The last couple of weeks have been a little slow for music. First, Madden 07 came out, which means I've been compelled to take my xbox-Packers to the superbowl. I can't wait for the real season to start, but at least in the video game NFL the Packers have a great defense and are 5-0 going into the by week. Second, I've been working late this last couple of weeks, and I haven't had much time for music.

On the positive side, I did send some Zeyer CDs out for reviews and local radio airplay. I've signed up with some online music marketing sites, check the Links page for more info. The key to success is persistence, so even though I haven't spent a lot of hours writing and practicing in the last few weeks, I've been trying to get little bits done here and there.

I recently finished reading "The Art of Writing Great Lyrics" and I picked up a few useful tips. First and foremost, I broke out the dictionary and rhyming dictionary and I keep them on the writing desk, ready to go. I've been going back over a couple of songs I wrote years ago and doing a little rewriting. Songwriting has pretty much been my focus these last couple of years (as opposed to straight guitar playing), and I think I'm improving. The book helped me realize I need to focus more on saying exactly what I want to say, as opposed to figuring out how to force a rhyme, line or even entire verse into a song when it isn't quite working. Maybe it's my background as a musician rather than pure writer, but sometimes I focus on how things sound as opposed to what they actually say. It's been fun to go over older songs and figure out if they're saying exactly what I intended. The book also reinforced the point that there's no point in doing something if you're not going to do it exceptionally well. So it's been good to look at my lyrics with a critical eye. And if my songs take longer to "finish" then so be it. Speaking of "taking longer" ...

I've been inspired by reading a recent interview with Tom Scholtz (Boston's guitarist). He worked on their first album in his basement for six years, while working full-time for Canon. Although it took a long time, the album sold 17 million copies - every single song is a huge hit. Now I don't feel so bad taking my time writing, rewriting, and rearranging the songs for the next Zeyer album. I hope it doesn't take six years, but hey, if it worked for Boston (17 mlilion albums later) maybe it can work for us! Patience...