In a few hours I’ll be heading over to the 7th Guitar-B-Q, put on by my good friend Doak Turner. This is going to be a hoot of gargantuan proportions. I am looking forward to it! http://www.nashvillemuse.com

Invariably I will search for pointers on songwriting.  Google Reader even knows this.  Figures.  The Reader recommended “Career Songwriting“.  It naturally caught my eye, piqued my interest.  No choice–I clicked.

I was pleasantly surprised by the clean look.  There was no shouting “Hey, I’m a Web 2.x site,” or anything of the sort.  The colors seem relatively neutral, allowing Andrea’s words to do the shining.  And shine they do; there’s terrific content here.  I’ve got something in common with Andrea; I have studied with Pat Pattison.  Some of his books are in my library as well.  Andrea’s recent discussion of rhyme reminded me of how pertinent Pattison’s approach was.  We rhymers so often settle on the perfect, obvious rhyme.  Andrea supplements his approach, shares it, brings it into the context of the everyday.

For many months this extended look at rhyming has been nagging me.  So many other projects and techniques get in the way; however, looking at these on virtual paper is refreshing.  I will put in conscious effort to employ these techniques.  My writing will be better for it.  It will come off more current, more natural.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that WordPress was powering the blog.  Frequently I check out which blogging platform is being used.  I wonder whether it will reinforce my WordPress loyalty overall.  This site did.  Thanks again, WP.  You did it.  I’m stickin’ with it.  It clicks.  And I rhyme, with your friendly backend magic.  Woohoo!

MusicTheory.net is a flat-out terrific site (oh, no pun intended : )). A winner. Clean, ad-free, and very informative. There’s an electronic keyboard and interactive lessons aplenty. You’ll get tools to help in ear training, scale spelling, chord construction, and if you so desire, a tone row generator. You can even download the entire site and run it without an internet connection.

I re-encountered one of my favorite quotes recently.  The quote was on the back of a business card:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There’s also a negative side.”

Might this apply to the internet?  And with the largest music companies striking deals with myspace, might this not now be seeping into cyberspace?  I think it’s a myth that big music is not fully aware of the necessity of playing on the web.  With the ever-shrinking market for music, and cd sales tanking even further, there’s no other choice.

There’s hope for indies out here, the “good people” if you will, to find their niche and work within what appear to be well-established paths to success.  Any way to connect with fans is the way to go, however, web or no web!