DAY - 38

Practice, Practice, Practice.  Growing up in a family of professional musicians, that word has been ingrained in me since I was a child.  Whether I was learning the violin, saxophone, piano, or guitar I was taught that practice is the key.  My grandpop would always tell me (with a big grin on his face) "You don't have to practice everyday, only on days that you eat." Only On Days That You Eat has even become my ASCAP publishing company name!

Practice and you'll get better.  Of course!  It's a simple concept.  Well, for some reason, that essential piece of truth hadn't truly hit me until this year.  If that applies to my advancement in guitar, piano, voice, etc. why would it not apply to my songwriting!?  Maybe because songwriting has always come so naturally.  I haven't had to WORK at it.  But that's not good enough.  Natural ability isn't good enough.  No one has achieved their greatest potential from natural ability alone.  It takes work. It takes HARD work.  It takes practice.  My instrumental conducting professor said something today that really resonated with me. "If you're passionate about what you do, you'll have an unquenchable thirst to grow and learn more.  If you don't have that thirst anymore, you might as well get your license to sell insurance."  Essentially... part of loving what we do is striving to become better!  Practice.  

Apologies for the self pep talk.  Sometimes I just need to get things out of my head!

Down to business.  Speaking of people who are great at what they do, this morning I reached out to hit songwriter, Jane Bach.  Jane has written hits and #1 songs for people such as Tammy Wynette, Reba McEntire, Collin Raye, and JoDee Messina.  I was referred to Jane by super-talented, Nashville publisher/songplugger, Shane Barrett.  Long story short,  Jane got back to me this afternoon and we are setting up a session for November!  

More to come.  Cheers!