip by me with out writing at all. Writing is important to me, but it is an easy thing to push to the side when life makes its demands. Its like the principle of saving money – pay your self first. Do the thing that is important but not urgent first and then you will have more of what you want in life. Steven Covey is on to something with that one – if you have never read the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you might want to – it’s a good one.

So this right brain, left brain thing fascinates me. There is a meditation program that I have recently tapped into called Holosync and according to it’s developer’s at Centerpointe Research Institute the sound waves taken in by stereo headsets create brain waves and connections in the brain that encourage whole brain activity. I find this helpful in meditation and creative writing.

We live in such a fast paced society, in my experience it is easy to get caught up in the day but not so easy to slow down. For me it is when I can slow down that the songs come to and through me.

For more information about my music, visit my website at

www.lizesong.com

Stay Tuned,

Elizabeth

2010-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Discipline is the path to freedom. As a writer without a boss leaning over my shoulder barking out orders and providing me with deadlines, the level of my productivity is left entirely up to me.

One of the most important habits I have had to develop over the years is the habit and the practice of discipline. One of my friends who works for a large government agency pointed out that it would take a tremendous amount of discipline to be a writer or musician because the motivation has to come from within. I was glad she pointed this out because I can, at times beat myself up for not getting enough done. In the past I would have blamed it on a lack of discipline when in reality the problem is probably one of perception and determining how long it really takes to accomplish any given task or project. I was happy for her kind reminder.

As a project based creative person I have to build in the structure to my days and into the projects I want to create or nothing will happen. I have more ideas than I have time to create them so I have to pick and choose; I have to plan out the work. Sometimes when I sit down to write a specific song, blog post or marketing piece I come up blank. It helps to just start with a general direction of an idea and eventually my mind and fingers will find their way. I think writers block is simply a resistance to action and a lack of action is really just a lack of discipline. I never publish the first draft of anything so what does it matter what comes out first. Every writer I know, especially songwriters continually work their writing over and over until they get it right. So start, that is the key. If you wait for inspiration you might be waiting forever so start writing and if you are lucky, inspiration will show up.

Blessing or a Curse?

2010-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

There is a fascinating conversation going on these days and if you are a musician, author or performing artist I hope you are participating. I have recently been involved in blogging about the concept of giving away free content in order to build a relationship with your audience or to even create an audience in some cases.

The internet has had a major impact on the music world as most people know. The debate is about "free music" vs paying for music online. Some people think recorded music should be free online ( the radio model) and simply used as a way to promote the artist. Other people see music as a product that should be sold and feel that the people who are giving it away diminish the value of music in general. Some people are even saying that it all depend on the quality of the music but I see this dilemma from a couple of perspectives. First as a musician and secondly as a marketer.

I have been writing songs and singing since I was thirteen - I have been recording music since the mid eighties and I will continue to write, record and perform. And I will continue to sell my musical products online and from the stage.

Additionally, I have worked on 5 national (print) magazines over the past twenty five years, some of them music industry focused. What has changed so dramatically has been the way EVERYTHING is marketed and sold, not just music. This is not a question of "good or great" music, Music is a matter of taste, some people love broccoli and some people hate it, it's the same with music. Besides, if it were simply a question of quality what do you say to the substantial history of products in any given industry that suck but sold well? Explanation ... great marketing!

This is clearly a marketing issue and the marketing paradigm has shifted for EVERYONE, not just people marketing music. It has changed dramatically because of this thing called the internet. With any massive change there will be losers and winners. The losers are the people who own and are heavily invested in the old way of selling and won't or can't adapt and the winners will be the people who figure out how to use the new technology to win. And I mean win financially because without financial success nothing is sustaianable.

As far as I am concerned there has never been more opportunity to create an audience in the history of mankind and whenever you create an audience you can make money. So when it comes to creating a relationship with an audience yes I think you should give something to them for their time and attention. It is naive to expect people to give you their time and attention if you are not giving them anything - we live in a world full of information and there is a lot of competition fighting for that attention. Attention is worth a lot, this is what the media companies are selling and if you don't believe me, google the cost of a Super Bowl advertisement.

I really appreciate the people who have and continue to follow my career and take the time to listen to my music and rad my newsletters and blogs and I am touched that people buy my CD's and add it to the "sound track" of their lives. Wow - what a compliment!

Elizabeth

Recording Music, The Internet & Getting Paid

2009-11-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

I became a member of NARAS, The Recording Academy (the organization that awards the Grammy) this year and attended my very first Grammy Party. It was in San Francisco and I had a great time. I love hanging out with other musicians, especially the ones who are out there making it happen. There are so many talented and beautiful people in the music business. I always feel at home when I am in a room with people who are passionate at the deepest level of their soul about songwriting, recording and creating music.

As you may or may not know the recording industry has been in flux over the past decade due to the massive paradigm shift called the Internet. The Internet and digital technology has changed how we listen, buy, create, record and write music. It has also changed how music creators get paid (or not) for what we do. But what remains true and what remains strong is the passion for the song, the passion to play, the love and dedication musicians have for their art.

There are currently laws being decided upon in Congress regarding digital rights, royalties and many other related topics. There is still much to be settled. It is hard to compete with "free" and the mentality of “free” that permeates the Internet, no doubt this has hurt this industry. At the same time the Internet provides enormous opportunities for musicians, it truly is a double edge sword. It is hard to say if the internet has created more problems than it has solved for musicians but one thing I can say for sure is that there has never been a time in history where there was more opportunities for a musician to create music and get it out to millions of people.

I would love to hear from you especially if you are a musician. Are you just getting started or are you selling a ton of music online? Are you giving it way to promote your performances? Are you using the Internet to get sync licensing agreements? Are you hooking up with other players are you web-casting performances? What’s working, what’s not working?

People love music, musicians love to create and play music and recording engineers love to capture and record great songs and performances. Music is the soundtrack of life. I am always interested in hearing from anyone with great ideas on the subject of using the Internet to promote music. I hope to hear from you soon.

Elizabeth

For other Blog entries go to http://inspired-voice.blogspot.com/

To visit my website go to www.lizesong.com

Songwriting Ideas and Tools

2009-09-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

People often suggest song ideas to me, “Hey, I had this idea for a song for you the other day” they will say and then they give me the line, phrase or the three-minute story, what ever the case may be. The truth is that I have never written a song like that, unless of course the song idea came from a co writer and we were working on the song in that moment. When people offer me this kind of help, I suggest that they write the idea and turn it into a song, the idea after all did come to them.

Sometimes I go for long periods of time were I don’t finish a song. It’s not that I am not writing, I write everyday. But songs are a special kind of writing, songwriting is a unique form, it’s a hybrid of two forms of expression, music and creative writing. Getting the words and music to bring out the best in each other, for me, is the key. Songwriting is like painting a picture on a canvas the size of a postage stamp. You take a small idea and make it smaller. I am not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me, but there you have it.

I often get little snippets of word images, emotional phrases, alliterations, metaphors or melodic ideas when I am walking around living my life. I grab my Iphone because it has a little digital recorder application on it that I downloaded for .99 cents and I record the idea so I don’t forget it. One of my friends has a little hand held recorder, I think Zoom or Roland makes it, not sure but it is pretty nifty for preserving song ideas. I am going to get one myself in the near future because it does a pretty good job of recording and it can fit in my purse easily. It is especially handy while co-writing. Anyway, sometimes I just write it down in a little notebook that I keep handy.

A lot of my ideas come from reading books and watching movies but mostly from things people say when they are talking about their own lives. I get a lot of image ideas from nature and also by watching people.

Most of the ideas I capture never make it into a song but it is the discipline of keeping such a scattered assortment of ideas that keeps me in touch with my songs and eventually the ideas come together and pop out of me in a burst of creative energy. Sounds kind of crazy but it’s true, case in point, I recently wrote a song that the first line (which is also the title) has been floating around in my head and in my notebooks for at least five years. I kept coming back to it, asking my self – what does this mean? What is this about? I got so excited when I wrote the rest of the song because it was like solving a mystery.

If you are a writer, I hope you are writing. If you are getting good ideas for other people to write, I hope you get your self a little note book or a digital hand held recorder of some kind and start paying attention to the ideas that are paying attention to you!

Stay Tuned,

Elizabeth Edwards

JBA Custom Player

2009-08-21T10:22:00.001-07:00

Three Part Harmony

2009-08-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love the feeling I get when I write a new song! It totally jazzes me. I have been on a roll lately and I owe this recent surge of creativity to three part harmony.

I just got the Harmony G by TC Helicon and I am having a lot of fun with this thing. I can’t even tell you everything it does yet but basically it is a pedal that produces voice and guitar effects including vocal harmonies. I used to live near my sisters who were really good at singing back up harmony and I really miss that so getting my hands on this little item allows me to play with three part harmony and that juices me.

I will be using it in live performances as soon as I feel like I have a handle on how everything works. It is simply a matter of me sitting down and reading the instructions. Sometimes I just like to play with something for a while before I read up on it, kind of crazy I know. I will keep you in the loop. If you are a singer songwriter you should check it out – it’s fun.

Stay Tuned,

Elizabeth Edwards

My favorite Muse Ticklers

2009-07-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

I re-wrote the lyrics to all of the Christmas carols at about age six and would sing them to anyone who would listen no matter what time of year. I wish I had a recording of that, I am sure it was hilarious. I started writing songs consciously when I was about thirteen. For me, songwriting comes naturally, most of the time. Most of the time, being the key phrase because like all writers, I too have to tickle the muse.

My favorite “Muse Ticklers” include going to a bookstore and surrounding myself with great titles. You can't copyright a title so this is fair play. I also read several books a month on multiple subjects and genre. This keeps the ideas coming at me probably more than anything.

I also like to play with rhythms. I use different programs on the computer or sometimes a drum loop or I just goof around on the guitar.

I also like to work in a program called Masterwriter. If you are a writer of any kind this could be a useful tool for you. Most serious songwriters I know use it. They have recently released the 2.0 versions, it has some new features that I am still wrapping my head around, but I love it. Masterwriter is a rhyming dictionary-thesaurus on steroids. www.masterwriter.com

I get random ideas about songs all the time but if I don’t pluck from the world of ideas and claim it as my own, I believe it will be taken by someone else. I hate that when itt happens so I keep a little purse sized journal with me at all times and I take notes on interesting things people say, or images that pop out of the ordinary. When it is time for me to write I take out the journal and look for something that resonates emotionally with me. I sit with the guitar or the piano and with simple chords I build the song from there.

The most important thing I do to keep the creative pump primed is to make time for my craft. It takes some self-discipline because life is fast and busy. I love writing and I know my songs can’t get written with out me. All the songwriters I know have their own way of going about it, this is mine, I hope this insight into my process is helpful.

Stay tuned,

Elizabeth Edwards

What Would Love Say?

2009-06-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

This is the song I am featuring in my newsletter this month. If you are not on my email newsletter list feel free to signup.

Music is the sound track of life

2009-06-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

I recently attended the SanFran MusicTech Summit. This is a one-day conference held in San Francisco California that brings together the professional music world and the technology world to discuss the “state of the union” so to speak. This was the fourth such summit and interest and attendance seem to be growing.

Technology is not only driving the music industry, it is redefining it. Everyone involved is trying to figure out how, what, could and should they be doing to utilize the Internet and all it’s services, including me.

The Internet is morphing the music industry into something very different than it was 25 years ago, 5 years or even 5 months ago – from how we create music, how we listen to music and how we purchase music, it has all completely changed and it is going to continue to change.

I have said this before and I will say it again, there has never been a better time to be a musician or music coinsure for that matter. We have never had more choices. Not everyone would agree with me on this, especially those who have a lot invested in the major label system. The new universe of music opens the doors to the many talented people in the world but because there are so many new opportunities it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

With changes on this scale there is a lot of chaos, largely in the “getting paid department “. This brings me to the question, what value does music provide to the world?

When you think about it – music is the sound track of life. It is everywhere you go. It's in the store when you are shopping, on the radio when you are driving and on your iPod when you are exercising. It is the backdrop of the party or the event and helps to make an evening special. It is the gift you wrap and give to a friend, it is how we give praise to God in church, it is the cohesion of the marching band, it is the motivation to dance and it is the emotional marker of significant experiences like the first date, the summer you turned sixteen and the wedding song. People love music because music deepens our feelings. Music helps us remember those feelings later drawing upon our emotional library. Music is the cohesion of culture and the rhythm of mankind. Music is the call to action and the soother of soul – Some people believe music should be free and that is very much at the root of the problems with the new world order of music.

I know that people value music. I also know that whenever you add value to other people’s lives you will be compensated. So the new challenge for the music industry is to provide and define value and figure out how to have people pay us for what we do.

Like attracts Like

2009-05-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have seen the movie The Secret and are new to the ideas of metaphysics and manifestation – the law of attraction is really only part of it.

It is true that "like attracts like", and what you think and feel about comes about, this is based on the law of vibration which basically states that everything is energy, you are energy, I am energy and like energies attract. This is as true about people as it is about all other substances in nature. Therefore, when it comes to attracting the opportunities, the people and the ideas that will move your creative career forward the key is to become like the people and opportunities you are trying to attract. This is why professional organizations are so valuable. Have you ever noticed that wealthy people hang out with other wealthy people and poor people tend to hang out with other poor people, the same is true about the levels of success in the arts?

So how do you attract and move into a group of people you want to be like? The answer is simple but not necessarily easy, you become like them. Not in a superficial way – no one likes a phony and that is not what I am talking about, but if you study how he or she thinks and act and you do what they do you will take on the same vibration and you will become attractive to them.

One thing I have heard over and over in my years in the music industry is that “good manners go along way,” and yet I have witnessed many a musician display nothing but arrogance and insecurity. For example, I am back in the studio working on a recording, and I need to bring in some other musicians for this project. I know a lot of talented people. Now I can hire the talented polite professional, or I can hire the talented jerk – Whom do you think I will choose?
I don’t want to spend my time in the presence of a negative self obsess insecure person. So the energy you put out has a lot to do with your success in anything you do, but I believe this is especially true in the arts because artist and people who love the arts tend to be sensitive. So rule one is; become the best person you that you can possibly be on a daily basis from the inside out, and you will not only attract opportunities but you will also attract nicer and healthier people to work with and yes there are plenty of healthy and happy people in the arts.

The other place I see people get stuck is in the area of taking action. You cannot think your way into right action; you must act your way into right thinking. The bridge between the invisible world of thought, emotion and spirit to the material world we all share is action – this is the only way to manifest anything. Most people let fear stop them - don’t be one of them. More on that subject next time….

Creativity Makes Money

2009-04-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Creativity makes money. A couple of years ago I was at a seminar put on by T. Harv Eker’s company Peak Potential called the Million Mind Intensive where you examine your financial blue print. It was pretty interesting, anyway the trainer who was leading the seminar asked “What makes money?” and almost everyone in the room responded, “Money makes money”. Then he said something that rocked my world and at first I could not accept it as truth. He said, “Creativity makes money.”

Everyone around me started nodding their heads in agreement, everyone seemed to get it but me. I sat there thinking about all the poor “starving artist” who had been grinding it out at day jobs they hated, and then working as musicians at night and on weekends, many of them slowly loosing there ambition as songwriters and musicians, Or the lucky ones, the people who played music for a living but many of them were really broke – all the time. I have been more fortunate than most but have definitely experienced a lot of ups and downs (the reason for the seminar).

Before that weekend was over I understood what the trainer was talking about and more importantly I understood my own paradigm. The event I was attending happened to be in the Los Angeles and I was there with two of my fun and crazy friends. The first night of the event we went looking for a grocery store because one of my friends was on a diet and needed to buy some broccoli – long story short we ended up in an undesirable part of the city in a store that looked like they had not had a produce shipment in over a week. I was shocked at how poor this neighborhood was as it was not far from the very nice neighborhood we were staying in. The next night, because we had completed this three-day seminar we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner and we all agreed on the Cheesecake Factory on Rodeo Drive. After dinner we walked up one side of Rodeo Drive and back down the other. It was late and very few people inhabited the street. We admired the beautiful shops and guessed at what the beautiful things in the window might cost, we knew in some cases the same price as a house in Iowa! As we admired the goods in the windows and the beautiful window dressings, I got it, Creativity makes money!

Some people create songs, others create buildings, some people create amazing clothes, others create businesses – What ever we have, we have created it or more accurately put, we have co-created it with the creative force of the universe. I am not sure why this was so hard for me to see but I see it clearly now, I think it had more to do with my “money blue print” than anything else.

Since then, one of my practices is that I ask my self a series of questions every day when I am working on something, these questions are – “Why am I creating this? “And “Who does it serve? “If you are interested putting yourself into a more prosperous state of mind this is a great place to start. If you are interested in the seminar I attended I can highly recommend it along with the book– Secret’s of the Millionaire Mind, Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth. Check it out www.millionairemind.com