Songwriting For Guitar

Are you struggling with a bunch of unfinished songs, unproductive days, and a wandering mind that won't focus?

I feel ya...

...no really, I was you. So many unfinished songs. It wasn't lack of time or laziness.

It was anxiety 

Once I started a daily meditation process, everything changed.

Now before you roll your eyes or say

"I can't do it, I've tried"

or

"Mike, this is some hippy bull$h!t" 

Just watch this conversation I had with meditation/yoga coach, Joy Stone, on very simple ways you can start adding this practice into your daily life. 

Are you a songwriting guitarist who struggles with burnout?

I'm gonna give you 3 helpful tips to help prevent this!

Sometimes it's not the melody, chords or strumming that needs fixed in your song . .

. . . instead a very simple step that makes a HUGE difference!

Have you ever worked on a strumming pattern where the count was right, posture was fine, you were holding the guitar properly, had the right pick and strings . . .but it still didn't sound right?!

I hate to break the news. . you might be a robot!

Don't fear. . .there is an easy solution!

Have you ever been given a track or a series of chords and someone said

"Hey, write a guitar hook to this"

And you thought. . .

"How the &!*@ do I do that?!"

I'm gonna give you some simple questions you can ask yourself to make that process a little bit easier, not so stressful, and actually kind of fun!

Have you ever had a melody in your head, sing into your voice memo, and come back a few days later with your instrument and then you struggle to find the chords?

You're not alone, so many songwriting guitarists get stuck when it comes to this. 

I'm gonna walk you through some simple steps you can apply to find the right chords to your melody!

Let's be honest, $h!t is crazy right now. We never experienced anything like this. We're all searching for a little bit of normalcy and trying our best to be creative.

During these times we can feel a little helpless and wonder . .

"What should I work on???"

I want to give you 5 things you can work on right now from your home. So when your doors open up (and they will again!) and you step out into the outside world, you'll feel more confident!

I want to talk about the #1 thing songwriting guitarists need but lack . . confidence.

So many people talk about exercises, techniques, and things we can be doing to improve our playing. Now, don't get me wrong all those things are great but we need to talk more about confidence when approaching the guitar. When you're scrolling instagram and comparing yourself to others using language like. .

"I'm not really that good at guitar"

"I'm not the greatest"

This is affecting your playing!! You start to believe those words and this is a mindset that you gotta break! You need to start to change your language and develop the confidence that you're capable of tackling the guitar.

I believe that only when you have that mindset can you start actually learning!

Hi Everyone,

Hope you had a fantastic holiday, this week we're gonna talk about mayo chords! 

Now here's why I call them "Mayo chords". If we were to eat a jar of mayonnaise it'd be nasty (that's disgusting and nobody should ever do that!) But when paired with the right thing (like a sandwich) it works really well!

Now some great Mayo Chord pairings would be B/C with C and Am. Another fantastic one would be F#/G with G and Em. We'll never start or hang for a long period of time on B/C or F#/G (aka "Mayo Chords")  it just wouldn't sit well.

These type of changes can signal "Hey we're coming into a new section!" It can create a little tiny bit of tension and a little bit more movement in your progressions.

How will you add Mayo Chords into your songs this week? Send me a message with a sample, I'd love to hear it.