Tag Archives: Songwriting

The RPM Challenge 2012

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I’ve just signed up for yet another songwriting challenge called the RPM Challenge. This time you write and record an album (defined as a minimum of 10 songs) during the month of February.

I know some people that for some reason find these concepts as anti-inspirational but personally, I use these songwriting challenges as a great way to just immerse myself into the spirit of unbridled creativity.

It’s a great way to stand up to your inner critic and besides, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with writing songs just for the sake of writing them.

If you’re interested in checking out some more info regarding the RPM Challenge, just go to www.rpmchallenge.com, have a look for yourself and perhaps sign up and have a go. What have you got to lose?

I know I will be tackling it and I’ll keep you all posted with my progress.

Peace,

Corey :)

Getting Ready For FAWM 2012

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“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

Man, we’re at the end of January already… Where did it go?

I don’t know where it went but I do know that the beginning of February is also the beginning of FAWM which stands for February Album Writing Month.

I’ll cleaning up my creative space, contacting all of my collaborators and sharpening my pencil for this one.

I know I’ve mentioned FAWM (and my lack of success in it) before in the past but for those of you that don’t know FAWM is a songwriting event that challenges the participant to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February.

However, seeing that 2012 is a leap year the challenge is now to write 14.5 songs in 29 days. The other 0.5 being an extra collaboration with someone new.

Here is some more information about FAWM taken from www.fawm.org

“The FAWM challenge is simple: 14½ songs in 29 days. Why?

If it is inspiration you are after, then FAWM is your club. Each February, this website forges a collaborative community of thousands of musicians worldwide, from all walks and skill levels.

We take on the challenge of writing an album’s worth of new music in the shortest month of the year.”

Interested? Then go to www.fawm.org and join up, immerse yourself into the community and enjoy the ride.

I know I will.

Peace,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday January 29th, 2012

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As I’m now back in the swing of things again, here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday January 29th, 2012.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 25 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Fri 27 – Hotel Royal (7:30pm – 11pm)
Sun 29 – The Duck Inn (2pm – 6pm)

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

The Joy Of Learning New Songs

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For my first official day back from the Xmas/New Year break I spent the good part of yesterday compiling a list of covers that I wanted to learn and integrate into my Corey Stewart Solo and FIGJAM Duo/Band song-lists for 2012.

I figured that the time between now and my first gig on January 18th will be best spent sorting out my covers. This has been something that I’ve been trying to do for ages but had never found the time to do.

After a few years of making changes to my covers repertoire in a sporadic and haphazard manner, I thought it was time to put some process into place because at the end of the day, I love learning new songs and I wanted to add new material on a more purposeful and consistent basis.

I love learning new songs because it expands my musical palette and forces me to experience new songs and genres that I’m not used to.

It also enables me to sharpen up my listening skills, hone my music and guitar chord theory knowledge plus it gives me a reason (as if I really needed one in the first place) to pick up my acoustic guitar and just play it.

Most importantly however, the reason why I love learning new songs is that by mucking around with covers, I actually come up with new songwriting ideas of my own.

This happened on four occasions yesterday and these were immediately recorded onto the iPhone for future reference.

It’s amazing what happens when you just go off on a bit of a tangent in the middle of learning something. Songwriting ideas can come from anywhere…

Even from other songs.

Peace,

Corey :)

Australia’s Got Talent – D-Day: December 16th, 2011

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In a previous set of blog posts I outlined my experience auditioning for the 6th season of Australia’s Got Talent. That was on October 8th with the decision on whether I go into the next round of auditions taking place on December 16th.

That’s 3 days away and I’m starting to feel a little nervous.

I said to myself at the very beginning of the whole process that I would try to keep a realistic perspective on everything and not let the amazing possibilities go to my head and get out of control.

I’ve managed to keep the perspective but I must say, I’m starting to count down the days.

In this situation, no news is bad news, as only successful applicants will be notified. This got me thinking about what would happen if I wasn’t one of those who were notified.

As much as I’d like to say that I’d be philosophical about it and just continue on my day to day business I have a feeling that this won’t be the case but I will try to keep a patient and level head throughout.

One thing I know for sure is that Friday is going to be one of the longest days I’ll experience in a while.

As always, I’ll keep you posted and if I do get to the next round you’ll be one of the first people to know.

Peace,

Corey :)

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CS Gigs: W/E Sunday December 18th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday December 18th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 14 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Thu 15 – Open Mic @ The Brunswick (8pm – 11pm)
Fri 16 – Hotel Royal (7:30pm – 11pm)

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday December 11th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday December 11th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

Wed 07 – Open Mic @ The Dan (8pm – 12am)
Thu 08 – Open Mic @ The Brunswick (8pm – 11pm)
Sat 10 – FIGJAM @ The Dan (9pm – 12am)

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

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CD Project Update #22 – Recording Done, The Fun Now Begins

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As predicted in my last CD Project Update, I finished recording all of the tracks yesterday.

It was a strange feeling though, like I was saying goodbye to my songs because I had worked so very closely with them over the last 18 months or so and in that time, I had gotten to know the songs inside and out.

Now I have to let them go and be mixed, mastered and packaged into a CD that I’ll be very proud of. No more overdubbing, no more studio experiments… That’s it, finished.

It all seems very final doesn’t it?

I must say though that my songs now (with the knowledge that there’s a CD coming out) take on a whole new perspective when I play them live. It’s like the time that I’ve taken with them in the studio has given me a whole new outlook on how I can present my songs in a live environment.

As a live performer first and foremost, I’m very, very excited by this realisation.

Another reason that I’m excited is that today I started on my CD Marketing Plan. I want to make sure that I can get everything done by April to June of 2012 as this is when I want the CD launch to be held.

Hopefully by that time people have recovered from the madness that is February and March and would be ready to start going out again even though it’s the end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.

I can now see that the recording of the tracks was the easy part. Getting everything to the finished product stage is where the fun truly begins.

As usual I’ll keep you all posted…

Peace,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday November 27th, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday November 27th, 2011.

Make sure you mark these gigs in your diary in BOLD RED PEN.

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)

CS Gigs: W/E Sunday October 23rd, 2011

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Here are the gigs that I’m doing for the week ending Sunday October 23rd, 2011

Make sure you mark these down in your diary with a BOLD RED PEN.

For more information please go to my gigs page.

Hope to see you there,

Corey :)