By Tiffany Brooks

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know I’ve been on a search for a good songwriting community in which I can workshop my songs.  I discovered The Muse’s Muse community a few months ago and I have to say that I am very impressed.  I joined the community and immediately put one of my songs up in the forums.  I got some serious feedback that I could use improve my piece.

This is not the kind of community that will say that your music sounds good when it doesn’t.  They won’t be rude about it, but they will let you know what they think and what you can do to improve.  That is the kind of feedback that will make you grow.  In addition to the forums, this community offers articles, music reviews, radio opportunities, reference guides for beginners and pros and lot of other useful services.

I give The Muses’s Muse community an “A”, and I would recommend it for anyone interested in having a career as a songwriter no matter what level you are starting from.

http://www.musesmuse.com/

By Tiffany Brooks

Recently, I’ve been on the look out for artists with whom I can collaborate with to complete some of my unfinished songs. For example, I have an unfinished tune in which I need a female singer. I am looking a singer that is looking to add a song to her upcoming album, and I am not just looking for someone who just wants to sing in her spare time. I am looking for someone who is a professional and has connections.

This is important when looking for the right singer. It’s not enough just to find someone with talent. You need to listen to the other music that he or she has and see how well your song fits in. If you know that it seems to work with what he or she is already doing, then you may generate some interest and make a connection. You need to find out what the singer has done so far. Does he or she have a fan base? Being managed? Is the singer motivated to really get his or her music out there? I see plenty of artists on Myspace and other music online communities. The key is finding that budding artist that is about to make some serious noise in the music world.

You don’t have to always settle for local talent. I’ve seen collaborations between artists in different states as well as different countries. One of the most interesting ones I found was a guy living in California who collaborated with a guy living in Iraq. They made beautiful music together. How did they do it? I don’t know for sure, but they could have used an online website like esession.com or digitalmusician.com. These websites make it possible for musicians and other music professionals (i.e. studio engineers) to collaborate on projects without leaving the comfort of their home studios. You can even find band members and jam with them in cyberspace. One example of this is a band called Clip Bandits who used YouTube to find each other.

Take a look at one of their videos:

What a wonderful cyberworld we live in that enables people from all over to jam with each other.

So the next time you feel stuck and don’t know how to finish a song, think about collaborating with a partner an ocean away. He or she may be the inspiration that you need and isn’t it great that we have the technology out there to make the right connections.