Strummers

Musicians like to play music. But sometimes it’s tough to constantly have an amp and pedal board set up, or a synthesizer plugged in, or an 808 hooked up to some speakers.

So what do we do?

Well…there’s always an acoustic laying around.

And what do we wanna play?

Mainly songs that are fun to play on an acoustic guitar. Strummers. Songs that sound good with full chords. Campfire songs. Back porch songs. Three chords and the truth. Songs that anyone who knows a little bit can pick up and play.

So if you want people to learn your songs, know your songs, play your songs, it couldn’t hurt to have some strummers.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Let It Be Easy(er)

We’re so accustomed to focusing on the problems, suffering with the problems, fixing the problems, reassessing the problems…it’s easy to lose sight of the simplicity of the goal.

‘This is the change we’re trying to make’ might be a more helpful attitude than ‘Here are all the problems’.

The more optimistic approach won’t make the problems go away. But it’ll probably make some of them go away.

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For many of us…if an aspect of the project was easy we would hardly know what to do with it.

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The marathoner is going to finish the race either way…the question is whether to spend twenty six miles thinking about how much your legs hurt, or spend the time thinking about how sweet that finish line is going to be. Both things are true. You get to choose.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Experimenting Backwards

If you’re working on a song and have the line…

“The best in the world”

You might follow it up with…

My favorite girl

As the moonlight swirls

Finer than pearls

But you decide those aren’t quite right so you spend an hour flipping words trying to crack that line.

Your problem might not be the second line.

It’s the first line that is giving you the boundaries for the second. If you don’t like the boundaries, change them. Change the first line and open up new doors for the second. Or if you land on a great second line, change the first one to fit the second.

Sometimes you need to go experiment backwards to move forward.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Good Thai Food

There’s a really good Thai restaurant by my house. We order all the time. When I get in the car to go pick it up I can listen to exactly one song on the way there and one song on the way back. So I choose wisely.

The restaurant has won a bunch of awards in Nashville but here’s the thing…I don’t have a clue how authentic it is. I’ve never been to Thailand. I don’t know if it’s real, I just know it’s good.

If someone told me it doesn’t taste anything like that in Thailand, it wouldn’t matter to me. I like the food.

Being good, consistent, and remarkable doesn’t necessarily mean ‘more authentic’.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Weaving Through Burn Out

Write music

Record music

Play shows

Connect with audience

I don’t think artists get burned out by these. Artists get burned out by all the other stuff…the pressure that gets added to each of these core elements…plus the pressure of the business.

There isn’t a manual for how to weave through the burn out to get back to being an artist but while you’re figuring it out sit down and make some music.

 

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple