Continue the process of writing each day, limiting your time to just 30 to 40 minutes. This limitation helps create a no-excuse mentality, and I personally find it comforting to know that I don’t have to invest several hours of my day in order to do my part in allowing ideas to flow.

Chip Taylor wrote “Wild Thing.” He really doesn’t need to write any more songs. But that doesn’t mean he’s showing any signs of stopping. He’s got a new album out, and is eager to discuss everything leading up to this moment on this edition of the Music Is My Life podcast.

We songwriters borrow from those who came before us. We take a groove we like, we’re inspired by a sample, we think in terms of a particular vocal quality or use a chord progression from another song and write something new over it. We keep one foot planted in what we know already works, so the rest of us can let loose over top.

Mark Walker, is a Grammy award-winning drummer, a professor in the Percussion department at Berklee College of Music, and an instructor of Afro-Cuban Drums at Berklee Online. And after this weekend, he’ll also be a Berklee Online graduate.

This is the second of four articles, published every Monday this month, suggesting 20 songwriting activities to help push outside the writing process that may be familiar to you.

At CD Baby, we can make songs available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music in a matter of days, but artists who rush through the distribution process often miss opportunities that could’ve helped their music go further.

Evan Dando has been releasing music for more than 30 years, reaching a commercial high point in the early and mid 90s with the Lemonheads albums “It’s a Shame about Ray” and “Come on Feel the Lemonheads.”

Over the course of four articles, published every Monday this month, I’m going to suggest 20 songwriting activities to help push outside the writing process that may be familiar to you.

Following its successful Master of Arts in Music Business and Master of Music in Music Production degrees, Berklee Online announces the brand new Master of Music in Film Scoring program, coming in 2020.