The First Post: Introductions

Hi all,

Welcome to my new blog. If you're here, you're probably a songwriter looking for tips, ideas or how-to's on songwriting. Well I'm glad to have you. First, let me tell you little about myself so you're not taking advice and ideas from a stranger.

I am a student majoring in psychology at Western Washington University. I've been playing guitar for a little over eight years now and writing music for about six of those years. I've been in a few different bands ranging in genres from screamo to post hardcore rock to progressive to alternative rock to acoustic/folk. Lately, I've settled on a singer/songwriter orientated style, and have released an album I produced and recorded myself.

My goal for this blog is to accomplish a few things. First, I'd like to share some of my ideas and experiences with you. I try a lot of different things in regards to writing music, and sharing those ideas and techniques with you will help both of us. It will give you some new things to try, and the process of writing them down will help me refine them. Second, I'd like to incorporate some music theory into my ideas. I never had a strong background in music theory, but I've made it a personal goal to learn more about it and explore how it interacts with my writing style. Third, I'd like to create a community of collaborators. If people want to submit audio clips, or critique mine, I think that would be a fantastic experience for all involved.

For the format of this blog, I think that each post will focus on a different idea or technique I've tried or am currently trying. Some of these will be the "tried and true" methods, and others will be more experimental. Also, I'll probably write up some more general songwriting articles at some point for those who need to learn some of the fundamentals.

That's all for now. I hope you stick around and keep reading.