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Inspirations For Songwriters (I F S)
IFS aims to INSPIRE YOU into ACTION
over 3,500 songwriters, music publishers, artists, and
music fans receive IFS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS/
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Please FORWARD IFS to your SONGWRITING friends

If you want to RECEIVE IFS or
If you want to CHANGE your email address
SEND an EMPTY email to

difs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Please Allow IFS slide past your SPAM FILTERS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT All IFS messages are archived on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DIFS/messages

Once you're in the IFS archive, if you're looking for something in
Particular, you can do a key word search

Here's an easy way to find the IFS home page, type in:
www.SongwriterBlog.com or www.SongwritingBlog.com

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Dear IFS Friends,

I hope you're doing great. Things are busy in my world. My wife's
been sick with a fever and a cough. I hope she gets better soon and
hasn't infected me.

This weekend I'll be in San Antonio, Texas competing in the South
Central Masters Swimming Championships. I've started writing a series
of swimming tips called "Swim Faster Faster" you can read them at:
http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4229

Last Sunday I caught John Arthur Martinez at Gruene Hall. I also said
hello to Grammy Winner Joel Guzman who played accordion in john
Arthur's band.

This Saturday night I plan to be at the Old # 9 in Waring, Texas to
meet some IFS readers and enjoy Steve Seskin's concert. If you want
to attend the concert, call in advance 830-995-4313 and reserve the
$15 price or just show up and pay $20 at the door.
(it's free for those who applied for the scholarships)
There a couple slots left for the workshop as well for you last
minute people. Those who are attending the workshop are going to get
a lot of Steve's individual attention. For details drop by:
http://oldno9.org

Monday, April 11th at 6:30 pm I hope to be at Antones in Austin
attending Austin Music Foundation's Music Industry Boot Camp "Path to
Success: A Very Special Evening with Pat Green." Interviewed one-on-
one by Austin's legendary Andy Langer. As always, Boot Camp seminars
are open to everyone and free to the public. He will discuss, in
this intimate one-on-one interview, how he achieved success and
choices and decisions he made along the way.
www.AustinMusicFoundation.com

My cowriter and friend Abi Tapia's is having her CD release party on
Wed April 13. (more details below) She and I cowrote
"Hand Over Your Heart" and you can now hear it at
http://www.songramp.com/view.ez?sampleid=28875
please drop by and have a listen.

Friday April 15 and Saturday April 16, I'll be in Phoenix AZ for a
work training trip. I may have some free time in the afternoon if
any IFS readers live there and would like to say hi.

Ande Rasmussen

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When you've been writing songs for a while. Song Contests can often
help a writer gain validation, recognition, respect, and prizes.
Large contests tend to be expensive and hard to win or final because
of the sheer number of entries. Songwriters tend to have better odds
with regional song contests because they tend to not have as many
entries.

Consider entering them and attending their celebration events.

As an example Friday April, 15 is the DEADLINE for Austin
Songwriters Group's
2005 Bare Bones Song Contest
Bare bones means one voice, one instrument, one take.
A bare bones song, a guitar vocal or a piano vocal.

Good luck if you enter, some IFS readers are very likely to be
finalists.

For details drop by
http://www.austinsongwritersgroup.com/barebonescontest.html

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From: Abi Tapia
Location: Flipnotics Coffeespace
1601 Barton Springs Rd.,
Austin, TX View Map
When: Wednesday, April 13, 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Phone: 512.567.1258

I'm so happy to announce that my new CD, "One Foot Out the Door,"
will
be officially released on May 17. It was produced by Chris Gage and
recorded in his MoonHouse Studio and features Chris's musicianship as
well as the talents of Glenn Fukunaga, Paul Pearcy, Kym Warner, Eamon
McLoughlin, Mike Hardwick, Brit Ginn and Tiffani Ginn. There will be
a live show on May 17 at the Cactus Cafe, but YOU don't have to wait
until then to hear the CD!

This Wednesday will be a big thank you to everyone who worked on this
project and a first listen for the rest of you. Advance copies will
be available for press and presenters. You might also find a drink
ticket attached to that CD. (Your attendance will in no way imply
that you are giving Abi a booking or review, but they won't be turned
down if offered!)

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Here's my take on how to become successful in songwriting.

1) it all begins with desire,
your desire to write a great song and have it become a hit.
write a goal, write a plan, take action everyday

2) Find incredible ideas that haven't been exploited yet
like "my heart is as empty as a monday morning church"
Speaking of Monday Morning Church there's a really good article about
it in Country Weekly on
http://www.countryweekly.com/stories/feature/62873
enjoy!

3) Develop the craft and skills to exploit a great idea,

4) Attract teams of talented collaborators
find incredibly talented songwriters, artists, and producers to write
incredible songs, focus on your strong points,
IGNORE your weaknesses and use collaborators to fill your weaknesses.

5) Create amazing songs that are as good and better than songs
written by the PROs in your genre.
earn a reputation for writing really excellent songs
Create incredible RADIO READY DEMOS
Act like you are a PRO

6) make all kinds of industry contacts and stay intouch with them on
a regular basis, keep the relationship, 90% personal and 10% business

7) help other people every chance you get

8) look for rising stars, songwriters and artists
help them

9) See and be seen attend workshops and industry events
don't be on the outside looking in
be on the inside looking around.

10) work hard to promote and place your songs
get your songs heard by artists, producers, publishers, friends,
film music supervisors.
Let people know what your goals are,

11) gain expertise from those who have done what you hope to do.

12) never give up

13) take many long shots often,

14) stay humble

15) repeat these steps until you succeed.
repeat these steps AFTER you succeed.

What else

Ande

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If you enjoy IFS and are involved with Christian or Gospel music,
you might also enjoy Christian Artists Group.

CAG is a growing group of artists, songwriters, musicians,
engineers, and producers. You'll find everything from professional
Nashville producers, to artists who are just starting out.

Everyone has many different experiences, from bookings, to
recording, to ministering opps that are unique to their situation,
but often times applicable to yours. Lots to learn, a place to meet
and network, and even publicize your events.

For more info come to
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/christianartistsgroup
and join up
today.

Eric Copeland, moderator

----------------------------------
Eric Copeland
Creative Soul, Music Production & Artist Development
www.CreativeSoulOnline.com
Nashville, TN | 615-400-3910
----------------------------------

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From AustinMusicFoundation.org

Hi Anders,
Whether you are new to the Austin music scene, or you have been
playing the clubs for years, every artist has dreams about where they
would like their career to go. A song on the charts? Grammy
nominations? Monday's Boot Camp is a rare opportunity to hear, in
detail, how Pat Green made the big time. He will discuss, in this
intimate one-on-one interview, how he achieved the phenomenal success
he has had and choices and decisions he made along the way. We are
very proud to present for you our Music Industry Boot Camp happening
Monday, April 11th at Antone's, beginning at 6:30pm: "Path to
Success: A Very Special Evening with Pat Green." Interviewed one-on-
one by Austin's legendary Andy Langer. As always, Boot Camp seminars
are open to everyone and free to the public.

Musically yours,

The AMF Team

Panel Details

Music Industry Boot Camp Monday, April 11th
Antone's (213 west 5th Street)
6:30pm - 8:30pm

The Austin Music Foundation is pleased to announce that we will be
moving to Antone's to accomodate the crowd for this special Music
Industry Boot Camp seminar on Monday April 11th, at 6:30pm. The panel
is entitled "Path to Success: A Very Special Evening with Pat Green"
The session will be in the form of a one-on-one interview with
renowned music writer Andy Langer. During this candid interview
Grammy-nominated country star Pat Green will talk openly and honestly
about his career path, and the sometimes rocky road to success, with
renowned music writer Andy Langer. Musicians can learn from Pat's
experiences, and understand better how smart decisions and savvy
choices along the way can have a big impact on their level of
success.A Q&A session following the interview will allow musicians to
interact with both Pat Green and Andy Langer. As always, Boot Camp is
free to the public and open to everyone.
Also, check out this feature article on Pat Green from Texas Monthly -
it's great reading material to know more about Pat before Monday's
Boot Camp. Just click on the MIBC poster image to the left. Many
thanks to our friends at Texas Monthly for letting us reprint this
story!


Monday's Pat Green Boot Camp is at Antone's!

For the month of April only, we will be holding the Music Industry
Boot Camp at a different location, Antone's, 213 West 5th Street.
This larger venue will allow everyone who attends the panel the
opportunity to fully participate in the evening. After this Boot Camp
for the rest of 2005 we'll be back at Tambaleo.


AMF Announces Music Incubator Awardees!

In a ceremony held during the South By SouthWest music festival the
Austin Music Foundation announced the 2005-2006 Austin Music
Incubator Awardees. The awardees went through a rigorous judging
process that included comprehensive interviews and a live performance
on March 5th at Lucky Lounge and Antone's.
The Austin Music Incubator is a comprehensive 18 month program
designed to help Austin artists develop sustainable careers making
music. With a combination of training, mentoring and financial
assistance, the Incubator helps artists professionally market their
work and manage their careers. AMF's Advisory Board received over 150
Incubator applications, which included press kits, photos, essays and
of course, music from wide variety of styles and genres.

Congratulations to the 2005 - 2006 Incubator Awardees!

KJAE in Category I, Blues/Jazz, Hip-Hop/Urban, Latin/Tejano, R&B, and
Reggae genres

Rachel Loy Category II, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country,
Folk and Singer- Songwriter

Kissinger Category III Alternative, Heavy/Metal, Indie, Pop, Punk and
Rock music


Send Us Your News!

Do you have news for us, new opportunities, information about your CD
release, or other fun stuff? If so, you can email us at
members@... .

Please be sure to include a photo or logo with both the CD Release
information as well as the Success Stories! (.gif or .jpg format
please)

About AMF
The Austin Music Foundation (AMF) is a nonprofit organization that
operates on a singular mission: to unite, ignite, and revolutionize
Austin's music community. Since February 2002, we've dedicated
ourselves to the education, development, and advancement of
musicians, the preservation of Austin's unique musical heritage, and
the development of a united and sustainable local music community.

COPYRIGHT 2005, AUSTIN MUSIC FOUNDATION

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Congratulations to IFS reader Miranda Lambert
Her Kerosene CD was #1 on the country charts, I think it sold around
45,000 units the first week and Miranda will appear on The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno on April 15th.
http://mirandalambert.com

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Dear Recording Academy Member:


The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would increase
artist fines to $500,000 for broadcasted content that could be
considered indecent. This is a significant threat to free artistic
expression, and an unprecedented attempt to take action against
artists, rather than the broadcasters who control programming.

The Recording Academy partnered with the U.S. House Recording Arts
and Science Congressional Caucus to improve the House bill. As the
Senate begins to consider the issue this week, the Academy is
opposing any fines to artists.

We need your help. It only takes a minute to make your voice heard.
Simply click on Advocacy Action @ GRAMMY.com
http://capwiz.com/grammy/issues/alert/?alertid=7322021&type=ML where
you can quickly and easily send an email to your Senators. The
Recording Academy's Washington, D.C. office will also hand deliver a
hard copy of your email to Congress.

Thank you for your support on this important artists rights issue.

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Brian Austin Whitney with jpfolks.org recently wrote:

My Take:

Do you really want to be successful? Really? If you do, there's one
real method to do it. Be relentless in your pursuit. Simple right?
Actually, the process is pretty straightforward. But the work ethic
and persistence usually brings most folks down. Let's be specific for
success in music (since that's what most of you reading this are
doing right?). Here's one approach, where a relentless work ethic and
persistence will bring you success.

We all know the cliché "let's do lunch" right? It's a cliche for a
reason. Each day we all have lunch (dinner works just as well for
those late night types). Set up a meeting with 1 music related person
in your town for lunch every single day. Choose artists, writers and
industry folks. Live somewhere you don't think there's anyone to meet
with? Look harder. Do a search on the web. Visit the JPF Message
boards where we have local chapter boards all across North America.
You will find both Artists and Writers there to hook up with. Need
some other resources?

To find Artists: Check CDBaby.com (as well as .org). There are nearly
90,000 artists listed on CD Baby. You can search for artists in your
area by genre and send them an email. Beyond that, go to the local
free newspaper (or wherever local gigs/venues/concerts are
advertised) and write down all the active local bands doing gigs
around town. Then do a quick search for them on line and send them an
email. And they don't always need to be local artists. You can also
invite touring indie artists out to lunch. Most of them are just
killing time at a hotel or a local friends house when they are
touring through and might enjoy a networking lunch date.

To find Songwriters: Check out the message boards at MusesMuse.com
and TAXI.com. Both of these sites also have artists, but Muses Muse
focuses on songwriting and TAXI has a large songwriter membership as
well. You can also check sites like Soundclick or Songramp that have
a lot of songwriters posting files. If you have a local NSAI chapter
(or similar local or regional organization), try checking out their
meetings to meet writers. Also check SongU.com. Song U doesn't have a
huge membership, but they are very dedicated songwriters and
certainly worth meeting if they live in your area.

To find Industry folks: These are probably the most important
networking lunch partners you can make, whether you're a writer,
artist or industry person. You can often meet industry folks in their
day job location or at events of various types around town. For
example, Venue Owners, Booking Agents, Sound Men, Lighting Staff,
anyone working on the staff of the local newspapers covering
entertainment, anyone in local TV who covers local entertainment, any
Publishers, Labels, Production Companies, Management companies,
Internet Music Website Staffs, local College Music Professors and
staff, Music Store Employees, people who run local, regional or
national music organizations. Even in small towns and rural areas,
you can still find folks who share your passion for music and have
professional involvement in some aspect of the music industry that
you can learn from and benefit from networking with. You can find
them if you really want to. It's about relentless persistence right?

So what do you to at these lunches? First and foremost: Listen! All
of us like to talk about the things we're passionate about. Rather
than spend the time blabbing about you, find out about them. Find out
how they've been pursuing their passion. Learn what circles they
network in. Find out what resources they value. Find out where
they've found success and where they've failed so you can avoid those
pitfalls. Find out from venue owners what types of music are hot and
what isn't drawing people. Learn from other artists who the best
local live acts are (and then try to meet them for lunch to pick
their brains as well). Talk to songwriters and find out who does
their demos and who they've had bad experiences with. Find out which
PRO they belong to and if they are happy. Find out what they do when
pitching material and what they avoid.

In fact, there's an endless amount of things you can learn from all
these people. But imagine if you did this for an hour a day for year?
Not only would you know 300+ passionate music folks face to face on a
first name basis (which by itself is a gigantic boost to any career
pursuits you'd want to have) but the knowledge you'd gain and the new
networking contacts you could make would be far more valuable than
just about any other type of effort you could make in the next year.
Pretty soon you'll be the Kevin Bacon of your local music community.
Everyone will be connected to each other with YOU as the common
contact.

If you have at least reasonable, above average talent in what you do
you and you persistently, passionately and relentlessly pursued this
one single technique, in a year's time you'd be among, if not the
most, connected local music figures in your town. And who wouldn't
want that in their back pocket as they make their way in the music
industry?

Is it easy? Nope. Is it low maintenance? Nope. Would it get a bit
tiring after a month or so? Yup. But if you truly want it, and you're
willing to put the work into it, the rewards will astound you. 99.9%
of you will never do this. For the 1/10th of 1% that will¦ you'll
most likely be the next big success that everyone else wishes they
could be. The power of one person working relentlessly on one thing
is hard to measure because it's so vast. Few can sustain it but when
they do, very little can stop it! Wouldn't you like your music career
to be unstoppable?

Learn, Succeed and Thrive. We're All In This Together!

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Announcing The 5th Annual Art of Music Writing Contest

Since 2001, The Art of Music Annual Writing Contest has encouraged
poets, authors, and songwriters to write on music-related topics as
well as come forward with music-related poems, short stories, essays,
and song lyrics they have written which might have otherwise gone
unnoticed. The winning entries, along with the top 75 entries, are
published in our bi-annual anthology, "The Art of Music - A
Collection of Writings." The anthology gives writers a chance to
share their music-related pieces and experience those written by
others. "The Art of Music – A Collection of Writings" has been used
in university-level poetry courses and can be found in libraries and
bookstores as well as museum and performing art center gift shops.
Portions of the proceeds from the anthology are donated to Breast
Cancer Research. The editor, Elizabeth C. Axford, is a breast cancer
survivor.

Visit http://www.pianopress.com/artofmusic.htm for a printable
contest entry form.
(106K PDF)

Please read the contest rules below.

-------------------------------------------------------------
The Art of Music Annual Writing Contest
RULES & REGULATIONS

Each entry must include the following:

* Completed entry form (photocopy is acceptable) with original
signature.

* Typed manuscript including title and music-related written work
only. Do not include any identification on the actual manuscript.

* $20 entry fee per entry.
Checks and money orders should be made payable to Piano Press.
Payment from countries outside the US must be in the form of an
international
money order.

All entries must be postmarked on or before June 30, 2005

Categories include:

* Poem
* Short Story
* Essay
* Song Lyric
* Illustration for Cover Art

Mail entries to:
Piano Press Contest Dept.
PO Box 85
Del Mar, CA 92014-0085

All entries submitted must be original and shall not infringe any
copyrights or any other rights of any third parties. Entrant shall,
by entering, indemnify and hold Piano Press harmless from and against
any claims
inconsistent with the foregoing.

The Art of Music Annual Writing Contest is open to all amateur and
professional writers and anyone regardless of nationality or origin.
Employees of Piano Press, its families, subsidiaries, and affiliates
are not eligible. If entrant is under 18 years old, the signature of
a parent or guardian is required.

Entrant may submit as many writings as desired in each category.
Entrant may also enter the same writing in more than one category.
Multiple entries must be sent in one package with one check or money
order. All entry fees are non-refundable.

Entry materials submitted will not be returned. Piano Press is not
responsible for late, lost, damaged, misdirected, postage due,
stolen, or misappropriated entries.

Piano Press will screen all entries, and the finalists will be sent
to the judges who will select the winners. The 2005 judging committee
consists of published authors, poets, and songwriters.

Winners will be announced by October 31, 2005. Winners will be
notified by mail. Winners will be required to sign an affidavit
confirming that winner's entry is original and he/she holds the
rights to the writing. Failure to sign and return the form within
fourteen days or provision of false information will result in
immediate disqualification and an alternate winner will be selected.
Affidavits are subject to verification by Piano Press and its agents.
Entry constitutes permission to use winner's name, likeness, and
voice for future advertising and publicity purposes without
additional compensation.

Contest prizes include publication in
"The Art of Music - A Collection of Writings" or publication by Piano
Press, one copy of each poetry anthology, an engraved trophy, a
certificate, and a cash prize ($150 1st, $100 2nd, $50 3rd). All
federal, state, and local taxes, and customs fees, when applicable,
are the sole responsibility of the winner. Piano Press will not pay
any winners' taxes. Prizes will be sent out within a reasonable
amount of time, and Piano Press will use its best efforts to send
prizes out in a timely fashion.

Entrant retains all ownership rights to the submitted writing(s).

By submitting an application form to Piano Press, entrant agrees to
be bound by the Piano Press contest entry rules and regulations
established herein.

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Write On,

Ande Rasmussen