Many of you have already downloaded the schedule directly from the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Assn. Internat’l) Songposium site… but here’s the write-up of what I’ll be teaching. I’m truly honored to be among the many dynamite guest speakers and teachers who will be there.

Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 – 11am-12:30pm

Warner Bros. Records Conf. Room (Nashville)

What’s My Next Step – and Why?

Instructor: JoAnn Braheny

4 basic Career Paths are explored, revealing your personal motivation, perceived obstacles and realistic rewards. JoAnn uses practical tools to assess your individual work-style and ideal collaborators. Whether you’re solidly going toward your goals, or feeling torn between them, you’ll find this class valuable. You won’t get this anywhere else! The most frequent word people in her last class used to describe it was “Liberating!”

THEN, on the next day ….

Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 – 11am-12:30pm

Warner Bros. Records Conf. Room (Nashville)

Finding Collaborators You Can Stick With

Instructor: JoAnn Braheny

Collaborations go well beyond co-writing into every area of your life. JoAnn uses her Disney Imagineering team-building experience to show how you can find the ideal collaborators to balance your creative projects – based not only on your music styles, but on how each of you contributes in complementary ways. Includes a quick quiz (no grades!) to help identify your personal work-style preferences. You’ll find the information you get here valuable far beyond your musical collaborations.

Happily, there are already many attendees registered… sign up ASAP! See y’all in Nashville!

Every now and then, I see something (this was passed along from Bob Baker’s “Buzz Factor”) that I assume we all should know … like the answer to the question: CAN YOU COPYRIGHT AN IDEA?

Just click that link to check out the brief article … it’s quick and relatively digestible!

Enjoy!

People confess to me, more often than you’d believe, that they don’t feel they are “creative.”

Then, of course,  I must ask, “What do you mean by creative?

I already know their answer will be: “I don’t paint, I don’t draw, I can’t sing, I don’t write music or play an instrument, I’m not in theater, I can’t dance … etc.”  And then they wait for me to nod and acknowledge by agreeing with them that, ergo, if they can’t do any of those things, they are not creative, end of story. WRONG! You know I won’t let them off the hook that easily.

Take a look at this article. It cites 11 traits. But I think there are many more than that.

One, for example, not on this list (well, not exactly), is CURIOSITY.  I can’t tell you how important I think ‘being curious’ is — and I do know that we get that from our parents and those around us, as we’re growing up. So, do your kids a big favor and encourage/allow them to be curious about their world. It’s critical … essential … for a healthy brain.

… Click: Do you Have These 11 Traits of Highly Creative People

Enjoy!

[Photo by me: Beaded Brahma Bull, approx 3' high, at a gallery in Culver City, CA 2009]

Lucinda M. Dugger wrote an excellent follow-up article (today) to add to my post a couple days ago, called “Where’s My Audience — NEA Survey” …

Hers ran in the blog CopyrightAlliance.org, click:

ARTS PARTICIPATION, LESSONS FROM ‘GOOD WILL HUNTING.’

Worth reading the whole article — I especially agree with Dugger on this:

Watching a clip from a concert on YouTube and seeing that same band ‘live on stage’ produces two completely different experiences. Similarly, seeing a Norman Rockwell in person is euphoric compared to viewing the many reproductions online or in books.

I think a great determent will be had if society chooses to access art through one venue over the other. Art is meant to be experienced in a variety of formats, and we need to embrace the accessibility that the internet gives us with actual in-person experiences.

So, take your friends and/or family … visit your local museum (find out which days have free admission, if necessary), and attend musical performances! That’s an order!

Enjoy!

Zzzzzzz … oh, excuse me, I must have dozed off!

And how wonderful to learn that I can enjoy it even more since I read this brief article about how Creative Problem Solving is Enhanced by REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep.

G’night now!

Yes, we’re going through a recession … and some things, by necessity, will need to be left by the roadside. However, I was thrilled to read about Michelle Obama’s Jazz Series at the White House …for young jazz students.

It’s only by participating in the arts, or becoming an avid fan, that we teach our citizens the value of what we artists-performers-musicians-dancers-songwriters-playwrights-actors-directors-producers do for a living.

And if you wonder about where your audience has gone, take a look at this SURVEY OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ARTS by the NEA (Nat’l Endowment for the Arts), for 2008 — showing why we, Americans, should be concerned.

Recap COMMENTS from Nate Chinen on NPR:

– Jazz Concertgoing Is Down: And other life-affirming news from the NEA, which released its Survey of Public Participation in the Arts on Monday. A PDF document has the quick breakdown.

Among the jazz highlights: only 7.8% of Americans saw a jazz show in 2008, down from 10.8% in 2002 and 9.6% in 1982; the median age of the jazz audience is now 46, a steady increase from from 29 (!) in 1982; the college-educated jazz audience has dropped 29% since 2002; 14.2% of Americans listened to jazz records or watched/listened to a jazz broadcast last year.

Of course, any downward trends can be in large part accounted for by the recession and the decline of fine and performing arts attendance at large (less than 37% of Americans attended an arts museum or arts performance in 2008, a statistic that seems incredibly low to me). And the net, inflation-adjusted amount of money being spent on arts admissions is still rising — the U.S. population is growing. But it’s also a poor sign that jazz attendance is dropping, most markedly among 18-24 year olds, 17.5% of whom saw a jazz show in 1982 (really?) and 7.3% of whom went in 2008. Dear peers: peace to the 7.3% nation of gods and earths, but we can’t do it alone, you know.

[“As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.” Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD) ]

We (John Braheny and I) made this video (approx. 28 min.) a couple months ago…

I figured maybe you’d like to see it!

I cover 5 tips for how to look at where you are & where you might want to go next in your career … especially in these difficult times. Thanks for watching! (And many thanks to Douglas E. Welch for recording this!)

Just take a look — DeZeen (design) magazine, South Africa.

This is creativity … something from not much … and so ‘green.’

An artist ‘painting’ murals by using scraps of plastic bags – incredible.

Also a home built (basic, but practical) by using sandbags.

Play this:  video clip … for some inspiration. Enjoy!

Here’s John Braheny with an easy 3 min. video Songwriting Tip!

CLICK HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7SPnwcuTig

Enjoy!

Songwriters Salon in Sedona (Arizona) — And it’s FREE!

Our good friend, and a terrific supporter of musicians and songwriters for many years, *Anita Rosenfield, has graciously invited John Braheny (author of the best-selling “The Craft and Business of Songwriting” book), to speak and critique songs (chosen at random) at her home in Sedona, Arizona, on Thursday afternoon, January 22, 2009, from 4:00-7:00pm. It’s free, very casual … and we hope to see you there!

To RSVP, and for address and directions, leave a message at  (818) 528-5152 – or email:  arosenfield@esedona.net.

Bring a CD and lyric sheets, but know that opportunities to have a song critiqued will be limited by time.
Private consultations ($125 hr.) will be available. To schedule: email: john@johnbraheny.com.

*Personal note:

John knew Anita (“Teeta”) from his folk-singing days, back in Minneapolis, (the University district was called Dinkytown). She managed/booked the folk club where John — and others performed — including Jeff Espina and Koerner, Ray & Glover and Judy Larson … and anybody else who was on the scene, including Bob Dylan, circa early ’60s. Below is a photo of us reuniting with Teeta … in the 1980’s, on Venice Beach, California.

John’s t-shirt:  Yerzfurra Song (Yours for a Song)!

JoAnn, John & Jeff Espina, Anita Rosenfield