The Song Factory Blasts Off Into Exciting New Territory
YOU TOO CAN BE PART OF IT— I HOPE YOU’LL STICK AROUND!
The Song Factory was originally designed to give people some fun and informative posts about songwriting, and about how songs work. There’s an archive of posts like that here, and for now the archive will remain unpaywalled. Or, as we used to say— free.
My main blog, Hot Plate Print Edition, has been taking up all my time for a while, and I had to put The Song Factory on hiatus. For all of you who have enjoyed my posts here, first— thank you for reading! I’m glad you enjoyed these posts.
Next— I am writing Hot Plate, and doing some other writing too, in addition to my music teaching and songwriting teaching. Originally I started this blog so that I could focus on music here for people that didn’t want the other kinds of writing I do. But it just became impossible to sustain.
I’m always looking for more songwriting students, and I want to offer this as a thank you for people who have appreciated my work here— if you’re a songwriter, or just interested in maybe writing some songs— as a subscriber to The Song Factory, you can have a free half hour zoom call where I give you some tips about songwriting and answer your questions on the subject.
Instrumental composition (playing lead guitar, for example) is another thing I teach. I also teach the science of practicing, so you can make sure that whatever time you have available for practicing will pay off. Most people practice, and wait a long time to see improvement. My approach to practicing is designed to get you better and faster results.
All of the above can be part of your zoom call; we can plan a call that covers as many of your interests as possible.
Now, I am of course hoping that some people will like the zoom call enough to consider taking a paid lesson. Or two, or three. Or participating in a paid workshop, where having multiple students makes it possible for me to charge less than you’d pay for private lessons.
I am still working out the details on all that, but if you’re interested in trying a free zoom lesson, no strings attached, please comment here, or send a direct message through substack. You can also email me, although contacting me here is probably the best way for first contact.
It may help for you to remember that while I’m definitely hoping people will want additional lessons, I won’t be bugging you to sign up for paid lessons. It turns out that I’m very bad at bugging people for money. Why not take advantage of my blind spot there? You get a free lesson, and you can move along after that and I will forget to bug you to commit to more.
Okay, here’s some more stuff to think about:
SOME MORE STUFF TO THINK ABOUT
I’ve been researching for a while the connection between songwriting/music and wellness. Recently I stumbled onto something surprising; it turns out that increasing your understanding of how music works— even if you’re not a virtuoso player, or even a solid player— helps with brain function in a host of ways. “Music wellness” is my term for using music to improve brain function, and longevity, dealing with stress, etc. If you are interested in things like meditation and yoga, music wellness is a good thing to add to that list.
If you’re stressed out right now, due to current events, or any other factors, my Hot Plate essays and my lessons can help. New Hot Plate essays are for now available without paywalls. They go into the archive after a while, and that is behind a paywall. But you can read a fair amount without paying.
I’ve been shifting my Hot Plate writing to include two music wellness pieces a month. These essays are good for your brain health, and good for a ton of other things too. Whatever your brain does for you, music wellness can help it do a better job.
Here is a link to a recent music wellness essay. Reading this piece will light up your brain, even if you don’t understand all of it. The point is to try and follow at least a little bit; you can then come back and follow a little bit more next time, and keep using this essay to improve brain function for quite a while.
Enjoy, and I hope you’ll subscribe to Hot Plate to get new essays on music wellness and other topics. I encourage you to get in touch about your free zoom call.
