Well, I need to get serious about what this year's workshop will be. We'll be launching the promotion of the Song Gallery, and I'll do a follow-up on the state of the record industry vs. the Internet. But what this year is really going to be about is "Writing Young"!

Well, so much for my thoughts in February.  I will eventually get back to poignancy and "Focus and Lens", but in the meantime I've decided to do a lesson called "Making Songs Pop" in which we examine how to use phrasing and phrase length to "pep up" a song.

I've noticed during critiques that most of us tend to use long lines for our verses, while some of our better writers use varied phrase lengths - although this most often happens in our choruses. On the other hand, pop writers like Bruno Mars and his writing gang will often use short bursts of phrases throughout the song to hold and pique the listener's interest. It is a technique that probably is the basis for "ear candy" - pure pop - but it does work!

So I'm going to review phrasing itself and then introduce this new concept. I'm really excited about it.

I'm also excited about how Thumbplay is giving me the opportunity to find examples from the very latest releases in country, pop, rock, and so on. When I was dependent on radio, I usually had the most recent songs in my lessons as examples, but with the Internet and my foray into alternative rock, that happened less and less. Now I can keep up with all the markets!

Well, the February 2011 Advanced Critique is two days away, and it's about time for me to start thinking about the lesson I'll be giving at the Baum in March.  I promised at the Irony workshop in November that I would follow up with Poignancy, and I'm going to stick to that promise - but I may also add "Song Integrity" since we're still talking about the effect of a song.  I find the concept of song integrity to be fascinating, and it gives me a sense of excitement to think about revisiting it.